-- OUR UNGODLY HOUR [Mona]

Mona enjoyed getting out the house. That was her number one problem, as Pearl pointed out to her while she got dressed in their room. The younger sister glared daggers as she pulled up her tights, the older flipped through a magazine as she reclined against her pillows. "Going to a party?" Pearl asked, clicking her gum against the roof of her mouth. Mona resisted rolling her eyes before replying, "Maybe." She knew what this was going to turn into, some patronizing lecture that let Mona know that everything she did was wrong and she was a hypocrite and all the bullshit her elder liked to spew from her mouth. "Ma would probably like it if you stayed home."

Mona pulled on her shirt, long enough to go over her tights and embedded with silver rhinestones. "She'll be fine one night. She has you." The last word was full of venom, the bitterness and jealousy there. Where did Pearl get off talking about how their mother needed her, when she spent most of her time telling Mona that she was never there for the woman like she should be. She was the hypocritical one. Ma doesn't like me as much as you, she thought, the thought twisting her stomach. It was normal for a mother to form a closer bond with certain children, and the eldest daughter was a reasonable choice. It still hurt Mona whenever she thought about it, and whenever Pearl held it over her head. She thought she owned the world because their mother confided everything in her. She would be the one to take care of them after the inevitable.

Finishing her makeup, Mona gave her sister a last look before leaving their room, saying, "Don't wait up for me," it a less-than-pleasant tone. She walked away before she could hear anything in return, not wanting to argue tonight. It would be a good night, she'd decided, she would be spending it with Adam. She'd heard about the party, and she didn't know how many people she would recognize there since it was an older student. And Adam had asked her before about what she was doing, and she figured she would ask him to come along. Her best friend was the best company to keep in times like these, after all. Even though she had been an incredible bitch to him, and couldn't help regret it. Pearl was right, she was a little brat.

The party had been barely under way when she arrived, and she wondered if she should have been fashionably late to avoid the awkward first arrival group. To ease the boredom, she found the cooler and pulled out a can of beer, one of those acquired taste drinks she had yet to acquire a taste for. She wondered if people actually drank the stuff for the taste, because she expected it to be solely for the sake of getting drunk. Like she was doing now. She figured Max might be around, though she hadn't spoken to him all day because he was hanging out with his friends, and she didn't want to look for him, instead choosing to wait for Adam.

The early-arrival awkwardness was also relieved by a hot guy who she found, a smile finding a way to her lips as she approached him. She normally wasn't a sociable person, but this was a possible lay and alcohol sure helped with her attitude. She blinked when she felt an arm around her, turning and then actually grinning when she saw Adam. The other guy's presence was forgotten as she threw her arm around his shoulders and said, "Yo, A. About time. Did the rents chew you out or something?" It was spoken with her usual wry tone of voice, but there was interest in her eyes proving that she actually cared. "Yeah, I was thinking about throwing myself from a roof until you arrived! So fashionably late. Nice shirt." She poked his chest with a finger, her hand holding the can.

She looked back over at the guy, who seemed suspicious that Adam had called her 'babe'. God, not even two minutes and you're already killing my vibe. She wasn't too teed off. "I was here with the first five arrivals. Thanks for making me endure that, by the way. Never have I ever is now my favorite game." It was spoken with sarcasm. She was only on one beer, but was already pleasantly buzzed. Her body didn't last long with the alcohol. Blowing a kiss to Hot Guy with a promise to find him again, she steered Adam away with her arm still around his neck. She would rather spend some time with her best friend than some dude, even though he did get her going. "You need something to drink. I'm not allowing you to be sober tonight." No one should drink alone, and she wasn't going to have a sober friend while she was trashed. Not happening.

Mona snorted, knowing exactly what it was like. Any teenager knew what it was like. Hell, she could be a perfect daughter, shiny and clean who didn't go to any parties, and she'd still get in trouble for all the little things. Queenie still disciplined her children harshly as ever. "Well I really hope you picked up that towel. I mean, because then it's that whole moldy smell, and euhh. It's not appealing." Maybe it was just a little bit of her neurotic, clean freak side shining through. She did her chores quietly and without complaint, and she was the one to boss everyone else around and make them do the same thing. Especially now that they really needed to help around the house. It's gotten worse than ever, though, but she supposed that's what you got for leaving maintenance to a bunch of teenagers.

In all seriousness, Mona did miss him, just not so much she'd fling herself to a tragic, Shakespearean death. She didn't know what she would do without him, and even though she'd been distancing herself from everyone, she realized that she would be more lost than ever without her best friend. "Do you have any nice clothes?" she asked quizzically. "Because stealing from the bro is not cool." Okay, yes, she did steal from her mother and her big sister, and when the old enough was young enough, she'd steal from everyone else. And she stole from her brothers, too, so it was more or less like they had a communal wardrobe. And if you did the laundry, you got rights to everything.

Mona did not have any problem with pretending to throttle him with the arm around his neck when he replied with his own sarcasm. "You are just so funny," she said, releasing the tightness of her grip. At least they could both understand sarcasm. She could think of a few people who would have taken them both seriously with their tones. Adam didn't seem to enthusiastic about getting completely faded and losing his mind like she planned to do. "Don't just do it for me, do it so that everyone can look to you as the awesome dude who knows how to party." She nodded her head once. It was clear that she was already tipsy, but that wasn't hard to figure out. She watched as he got a beer out of the cooler, shaking her own can and feeling what was left in it. "Maybe," she told him when he predicted she'd get wasted before him. "I already got a head start. You're slacking." Of course, he was late. But that just made it easier to make fun of him. "And remember, you're not really drunk until you're in your underwear, telling everyone to get their camera out so they can film you jumping from a roof into the pool." Everything seemed like a great idea when here were no limits left for you.

Mona rolled her eyes at the boy's expression. Even if she tried to act grown up, she was still a child at heart and could still be pushed to childish urges like wanting to give him a noogie. "It is a terrible thing, no mocking." When living in a house with six other people, it turned bad. Everything did, especially the simple act of getting into the bathroom in the morning. Full on brawls have been held on more than one occasion in the race to the bathroom. They needed to keep that clean with how much traffic it experienced. "Mmm. Let's put you on a deserted island, then, see how well you survive." There was more than picking up towels on an isolated island to be worried about. Of course, the towel would probably be your blanket as well, or she might have just been putting too much thought into the hypothetical scenario.

If Adam did go around wearing ripped clothes and poorly fitted garments she would have made it known that he needed to go shopping. She was brutally honest, though with Adam it would have been out of the kindness of her heart. She had some decency in her. And she wouldn't want her best friend to be walking around like some slob. "Well, until I see you in a tux, I guess I'll have to take your word for it." She trailed a finger down her cheek, miming a tear. "Poor Adam doesn't have shirts that fit him. Maybe you should shop Gucci when you get some new threads." He was lucky she resisted a joke about letting him borrow one of her baby sister's shirts. She wasn't that cruel as to suggest that he was girly. Because he definitely wasn't, as his flirting proved. And she had never seen him flirt with a guy, so she was pretty certain he was as straight as they came.

Of course he had a comeback for what she said, and Mona only rolled her head back, groaning. "Did you hear that? It was the sound of my sides tearing from laughter." Ouch, right? He was just too funny for his own good. Mona figured that her friend may have been a little more accustomed to alcohol than she thought him to be when he took a gulp of his beer quite easily. She felt a little proud of him. And now they could be like the upperclassman, able to hold their liquor and party like the best of them. Only the night could tell, though, how well she'd be holding her liquor. She had some experience with her head in the toilet after a night of drinking. It wasn't fun. "It's so fucking on," she said as she downed the rest of her beer in one huge gulp, taking another one out of the color before throwing the empty can in a black trash bag on the floor. Now it was a full-blown competition for her.

Maybe she should just not talk about underwear with him. Or anything that could be misconstrued. But what couldn't be transformed into something dirty in the filter of his mind? She didn't care much. "It is a very strong possibility. Only if I'm wearing good panties." She had actually forgotten what underwear she was wearing, and lifted her shirt, tugging at her tights to find out. "Yup, we're good." It would not have been as strong a possibility were she wearing period panties. No one wanted to see that. She finished off the can, and handed it to Adam when he questioned her. He didn't seem to be slacking anymore, she supposed. "Hit me with another one and I'll play my favorite game with you." 'Never have I ever' would be an interesting game with her best friend, because she was sure she didn't know everything about him.

Mona scrunched her nose up as Adam showed off his muscles for her. She used her forefinger and thumb to squeeze his bicep and then sighed. ”If only it took just muscle to survive in the real world.” She clicked her tongue, far too grave to be taken seriously. He was nicely toned though, so thumbs up for that. Lately there had been a lack of exercise in her life, and a lack of eating, and a lack of most things to keep her healthy but she maintained the illusion that she had it under control.

For some strange reason, Adam's arrogance was incredibly endearing. It was either her finding him hilarious or the booze. She didn't know which one yet. And it was making her wonder how he would look in a tuxedo. Mona squinted her eyes as if invisioning it in her head, but she couldn't quite capture it. ”Or maybe because you'd be that weird guy who is wearing a tuxedo for no reason,” she responded when he told her why he didn't wear his tuxedo much. It would be weird if he had a tux. She saw no reason in owning one, it was something rented like apartments or bowling shoes. The Thunder nodded slowly at the line of only having the highest of fashion grace his body. ”Really, I just sheer alpacas and use their fur to make sweaters. But you know, whatever floats your boat.” Mona didn't get top of the line. She made due, with everything. But she didn't need expensive clothes for them to look nice. Though admittedly, she didn't look nice half the time. Her style was best described as 'grunge'. Mona might have considered it a compliment.

At his listening motion with extra showmanship, she kind of wanted to punch him. In the affection, you're-being-obnoxious way. With admittedly, a little less affection than usual. She loved the kid, seriously, but he did get too much to handle sometimes. She handled four brothers, so he felt equipped to deal with another boy in her life that was full of himself. Though the flirting was something that she had been introduced to in the real world, and she felt that she had high school to thank for that. ”I think I'm gon punch you some time tonight,” she said, as monotone as an answering machine. She did have that watery, glittering look in her eyes, the sign that she wasn't completely in her mind at the moment. Surprisingly, she hadn't been one of the kids who'd gotten into the 'party scene' in middle school. There was a time she was responsible. ”And remember, your day is never complete without me in it.” She had her own cockiness, though it was feigned in this situation. Still, she was incredibly confident. With Adam's snappy little comeback, she used the hand holding the beer and pretended to look like she was cranking a jack in the box next to her other hand as her middle finger slowly rose up.

Often she forgot that this was her male best friend that she was around, as comfortable as she was with him. She treated him as she did her girlfriends, suffice to say she didn't need to tell him that. A little less talk about Aunt Flo, but still. ”Only awkward because you made it awkward,” she remarked, and even then she didn't take notice of where his thoughts may have gone. ”I have more subtle methods. Like complimenting. Everyone likes compliments.” That's what flirting was, fawning over a guy's hair or muscles or whatever the looked like they put great effort into. It all worked toward one purpose for her. She caught on quick. Too quick. Shamefully quick, as a matter of fact. She took the can from Adam and popped it open, by now the taste not even recognized. However, she wouldn't be surprised if he'd be able to catch up with her. ”Never have I ever,” she explained. ”You take a drink whenever you've done one the things. For example, never have I ever gave anyone a reach around.” She gulped down some of the beer and waited for Adam to give his own example.

Mona snorted at her friend's comment about brain and muscle and hey, she at least thought he was pretty smart. Most of the time. She had no reason to think he was dumb, actually, so until he gave her evidence she'd just assume he had it together up there. "You'll be the first to die in a horror movie. I'd be next, considering I'm the attractive blond." That's just how those movies worked. Even though they all knew the black guy went first. It definitely took brains to survive when a madman was after you, but unfortunately most teenagers filmed never seemed to have that. It made sense. What fun would a slasher film be to watch if no one died? That's what it was all about. "Really?" she responded to Adam's defiant attitude about the appropriate time to wear a tux. Then I can expect you to be wearing one on Monday. Unless you're chicken." She even made the chicken noises for emphasis. Though it wasn't the best way to convince someone to wear a tux. She laughed at his words, saying, "Bitches also love a guy who can on occasion, dress down. I do have to give it to you, most dudes dress like schlubs." Then again, a guy who dressed nicely all the time was called a douche bag. Poor men couldn't win. In any case, she liked tuxes because he was right, women dug fanciness. Suits were just the epitome of the sexy guy.

The girl shook her head. "Dude, do you even know how much they cost? Have you ever heard of a sheep farm? No. But alpaca farms are all the rage. Llamas, though, you might have something there..." This was ridiculous, but she was pretty much drunk. Hell, the conversation would still be had if she was completely sober because now she was wondering about the price of furry animals and considering that maybe squirrels would be good enough. Or her sugar glider. When he touched his cheek, it took all self-control not to roll her eyes and punch him just because she could. "Don't worry, I won't. I know that really is your moneymaker because it's the only thing you've got going for you. Oh snap." She totally burned him, damn she was proud. Okay, so she wasn't serious, but still she had to give herself props for that. A pat on the back. Mona shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "And you'd go through withdrawals, you know. Just get the shakes all the time." Because she was just like a drug, but what would she know without firsthand experience? Watching Intervention was all she had to go off of.

Raising her eyebrow at him, she said, "Oh, so I suppose you don't like people applauding you when you do something awesome. You're too cool for compliments, right?" Her tone was about as jocular as she got lately, but she wasn't so deprived of humor that she still couldn't joke. Even still, she liked compliments and she'd always been sure of herself. Not as much lately, but well, there you have it. Her immediate reaction was to take a drink, but after she practically sputtered and said, "Hey wait, does that mean you totally made out with a dude? Because you were in the dude's bathroom? Haha." She figured that he wouldn't be so confident that he'd respond poorly to some ball busting. Mona felt like this would eventually turn into an exasperating game for her, which was why she'd grown to despise it. and yet here she'd offered it up, go figure. she was a masochist. She followed him and thought of her next question. "Never have I ever sneaked into a club." She didn't take a drink, because it was one of the few things she had experienced. It was unfortunate, looking young even for a fourteen-year-old. It was the baby face.

Mona thought about it. Yeah, he was a dick about half the time. When he wasn't being a dick, he was being a pervert. But she didn't like to paint her friends in cardboard boxes like that. He had more going for him than being the dude who dies too early in a horror movie. "I've actually never seen that tactic used before," she told him. Maybe she just needed to watch a few more films to see the asshole using people as human shields in the face of a slasher. At least she had a strong enough stomach for watching people get sliced in half. She blinked when Adam pointed at her, declaring that the tux was happening. Her lips turned up in a wolfish grinned. "You for real? Hehe, all right." She had a smart phone and she was going to make the best of it by filming him. "You're just lucky the academy doesn't have any lockers that you can be pushed into." He was making himself a target, clearly, especially by upperclassman. They were on the bottom of the food chain and half the school was determined to remind them of that every day.

She wore a feigned impatient look as her friend claimed that there were in fact sheep farms. "Okay, there are sheep on farms," she argued, "but no farms specifically for sheep." Of course, Mona was probably wrong but she didn't know and once she claimed something she stuck stubbornly by it. Nobody wanted to be proven wrong. When he claimed that she must have been hot shit, she went ahead and brushed a shoulder off like the pimp she was. The girl liked to think of herself as rather witty, but alcohol helped boost everything, including self-image. Not like she hated herself anything before, she was quite confident, but now she was the kind of the entire world. "Say something else and your face won't be a moneymaker anymore after I beat the shit out of it." In her mind, she had thought something punny along the lines of him being a Fire and verbally burning her, and it almost made her giggle but she had enough self-restraint that she simply smiled to herself. It was astounding how they could go back and forth between pretending to love and hate each other without a hitch. She patted a hand to her chest when he tilted his head up. "Oh you poor thing, I can't imagine what it was like without me." Because hey, she was her. And that thought was something that actually did made her giggle, even though she tried to hide it.

She pretended to be skeptical of him as he said that he didn't need them, but she believed him. He inflated his own ego, as he'd proven, and there was nothing wrong with that. Self-confidence was awesome. She lifted an eyebrow at him though when he mentioned her "interest". "There's never a problem with just one night," Mona said, a sly grin on her fact that was pretty inappropriate but seeing as she wasn't very appropriate in the first place, there was nothing odd there. She nodded as he tipped his head back and forth, telling him, "Damn straight, I'm the most hilarious bitch here." Quite possibly, considering she didn't pay much attention to who else was there. It was just her and Adam right now, and she'd get back to lover dude later in the night. And this game was now turning into a game of finding out more about Adam, and silently she decided that one time they would have to sneak into a club for the hell of it. She rolled her eyes as she said, "Oh come on," realizing she was losing. She took a drink, remembering Maddie, and then sighed, thinking. "Never have I ever had sex on a stranger's bed." To which she took a drink and she was running out now because she decided that she would keep taking the biggest gulps she could. Because she definitely needed to be more drunk than she was at that moment.

Clearly, Adam did have a lot of confidence. Good for him, she supposed it was a wonderful thing to be able to wear a tux without any concern of being pushed into a wall. She liked to avoid embarrassment as much as possible, but then again she might have been more easy to embarrass than him. Not to say that it was actually easy to embarrass her, she just had some things she knew she didn't like about herself. "Yep, that's gotta be it. It totally wouldn't be because you'd look like an out of place penguin and therefore an easy target." All this talk of bitches made her wonder just how many bitches he actually got. It was a good question, actually, but she didn't think she could easily bring that up without sounding like a perv. He was the one holding the perv status, here. The topic of sheep farms, however, was one very innocent and very out of place when at a party. "Fine, google it. Twenty bucks to whoever's right." She didn't worry about having twenty bucks, because she was convinced she was right. That was her brand of confidence, the stubborn kind that wouldn't allow her to admit any wrong even when she realized that she was very very far from right.

Mona wore a cocky expression as he waved his arms around, lips pursed and eyes on him like she was seriously debating just clocking him. "Not scared of me, hmm?" she said coolly, as if she were going to back down and admit that no, she couldn't be scary. "All right then. I'll tell you this. I'm going to hit you some time tonight, but I'm not going to tell you when." She was serious about this. Hell, it may be the worst thing you could do to a friend, but he was asking for it with his arrogance. And she wasn't going to let him think that she was just going to shrug and let him think that she wasn't going to punch him when she said so. She was just going to let the Fire kid live in fear. "Maybe you need a patch for me. It'll feed you endorphins whenever I'm not around, so you won't have such bad withdrawal symptoms." Well, heroin addicts did not have a patch, but people trying to quite smoking did and that was what she was thinking of. Clearly, she was as addictive as anything unhealthy for Adam.

At that moment, Mona actually wondered how much to say. For once she considered that maybe a filter would be a good idea so that Adam didn't think any worse of her than he might have already. That's what she was worried about. She did care about her friends even though she never ever said it or made it seem that way. She just seemed exceptionally uncaring. "I've never actually dated anyone, so I don't know how that would go down. Just for fun is easier, I s'pose." This was the truth, seeing as she was still young and her mother still had the rule against dating. Mona wondered when that would be lifted, and with a sinking feeling realized it may never be, at least not by Queenie. She was glad Adam didn't hit her or something for making fun of him like that, because what was a friendship without ball busting? For her, it was a sign of closeness to openly mock someone. It meant she cared in her own Mona way.

She snorted when he told her that he only had sex in his own bed. "What about convenience? You seriously gonna bring a girl back home after meeting her in a party just to fuck her? You can just find a bathroom or something." Mona recalled their conversation about romance before, and she believed that the bathroom was right up there with the woods. At least woods had ambiance. The bathroom just had toilet paper. She looked at the can when he pointed at it, "Think I need to sit down or something, but sure. Meet me over yonder with another beer, hun." She finished off the can before waltzing over to the couch and waiting while he got more. Stupid game, and stupid spinning walls. She didn't like when they did that, so she focused up at the ceiling as she reclined against the back of the couch, listening to the thumping of the music.