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There's a guy, wearing about a hundred or some odd number of feathers on his arms that stretches all the way across his back. Lloyd isn't sure if he glued them straight onto his skin, but the way he keeps screeching about being some half-bird/half-man mutant (even before he started drinking), Lloyd’s starting to think a bad glue reaction is the least of his concerns.
He's been sitting at the steps of the porch babysitting watching the guy for a while now. At first, it was mostly just for the needed distraction from the sweaty crowd and loud music coming from inside the house, but now he feels like he has to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.
Lloyd sighs tiredly. He wasn’t even supposed to be here. He hates parties. The only reason why he's here and not comfortable and warm at home was because his mom had insisted he should “go out and enjoy Halloween night out while he's still young." She’d said, smiling broadly after Jay had opened his big fat mouth and mentioned Kai and Nya were hosting a Halloween party after school.
Maybe Halloween had been enjoyable while under the age twelve, but now? With every decision having to directly correlate to his (practically nonexistent) social standing and dealing with his father's stupid attacks every other day, he'd really much rather stay at home, gorge out on the candy bowl, and ice his still sore injuries from yesterday’s fight. He'd even prefer watching Harumi's awful D-listed horror movies over this.
It only took less than a few minutes of dirty looks from his classmates, hot, stagnant air, and loud annoying remixes of the Monster Mash for him to wish he was back at home. By the fifth stranger roughly shoving Lloyd, he had already started making his way to the front door to leave.
He was still debating if he should go back home – drunk bird-guy or not – Kai would probably put up a whole fuss about it tomorrow, but he’d get over it.
"Wow." A slow drawl comes behind him. The porch creaks as the voice comes closer. "How long you think that guy has until he tires himself out?"
Lloyd, being entirely unused to people trying to start conversations with him, startles at the sound of the voice. He looks behind him to find a boy that had just as many piercings on his face as he did moles. Lloyd didn’t even hear him come out of the house.
He doesn't even have a costume on.
…Unless his costume was looking like a punk kid with heavily DIY'ed spiked clothes.
"What?" He looks around the empty porch. "Are you talking to me?"
The boy looks away from the drunken spectacle out on the lawn and snorts when they make eye contact.
"No, I'm talking to my imaginary friend, George.” He shakes his head, then mutters under his breath. Lloyd nearly doesn’t hear it. “And here I thought cute blonds being slow was supposed to be a stereotype."
It takes Lloyd a hot second before he realizes this guy just called him cute. Blood rushes straight to his ears as the guy plops himself down right next to him on the stairs. Lloyd stares at him incredulously and leans away when the smell of smoke and weed hits his nose. He doesn't seem to care for Lloyd's interest in personal space because he smacks the back of his hand against Lloyd's arm.
He grins at Lloyd as if he isn't talking to the quote unquote ‘second-worst-guy-in-Ninjago-City.’ "Bet you he'll knock himself out by running straight into the tree."
Lloyd, still recovering, belatedly looks back at the bird-guy, who does in-fact look ready to run headfirst into the tree. He seems to get the idea to pre-game by stretching his haunches out first.
In another time he’d be calling out to the guy to tell him that's a terrible idea and it's probably time to head back home – but he can't help but say the only thing on his mind as he glances back at the stranger.
“Sorry, uh-” Lloyd struggles for words for a moment. “Who are you?”
He smiles, and again Lloyd feels entirely out of his element. Another motion - and Lloyd is faced by finger-less gloves and chipped black and green nail polish reaching out towards him. Lloyd stares at it before his mind catches up.
A handshake.
Despite the awkward position, he returns the surprisingly firm handshake.
“Name's Brad.” He says with an easy smile. He pulls Lloyd closer to lean in and whisper: “Don't tell anyone but I wasn't really invited.”
He retreats back, pulling his hand away to rest them on his knees as he stretches his long legs out. Lloyd still feels the imprint of Brad's hand in his. He crosses his arms, clenching and rubbing the fabric of his last-minute costume in the same hand to get rid of the strange feeling. “I just came here cuz of my friend. She’s always dragging me out to these things.” He shakes his head, rolling his eyes. “All the crappy music with people getting fucked up and trying to eat each other's faces. Not really my kinda scene, y’know?”
“I feel you there.” Lloyd sighs. He glances back at Birdman out in the lawn then back at Brad. He clears his throat. “I'm guessing that's not your friend out there?”
Brad barks a laugh. “Yeah, I wish I was friends with a guy that cool.” He rolls his eyes and leans back casually, planting the palms of his hands behind him. “What about you? Got nothing better to do than sitting out here moping?”
“I’m not moping –” Lloyd starts but is cut off from a snort. A corner of Brad’s lips curls up into a smirk.
“Hey, it’s okay, man. I came out here to do the same thing.” Then his eyes light up as he straightens up to pat down his leather jacket as if he just remembered something. “Except –” he pulls out a small tin container and a lighter from a pocket. “I was gonna get high while doing it.”
Lloyd stares at Brad’s dazzling smile and wonders if ‘enjoying his youth’ meant getting secondhand from a stranger.
“Wait…” Brad’s face dampens, he looks apologetic as he continues. “You’re not allergic or anything right? You mind if I…?”
Lloyd blinks, surprised he even thought to ask. “Go ahead.”
Brad smiles again and he pops open the top of his container to pull out a joint. Lloyd watches him tuck it in between his lips, a broad hand cups over it to block the breeze as his lighter sparks to life and lights the end of it. His cheeks hollow a bit as he sucks it in and Lloyd can’t tear his eyes away even after smoke comes blowing out from his lips.
Brad’s half-lidded eyes stay on the man out on the lawn. “You go to Ninjago Highschool, right?”
Lloyd tries to shake it off, forcing himself to look at his dirty sneakers instead. He nods. “That’s the one.”
“Cool.” Brad says lightly. “’m supposed to transfer in a couple days. Maybe we’ll be classmates or something.”
It knocks Lloyd off beat again, he looks back up at Brad, unable to think of something to say. He’s so casual about it, suggesting it like he’d be fine with hanging out in school, almost like – like he doesn’t know who Lloyd is.
And suddenly, this whole interaction makes a lot more sense.
There's no way in hell anyone would ever be willing to sit down and chat with him, God, Lloyd knew this already. With all his failed attempts at making friends and all the cruel pranks pulled on him every day.
Oh man… Brad even called him cute earlier.
Lloyd never said his name before because he didn’t think he had to really. His face has been plastered on the news before from stupid theories about the reasons behind his dad’s attacks to vandalized photos of him printed out throughout school in an attempt to bully him out. There’s more than a handful of businesses he's never even heard of where he’s been on the top of the ‘deny service to’ list.
“Oh – fuck.” Brad's eyes widen as he suddenly breaks into a coughing fit. He hacks smoke out his lungs, struggling for a moment and thumping his chest with a fist. His voice is strained with another cough that threatens to come out when he squints at Lloyd. “Dude… I never even offered you any.” His hand extends over the gap between them, his fingers pinch the roll delicately despite his struggle to breathe.
Lloyd stares at the thing in his hands. It’s not like he’s never gotten high before. He’s been friends with Cole long enough that it’s nearly impossible to go a day without an offer of skipping class to get high behind the bleachers. Sure, he tries to stay relatively straight for his ninja duties but… you can only go so far without needing the occasional break.
But that’s always been with people he knows. Trusts. He barely just met this guy… But… Brad has been pretty nice so far, even if he thinks he talking to someone who’s not the son of a raging terrorist.
Oh, fuck it.
Lloyd’s been sick of this party the second he arrived. He might as well try to make the best of it with the one guy that actually seems kind of cool. Seriously, what does he have to lose?
He bites his lip and takes the blunt. He’s about to put it up to his mouth until Brad puts a warm hand over his arm. Lloyd looks up at him in confusion.
Brad raises an eyebrow. “Hey, I’m not like forcing you or anything. If you don’t wanna, you don’t have to.”
Oh.
Lloyd shakes his head. “I do want to – sorry. Just a little lost in thought, I guess.”
He’s a little unused to the burn of smoke going down his throat. He tries not to cough as he breathes it in. He’s exhaling the smoke out when Brad speaks again.
“Dude, did you see that guy with the shitty Peter Griffin costume? When I walked in, I swear to god, he was eating this whole block of cheese. I'm not joking.”
Lloyd ends up coughing, despite his best efforts. As he’s sputtering the rest of the smoke out of his lungs, he's returning the roll back, even if a little pathetically. “ Huh?”
Brad turns to him, plucking the blunt off his fingers. “He was holding it like an apple and taking whole bites of it. It was insane man.” He takes another puff before handing Lloyd back the blunt.
He raises an eyebrow at Brad. “You sound jealous.”
Brad's snorts, his eyebrows scrunching together. “And you’re not?”
When Lloyd left the house, he hadn’t expected all… this. He had already put it in his brain that he’d stay sober the whole night and kill the hours away by staring at his phone. He certainly hadn't expected to get high with some guy he just met. Some guy that’s sorta funny and likes Starfarer. And it’s… pretty nice actually. By the time the blunt burns out into a little nub, his cheeks start to feel sore from laughing so much. He rubs at them idly while nodding along to a story about Brad’s classmate from his last school. It goes on like that for a while, with the two of them exchanging stories about their friends and classmates and talking about comics and movies and TV shows. By the time there’s a lull in their conversation; the sun has started to set, turning the sky into a golden orange.
He hasn’t felt this relaxed and carefree for a while. He can’t even remember the last time he watched the sunset with someone. His chest feels a little bubbly and strange. It’s not an unpleasant feeling at all but it's a weird sort of nervousness he’s never felt before. He chews the inside of his lip.
Lloyd can feel the weight of Brad eyes on him, so he looks back at him. The sunlight has turned his black hair into a deep warm orange color. It ruffles gently against the autumn breeze. Lloyd tucks a piece of his own hair behind his ear when it blows in front of his eyes.
“Y’know,” Brad starts, his dark eyes seem to search Lloyd’s face. “I don’t really get why everyone says yo-”
“Brad!”
Lloyd must really be losing his touch or something, because he startles easily again. He quickly leans away from Brad, swallowing down the heart beating in his throat. A bride covered in fake blood steps out of the doorway. She doesn’t pay any attention to Lloyd, instead barreling straight for Brad. She grabs him by the shoulders, pulling him up to clumsy feet and shaking him.
“Where the hell have you been?! I’ve been flipping tables over, looking in closets, asking everybody if they’ve seen you around!” Her nostrils flare open as she sucks in a deep inhale. “And you smell like WEED?” She lets go of him to put her hands on her hips. “Explain. Why you’re smoking the devil’s lettuce without me.”
Brad laughs, he shrugs languidly. “Chill, Sal. You were obviously busy talking to all your friends. What am I supposed to do? Wait for you to finish like I’m your dog?”
“No…” She sighs. “I guess you’re right. Sorry. I did kinda ditch you back there.”
“Yeah. It’s chill though, you won’t believe who I made friends with – “ Brad takes a step aside, revealing how Lloyd’s been watching the two of them the entire time.
Maybe it’s the weed, or seeing how casual Brad is about it, but Lloyd manages to not grimace and instead offers a weak smile and a (hopefully) not awkward wave.
“Um. Hi.”
And… there it is
It’s the reaction Lloyd was expecting from Brad but never got. Until now.
Unlike Brad’s reaction with his ever-present carefree grin, his friend’s face morphs into one of wide-eyed horror. Her eyes turn as wide as saucers before her jaw drops, Brad is none the wiser to it all as he speaks again. “Sooo, this is my friend, Sally. Dunno if you’ve met her before cuz, y’know. Same school and everything but –“
Sally interrupts quickly, her mouth finding its use again. “ Brad, shut up!” She whispers loudly. She pushes him backwards a couple steps and turns her head to face Lloyd with a sort of weird smile. He assumes it’s supposed to be a smile, but it looks more like she’s taken a bite out of a strong lemon. “Sorry - wouldja excuse us for just one itty bitty second?”
She doesn’t wait for a response, pushing the boy into the corner on the porch. Brad shoots Lloyd one last apologetic smile before they’ve turned away to whisper amongst themselves.
If Sally was aiming for a private conversation, she really should’ve just taken the time to go inside the house if she was going to practically yell-whisper in his ear. Lloyd really didn’t need to hear another claim about how much of a danger to society he is.
He sucks in a breath, staring at his shoes as he tries to not overhear their conversation.
“When I told you that you could mingle and meet new people, I didn’t mean him !” She hisses, but Brad only laughs. “Brad!”
“Sorry – I just don’t see the big deal. Plus, to be honest? I’m like, a little too high right now for this, man.”
“I can’t believe...” She mutters something, Lloyd can’t really hear her. He’s not sure if he wants to know what she said anyway. He shuts his eyes, focusing on the dizzy feeling in his brain.
Despite Sally’s entrance, he still feels really good. Everything feels hazy and light. He should’ve asked what strain that weed was. He doesn’t usually smoke but maybe Cole can hook him up later. Hm… he hasn’t really seen his friends in a while either. He should probably go check up on them. He’s pretty hungry too. Maybe if he sneaks back inside he can find some food and his friends.
“Hey.” Brad’s voice rings next to his ear. Lloyd makes a startled noise, he leans away, staring at Brad with wide eyes. He covers his ear with his palm, still feeling his breath on his skin.
Brad’s crouches down next to him. His brown eyes don’t meet his, opting to look at the hardwood paneling under them. “We’re gonna leave now,” he shrugs. “We’re probably gonna go get dinner somewhere.”
That’s… disappointing. Lloyd tries not to let it show. “Oh.”
Brad looks back up at him, his gaze lingering as he stares right into him. His mouth works a little before he finally continues. “Y’know, you can come with us? If you want?”
That’s unbelievably tempting. Lloyd doesn’t know how long it’s been since they’d started talking. It couldn’t have been too long, an hour at most but... Brad seems sorta cool to be around. And Lloyd… really wants to be his friend and keep hanging out. He really does. He bites his lip, glancing at Brad’s friend in the back of the porch, she’s tapping on her phone rapidly. Just in time she looks up and their eyes meet. She offers another weird grimace/smile combo before she goes back to typing on her phone, a little faster than before.
“Yeah… I don’t think I should,” says Lloyd, a little quietly.
Brad’s dark eyes stare at him for another second. Then he sits down on the steps with Lloyd again, just like before. Except... he’s closer now. Their legs press together. Lloyd freezes as Brad suddenly reaches towards him, his hand wraps around his wrist, drawing it closer and setting it in between them. Lloyd almost pulls away – but stops himself, something in him makes him pause and watch as Brad reaches into one of his pockets.
“Lemme give you my number, then.” He explains. He pulls a marker free before biting the cap off with his teeth rather than releasing Lloyd’s wrist to pull it off. His stomach turns over strangely as he watches Brad scribble his phone number on the back of his hand. When Brad finally lets his wrist free and puts away his marker, Lloyd breaks into a laugh.
“You could’ve just put your number straight into my phone.”
Brad’s eyes widen in realization. “Oh, shit. You’re right.” He drops his face into his hands, muffling his warm laugh. His shoulders shake as he laughs some more. He lifts his head to give Lloyd a crooked smile. “Well, uh. You have my number now. We can talk more about how the new Starfarer movie sucked or uhhhh. I dunno, man, whatever. You know what I’m trying to say, I’m too fucked up to talk.”
Lloyd bites his lip to hide his smile. He’d really like that. He nods at Brad as he takes out his phone to add him in his contacts. He sends him a quick text and expectantly waits for Brad to notice.
It only takes a moment; his phone sounds off with a familiar noise and Brad smiles at his screen when he takes it out. He rolls his eyes. “You’re fuckin’ stupid, man.” He shoves his shoulder, and Lloyd grins at him in response. He’d sent him a Starfarer meme that had sent him into a coughing fit the first time he saw it.
Brad laughs again, but he heaves a sigh. “I should go now, before they start getting on my ass.” He stands, and just in time, Sally comes slowly trailing behind him. Her face is still trained on her phone.
“I’ll see you later, Lloyd.” He smiles, shoving his hands into his pockets while he moves down the steps. “It was nice meeting you.”
Lloyd smiles back. “You too.” He glances at Sally. “Uh... It was nice meeting you too, Sally.”
She looks up at him, surprised. She pockets her phone. “Ah...” Brad nudges her a little with his elbow. “Right, you too.” Her tentative smile seems a little bit more genuine this time.
He watches them leave. Lloyd breathes out a sigh after he lays down on the porch. He stares up at the ceiling. His eyes trace the grains of wood and the spiderwebs as he replays their conversation in his head.
...
Huh.
He shoots up.
He never even told Brad his name.