good as hell

ZION AMADEUS WILLIAMS

biography and stats

wanted connections

location: times square

who: @upinflqmes​

“shit, z, i need you to do me a huge favor please.” claire reassured the older male as she tried to keep up with him, walking slightly faster to avoid a certain someone. “see that guy over there? that’s my ex boyfriend and he won’t leave me the fuck alone, something about not wanting me to hold any grudges over the holidays?” she reassured him with a small shrug. “anyway, do you think you could like pretend to be my boyfriend or something so he’d leave me alone? i promise i’d owe you big time!”

Zion grew up with four sisters, so this almost protective idealogy came naturally to him. Claire is not like a sister to him, but she is certainly someone he cares for and wants to protect. So when she drags him along,  asking him to pretend to be her boyfriend.  Well, how could he refuse? If not for purely selfish reasons, as well. Claire was one of his best friends and also someone he was clearly attracted to.  Yeah, he could pretend to be her boyfriend, easily. “Just promise to get dinner with me after this and we’re all good,” he reassures her, moving to wrap his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. 

“  Does it mean anything to you?  ”

The words hit him like a ton of bricks.  ‘Does it mean anything to you? ‘ repeats in his head again, and then again, before they finally are clear. Before he finally comprehends. His relationship with Maya is complicated, to say the least.  He still remembers the day she broke up with him pretty vividly. He had always been one to put his whole heart into something, especially relationships. Especially with her.  They had fallen into this weird, whatever it was.  Zion is still confused by it. He thinks there’s a part of him that should hate her.  Or, at least be angry with her. But he can’t find it in him.

Until he can. Because he thinks she must know, that if he’s still answering her call, that it means something. 

“I wish I could say no, you have no idea. But unfortuanetly, it means too much.”

At her core, Maya has always knew that she wasn’t good. Perhaps she lived a life drenched in a kind of denial that often worked for her in bursts. Her denial was just real enough that she could go about her days without a hitch. But then this happens, the core of her rottenness being brought to the surface from one fatal act. And bringing Zion into the mix was only half of that, it seems. She feels terrible. Riddled with guilt. Yet, she does not persist. She remains as she is, standing before him asking about breakfast as if she didn’t pound another nail into her almost-closed coffin. Zion was at the wake.

That’s new. Maya chuckles but only to save face. He was so handsome, so sweet, and Maya’s guilt only grows under layers of saving face. Her head cants to the side, her neck and ears warming under the sudden pressure she was under. “Coffee’s good.” She muses with only the slightest bit of hesitance. She turns after speaking, sifting through her dresser drawers for something appropriate. Or anything other than her bare tits and a pair of underwear she scooped up from the bathroom hamper. “Or you can just tell me to fuck off, too. I wouldn’t mind, you know. I get it.” In some morbid way, Maya would prefer it. But that was a confession best kept under lock and key. 

When he stops and thinks, he realizes just how messed up this all is.  Maya had essentially broken his heart, and here he was, crawling right back. It was kind of pathetic of him, truthfully.  He knows that the two of them have this weird thing, this unexplained something, that keeps bringing them back, and he sometimes hates himself  that he can’t break free of it. But then sometimes, he looks at her, or hears the sound of her laugh and he’s also glad he’s still welcomed into her atmosphere.  She has him wrapped up, is the only way to explain it. He’s not sure he wants to be unwrapped.

“I don’t need to stay for coffee,” he suddenly says, not that he doesn’t want to, because he does, but he doesn’t want her to feel obligated, like she owes him.  He makes the move to get dressed as well, swinging legs over the side of the bed, reaching for discarded pants, a shirt. “I wouldn’t tell you to fuck off,” he tells her but she knows that, she knows that’s not who he is, not with her at least. He gets dressed, and he stands and he rubs the back of his neck as if they hadn’t been here before, as if they hadn’t had a whole relationship at one point. “But I can leave, Maya, if you want me to.”

location. 68 jay street bar feat. @upinflqmes

As any high maintenance sibling would have done, Aniyah made Zion meet her in her neighborhood at a bar she frequented on her off nights. It was the middle of the day so there weren’t many around aside from the regulars or at least, who she assumed the regulars were. Who else would be at a bar in the middle of the day? 

The bartender arrived, placing the young woman’s champagne in front of her at the table, to which she gave a small smile in return. After taking a sip, her eyes moved to the doorway where she saw movement - her brother making his way in. She stood, a much larger smile gracing her lips, and extended her arms for a hug. 

“Took you long enough!”

Zion’s time off was few and far between, twelve hour days could take up most of your time, afterall. So, when Aniyah had called and asked to meet, he was surprised when it was actually on one of his off days. Time worked in mysterious ways, or whatever. So she asks him to travel to her neighborhood, which wouldn’t be a problem, except the subways are more packed than usual it seemed, and taking a cab seemed too bougie, even for him.  But he made the trek anyway. Anything for his sister, afterall.

It’s not his nromal place, mostly because his normal place is so close to the firehouse, but from the outside it looks fine. It’s what’s on the inside that counts, he’s learned, both with people and with bars. He’ll judge them on the atmosphere, and more importantly, the quality of the drinks. When he walks in, he doesn’t have to look for her, because she finds him first, she jumps up and hugs him, which he returns with laughter in his voice.

“You try making it across the city on time and then get back to me,”  he replies as he pulls back, taking a look at her “you look good. you taking care of yourself?”

location: any bar or restaurant cuz i’m #basic open: anyone! @enycstarters​

It didn’t happen as often as one might think, but people did stop Melly from time to time on the street if they recognized her due in part to her family being what you’d call ‘Hollywood Royalty’. Which, in itself still to this day took the woman by surprise whenever it happened. As someone who worked mainly behind the scenes, aside from a few roles here and there, or some premiers and interviews where she did show her face at, she stayed behind the camera not in front of it. 

Right now though? This was another scenario all together. Some persistent fellow had decided to make Melly their person of interest for the evening, and as such couldn’t take several no’s for an answer. She’d been walking down the street, and the blonde had decided to duck into the first establishment she came across. Sidling up to the busy bar to sandwich herself onto the last available seat, she turned to one of the patrons with a warm and friendly smile. “There’s a short man a few yards behind me-reddish hair, glasses, looks like he could have his own episode of Criminal Minds where he’s the suspect?-he won’t leave me alone so the next few rounds are on me if you pretend like we know each other to some capacity. Deal?”

When you work twelve hour days, the logical thing would be to go home and sleep.  But Zion wasn’t always logical, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to waste the beginning of his weekend sleeping. Not when the city had so much to offer, and also maybe not when being at home means being alone with his thoughts, which he’s not prepared to deal with right now. He hates to admit that he’s in this weird place of unknown, that everything he had come searching for in this city wasn’t as easy as he thought it was going to be. And don’t even get him started on his love life.  

So maybe he finds himself at a bar, two beers in.  There’s a game on television that he’s only half paying attention to.  It’s distracting enough, something to keep his mind off of everything else surrounding him.  He’s about to order another drink, when someone sidles up next to him, and starts talking. It hits him what exactly is happening not soon after, it only takes a moment to register. “No need to buy the rounds, we’re best friends, that’s what we’re here for,” he says casually, talking to her as if he’s known her forever, because that’s kind of the point, right. “I’m Zion, by the way. Let me buy you a drink?

starter for: @upinflqmes​. location: maya’s apartment.

She doesn’t mean to be this way. Rotten. Sometimes it just happens, a knee-jerk reaction to her growing loneliness. By some miracle, Maya often nursed her loneliness in better ways. She learned to appreciate it, to see solitude as a way to simply exist without expectations. But it soon becomes quicksand and the only way to stop herself from drowning was to reach out, to do something reckless. This time, it was meeting up with Zion, the man who’s heart she shattered into a million little pieces. She can’t decipher much of what happened considering she drank more than she usually would. It wasn’t right, she knew that, and a part of her knew she was acting out as a result of her parents’ cruelty. The cruelty she couldn’t escape when she was stone cold sober. 

The air was cold as she reaches for the bed sheet lying on the ground, wrapping it around her body. She waddles into the bathroom, feeling gross at the sight of her tired expression. One hand reaches up to rub over her face before turning on the faucet, running her hands under the water before splashing it over her entire face. When she heads back into her bedroom, Zion is squirming and Maya assumes he’s awake too. It still had to be pretty early considering the chill in the air. 8AM at best. “Are, um, are you hungry?” The brunette asks, her voice hoarse, “I can make you whatever you want. I actually went shopping this week.”

Old habits die hard. Maya is an old habit, but also so much more than that. More than tongue can tell.  He likes to think of himself as reliable and steady.  That’s probably how he ended back up here, that and this certain pull that Maya had over him, even after all this time. He didn’t particularly want to delve too far into that, it would bring up too much. Maya had broken his heart, something he isn’t too quick to admit. And yet, when she called, even drunk, he showed up.

He thinks he should leave, but he doesn’t know how this works.  Maya has gotten up, gone into the bathroom and he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do. He moves so he’s staring up at the ceiling, and then scrubs both of his hands over his face. Was this a mistake? It may very well be.  He doesn’t hear her come back, not until she finally speaks and he feels terribly awkward. “That’s new,” he says with a rough laugh in reference to her going shopping. He’s buying himself some time, before he answers “as generous as that offer is though, we could do coffee?” he raises an eyebrow, hoping that that answer is sufficient, that it doesn’t make things any weirder than they already are.

"I miss all of my sisters right now, but I'm assuming this specific ask is about @biancawilliams, and yeah, of course, I do. She and I are close, and not seeing her is weird to me.

"Besides the basics, like brush my teeth and stuff? I have a protein shake and go for a run if I have the time."

"@leonsout probably, and I saw @vale-x at the halloween party and he seems good under pressure."

Rylan just blinked at him a couple of times as he talked to her about what he’d brought her, not wanting to eat anything at all. Her stomach felt like it was constantly churning and full of bile, she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to keep the food down at all. Reaching out from under the cover towards him she grabs his arm to give it a small squeeze of thanks, even if she wasn’t going to touch what he’d brought it didn’t mean she wasn’t grateful, she just wasn’t functioning properly right now. Anyone could see that from the outside so Zion certainly would be able to, he knew her well enough by this point.

Even if she didn’t want to spend time with anyone she was grateful that he’d come over to check on her, her overwhelming loneliness pricked with the pin of someone caring enough to worry. A glimmer of positivity in an otherwise constant onslaught of negativity the voice in her head was feeding to her in those moments of silence. “He…” She was about to tell him how Kal had kissed someone else but the words were so hard to form because if she said it out loud that would make it all the more real. Shaking her head she swallowed, feeling her eyes well up with hot tears of shame and embarrassment. She wasn’t worth his love which must be why he’d kissed Greer and that in itself was mortifying. Pressing her lips together she shook her head, looking at him with wide sad eyes, before turning away as a tear rolled down her cheek. 

Rylan was practically his little sister, and so seeing her in this much pain hurt him. Seeing her in this much pain and not being able to fix it for her was even worse. When she reaches out from underneath her blankets to squeeze his arm, he moves to put his hand over hers and to squeeze back, as a basic reassurance that he’s there for her when she’s ready, whenever that may be.

He. He who? Her boyfriend, he guessed. What was his name again? Kyle? No. No, it was Kal. “What did he do?” a wave of older brother protectiveness washes over him suddenly. Something bad, if this is the outcome. His eyes scan over her for a moment, trying to put it together, what could he have done to have her this upset? She’s not talking, which doesn’t help the situation, instead, she turns away from him. “Ry, come on, “ he begins, shaking his head and scooting himself further onto the bed, hoping to catch her attention “Whatever it is, you can tell me. It’s me, you can tell me anything, you know that. I’m on your side, no matter what.”

Rylan had no idea what time it was, hell she had no idea what day it even was at this point, because with the drapes closed in her bedroom it was perpetually dark. The only time she had extracted herself from under her comforter since getting back from the halloween party was when she absolutely had to go to the toilet, but even that wasn’t happening all that often since she wasn’t really eating or drinking anything at all. She had withdrawn into herself entirely, pulling back from the world as she wallowed in her own pain, not replying to anyone who was texting or calling her. She didn’t want to talk, explain, it was too hard.

Duvet wrapped around her tightly she heard a voice coming from actually inside her apartment, there were only a few people who knew where the spare key was, and she sent up a silent prayer it wasn’t Kal who’d let themselves in. Rylan had no energy to fight with him right now but there was still so much rage inside her that it wouldn’t be optional if they came face to face. She knew he’d been texting her, calling her, but every single one had gone ignored and unanswered. Peering out from the edge of the cover she met Zion’s eyes vacantly, her ace pale and sunken. “I’m living the dream.” She cooked out in a small voice, the first time she’d spoken in days.

When he finally finds her, underneath her duvet and looking like hell, Zion sighs. “hey kid,” he greets, stepping fully into the room and putting both cups of coffee and the pastry on the bedside table. She looks pretty terrible, and he imagines, with whatever is plaguing her, she’s feeling ever worse. “I brought you something to eat, how about you sit up and eat? Maybe drink some of the coffee? It’s your favorite.” he adds, finally dropping himself onto the other side of the bed.

He’s not sure what is bothering her. He knows she has times like this, where everything isn’t sunshine and rainbows, but this seems just a little bit more. “And while we eat our food maybe you could tell me what the hell is going on? You had me scared, not picking up for me.” It was true, Zion saw Rylan as just another sister, the fifth of the Williams girls, he would joke, and he had sworn long ago to take care of his family, for better or for worse.