A Bar On The Mainland | Saturday Evening

[nottrivial]

Alec had no idea that there was any kind of weirdness going on this weekend. He'd gone about his business like usual -- some training in the morning followed by some heavy hiding-in-his-room throughout the afternoon -- and then he'd set off on, well, it was kind of an adventure, actually.

Or if you asked Jace, it was a date. Which meant that if you asked Alec, it was a date, because he was pretty sure Jace knew about these things.

The fact that it was taking place at a gay bar might have been a clue that it wasn't quite that simple, but for all Alec knew, that was just how dates worked. Loud music, glitter, dancing... by the Angel, that was a lot of glitter. He was going to be picking it off his sweater for weeks.

Sigh.

Alec cleared his throat and turned to his companion. "So," he said, doing his best to be audible over the music, "is this the part where we get drinks?"

[[for one, up early for SP, and NFB for distance, yo!]]

Comments

[nottrivial]

"No, I'm just picky, I guess," Alec clarified. "And I just guess I didn't see myself being the kind of person who likes alcohol."
Weird.

"How long have you been, you know, drinking? Is that a... thing people ask?"

Nope!

[myownface]

"Nope," Sparkle replied, laughing and shaking his head. "But I'll answer anyhow, how does that sound? I've been drinking since forever ago. I mean, like, I used to steal my old man's booze when he wasn't looking. If I drank it, he couldn't, and then he'd run out and there were nights here and there that he'd leave our mom alone."

It was sound logic for a kid. Possibly even the truth. It was difficult to say with Sparkle.

"Or I just started when I moved into the group home. The other kids offered me some and I went for it. I can't remember which story I was going with tonight, so here, you can have both and I'll let you choose your favourite."

[nottrivial]

"I think my favorite would be the second one," Alec said slowly, but at least he wasn't offering an apology this time. Because Sparkle was the Canadian at this bar, thank you. "I, uh, my only real experience with this stuff is when my roommate called me from a bar a few months ago and asked if he could buy a goat."

[myownface]

"Your roommate has a goat?"

Why yes! Yes, that was a conversation starter if ever there was one!

"What in the world does he do with it?"

Actually, Sparks, it was currently running wild in suburbia, California. Terrorizing vampires.

[nottrivial]

Poor, Harmony Kendall had probably suffered a terrifying goat attack by now, for one. It just seemed inevitable.

"No, he didn't actually," Alec clarified. "I sort of put my foot down. Our room is really not that big."

[myownface]

Nothing was quite as fearsome as a miniature goat. This one had survived the Savage Land, after all.

"Well, yeah. I mean, they're comfortable enough dorm rooms, but I wouldn't go keeping livestock in there. It's an okay size for a cat, though."

[nottrivial]

"Oh, right, your cat from that weekend stuck around," Alec recalled with a nod after he took another sip from his beer. Which it was still weird to be enjoying, FYI. "Velcro, right? That's... yeah, I'd rather live with a cat over a goat too."

[myownface]

"Velcro, right," Sparkle cackled, pleased that Alec had remembered his kitten's name. "Cats are pretty good company, you know. You should get one."

Because it was way better than a goat.

"And then your cat and mine can have like little kitten playdates or something. That's a thing cats do, right?"

No, Sparkle. Cats generally didn't.

[nottrivial]

"They... might just end up glaring at each other," Alec hedged. "Cats."

Yep. Cats.

[myownface]

"Well, either way," Sparkle replied, waving that off. "You aren't so comfortable around people, but maybe a pet would be good for you. You can babysit Velcro for me sometime, if you want."

And of course he'd want to!

[nottrivial]

Alec flushed a little, because there was some praise in there somewhere. "I can probably watch him sometimes, sure," he promised. "I don't think I'd do well with my own, just in case the island does something weird, but I'd be okay with watching yours sometime."

[myownface]

"Well, when isn't the island doing something weird? I mean, Velcro is the result of the island being weird, and he's okay."

Sparkle was almost positive by now that Velcro was a he. He still hadn't checked, because, okay, looking between your kitten's legs to see if you could find his nuts was weird.

"Are you just bent on being alone all the time, man?"

[nottrivial]

What? "No," Alec said, taking a careful sip of his drink to give himself time to think. "It's just not fair if the island does something to make me inaccessible for a weekend at some point and the cat winds up hungry or stuck outside or something. I know you didn't pick Velcro, I just... wouldn't deliberately go out and choose one, I guess."

He shrugged. "I miss my cat from home, though."

[myownface]

Sparkle considered that one for a minute, yes.

"Plenty of people have pets and they haven't starved to death or anything," he pointed out. "I mean, you're in a building with a bunch of other students. If you can't get to your pet, I bet someone can. Shit, I could."

Sparks was helpful!

"You have a cat back home? Why didn't you bring him with you?"

[nottrivial]

Alec shook his head. "I don't want to ask someone else to do that," he dismissed. "But yeah, his name's Church. He's mostly Hodge's -- our, uh, guardian, the one who mostly looks out for me and Jace and Isabelle when our parents aren't around -- so I didn't get to bring him. But it would've been nice."

[myownface]

"Yeah, I guess it would've." Sparkle gave that one some careful consideration, and then grinned. "I guess this means that Velcro and I are going to have to visit you more often. Until you're sick of us both."

Oh yes. Oh yes indeed.

[nottrivial]

Alec smiled at that. "Yeah, that's fair," he decided. "I'm okay with that. Velcro can, uh, be grateful that there's no goat to terrorize him."

Was that a joke? From Alec? Gasp.

[myownface]

It seemed distinctly joke-like, at least by Alec standards. Sparkle had himself a good chuckle at it, and then lifted his bottle and took another good swig of beer.

"We can all be thankful that there's no goat. Means the most stubborn company anyone has to keep is me."

[nottrivial]

"That's true," Alec decided, having loosened up enough from the small amount of beer that he didn't feel weird for babbling like this. "You're even more stubborn than my brother. It's a good thing, I mean. But he's, he's really stubborn, he talked me into not... getting nervous and cancelling this when he told me this was probably a date? So-- being more stubborn than him, that's... an accomplishment."

[myownface]

"Uh... go me!" Sparkle was a little thrown, here, but he was keeping up with the conversation kind of admirably. "He told you this was a date? Do I even know him?"

Because, wow, Sparkle hadn't been aware that this was a date. That would have been good to know!

[nottrivial]

Okay, now the embarrassment about babbling was starting to set in.

"I... what?" There was the coherent Alec everyone knew and kind of tolerated! "I don't know. His name's Jace? He goes to school with us. I mean, obviously. Is that... wrong?"

[myownface]

"Kinda," Sparkle replied, looking a little baffled, now. "You didn't tell him I was gay or anything, did you? I mean, I don't even know the guy."

And, okay, Sparks had a pretty flamboyant name, and he was a member of Pride and all, but it wasn't like he advertised the gay thing for all the school to know. So assuming that this was a date...

"Even if he does know I'm gay, why is he going and assuming that this is a date? Friends go to bars too, you know. Even queer ones."

[nottrivial]

"No, I wouldn't have -- I would never have told him that," Alec said hastily, not taking his eyes off of Sparkle but still managing to pick anxiously at the label of his beer bottle. "I never even told him about me, I don't really, uh, want to think about how he knew that--" because it was still unsettling, and actually the more he thought about it the more he kind of wanted to curl up into a ball-- "but he just... said it, and I figured he knew what he was talking about."

[myownface]

"Well," Sparkle said, his tone flat, "he's full of shit. He doesn't know me, wasn't there when we made our plans to go hang out, he's not exactly the authority on whether or not we're dating right now, Alec."

He set his beer down and rubbed at his forehead. He could feel a headache coming on.

"You wanna take anybody's word for it, why not ask me next time? I mean, last I checked, I was kind of the complete authority on whether or not I'm asking someone out on a date. Like, more than someone who knows, what, my name? Yeah, that'll tell a person loads."

[nottrivial]

Alec wasn't sure how to explain the fact that he'd been taking Jace's word as an authority on pretty much everything since they'd met, at least without embarrassing himself, so he left it alone.

"I figured it was just supposed to be obvious," he said, managing to keep his voice clear even though he wanted to mumble. "There are cues I miss sometimes, so I thought he had a better idea than I did. Sorry."