Survival Of The Fittest

"Thanks", he told Johnny when he gave him the beer. While Dariush sucked the liquid from the alcoholic drink, he spectated the events of the 'party'. There was no comment that needed to be added. Darius' hugging was magnificient and everybody who experienced it either knew it or had the wrong hair colour. Still, he chuckled at Johnny's comment, and even moreso at Junko's.

"Free beer shower, though. It's refreshing at such a desert night."

Darius shortly poured some beer from his beer can at the direction to Junko. Though, not too near at her to actually hit her or anything, but hopefully surprising enough to shock her.

"Also want to get a beer shower? Hahaha."

Besides, at the rather boring party that had nothing to offer, Johnny smoked something more enjoyable than menthols and, god damn it. Aiden came to the party. That guy can fuck off already. Dariush was really, really, really tempted to make jokes about him, insult him or just to insult his fam. But no, Darius was smart. Darius ignored Aiden.

"That's wisdom, yeah?" Johnny tapped a finger on the side of his head, twice. "Especially since some us seem to have made themselves... particularly flammable."

He switched his cigarette from his mouth to between the ring and pinky fingers of his left hand, and then took the spliff with his right and lit it. He let the paper on the end burn away before raising it to his mouth and taking a deep toke. He held it for a moment, then sucked air in through his teeth before finally letting it out, through his nose. Johnny enjoyed blowing smoke out his nose immensely. It made him feel like a dragon.

He took another, smaller drag off of the spliff before passing it to his left to an increasingly agitated Darius. The older boy was making murder eyes at Aiden, who seemed to have simply materialized. People seemed to have a habit of simply materializing, Johnny had noticed, right after he rolled things. Funny, that.

If Aiden was interested though, he was doing a good job of hiding it, which suited Johnny right down to the ground. He didn't mind Aiden, quite liked the kid, for all his carnie patter and his cartoon face. Johnny supposed he'd always had a soft spot for birds. So he liked Aiden fine, but he didn't like him enough to get between the boy and the almighty beating that would surely result if Darius and Beaks came to blows.

Looking around, Johnny realized that nobody here was likely to do anything, really. With Wayne gone it was just girls and queers. Just girls, queers and Johnny. Well, if they expected Johnny to do anything if a fight broke out they were, as his mother might have said, destined for disappointment.

Johnny had absolutely no intention of doing shit, other than perhaps leaving quietly. Someone cuts themselves on something sharp out here, someone rolls into the fire, and some mom looking for a culprit was gonna blame richkid Slattery? Like fuck she was. Johnny was smart enough to want nothing to do with that mess.

And so it was, he decided, in his interests for Aiden to stay on the other side of the fire, and for Darius to stay mellow. He patted the older boy on the back.

"Ya doing alright there, D?

Just arrived a microsecond or so ago, first thing he heard was something bout Sadies. Like, made sense and all, 'specially with him still runnin' around in that sort-of-but-not-really fancy suit and all, but still. Woulda thought that the dance was the lowest of the low in terms of convo topics round here right now. Didn't mean Junks didn't deserve an answer though, just had to make sure she wouldn't want to continue talkin' about it.

"Was alright, yeah. Like, take my word for it, when I say y'all haven't missed out on much." He made a little silly grimace,  put some emphasis behind it. "Like, can't even really call it 'dance', what with my partner not digging the high art of swinging legs, you follow me? Was nice enough though, no regrets. Still, glad to be here now, so I am."

Heard a buzzin' somewhere round his ear all of a sudden, prolly belonging to some mean bloodsucking lady. Mosquitoes were always female right? Couldn't exactly look up her skirt to confirm it or anything, but he'd take the discovery channel guy's word for it. Fucker better not have lied.

As soon as he felt a teenie weenie pair of legs touch the skin on the back of his neck, his hand shot up to curb stomp the unwanted company, make a nice mosquie-mush. Hit the mark, a bit too hard though, resulting in a subdued yelp from him. Buzzin' had stopped though. Target eliminated.

Of course, this meant he had earned himself the right to flash a cocky grin at Junko, honor where honor was due. "Looks like I just saved you and all attendees here some trouble. Sure woulda sucked if I hadn't come, you with me?" Bit too obvious that one, yeah. Only made it better, though. He knew Junks would dig that one, sure as shit.

And Johnny had completely ignored her and passed it to Darius. She shot him a look and flipped him off, before going back to the 'supply table' for her fourth beer and a hotdog, Junko's roasting reminding her of how hungry she was, what with her not having eaten lunch because there was shit to do and lunch wasn't the shit she needed to do.

She watched as Darius splashed about half a can of booze onto the ground, making a crack about a beer shower. "Darius, you already failed at flirting with Raina, stop flirting with Junko as well. Oh, and you're wasting beer on top of it." As if to prover her point, she cracked to tab open on her beer and took a swig.

"Junko, thank you for setting up the one situation in which all my cooking skills are not needed. Genuinely, I can just stick this in the fire, no other bullshit about it. It's great." She smiled and stuck the sausage on a relatively clean stick, before hovering it in some of the higher flames, watching as the fire crackled away at the dripping fat and meat.

"Hahaha, you drinking booze is wasting beer", Darius quickly replied to Maria's taunt.

Johnny offered Dariush a joint, so he happily took it to take a drag and give it back to Johnny instead of Maria. That is what he needed. A nice dank drag. Johnny is a better person than Darius would have imagined. A joint was something that he needed. Or rather, what the party needed. Why the hell did Junko not bring a joint to the party?

"And that's what you think flirting is? Singing is flirting? Oh, just shut up," he added to his previous comment to Maria.

Aiden was not better either. Jokes. Trash jokes. Puns. Ugh. 2015 and puns. UGH. And that fucking language that this bastard used. High art of swinging legs. More like high art of swinging fists, if Aiden keeps talking bullshit.

"Heyheyheyheyhey," Junko said as she moved to dodge the beer. "Don't do that. I didn't even hug you first."

Yup, Darius had decided to recreate Raina's response to his "affection" on her, for reasons she couldn't quite get. Only a few specks got on her, which was good. It honestly wouldn't be the first time this hoodie got covered with beer. Booze, weed, vomit, ketchup, everything. Yet somehow, it made it through alright with a discreet run through a machine. In any case, though, getting covered in beer would suck. She couldn't even drink it without getting red-faced, and the smell of it lingering on her clothes for the rest of the evening? That would be extra weird.

Junko frowned at the beer puddle that had been made, and looked back up. Speaking of beer, how many had Maria had already? She was like, on her third or fourth. Was she really that pissed about missing the invite that she had to get drunk already? It didn't help that Junko honestly couldn't tell if that hot dog cooking comment was PA, sincere, or what. So she just smiled in response. Smile and nod. At least she wasn't singing and randomly hugging people?

The dance had been "alright," according to Aiden. It was only proof of what they had been missing. Or what they weren't missing. High art of raising legs? Was he doing the can can or something? That would at least make the dance more interesting. Junko again chuckled at the thought that popped into her head.

She let out another chuckle at the pun.

"Thanks, Aiden. Skeeters really bug me, you know?"

"Yeah, those can really be a..." Took him a sec, but then he got it. Sneaky beaky, yup, but she had out-punned him, so she had. Hadn't expected any less from her though, Junks and him were like mind-twins or some psychic shit, least from what he got.

"Bug, eh? Nice."

Sticking out his tongue a bit, he gave her a friendly nudge on the shoulder with his fist. Yup, he was gonna have a good time here, no doubt. Like, wasn't Kizi's fault at all, him not being as entertained early, but the whole atmo, the feel of this, was just a totally different thing. Not by-the-book, straight as sticks like Sadies was. Could actually go wild here.

Speaking of which, he couldn't help but look at Fi again. Girl was just sittin' and munchin' on something, sweet. Wished she'd have munched on his...whoa, he hadn't even gotten smashed yet, too early to think of that. Yeah, she was hot and all, even hotter with the campfire next to her, but still. Had done it with her before, not like this was new territory to him. Didn't usually go all horndog like that, not like he couldn't have some fun with her without thinkin' of sexy times.

Right, Junko. He broke his gaze away from Fi, which actually turned out to be harder than he liked it to be, now looking straight at his host again.

"Yeah anyway, booze is free, right? Think I'm gonna indulge myself then. Don't say I didn't warn ya." With an impish wink and a quick finger salute, he moved past Junko. Good opportunity to give her a lil' flick against the back of the head though. Tempting like a straight up siren, knew he couldn't resist it, so he did. Made sure the flick wasn't too hard though, didn't want to blow her brains out, after all.

"Nother mosquie sitting there, had to do it! Thank me later." With a repressed snicker, he turned around to move towards the picnic table.

Darius was apparently ignoring him completely, which was not, Johnny supposed, a particularly good sign. He toked twice, then passed back to the boy.

As soon as the spliff was done, Johnny resolved, he would leave. Even if a fight weren't to break out, the party simply wasn't working for him. He wasn't sure what he'd expected exactly - Johnny found it best to have as few expectations as possible, as that forestalled otherwise-inevitable disappointment - but whatever he had in mind, sitting next to this grunting mess for hours on end, wondering whether or not he was going to punch something, was certainly not Johnny's bag.

He'd wanted... life! Excitement! Novel conversations with interesting people, not sullen moping with the exact same assholes he saw every day at school.

Christ, what a fucking bust. He picked the beer back up and swigged deeply.

Junko made fun of him, referring to the hug and then just made a pun. Puns. Low comedy. Farce. Earlier during the party puns were acceptable. But now? Junko and Aiden starting a pun contest. That was hell.

Oh god, Aiden wanted to drink. That demanded another drag of the joint. Hm, it tasted oddly minty. Perhaps it was due to the cigarettes. He passed the J back to Johnny.

Darius should leave. This party was turning into shit. Aiden, Fiyori, Maria. One could not compensate that with Michael and Jonathan or Johnny or Junko. Too many shitty boring people in one place. Heck, Junko couldn't compensate it with the lame puns either. Puns. Who the fuck uses puns in 2015 anyways? It's not like the english language will have that more new words to create original puns. Bug. AHAHAHA. Sucking. ahahaha. You suck, Aiden. You suck. Darius decided to leave. This elementary school humour was way below his level.

"Anyways, I gotta go. I have assignments."

Darius stood up, took another beer and walked home with a cigarette in his mouth and a beer bottle in his hand. He had games to beat.

((Darius Van Dyke continued in The Note Desolation Plays))

Aha, got him.

Suck, bug. What other puns could be made based of skeeters? Blood brothers. Blood sisters. The ones that bit were female, right? Yeah, pretty sure that was the case. Roller skeeters. Oh, wait, she thought of a better one, but she was going to wait until the right moment. Sure, puns were silly, but she loved them.

"Booze is free, yeah," Junko said, after receiving an elbow nudge.

She noticed that he gave Fiyori a strange look a few seconds ago. What was that about? She wasn't sure. But she put it aside. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe? Maybe?

A second later, she felt another flick at the back of her head. She turned around again, to see that Aiden had flicked another one away. She smiled a bit in response.

But wait. Who gets drunk at party then immediately goes home to do homework? Darius did, apparently. Did he want a poor grade from, dunno, Brown? Yeah, I totally got drunk before I did this equation, can I get a do-over? That excuse would fly well. Yeah, Darius was, for some reason, buzzing off with a lame excuse. Again, working on assignments while under the influence was a thing? It sounded stupid. Did Darius really hate insect puns that much? Maybe she should send it along to Raina in case he acts up again.

"Bye Darius!" she called out.

For a moment, Junko considered asking if he needed a call home or something. After all, if horror movies told her correctly, teenagers plus booze plus woods equals serial killer. Darius, however, went off before she could even open her mouth about that. Hopefully there were no serial killers. Murder at this party would be the worst thing ever.

She looked at the remaining guests, then shrugged.

"Well, then."

There they were, all lined up, ready for the taking. Kinda surprised him to see so many brewskis still left, thought had kinda expected them to go like hot cakes. But like, maybe Junks had just overdone it with buying the party supplies, bought way more than needed or something. Yeah, he could see that. Not really a big deal though, not even any deal at all. Better to have a couple spare ones than to leave all attendees hung out to dry, thirsty and shit.

He reached out for the one closest to him, which was almost falling off the table, from the looks of it. Couldn't let that happen, nothing was gonna go to waste here, nope. Only had to find a way to open it though, didn't have a lighter with him to help get rid of the bottle top. Eh, he'd find some way. Maybe ask Johnny or some other guy, someone had to be able to help.

Quick check though: When was the last time he took his meds? Like, been long enough, right? Ritalin and alc didn't mix well, to be sure. Woulda prolly knocked him flat on his flat ass if he tried. Yeah, had to be safe now, sure as shit.

Beer in hand, he looked around again. There was Fi again, still busy with herself, busy to please her- fuck it, mind was crashing down into the gutter again, fuck. Really had to stop thinking about screwing the screws off her, but damn, he just couldn't. Like, he really woulda been cool with just going over to her, chill together, have a drink, nothing special. Brain was doing his own thing though, sending him more nude pics of her than a fucking spambot. Not now, nope. No way on the highway.

Aiden did an 180, turned himself around to see - oh, Darius was on his way outtie, nice. Only one that could have messed up his night, really, ruin his mood and shit. Good thing that wasn't gonna happen. Not only that, but that prolly meant Johnny was all by himself now right, lone wolf style. He turned his head a bit and yup, there he was. Looking a bit bored though, like, sure looked different when someone was having a good time.

Yeah, he was gonna go sit his ass down next to him. Could mess with Junks a bit more, but she'd still be around later, Johnny could just pull a phantom and vanish right then and there. Had to be go see the dude while he had a chance, hadn't seen him around in a while. Yup, sounded good.

He rubbed his neck a bit, felt a little sore. Annoying, but nothing he could do about it now. Whistling a random tune for a moment, he walked over to Johnny, then immediately took a seat next to the guy, beer still firmly gripped in one hand, using the other to gently nudge him on the shoulder.

"Hey man. How's my boy Weedman doing?"

That was a shitty thing to call somebody, Johnny thought.

It wasn't like he didn't know why people put up with him, or anything. When people texted saying "hey dude, bring stuff" Johnny didn't think to himself "wow, these people sure do love me for my personality". Johnny prided himself on having few illusions about himself or his value, and he certainly wasn't deceived about the reasons many of his classmates put up with him.

On more than one occasion he'd been told at parties, to his face, that he wouldn't be there if he didn't have drugs. This didn't particularly bother Johnny, since a simple fact of growing up int he park was that he almost always did have drugs, or at the very least have ready access to them, but it was still far from pleasant.

The fact that Aiden seemed to have decided that this was the only relevant thing about him, and name him as a result, did not set Johnny in the best of moods.

"Weed's gone, Beaks. Whaddaya want?"

"Weed's gone with the wind, eh?" Aiden shrugged, then ruffled his hair. "You know me, I don't want any of that stuff anyway, got my own demons to handle and all." He patted the left side pocket of his jeans, where his medication was resting in.
Dude seemed a little bittie glum tho. Like, far as he could tell, Johnny-Boy was a little more upbeat at parties, at least usually. Maybe the alc was getting to him or whatever. Woulda sucked a little if it did, he had hoped to get to ol' Johnny in normal-mode. Well, had to work with what he got. so he did it. Would make the best out of it.

"I mean, haven't seen in ya in a while man, almost forgot what your face looks like. Not really though, your mug and mine, no way you could forget those."

He let out a friendly chuckle, looking back at the campfire. Junks doing whatever it was she was doing, Miss Two-Million-Subscribers doing what she did best - make some food. Michael and the other guy still chattin' it up and Fi - yeah, best to not look at her. Jesus, man.

Aiden turned his head back to Johnny. "Yeah, just wanted to hear how you're doing and all. Well that and uh, ask if you have something to get this thing open with." He raised the bottle of beer in his hand, like he was about to say cheers. "Never was good at this stuff. If you have like, a lighter or something to help me out with, that'd be real awesome."

Johnny fished his lighter from his pocket and handed it to Aiden, wordlessly.

Aiden was easy to talk to, in the sense that one didn't really need to talk at all. Aiden could hold a conversation with a brick wall, nattering away happily in his auctioneer's voice. He was like the energizer bunny, kinda - with other people, you needed to wind up the conversation now and then with a comment or a look or an opinion, but with Aiden he would just go and go and go and go.

Johnny was happy, for now, just to sit and listen to him talk. His mood was a sour one, and despite the boy's excess of pep, Aiden was doing nothing to sweeten it. It wasn't his fault, of course, and Johnny knew the kid didn't mean any harm by what he said.

He simply wasn't in the mood for company.

Aiden took the lighter from Johnny's hand, snatched it away almost. "Thanks, man. Still not sure if I'm gonna get this thing open or not, but at least I don't have an excuse for not trying now."

He gave Johnny a light pat on the back, then started to try and do that whole thing that Fergie had told him. Had to hold his hand in  specific way, then apply the lighter to the whole thing, get that fucker under the bottle top, use it like a lever and -
Welp, first time was a bust. Didn't even budge an inch, nope. Second try. With a little more focus this time, try to get the edge of the lighter in the right spot, be hella careful not to change the position of his hand, ready, steady -

Nope, not this time either. Well goddamn, one tough customer, this frickin' bottle cover. Like, could always smash it, but that'd kinda defeat the purpose of y'know, trying to get what was inside. Third time's the charm, sure as shit. Did all the same steps as before, tried remembering how exactly his pal had always done it. Fucking Fergie, always made it look like it was no dizzedi deal and stuff, while to him, this shit was like rocket science or something. Math was hard enough for him already.
Alright, try again, press that thing down at that spot, keep it held tight and - hell yes, pop goes the weasel. The bottle cover came loose with a literal 'pop', flew straight in Junko's direction but fell to the ground after only covering half the distance. Phew. Sure, Junks coulda taken it, no biggie, but still. Already had his little funzie with her earlier, no reason to add unintentional trolling to the list as well.

Now that the bottle was all open and ready, he immediately brought the rim to his lips and took a nice, deep sip. Yup, still tasted as shitty as he remembered. But he didn't drink it for its taste anyway, never did.

Smiling contently, he looked back over the attendees - whoa, Fi again, careful, had to stop thinking about her - then back at Johnny. Guy hadn't said a thing. Yeah, had to be the alc. Guy wasn't usually cosplaying as Kimiko, so had to be that. Shame, yeah. But like, still could try and talk to him, right? Maybe just say something, anything that popped into his mind, epiphany style or some shit, get Johnny Boy to let loose a little.

"So like...how's it going for you, like, with girls? Got anything going on at the moment?"

No idea why he had asked that. Well no, he did, asked it because it had gone through his head at that moment. Better question then, why had that thing gone through his head? Was just trying to have a good time, didn't try to think about chicks and stuff too much, nothing that had the potential to get his mood down or something.

Whatevs. Maybe it'd get Johnny talking. Worked for him.