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They were the badest bitch there, hands down.
Sure, the others looked cool, but fuck, he was feeling himself tonight, good lord.
And then, naturally, someone brought out the drinks.
They all sat in a circle, mismatched chairs pulled up from every room in the house; loveseats, gaming chairs, an odd rocking chair, hell, Jack Manifold had been resigned to a dog bed on the floor.
Ranboo had scored a single seat to the right of Aimsey and Guqqie who occupied a loveseat.
"Alright, truth or dare?" Someone suggested.
"What are we, 14?" Bill asked, situated in someone else's lap across the circle from Ranboo.
"Might as well be," Jack said commented from the ground, pulling a few light chuckles from the corners of the living room. He looked at Tommy, the blonde trapped in the ridiculous spiderman costume, "Truth or dare?"
"Dare. I ain't no bitch!"
"Alright, take a jog down the road and scream the whole way."
"Oh, what? Come on, that's so—"
"You can always opt out and take a shot," Jack reminded him, the various bottles and stack of shot glasses sitting atop the little glass table in the centre of the circle an ominous presence.
Tommy sighed, grumbling something about having to get up early in the morning, and pulled himself to his feet.
"Make sure you record it for us!" Scott called as he made his way to the door, struggling to pull up the costume's mask the whole way.
"I will," He agreed begrudgingly. The door shut behind him, those closest to the windows moving for a better view. Everyone held their breath, counting the seconds silently until—
Ah, there it was.
There was a shriek in the road outside, slowly growing quieter as the blonde presumably ran down the tarmac.
There were some giggles around the room as the front door opened again, Tommy reappearing with his phone in one hand as he clawed the mask back off with the other. He dramatically collapsed onto Phil and Kristin's laps on the sofa, bearing his phone to them. Other people gathered around to see the proof as though they hadn't just heard it for themselves. Ranboo didn't move; if they wanted the video, they could always just ask for it another day.
The game continued, Jack downing a shot when asked who his least favourite person in the room was, Guqqie making out with Aimsey after being dared to kiss them, Kristin quietly dirty-talking a furiously blushing Phil, Bill texting his old school crush, Freddie taking a shot after his truth had to be whispered to him by Bill, and—
"Ranboo!" Freddie called after smashing his empty shot glass onto the table, "Truth or dare, buddy?"
"Truth," Ranboo answered, nerves blossoming in his bloodstream.
Freddie hummed, thinking. "Who—or what—was the last thing you fantasized about?"
A couple of 'oohs' flew up around the room, most of everyone having had a couple of shots for the hell of it by this point.
Ranboo felt their face heat up. Damn it, he should have kept his mask on.
He tried weakly to play the innocent card, "Like, as in a sexual fantasy?"
"Yep," Bill replied in place of Freddie with a devilish smirk splayed across his face, popping the 'p' and all.
Ranboo felt his face grow hotter as he moved from his spot, grabbing the bottle of Malibu and a clean shot glass to a smattering of tipsy shouts and jeers. They winced slightly as the coconut flavour slid down their throat.
And so the night progressed, Scott getting Tommy to take his third shot, Tommy requesting that Freddie gift him 20 subs "for compensation", Freddie begging Ranboo to take their shirt fully off, Ranboo asking Phil if he rathered Tommy or Wilbur for a real child (to which the blonde took a shot), and Phil coming back at the now shirtless Ranboo, asking if he'd kissed anybody in the room.
And okay, the honest answer was no. But there was no fun in that, so Ranboo donned a smirk and took two more shots, "One for each of you, you know who you are." A loud murmur of amazement shrouded with shock swarmed the air as he settled back into his seat, laughing at Aimsey's face of bewilderment beside him.
Thirty more minutes passed, and everything had gone sideways. If he was correct, and he was like at least 55% sure that he was, Ranboo was 7 shots in. The room had started to spin and nothing was making any particular sense anymore. Oh, and everything was fucking hilarious.
He sat there staring into space as he progressively found himself more and more slouched in his chair, the biggest lopsided grin atop his face and drunk giggles spilling from his lips at every mundane word he heard. People were looking, but fuck, what was so bad about that?
"You okay, Ran-man?" Jack asked.
Ranboo was essentially lying down but in the chair. "Ran-man!" They echoed between laughter and gasps. Other people were laughing too, but distantly they distantly acknowledged that they were laughing at him, not with him. Oh, screw it. He was drunk, so why did it matter?
It had been ages since Ranboo had gotten properly drunk like this, since he'd still been in school, in fact. Bad memories about a shitty morning and sneaking half of his bottle of "emergency vodka" over lunchtime. His poor friends had had to spend the following period in the chem lab steering his wandering fingers away from the bunsen burner and keeping him upright on the stool. Oh, what a time that had been. He would have been, what, 16 at the time? Mm, memories.
"Ran, I think you've had enough," Aimsey said from their left.
"Nah, man, I'm doing great," they replied, struggling and failing at sitting upright once more. He gave up, sitting on the floor and reaching for the closest bottle to him, a bottle of flavoured gin, nearly knocking it over in the process of unscrewing the lid.
"Mate," Phil's distant call echoed somewhere off to the side, "Stick with the Malibu, okay?"
Ranboo whipped their head around to look at the older man, the whole world tilting dangerously at the movement, "Why?"
"You shouldn't mix your drinks."
Ranboo grinned, "Why?"
"It will make you feel worse."
"Oh." Ranboo considered the dark-coloured liquid. "More drunk?"
"Yes," Phil replied, Ranboo giggling at the fact that he couldn't focus on the man's face.
A heartbeat moment passed. Then, in one not-so-fluid move, Ranboo twisted off the cap, raised the bottle to his lips, and started drinking as fast as he could before someone could stop him.
Oh my god, they thought to themself as shouts of 'no!" erupted around them and an unknown person snatched the bottle away, that tastes so much worse, holy shit.
Ranboo giggled, unable to get back into his chair if he tried. Oh, he was definitely gonna regret this in the morning. They could feel disappointment in the eyes that stared at them, but honestly, they couldn't care; they were drunk again! It had been forever...
After that, Ranboo wasn't too sure what was going on around him. Everything sort of felt like a dream, like there was no way it was actually happening.
Suddenly, Bill was sitting in the chair that had once been his. They gasped, eyes hardly even open as they looked up at the freckled boy, "Oh my gosh, Billzo! I know you!" Ranboo continued to giggle, swaying to lean against Bill's chair. It was, in an odd, drunken way, super cool. He knew this guy! Could you believe that? They just kept on giggling, one arm coming to clumsily snake around the other's leg as he reached down to briefly pat their head.
"Hey man."
Ranboo continued to smile.
And then, just as suddenly as Billzo, Aimsey and Guqqie were by his side, Aimsey in a similar position to Bill and Guqqie standing slightly to the side. Ranboo, of course, gawked at them both in the same way they had Bill; with a gasp, an exclamation, calling their names with a dopey smile and an "I know you guys!" to finish it off. Truly, Ranboo felt like they were in their own little world, and with their friends, no less!
Guqqie was bending down to sit beside him, "Here, drink some water."
"Noooo," Ranboo whined, struggling to stay upright.
"Yesss," Guqqie urged.
"Nuh-uh."
Guqqie sighed and Ranboo felt the previously playful pout he'd word become real in milliseconds. "Sorry," they apologised, reaching out for the cup. They missed the glance his friends shot each other.
"Here, let me help. You're gonna get it all over you if you try and do it yourself," Guqqie instructed, moving to be closer to the taller. Ranboo silently agreed, head lolling back against the side of Aimsey's chair—since when had he even started to lean against Aimsey?
He faded in and out of the present as he was messily fed water, what the rest of the people at the party were now doing was a total mystery. Hell, Ranboo wasn't even sure if everyone was still even in the same room, and he was too drunk to check.
Suddenly, Ranboo was pushing the cup of water away, confused questions he didn't understand pouring over him from Guqqie.
"Gonna throw up," they murmured, mouth filing uncomfortably with spit. They knew they shouldn't swallow it because it would make them want to throw up more, but they couldn't help it. They could feel the carpet beneath them and leaned to their right in an attempt to avoid it as puke the same colour as the gin from earlier came up, burning their throat a second time.
A wave of wow, I feel like shit, washed over him as he lay back against Aimsey's legs, Tommy appearing out of nowhere to clean up his mess with a handful of paper towels. He should be cleaning up, not Tom...
"'M sorry, you guys deserve better," He slurred, suddenly caught in a flurry of sorrow and self-loathing.
"Hey hey hey, stop that," Aimsey consoled him as tears fought their way to his waterline.
"Bu' is true," They protested weakly, the sorry taste of their words and the alcohol more familiar than they'd like to admit. Another exchange of glances between his friends that he missed. No one said anything, or if they did, Ranboo didn't notice.
The next thing he knew, Tommy was trading places with Bill and he was asking questions, trying to... well, Ranboo didn't know what he was trying to do.
"Hey, Ranboo."
And Ranboo had definitely already noticed Tommy, but still, he was Ranboo: there was an unspoken expectation of a role he had to play that shrouded him with its shadow even here, over 5 thousand miles away from his old home.
"Oh my gosh! You're Tommy!" The accompanying giggle felt forced, even to him. He cast his gaze to the floor, "Oh, never mind. I'm not funny." He was drunk, so fuck it; he could say what he pleased, thank you very much.
Ranboo closed his eyes, just for a moment. A blink, if you will. When they unblinked, they were face down on the floor. Huh. Interesting. At least the carpet is soft.
He rolled over, struggling and groaning the whole way. He was met with Bill, still sitting where he had been earlier.
Ranboo was struck with a wave of delirium. Or, upon later inspection, he was definitely already delirious, but seeing Bill just relit the incoherence, it seemed.
"Oh my god, Bill, I want to suck your dick."
Bill looked baffled, even with Ranboo's blurry eyesight. It was kinda funny. They rolled over again, back to sleep.
Next, he was being pulled up against his will by his friends (he thought, but he could very well have been wrong about that one) and taken down a funny little hallway into a funny little room with a funny little bed, giggling nonsensically to himself the whole way.
Upon being pushed into the bed, Ranboo decided that they didn't want to go to sleep, forget how comfy they now were.
"Goodnight, Ran," Aimsey said from the door, flicking off the lights as he went.
What— No! This was sooo not a part of his plan.
"Wait!"
Aimsey opened the door again, peering in.
"Come here?" Ranboo pleaded.
Aimsey sighed and Ranboo was once again overcome with sadness. Was he not good enough?
"Why do you all keep sighing at me? Did I do something? 'M sorry."
Aimsey sat down beside Ranboo, taking their hands in his, "No, no, sweetie. You're fine, okay? You're enough."
And Ranboo had never been good at taking in nice words. They leaned forward, collapsing onto Aimsey as tears dripped down their face to murmurs of "I'm sorry" and "You deserve better". Ranboo fell asleep like that, clinging messily to Aimsey as they sobbed.
The next morning came and Ranboo's first thought was "Fuck me".
He couldn't believe some of the shit he'd said.
They rolled over, somehow in their own bed in their own house despite the fact they did not remember waking up again after crying with Aimsey.
Oh my god, he really said all that stuff. But looking around the room, the mess from getting ready before the party was still littered about like a poisonous reminder.
He got out his phone, stomach churning. Time to write the apologies.
He noticed a new message from Aimsey.
AIMSEY
Hey Ran, I just wanted to wish you a good night and to let you know that I’m always here for you; to talk, to listen, anything. I’m here <3 you truly are an amazing person Ran :) Remember, friends can be family too! Love and hugs, sweet dreams!!
Ranboo groaned. Exactly how much had they really said?