Oatanas‌:

kingkirbey‌:

Forcing herself to show up at a party hosted by someone she barely knew had somehow become recurring theme in her life and truthfully, King was over it. It reminded her too much of how she used to be, when she’d show up somewhere no matter if she’d been invited or not and immediately capture the attention of the entire room. She’d secretly loved it then, but now, it all felt foreign to her — especially on a holiday like this. To King, New Year’s was sort of a meaningless holiday that people used as an excuse to get drunk and make stupid decisions. In her eyes, everyone created their own fate, and it shouldn’t take a clock striking midnight for someone to decide they want to be a better or worse person. “Not to be that girl,” King took a sip of her champagne and leaned in to the person next to her as if she was telling a secret, “But I really don’t get the hype of New Year’s Eve. It’s not like you wake up the next day and suddenly everything’s changed just because the year did.”

Listening to King, Ben couldn’t help but smile. She was right, this was just another day. Change could happen at any point in a person’s life. “What if you wake up and I’ve turned into a werewolf because it’s 2019?” He joked as he looked at his wife. “I’m not sure everyone else here feels the same way, though. Some people probably still think New Year’s resolutions actually work.” If someone wanted to make a resolution, they could do it any time of the year if they were actually motivated to do so. “The bright side is that if we want to leave early, we can since we’re not at O’s.”

kingkirbey‌:

King watched Ben work himself into a state, hating how helpless she felt. As much as she wanted to tell him that Quinn would eventually forgive him — that he had to — she knew her words would be empty. Quinn was practically a stranger to her, she knew only as much about him as Ben had told her, and she definitely didn’t know how quick he would be to forgive something that had taken such a toll on his life. “Being here is trying. And if he doesn’t see that you’re doing what you can to make it right, maybe his friendship isn’t meant to be.” King hated to be so blunt about the situation, but in her eyes it was the truth. If Quinn couldn’t see the obvious effort Ben was making to make things right, then screw him. “As much as I would really, really love that, I think it would be rude of us to ditch this party when the hostess’ are letting us crash in their guest room and drink all of their coffee for free. But we could take shots out here until your face doesn’t hurt anymore?” Moving to the counter, she plucked a bottle of tequila from the mess of half empty alcohol bottles held it up with a triumphant smile. “Isolating ourselves in the kitchen doesn’t technically count as ditching.”

Out of everyone he’s ever known, King could always cheer him right up and get him out of his own funk. Who knows where he’d be now if she didn’t find him in some shit bar in Italy? Having to accept the loss of such a close friendship wasn’t something Ben could swallow. This wasn’t supposed to end like this. Then again, what happy ending ever happened to him? “You’re right,” He admitted, at least he was offering Quinn an olive branch. It just sucked that this wasn’t going to work out. He slid off of the stool he was on and dragged his feet as he walked, “Damn us for being so polite,” He joked, “And for having a coffee addiction,” He rubbed his hands together in excitement at the mention of shots. “If we were in Germany, we’d be having Cinnamon with these shots, I miss tequila oro,” He pointed out. No one would probably miss them in here anyway. “Here’s to getting punched in the face.”

monty-santos‌:

“It’s just a mass-produced postcard type thing that the post office makes, so it’s nothing fancy,” Monty pointed out with a little shrug, “But I think it depends on what you’re doing there.  I actually lived mostly in France for nine years after high school and I found that if you tried speak the language and learn the customs and don’t just do the tourist thing they weren’t as ugh it’s an American.”

“Well, of course, they liked you. You’re Monty Santos. I can’t imagine anyone not liking you,” He admitted. Who could ever say something bad about Monty? Not him. “It probably didn’t help that I was inebriated most of the time. I wasn’t sober enough to understand their customs. Not to mention I never really paid attention in French. I just know how to tell them that I don’t know. You, on the other hand, you must’ve been very popular there.”

quinnxarchibald‌:

Quinn shook his head as he continued to pull Ben to the side, into an empty area of the house. “Nope. You’re not getting out of this. Don’t worry. I got the punching out of my system. Sorry about that by the way.” He replied, nodding toward the brunet’s face. Pausing for a moment to recollect his thoughts, Quinn continued, glaring at Ben as he did. “I’m still so fucking pissed at you. I had to hear from Gossip Girl that you were back. Do you know how shitty that is? You didn’t reach out to me once. Not even when you were back in New York. What the fuck?”

It was a shitty thing to do. Ben knew that. “What did you want me to do? Just show up at wherever you’re living and surprise you?” He asked rhetorically. “I came back. And I came back for you, okay?” Ben needed to do this on his own terms. “But seeing you and saying what I want to say and need to say is a lot harder than practicing in the fucking mirror.” He admitted, looking past Quinn. He couldn’t look him in the eyes right now. He wasn’t ready for this. 

finnsmythe‌:

“I don’t doubt that. You seem pretty scrappy to me,” he grinned a little. At the suggestion of a shotgun competition, Finn laughed. “Oh my god, yes! I used to do that all the time with the guys! And I did that in college before I dropped out. You’re on. If this fucking blizzard wasn’t happening, and we’d be able to get a case of beer, we’d definitely do that!” Finn was competitive as hell, and he would do all he could to win that challenge. “Yeah, we’re a thing,” he nodded. “I’ll ask O about it. See if she’d be down.”

He wasn’t scrappy. Only he was allowed to call himself that. Or King. That was about it. “I gotta compensate for the height somehow,” He wasn’t ignorant, he knew he was pretty small. “There should always be a case of beer around or a keg. I really need to show Chessie and O how Europeans party,” He thought he was better than everyone because he spent so much time abroad. It was pretty pathetic. “Maybe we could do a bar crawl.” He considered that pretty romantic. See, romance isn’t dead. 

quinnxarchibald‌:

@benvanderbilt

While the night had started out quite poorly, Quinn couldn’t help but feel that things were looking up. He felt like he could rule the world, like he could do anything. Rationally, he knew that was the coke running though his veins but it didn’t stop him from still feeling invincible. Meandering through the halls, not caring who saw his bruised face, Quinn explored. He wasn’t sure why he’d been so worried before about everything. It seemed so small, so insignificant. Quinn could take on anything, including Ben. 

As he thought this, Quinn stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening before he turned on his heels and made his way back through the apartment. After a few minutes he found who he was looking for. Ben. Not caring about who the other male was talking to, Quinn grabbed the brunet’s arm and pulled him aside. “We need to talk.” He demanded.

Ben’s attention moved towards Quinn as he pulled Ben away. Fuck, he hoped he wasn’t going to hit him again. He didn’t want to fight him again. The last thing Ben wanted to do was hurt Quinn even more. He looked up at the other man, studying everything about his demeanor. 

Why did that need to talk? He had nothing to say to Quinn. He had nothing he could actually say to Quinn. “Do you really think that’s a good idea to do here?” He asked, wanting to delay their conversation to another day.

arlovasquez‌:

He smirked at the question, thinking for a moment. “It was a surreal experience seeing the Mona Lisa like that. You know how when you’re high, you see all the little details of things and you get lost in the picture? That happened for about an hour. I stood there and observed every curve and every line. I spent a long time thinking about that little smile she’s showing us. I kept asking myself ‘why is she smirking? What is she hiding,’ ya know?”

“Shit, that’s a perfect idea,” He was mad that he didn’t think about doing that himself. “Did you go at a good hour when people weren’t pushing and shoving?” The Louvre got busy. He would know since he visited a ton of European museums. “Isn’t there something about that painting? An effect or something? She’s probably hiding that she’s seen da Vinci naked?”

chessieabernathy‌:

Chessie knows he’s trying to keep this casual, trying his best to push past the tension between them and have a semi-normal conversation. You could see it from a mile away. “The truth will set you free,” she comments easily, taking another puff of her cigarette. She’s unsure how to reply to him – Ben makes it sound like something mundane happened, as if he forgot King’s birthday or was late to dinner. There was no way for her to respond to his comment properly, she decided. There was no way to string together a sentence that was anything short of her telling him King was justified. “It’s not any different for how you are normally,” she finds herself tease, hoping to keep up the light and airy conversation, rather than get into the gritty details he surely wants to ask about. At the mention of O, Chessie purses her lips into a thin line for a moment, biting the inside of her cheek. “We’ve spoken,” she opens with, “It’s been… complicated. With work.” 

"That’s why I’ve never been a fan of the truth,” He joked. Was it bad or good that they could be joking together? Especially after what had happened. The big elephant in the room, or rather the air, in this case, was still there. He wanted to ask her more but knew it wasn’t his place to do so. He didn’t know her like that. “And that’s why I don’t work.” He acknowledged, “It seems too stressful.” The truth was, Ben didn’t have any skills anyways. “Do you think I’d make a good model? I know Paris pretty well.” He had no idea what being a model consisted of but he was trying to keep their conversation as light as she was. “You know if you ever need to get out of the house or whatever, you’re always welcome to give me a call. I’m usually not busy. And it’ll be a nice break for me too. O’s also pissed at me.” 

oatanas‌:

After having been out of town on a business trip the last two weeks, O was in desperate need of a night off. The crowd of people in her house was less than ideal (she always preferred to be a party goer, rather than a party host) but she tried not to dwell on that. “Just so you’re aware, if you spill that on my white rug I will kill you,” she remarked, topping up the glass of the guest in question, only half joking.

He thought he was a pretty great house guest so far. Ben always took his shoes off when he entered. So when he requested a drink and basically got reprimanded, he wanted to at least give a sassy remark back. That’s what people did around here. However, he knew better. He was just lucky he had a place to stay. “I can hold my liquor, don’t worry,” Alcohol tasted different overseas and felt a lot more strong, “I’ll be willing to act as security for this party if you’d like. Even one glance at this rug, and they’re out of here.” He was only half joking as well. He’d do it to show his gratitude. “How was your trip?” Ben asked, trying to make conversation.