.【✧ * ————-  “       jesus, mary, joseph and the camel. this is really bad coffee” she exclaimed a grimace on her lips as she took another sip. “nope, doesn’t get better either !!”

“Here’s to the upcoming weekend – yes I know it’s still a Thursday. This is my pre-pre-game. And I also know it’s not a word, so” She shrugged, sipping her drink with a straw.

“You say that like drinking during the week is absolutely unaaceptable.” Annabelle said, smirking and tilting her glass at the other before she sipped her own drink.

He’d experienced the symptoms of sleep deprivation before. It started off slow and progressed until the only thing he had to run on was adrenaline and a bad temper. Anything seemed to bother him when he was at his lowest, nothing satisfied. It didn’t take much for him to channel his exhaustion and frustration into lashing out at someone, especially when he was trying to focus on his work. In this case, it was the closest person to him. “I don’t have the time for this… this nonsense. I have to work.”

“Goddamn! Talk about trying to eat a bagel in peace..” Annabelle retorted, looking over at the man who’d snapped at her. “I’ll keep the humming to a dull roar, oh wise one.” She said sarcastically, picking up her bagel to take the first bite. She wasn’t nice when she was hungry. 

Lucas: I'm glad to hear that.

Lucas: My middle name is Edward. My mother actually used to call me Ned for short on occasion.

[ remy ]: love me enough to hit the shooting range with me?

Lucas: Do you think dreams actually mean anything?

Lucas: If so. What is my mind trying to tell me when I dream that I'm the son of Squidward and Ned Flanders.

Annabelle: I dont think so. at least, not that dream....

Noah spent the rest of the car trip trying to wrack his brains and work out where on earth Annabelle could be taking him. It wasn’t until they finally got out of the car that he thought he might have some idea- though he wasn’t committing to it yet. It was difficult to tell with Annabelle. Noah raised a brow as she dismissed his driver for the rest of the day, though he chose to say nothing. A few minutes had passed before she returned, backpack full of supplies in hand. “I had never had you pegged for a girl scout.” He teased gently, taking the offer of her outstretched hand as the began to make their way up the hill. “Exactly how far are we walking- and how do you plan on getting us down the hill in the dark?” Noah raised a brow, pushing ahead.

“is that not half of our friendship or have I been reading the situation all wrong?” Noah watched as Annabelle skipped off to give Arthur the instructions. He was tempted to lean in to see what he could hear, but he knew that Annabelle was keeping a close eye on him. Instead, he slid into the back of the car, raising a brow in her direction as she reached over to pay his thigh. “Why do I get the feeling you’re getting quite a bit of joy out of keeping me in suspense? I feel as though it’s half the fun for you.” Noah leaned over to kiss her cheek before buckling his own belt up. Sure, he spent time with a lot of women - but actually just going out for the day was a rare occurrence for Noah. There were few people he was willing to miss work for.  

Annabelle grinned and shrugged her shoulder. “You know I’m a tease so... I do love it.” She laughed and patted his thigh, a reassuring gesture. “Don’t worry. When we get out there it’ll be great.” 

“Do you think people can fly?” It was obvious Lennox had already had a bit too much to drink, if her slurred words and glazed eyes were anything to go by – plus there she was, barefoot and on her tiptoes, standing on a bench, half empty bottle in hand. One wrong placement of her foot and she’d fall, yet the brunette couldn’t help it – thankfully, it wouldn’t be too big of a fall if it were to happen. “Do you think— if I jump, will I grow wings and fly?”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I would hope that someone would want to help me if I were in that situation, but random strangers assuming that I’m married and my husband is beating me is not exactly the kind of attention or help that I would want.” Honey admitted with a low scoff, before glancing at her arm. “Yeah, it’s really not cute. But you get used to it. I’m just glad it wasn’t my nose this time; I’m so tired of breaking that fucking thing.”

“I mean... Just asking but how did you get it? And how do you break your nose so often anyways? Living that dangerous life, huh?”

“Intrigued? Good intrigued or not-so-good intrigued?” He asked as he exhaled smoke through his nose and handed her back her lighter. He wanted to ask if her ‘friend’ was of the male variety and would beat him up for talking to her, but what she asked first caught him off guard, blue eyes going wide. “What? No! God no! I didn’t think that you were… I don’t… I-I just thought I’d come borrow a light and say hi to you, I wasn’t…” He rambled for a bit before clearing his throat and using taking another draft as a way to pause. “I didn’t think you were…Selling something. “ He decided to put it lightly, hoping she wasn’t offended.

“I haven’t decided yet.” Annabelle couldn’t help but giggle at his rambling. He seemed embarrassed and she thought it was cute. “No, no, don’t worry. I didn’t think you were trying to solicit me anyways. I’m not a prostitute... Or a cop for that matter.” She exhaled her own drag of her cigarette and grinned. “Are you new around here? I feel as though I’d have remembered meeting you.” 

”I resent that. I don’t think there’s any chance of you being naked enough of the time. I’ll definitely have to see more of it.” Noah teased, following her down along the corridor. “-okay, okay. You know I trust you.” He gave her hand a little squeeze. “He’s just downstairs. I messaged him before and asked him to bring the car around. Exactly how far does he have to take us? The man still needs to be home by dinner.” 

“Maybe I’ll get naked specifically for you.” She said, winking at him. “Ah, there he is!” She grinned over at him as he squeezed her hand and she did the same in response, leaning over to kiss his cheek. “That’s fine, you go get in, I have to talk to him.” She said, letting go of his hand and skipping over to the driver. She leaned into his window for a bit, telling him exactly where to go and what she wanted to do. He nodded and she smirked, moving off to the back of the car where Noah waited.

LACEY: sounds good to me

LACEY: do you know any cute ones? i mean like REALLY cute.

     𝄁 Shit. Shit. Shit. He had never been late, always arrived as punctual as humanly possible. But the past night had been a wild one, and he had accidentally changed his alarm setting to PM instead of AM. And so, woke up to a panicked Emma screaming she was late for school, and since his night guest hadn’t been kindly enough to unshackle his left wrist from the headboard— Ethan was left to detach the bloody thing from the bed and race across the bus station to drop his stressed niece. After he saw her bus leave, he looked at the onlookers that were staring at him oddly, which made him chuckle sarcastically. ❝ Okay, I’m sure all of you have seen worse things than someone chained to their headboard, this is Vegas after all. Naked cowboys in every corner and all that. ❞ With his free hand, he tried to tame his bed-hair as he muttered, ❝ I need coffee. ❞ 𝄁

Annabelle had spotted him; he came into the diner where she worked on a semi regular basis. But she’d never seen him in such a state. “You look like you had a rough night there...” She said, pulling a bobby pin out of her hair and twisting it in the lock of the hand cuff. “You really just had to take the whole headboard with you, huh?”

“No, no, no,” Sophia muttered, jigglying the doorhandle on her car. “Absolutely fucking not.” She shut her eyes, releasing a deep sigh before opening them and peering through the window of her car. Surely enough her keys were still placed in the ignition of her car. With one final jiggle, she accepted the fact that it wasn’t a dream. Searching through her pockets she pulled out a stray bobby pin - deciding to try what she’d seen on tv and youtube enough times to think she was a pro. Whispering a string of curses as she steadily tried to get it open. “Come on please. What did I do to deserve this?” She asked herself and whoever might’ve overheard her.

Annabelle watched from the corner as the person struggled with their car-- or at least what she hoped was their car. She stubbed out her cigarette on the sidewalk, picked it up to throw it away, and made her way over to the girl. “You need some help?” Of course she knew how to break into a car. 

”That’s a question for my psychiatrist to tackle.” Noah joked, putting his shoes on as he sat down beside her on the bed. He glanced from her outstretched hand, up to her face and sighed, allowing Annabelle to help him up. “Damn, I was hoping for skinny dipping… though it’s probably not the warmest month for it. Okay, okay… I feel like the more I ask, the more confused I’m going to get.” He chuckled, entwining their fingers as he kept hold of her hand. “I’ll just go with it.” He resolved, grinning. “Lead the way.”