A night to forget (Altair)

[river]

River's day had come from hell. She felt like Satan himself had ascended though the earth's crust just to personally hand her the events of today. There had been no break to process, no moment to breath. By the time she was pushing past people in the streets, the mention of a party really jumped at her. It sounded exactly like what she needed and it was. From the moment she had arrived the night had been filled with shots of hard liquor and pulls from strangers joints. The more time went on the more intoxicated she got and the easier it was for her to talk with people. She forgot her own problems and was able to just relax. The night was young and the party was a good size, no one cared about where you came from or who you were as long as you had contributed a sufficient amount of money to keep the party going.

A group of people were sitting on the ground around a low, square table in the living room. It looked like a nice table and River couldn't help but wonder who's place this was. It wasn't the greatest part of town but this was still someone's home. The guilt started to become a little overwhelming so she took another shot mentally cutting herself off at least for now. She was having fun, she could still function like a normal person, she would remember tonight and she wanted to keep it that way.
Someone sitting around the table had taken out a deck of cards and tipped over the bowl of pretzels. The idea was poker with snack food as chips.
"What happens if we eat our chips?" A younger boy asked popping one in his mouth, he was a lot younger then River but looked like he had only had a beer or two, probably got dragged down to the party by some of his friends. The older boy with the cards laughed "It's up to you I guess. You run out of betting chips you're out so..." His words stopped there and he dealt to everyone at the table. River threw in a few pretzels into the pile in the centre and asked the young boy to watch her cards, he looked trustworthy, not that it mattered. She excused herself to the kitchen where she grabbed a red plastic cup and filled t to the top with tap water. All the drinking, smoking and salty junk food had made her incredibly thirsty.

[ALTAIR SABINA BENNETT]

Altair snapped her fingers, igniting a flame between them. She lit the cigarette in her mouth before shaking her hand out, looking around at the kitchen. She had little to no concern for other people, or the fact that her smoke would stink up the kitchen. They could deal, she figured. It's a party, right? One of the low-key parties she'd gotten used to as of later, as a matter of fact. It could be said that the Fire graduate was settling, calming into a responsible routine. She was twenty now, not a teenager who did stupid shit because she saw no problems with it. Now she did, having a career that she wanted to get better in. She supposed the people who knew her back then would think she'd become a loser, but she bet those people would die before they hit thirty.

Right now, she was mostly focused on the fact that someone had spilled beer on her. She'd hit him, but not as hard as she could have. Even understanding that it had been an accident, she reacted as she saw fit. As she dragged on the cigarette, she dabbed at her shirt with a wet paper towel. She'd only had two beers that night, on a strict diet, much to her disdain. She needed burgers and greasy foods and a goddamn steak once in a while. No, her dietitian said, make sure to eat six times a day, but snack healthy and blah blah blah. She may have been responsible, but she couldn't be that responsible. At least she hadn't been drinking too much that night, just two beers. Empty calories, and she figured that alcohol had betrayed her. How dare it be unhealthy for her.

Upon hearing someone enter, she turned and took the cigarette out of her mouth for a moment, patting down the front of her shirt. "This your party?" she asked, hoping to find whoever it was that had thrown the party. Altair didn't make it a point to know everyone, she didn't have enough tolerance for that kind of thing. "My shirt smells like a pub floor," she muttered, blowing out the smoke as she looked at the girl.

[river]

River was too busy drinking her water to answer the girl who had addressed her at first. She simply shook her head no until the red plastic cup was empty. ”Not my party.” She answered the older girl properly now that her water was done. ”I couldn’t even show you who’s party this is. I over heard about it earlier today by some kids who were planning on coming. I don’t even know the guy.” River carefully got up and walked back to the sink to fill her cup up again. She was trying her best not to look overly drunk in front of the older girl but she wasn’t sure she was having much luck. She returned to her seat and continued drinking but in smaller sips this time.

”I’m River by the way, what happened to you?” She asked motioning to the girl’s shirt. It looked quite wet, as if someone had spilt something on her and she didn’t look very happy about it. River saw the girl smoking and was tempted to ask for one but she didn’t know the girl and figured it was best not to owe people you meet at parties. ”If you’re looking for someone who knows what’s going on the guy dealing cards at the coffee table over there seems to know what’s what.” River pointed out past the entrance to the kitchen at the coffee table covered in pretzels. ”I’m sure you would be welcomed into the game if you want. You may need your own chips though.” River motioned to the half empty bag of barbecue chips that was sitting on the kitchen table and headed out of the kitchen. Weather the girl followed her or not was not important. River had some card games to play.

[ALTAIR SABINA BENNETT]

Altair grunted in response to the other girl's words, proclaiming after she finished sipping from her cup in her hand that she didn't even know whose house they were in. That's mostly how the Fire graduate communicated; grunted words and facial expressions. "Terrific," she said under her breath, not even blaming this girl for the fact she wasn't the host. The brunette seemed pretty cool. A significant fact, when one took into account she generally didn't like brunettes. More accurately, she didn't like anyone.

She introduced herself, and for once the Fire graduate decided to hold her tongue against saying something about her name. "Altair," she responded, distracted as she continued to pull at her shirt. "Some asshole with a beer happened." Giving up on scrubbing the stain out, Altair threw the sopping paper towel out and looked back to the other girl, dragging on the cigarette in her mouth. She really needed to stop, but she knew if she tried to quit, she'd start packing on the pounds. She'd tried it once, and that hadn't gone over well at all with the job she had.

She listened to River go on about a game and watched her walk out. Following after, she reached down and pulled her shirt over her head, dangling it on her video. "Either I need a washer or I need a shirt, or I'll play shirtless?" She was fine with even the latter, not that she minded much. Demure had never been her style.

[river]

River nodded at the girls name. It was a unique one that she wasn’t likely to forget. River couldn’t help but feel bad for the older girl and her shirt. Even though she had no part of spilling the drink it was just the kind of person she was. River sat there for a few moments wishing she could help but eventually giving up with a sigh when she realised she couldn’t. ”Shit, I’m really sorry about that. It sucks.” Things get messy at parties, it happens and River knew that all too well.

With Altair’s words the older guy who was running the games laughed. ”The washer is downstairs. Till then you could always go shirtless” The boy winked at her and offered to take her shirt. From the ground River was looking at the party. The biggest thing she noticed was an argument by the sound system. Some people were arguing over the type of music they were playing. It was creating quite a disturbance but River just closed her eyes as the world spun around her. She felt like she was flying through the room. Trying to ignore the argument behind them she picked up her cards. ”So who’s turn is it?” She said eating one of the pretzels.

[ALTAIR SABINA BENNETT]

Altair rolled her eyes when the girl said that it sucks. "No, it's wonderful actually," she responded dryly. She didn't have much patience for people who pointed out the obvious. Well duh, it sucks. Altair knew that it was just because she was aggravated that she felt the need to take it out on innocent people, but honestly, what did you expect? This was ex-Fire leader and bitch extraordinaire Altair Bennett.

Altair lifted her eyebrows as the boy winked at her when saying she could go shirtless. Who in the hell winked anymore, that a creepy old sailor thing. River asked about whose turn it was and Altair said, "This...is so boring. Aren't you guys bored?" she questioned. Sitting around and playing cards with food? What kind of shit was that? No, the Fire girl always wanted something more.

"How about hitting up town?" She looked over at River, seeing how she would feel about that. First Altair would need a shirt, of course, but she had grown tired of the humdrum. She lived on adrenaline and activity, it's what she needed most in the world.

[river]

River rolled her eyes right back at the girl. She was too messed up right now to have any sense of what may be a bad idea. Normally she would never think to do such a rude gesture to someone, but right now there was no thinking, just doing. Before the game could start the girl spoke up again. The problem isn’t the game, it’s that you’re too sober to enjoy it river thought somehow managing to not say it out loud. She munched on her pretzels not really paying attention to what was going on until she was directly asked a question. River thought about it for a moment. No this is a horrible idea! I’m absolutely smashed I could barely get up from the kitchen table to get more water. What if I puke or pass out? What if I do something stupid like get my nipple pierced She shuddered at the thought, then got a blank stare on her face. What was I thinking about again? Oh! Right going outside! “Sure” The word carelessly fell out of her mouth and was followed by a smile.

River managed to get up alright “You might want to get a shirt though.” She suggested with no good ideas of where to get one. She went into the kitchen to grab another cup of water before going, leaving the sober girl to figure out her own shirt problem. She found her jacket and a bottle of water in the fridge. She also found one of those snack sized bags of cheetos that she shoved in her jacket pocket for later. She also felt her cell and lighter were still in her pocket. Relieved that she didn’t lose them, River went back out to the main room. “So where do you want to go?” She asked with an open mind and a sense of adventure.

[ALTAIR SABINA BENNETT]

God, this chick was trashed. Probably wouldn't remember anything of this night, though she'd found some people who rarely suffered from side effects of whatever they were doing. While she could sometimes avoid a hangover, being free of the dreaded next day disgustfest was oftentimes inevitable. However, she was young, and young people had it great. She'd prefer not to think of the age when hangovers meant being completely impaired.

By this point, a shirt was inconsequential. Ugh. She still had yet to come up with a logical reason as to why they were necessary in society. Of course, then she thought of how much she enjoyed looking good in them, and that battled was settled in her mind. She went up to one of the rooms, rooting around without any care of whose house she was in, and pulled out a clean shirt. She didn't know whether it was a man or woman's tee, but she pulled it on over herself and sniffed it just to make sure.

When River returned as well, Altair flipped her hair out of the neck of the shirt she'd just pulled on and didn't have to think about it. "There's a place downtown that's pretty wicked, it's a dive bar. Great food." She wondered if her companion had the munchies, and smiled as she took her jacket from the closet she had put it in and pulled her keys out.

The dive bar she mentioned was bumping that night, but she walked up to the bouncer, flirted a little, and he let the girls in. "What do you want?" she asked, holding out her hand for money as she approached the bar, speaking above the music. She wasn't about to stop someone already wasted from getting even more wasted. She needed to get to that point herself; she wasn't going to make it through this night on a simple buzz.