#adlucemopen

As he slipped out of the kitchen, where he’d grabbed his third drink and chatted a bit with his brother, he glanced around, the bodies in the room almost making it hard to see anything, and he took a sip of his own drink. He’d been drinking less lately, which was maybe a good sign. And besides, he had to keep an eye on his own party.

A little grin tugged at his lips as he moved through the crowd, giving little ‘hello’s and ‘how’s it going’s as he passed, until he found a nice spot to survey the crowd, take a break for a moment, and he pressed his back to the wall, glanced to his left to see he wasn’t alone. “Having fun?”

“Cheers.” Dorcas knew how to enjoy a party. She’d gotten to Cattermole’s late, when the party was already pretty much in full swing, and had already started drinking. Of course she had. Fingers curled around the bottle in her hand as she clinked it against the one held by the person next to her, and then she took a long sip from it, eyes scanning, exploring the room. Cattermole definitely knew how to throw a party, that was for damn sure, and this was much more fun than the stuffy affairs she’d attended already this holiday season. 

“Classless, he says, as if the man hasn’t been a pack a day smoker since he emerged from the womb himself.” Damocles rolled his eyes at his companion as he took a long drag from the cigarette. He’d been going back and forth with his father all evening, soft comments passed between the pair as they passed one another in the party. Damocles making a snide comment about his father being on his fifth drink, Mr. Belby making a snide comment back about Damocles smelling of smoke. 

And so, of course, he had to slip outside for another smoke.

Make sure this fucking dress is ruined by the end of the night in some way, shape or form.

Make sure something explodes. Or causes a big bang. Anything that fucks shit up, really.

Make sure to avoid that one person no matter what.

And there was a forth, kind of unwritten one: smoke as much as possible.

There was only one thing about her mother forcing her in this horrible dress, and that was that she forced Greer to carry a small purse with her too, which was perfect for her pack and lighter for sure.

She was standing by a half-open window - she wasn’t going to fucking go outside to freeze -, leaned against the wall, taking a long drag of smoke. “No, I am not giving you any cigarettes, don’t even ask,” she said as she felt movement near her, not even looking up who it was.

She was trying to push all of that away, however - there was just too many things to look at, really. The entire house was more like a palace, really, it was decorated and there were just so many people and Glenda wondered what it could be like for those whose life looked like this every night, or every other night. It must have been crazy. How did they not die of exhaustion, spending so many nights dancing away?

Glenda was looking around, still kind of silently gaping at everything when she stepped back and managed to walk into a waiter carrying a tray of champagne, which all fell down to the floor and Glenda jumped again, now into somebody and please let this be the first and last clumsy thing that happens to her she was going to die of embarrassment if this was going to be a trend. “Oh gosh, so sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you,” she said to the person behind her and then to the waiter too who was already kneeling down, trying to gather the broken glasses, so she carefully crouched down to help.

That afternoon he was toying with a cassette deck, the tape having gotten caught in the spindles of the machine, winding the film into a terrible knot. He’d yet to find muggle music he liked, but he still enjoyed playing it sometimes to see if anything would grow on him. He was about to cut the tape altogether, saying goodbye to the A and B side of the Mamas and the Papas, before a rustling in a nearby bush caused him to jump, tossing the cassette deck into his trunk and sitting down quickly on top of the storage container, hoping no one would ask questions if they emerged from the bush. 

“Oh... Hello...” Arthur greeted the person, his voice a bit tense.