Something Wicked This Way Comes

[Frozen Smoke]

((Faith C. Marshal-Mackenzie continued from I've Got One Less Problem Without You))

Faith took a gulp of the nice, tall glass of Jack Daniels and Coke she'd poured for herself, the bubbles feeling like the only Coke part of it as the whiskey taste hit the back of her throat. It was like a third of a cup of Jack so that made it about 30% whiskey, so it shouldn't be that strong, really. Fortunately she didn't mind the taste of the liquor enough for that to put her off, so it wasn't all bad.

What had been going bad was her night. Wyatt was around, but she was going to prom with him, so that was a solid no - She didn't want people to think they were dating or some shit. Not that she would have minded dating, per-say, but a relationship like that tended to last about 2 months tops when it involved Wyatt. The way they did things right now worked miles better than that.

Instead, she'd mooched around the party as usual, chatting to everyone she could as she kept her eyes peeled for the right person. Dean had been a non-starter, he was pretty obviously not interested, even before she'd started making moves. The night had dragged on, and she'd eventually found herself talking to Drew, and he'd been very receptive. He wasn't the sort of guy she really went for normally, but he was-

Well, it didn't matter. He'd said no when the conversation had entered a fun direction, and Faith knew when to take that for an answer. She'd even hung around in conversation for a little longer, to make sure it didn't seem like she was only talking to him because of that, because she sort of had been in the first place anyway. She'd grabbed the unattended bottle of Jack off a table on her way over to the room she'd scouted earlier, nice and secluded from all but the thump of the bassline of the party, and distant murmuring of conversation carrying through the frame of the house. She'd bring the bottle back when she was done with it.

She made sure to control her breathing as she cuddled the cup in both hands, her head resting back in the chair as she tried to refocus things. She didn't want the fact that she'd been rejected get to her, it didn't mean anything. It didn't change anything. She was exactly the same as she'd been 24 hours ago, and this wasn't the kind of thing that was supposed to be significant enough to bother her. She wasn't the kind of shallow bitch who measured her worth based on how much the boys liked her. She was better than that. She was sure of it.

She just needed a few moments to get over it all.

[Fenris]

"Faith! Faaaaith. There you are."

Ivy hadn't been looking for Faith in the slightest, but confidence in your actions was key.

>> Ivy Langley continued from but i'm already someone else's baby

She'd come swanning into the room, wine glass in hand—both the glass and its contents brought from home, because who on earth was going to class up this joint if not her—not particularly expecting to find company. Her mood was good but delicate; stumbling into the wrong situation would have soured it immediately, and a moment alone was probably what she needed, but this worked for her, too. Of all the people she could have found, Faith was... well. She'd be lying if she said Faith was one of her best friends or anything, but they certainly had an understanding, and she was fun to hang around when there wasn't a Wyatt-shaped barrier between them. She was probably the best person she could have hoped to stumble into, considering Wyatt would be a massive mistake in the making and Myles was probably occupied and cockblocking him would be, like, not a great best friend move?

"What're you up to all alone-like up here? S'a party, y'know." She dragged a second chair from a corner of the room over to Faith, possibly scratching the floorboards a bit in the process. Whatever. Forrest would live. She sat down and crossed her ankles as she took a sip from her wine glass. "Did something happen?"

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith looked up as Ivy stumbled into the room, giving her a quick “hey” that seemed to lack an ounce of energy in it, and cringing internally at how pathetic that sounded as she tried her best to ease an excited smile onto her face. Ivy wasn’t the kind of person you wanted to be sharing shit like what she’d been trying to think about with. She only played matchmaker with herself and Myles, everyone else’s relationship problems seemed to be food for the grapevine, and she was under no illusions that she’d be the exception there.

Fortunately her drunken exclamation of her entrance drowned it out, calling out her name as though she’d been looking for her, which was worrying.Ivy looking for you was generally not a positive sign. But at least she wasn’t carrying Bret in tow and kicking her out to get her brains fucked out, which would be rubbing far too much salt in the wound to be coincidence at this point.

She tried her best not to look downbeat as she leaned back in the chair, tilting her cup towards Ivy and offering her a quick “Sup, bitch”, trying her best to sound jovial as a little bit of the strain crept out of her smile. She quickly raised her cup back to her lips and taking a few large gulps as she spoke. Being drunk was a great excuse sometimes.

She probably needed a bit of a better one than that to explain why she was on her own though.

“Oh, you know, just trying to find where Forrest keeps the LSD.” she replied, before giggling to herself a little and taking another long drink of her Jack and Coke.

Nailed it.

[Fenris]

God, she was off-balance. Like, Ivy was, literally, but Faith was metaphorically. Her face looked like it was going to shatter from the effort she was taking to keep a smile on it. And why would that be? The words that came out of Faith's mouth proved that she wasn't going to give a straight answer any time soon. Maybe with a couple more drinks in her, but for the time being Ivy was gonna have to do the work in maintaining this conversation. She was having a perfectly good time, after all, and that was only bolstered by Faith's stumbling.

Her smile was a little too wide as she took another sip of wine.

"Didn't strike me as the type, hon, but I'm not gonna judge." Ha. If she'd thought Faith was serious she'd be penciling "junkie" into her theoretical file for later use. "Spare room'd be a weird place for it, but y'know. Where we'd least expect it, right?"

She stretched theatrically, draping her legs over the arm of the chair and leaning against the other arm. "Hell of a party. For, y'know, not one of mine. M'getting kinda bored, though. Figured I'd find somewhere to get drunker n'see if that makes things a little more entertainin'."

She nodded at Faith's drink. "You're awful sober. First drink of the night, I guess?" That much was obvious, which meant something drove her to it, especially considering she'd isolated herself like this. The trouble was figuring out what. Faith was guarded, moreso around Ivy than most, which was clever of her, but she wasn't particularly good at disguising her feelings or lying, either. This shouldn't take too much effort. She took a shot in the dark.

"Boy troubles?" Her voice was calculatedly sympathetic. "I haven't seen Wyatt, but he's around, yeah?"

[Frozen Smoke]

Oh, great, Ivy was in one of those moods, wasn't she?

Faith stared into the black of the Jack and Coke and continued drinking as the rain of questions came down, trying to just let everything bounce off of her. She wasn't here for much else than because she was bored, as she put it herself. Perhaps she knew Ivy better than she knew herself, but she had a pretty great read on what that meant she was fishing for.

Drama.

She wondered what she'd done to deserve this particular punishment as she pulled the glass away from her lips, the liquid settling awkwardly in her stomach as she began to pour herself another glass, splashing more whiskey into the few fingers of dark fluid left in the bottom. Her final question got an instinctive reaction, her mouth tightening a little and her eyes glancing back up before she returned to concentrating on the careful alchemy of alcohol she was performing in front of the two off them, trying to judge exactly how much liquor to put in.

"Yeah." she replied, trying to keep it ambiguous as to what of the questions she was responding to. She couldn't ignore Ivy, but she could probably get through this if she just didn't give her anything to work with, maybe.

"You want some Jack too?" she asked politely. Her hand wobbled a little, ruining the precise measure she'd been trying to achieve with an extra glug.

[Fenris]

This was fun? Like, Ivy was having fun, as much fun as one could have sitting alone in a room with someone who only barely seemed to tolerate you. Perhaps that was uncharitable; Ivy considered Faith a friend, as much as she had friends who weren't Myles, but everyone she spoke to was burdened with the weight of her potential judgment. She supposed she might be uncomfortable too, talking to someone who could crush her like a bug beneath her heel if she felt like it. Not that she'd ever put herself in that position. And yet people flocked to do it with her! It was lovely. Oh, her thoughts her going off now too, she was probably smiling like an idiot. Back to the task at hand.

Faith. The task at hand was Faith, and the precise way she dropped the topic like a sack of bricks and awkwardly segued into what she knew full well was Ivy's favorite subject. Unluckily for her, Ivy was fully stocked for the moment, and whiskey wasn't her poison of choice. She made a vague gesture in response to Faith's offer.

"Nah, I'm set. Got enough to drink." She grinned. "You sound like y'need it more than me anyhow." She took a sip from her own glass as punctuation.

"I could text Wyatt for you, if you'd like. Put in a good word. If you're having trouble?" That insincere sympathy crept back into her voice as her grin calmed into a simpering smile. "I'm here to help, y'know."

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith kept her concentration on the glass as she tried to make sure her motions were imprecise, as opposed to sloppy, managing to only spill a little of the coke as the head fizzed up over, running down the edge of the glass and dripping onto the wood of the table. She felt a little bad about that, but not quite bad enough to clean it up as she picked up the glass and sipped at it awkwardly over the rim, trying to drain the level to where she could actually tilt the thing back. She held the glass in her hands after that, rolling it between the flat of her palms as she kept her eyes on it, watching the dark liquid pop and fizz as Ivy enjoyed the sound of her own voice some more.

The way she spoke always made her second guess, and then triple guess what she meant. Was "y'need it more than me anyhow" supposed to be an insult? Just a statement of fact? Was she implying she needed to cheer up, or lower her standards? Was she being genuine at all? If so, why and where? Was she mentioning Wyatt to fuck with her, or just because that was the only dude she could imagine hooking up with her?

What little she could make out of her reflection in the black liquid of the glass didn't hold any answers.

"I'm good thanks." she mumbled.

[Fenris]

She was good, thanks. Of course she was. Ivy let her expression turn to a scowl for just a moment when she was sure Faith wasn't looking. God, could she be any more of a buzzkill? Okay, she hadn't totally killed Ivy's good mood yet, it was hard to do that at parties especially when a good bit of gossip was close at hand, but jeez, she was mopey. It was quite pathetic, which was a shame. High school politicking aside, Ivy kind of liked Faith. They got along reasonably well, and they might get along better if Faith could drop her guard occasionally. Of course, if she did that, Ivy would rightfully label her an idiot. Ups and downs.

She was tempted to cut and run. This had the potential to get very dull very quickly. But there were still paths for her to explore here, and she very much intended to do so. Path 1 was one she'd planned on taking for a while, anyway, and now seemed as good a time as any; Path 2 was riskier, but she had to admit, it had its charms. First one first, though. See what she could stir up.

"What about Julien?" she asked, her expression having long since recovered into a neutral smile. "Is he here? He wouldn't say no to you, I'm sure."

[Frozen Smoke]

Once Faith was confident Ivy wasn’t going to do something to make her spit out her drink, and paused for answer, she took another sip. The sick churning in her stomach was beginning to fade, and she was beginning to feel just the hints of a buzz start to warm her cheeks, fuzzing across her sense like static. Not enough to bring a smile, but enough to let her meet Ivy’s gaze as she put her drink down.

“Contrary to popular belief Ivy, it’s possible to be friends with a guy without wanting to fuck him.” she replied bluntly, without thinking about it too much, then thinking about it a little and cracking a smile. Ivy did seem to think that was how the world worked, and she was just wrong about it. No reason not to tell her so.

[Fenris]

Oh. Oh, honey.

Faith looked like she was about to laugh. Ivy, admittedly buoyed by way more alcohol, did laugh. Was she serious? Lord have mercy, it looked like she was. Well, it was funnier if she was clueless. She supposed it didn't really surprise her that Faith was in total denial of the obvious, she had always been the oblivious sort, but it wasn't a sore point she was planning to step on until she had evidence.

Now that she had that evidence, well. There were so many possibilities.

Her giggling settled down into a wide smile. She considered making a remark about whether Faith was of the impression she wanted to fuck Myles (was that a thing that people thought? she would be mildly horrified to give off that impression), but decided to stay on topic.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm not doubting your motivations." She raised an eyebrow. "Did he tell you about the... the thing with Myles the other day?" The thing. Christ, maybe she was too drunk for this.

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith's confident smirk soured as quickly as it had come.

It wasn't that what she was saying was particularly bad, she wasn't even really sure what she was talking about - It was the reaction. The laugh, the look that just read "gosh i can't believe how much better i am than you". It wasn't something she hadn't seen before. It was the same feeling as taking a confident step forwards, only to find that the solid ground replaced with a fat piece of dog shit from some hippie fucker that probably figured nature would take care of itself.

She didn't answer. Ivy would know that no answer meant she didn't know. She wasn't going to give her any more satisfaction than she was already taking from this. Whatever it was.

[Fenris]

The gravitas of the silence that held between them for a long moment was greatly lessened by the music playing outside their door. Ivy didn't appreciate its effect on the dramatic tension, but she could work around it.

"You know, I thought he would've said something? Cause it was, like, kinda... a big deal. At least Myles thought it was. Does Julien get in fights often enough he forgets to mention them?

She took another sip.

"Didn't think he was the type, y'know? Seems kinda dangerous."

[Frozen Smoke]

Ivy was just toying with her at this point, and she could feel it. It wasn't a question of did she know about it, it was a question of how bad was it. Just how deep was the hole that Julien had dug for her, then not warned her about.

Judging by how cripplingly smug Ivy seemed to be about sharing it now, that meant Julien really, really should have told her.

She drank a little more herself, smirk fully transitioned back into nervous, neutral line as she caught Ivy's eye again.

She wasn't really sure what to say. She felt like there was some witty comeback. Something funny. Some way to spin this so that she wasn't just going to have to sit here and deal with whatever Ivy wanted her to deal with. Pull the focus away from herself.

She drew a blank.

Her line of sight ducked underneath Ivy's as she replied with a shrug and a simple, sullen "No."

[Fenris]

She took another sip from her glass. Not that she couldn't tell from Faith's initial reaction, or rather her lack of one, but the confirmation that Julien hadn't said anything was still interesting. Why hadn't he, was the question? There wasn't exactly love lost between Myles and Faith. Ivy would put her feelings about her at a neutral-positive; Myles would put them at a wrinkled nose and a "why are we talking about this". Faith obviously knew Julien wasn't exactly a pacifist, that much was well-known. Ivy doubted she'd object specifically to him hurting Myles all things considered, and Julien would know that, too.

But he'd known exactly what he'd done, and he was ashamed of himself, as he well should be. He didn't want to tell Faith the broad strokes and brush over the details. He probably knew Ivy would be more than ready to fill in those blanks for her.

Too bad. She doubted Faith would be happier to hear it from her.

"Weird, like, he tells you everything, right?" Another sip. "Kinda don't blame him though. I mean..."

For the first time, her smile faded, her eyes narrowed. Just a bit. She was in a good mood, that was hard to shake, but in sharing what she knew she had to remember it, and the details Myles had shared had turned her stomach. Of course, it wasn't Faith she was angry at. No use in blaming her.

"I do blame him. Obviously. But not, like, for not telling you, cause it was pretty nasty? And like, you know me. Not really squeamish. Like, I'm dating a Carter." She shrugged. "But going after someone who's trying t'get away is pretty... low."

[Frozen Smoke]

If she was going to be honest, she didn't blame Julien for doing something to Myles. He was basically the reason they invented the insult faggot, as much as she'd never use it towards him, he did everything seemingly possible to draw it out of her. He was a conniving little shit who liked to throw the first barb and act surprised in return, with no desire to stand up for himself, preferring to run to Momma Ivy for support. That was why she tried to simply stay out of his way, she'd learnt the lesson that the best way to not have Myles mess with you was to simply not be within easy reach of him. It seemed Julien hadn't quite figured that one out.

She swirled her glass a little. It was half full now, and it formed a bubbling whirlpool that managed to be a much more appealing sight than Ivy's demanding glare, which she obliquely recognised out of the corner of her eyes. She'd been alongside it a few time, and seen people wilt away from it. It always ended badly for them.

"Ok." she acknowledged, trying to spur Ivy into simply going forwards with her explanation of what actually had happened, rather than vague intimations that she was loathe to preemptively guess at. Everything she was saying was opinion. There wasn't anything concrete that she was saying had happened, just a bunch of descriptors about how dastardly it was.

Julien could have gotten some of his blood on Myles' favourite T-Shirt and that probably would have been described in a similar way.

She took another long drink, grimacing as it burned its way down her throat. The liquor felt like it had collected at the bottom. Whatever.