beer in each of his hands and two more stuffed in the back pockets of his jeans, griffin’s alone in the backfield, out by the bonfire. he’s been alone most of the night. most people were only able to tolerate him in small doses and he knew it, so he floated around, never really landing anywhere for long. it was actually what he’d been reflecting on, gnawing at the inside of his cheek, when q approached him: only another example of that fact. one end of his mouth tugged up in a half-hearted attempt at a smile as he found her there, illuminated by firelight. there was once a time when he hadn’t felt so alone– that school year where he and q kept in close contact, despite being separated by a considerable distance as they were away at their respective schools. but when summer rolled around and the pair returned to elmridge, griffin learned that distance is what made it work. nobody, not even q, liked him too much up close. he washes down the thought with a hearty sip of his beer, willing his grin to stretch wider in greeting once he swallows. “i’ll have you know i was helping our dear friend delilah make the most of what is very likely our last dionysus party,” he tells her, “and i needed to have her all to myself not because i’m a grimy skeezeball, contrary to popular belief, but because i didn’t trust that you guys wouldn’t sabotage my plan to get her schwasted. y’know, so she can have real fun, for once. and before you get mad at me for, like, corrupting her or whatever, i only got her about half of the way there. buzzed at best. i can be very persuasive but she’s got an insane amount of willpower in that tiny little body. she’s not especially susceptible to peer pressure. not even under the influence.” his head knocks to the side with the realization that he’d lost her in the shuffle of the night. a shrug rolls off his shoulders. “anything that’s happened since is anyone’s guess, though. i’ll be sure to check her socials for updates. drunk girls love oversharing on the internet.” he gives a sigh, hand over his heart. “imagine lilah’s first drunk tweet?”
SHE WASN’T QUITE SURE IF IT WAS just what she was hearing or if it was what was being said but all the bottled blonde could hear was lilah, lilah, lilah. there was a lot of LILAH going around tonight and it was settling upon q that she didn’t love it. nothing against the darling, but what the hell ? ❝ never thought you were a skeezeball, ❞ she said, then quickly added, ❝ until you brought it up now. i’m suddenly bombarded by the evidence, ❞ she teased. she waved off the arguably less responsible of the twelve of them. ❝ please, it’s nice to finally see her letting loose for once. probably going to wake up to some unfortunate realizations tomorrow but what is dio if not making mistakes and then trying to forget them during the hangover. ❞ however, q was going to have a tough time forgetting for long at least about the sudden new relationship between hers and lilah’s mother. ❝ it might actually be something she actually intends to send as a text. or a gentle ‘hope everyone is sleeping safe’ but spelt with letters that make no sense at all. ❞ she paused and thought on it. for lilah’s sake, she hoped the girl just passed out cold before she even discovered drunk social media. ❝ so i guess your mission is a success. cole and i won’t take it personally. we’re good people like that. mature. ❞