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Sydney stands outside Lucille’s old, battered Jeep, tapping his foot impatiently while waiting for Jedidiah to exit the vehicle. “Come on, Jeddie. You can’t stay in the car forever.” The man in question heaves a weary sigh and opens the car door.
“Do we seriously have to attend this party? It sounds like a lot of noise. And lights. Are you going to be okay?”
Sydney sighs in a manner that indicates Jedidiah asked him this many times on the ride there. “Yes, Jedidiah. I will be okay.” He thinks for a moment, as though recalling something. “Oh– Yvonne told me there’ll be drinks. I’m not having any, but are you planning on it?” He tries to suppress a smirk, failing horribly.
Jedidiah shrugs squarely, his posture straight and stiff. “Probably not. Why are you looking at me like that?”
The shorter giggles. “No reason. Let’s go, come on!” He grabs a reluctant Jedidiah’s hand, leading him into the apartment complex.
The very second they cross the threshold into the lobby, they can hear blaring music coming from one of the upper rooms. The receptionist at the desk is, miraculously, asleep, snoring lightly. Jedidiah looks at them nervously, gently ringing the bell– to no response. Sydney shrugs, gesturing to the elevator. Jedidiah nods curtly, walking over and pressing the button.
After a moment, the elevator door opens to the interesting sight of Warren and Gracie shuffling out, Gracie leaning on Warren’s shoulder, both of them looking absolutely wiped. Jedidiah makes a small noise of greeting and gives a small, austere wave before walking past them and into the elevator. Sydney’s cane clicks on the tile behind him.
After what felt like far too long for a simple two floors up, the doors open. The hallway they entered would have been otherwise peaceful if it wasn’t being racked by the cacophonous music, shouts, and rather concerning slamming noises coming from what is undoubtedly Yvonne’s room. Jedidiah winces, shuffling his feet.
“You’re absolutely sure we have to go?”
Sydney nods vigorously, already putting his special ear plugs in. “Yes, Jedidiah. Yvonne worked very hard on the counselor reunion. You will enjoy it if it’s the last thing you do! You hear me?”
“Yes, Sydney…” The architect says, pathetically. He walks to the door with purple lights streaming from beneath and gives a firm knock.
No answer.
He knocks a bit harder.
Still no answer.
Jedidiah A. A. Martin heaves the heaviest sigh to ever be heaved, gritting his teeth. Sydney covers his mouth to suppress laughter– again, to no avail.
The scrawny man takes a few stiff steps back, grumbling and groaning something about his shoulder. Then, he runs full speed at the door, about to throw every meager pound of his weight against it. He expects to feel the wood slam against his body, but instead flies into empty air, falling flat on his face. Sydney stops trying to hold in his laughter and bursts out cackling. A very bewildered Marisol stands in the open doorway, staring at the crumpled heap of a Jedidiah in front of her.
“Um– is he okay?”
Sydney cannot stop laughing long enough to get a word out. He clutches at his stomach, almost joining Jedidiah on the floor. Jedidiah glares at the ground as he stands up and straightens his spine, wincing.
“Hello, Marisol.” He dusts himself off, sighing.
The woman giggles, gesturing into the room. The music had been paused for Marisol after she heard a knock, so it’s pretty quiet inside– well, save for Yvonne’s evil witch cackling, well matching the boy's own.
Jedidiah looks back pitifully at Sydney, whose laughter has quieted to giggles, pleading brown eyes looking into joyed blues. “Sydney, you’re absolutely one hundred percent certain we have to go?”
“We’re already here, silly. Go on, Jedidiah. Let’s have fun!”
Jedidiah groans.
—
He is not having fun. Not in the slightest. He tightly grips a red solo cup full of diet Coke, posture straight and drawn into himself as if he’s trying to be as small as possible, as a short person with bright dyed-red hair zooms past him and he steps back on instinct. How the hell did a camper get here? No, how the hell did Natsume Shiota get here? Jedidiah sighs and decides that it’s very much not his problem, and struggles through the crowd to refill his soda. After Yvonne takes his cup, he gets distracted by Sydney telling him some story that he definitely wasn’t going to remember the details of later.
Yvonne is pouring a beer for Juno when a very uncomfortable-looking Jedidiah hands her his cup to refill it. She gives him a nod and sets it down on the table in front of her, when suddenly someone bursts out laughing at an apparently very funny joke, so loud that Yvonne is startled and accidentally sloshes some alcohol into Jedidiah’s cup– She blinks a few times, then slowly reaches for the Coke and tops off his drink, pretending nothing happened. Soren, who’s standing nearby, sniffs it, makes a sound quite like a cat hissing, and scurries away. “Um,” Yvonne mutters. “That’s probably fine.” She taps Jedidiah on the shoulder and hands him his soda.
The man sips it and pulls a face. “This tastes odd.”
Yvonne shuffles in front of the table, hiding the beer spill where his solo cup had been. “Um,” she says again. “That’s probably fine.”
After a few minutes, Jedidiah is starting to stumble, his words blurring together when he tries to talk. His partner quickly realizes what's happening, and snaps his head in Yvonne’s direction like an owl. “What did you do?!” Sydney splutters. “You didn’t give him alcohol, did you?”
Yvonne blinks. “I spilled a little in his cup, but I didn’t think it would be enough to–”
“Yvonne.” The short man cuts her off. “Jedidiah gets drunk easier than anyone I have ever met. A single drop would be enough to get him tipsy. You’re his friend, I thought you knew that!”
She’s silent for a second. She probably did know that, but she’s also a bit drunk herself, so she can’t quite recall having that information. “...Oops.”
The two slowly turn back to Jedidiah, who is… considerably out of it. He’s swaying, his eyes are very far away, and he’s got a big dumb grin on his face. He looks pathetic– more than usual. Sydney gingerly walks over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Jeddie? You okay?”
He giggles, a very odd sound coming from him, and turns to Sydney. “You’re so pretty, Syd…..ney….. Syl. Sylneh.” Sydney can’t help but grin a little at how silly Jedidiah’s being, but it's stained with weariness. He knows how nasty Jedidiah’s hangovers can be.
There’s a laugh behind him, and he turns around. Joshua is standing there, leaning on the table where Yvonne was pouring drinks. “Haha. He looks… looks… Yeah. Not me though. I’m totally… totally sober. The most… most…? Most soberest. ‘Cause I’m the best! Waaaaay better than Juniper. Juniper?”
He motions to Juniper, who's standing better than Joshua ever could, despite the slurring of his words.
“Yeah, he’s totally drunk. Haha, what an idiot. You should see him right now… Me? I’m fine. I can have another drink…” Joshua continues to ramble on like this, clearly not the “most soberest” as he claims to be. Yvonne pointedly refuses to refill his cup, no matter how hard he presses it into her hands.
“Well,” Sydney remarks, “I retract my previous statement. I think he might have you tied for getting drunk the easiest, Jedidiah.”
“Jed… Jedididi… dididididididi… dim… didiah?” Jedidiah snorts. “I have a funny name.”
A slightly taller figure slumps his arm over Jedidiah’s shoulder, giggling and hiccuping randomly. Jedidiah jumps out of his skin. “That you do, chap. Jedeeedeeah.” Juniper slurs over his words, looking as though he could pass out at any moment. “Jed. Dieeeah. Jedidididi.” The surprise melts off Jedidiah’s face and they both dissolve into giggles while Sydney looks on awkwardly, not really sure what to do. It’s certainly a strange sight to see Jedidiah so… Like that. It’s at least semi-normal for Juniper, but watching his boyfriend wobbly, cross-eyed, and giggly is a whole new kind of odd for Sydney.
Suddenly there’s a knock at the door. Marisol answers it– it’s two policemen, who Sydney immediately recognizes as the burly men who delivered packages to the camp many a time and constantly mispronounced Jedidiah’s name, much like he's now doing to himself. The only difference is that now they’re wearing police uniforms. Soren hisses and scurries to the back of the room, hiding behind a pillar. The entire room goes quiet, aside from the continuing thump of the music.
Jedidiah pauses to squint at them. “Are those the fuckin’…. The fuckin’ delivery guys…?” he slurs.
“We’ve been gettin’ complaints of the loudest party this side o’ the state,” says one of them.
“We want in,” says the other, grinning.
“Well, yeah, but that’s not what we’re here for, Tony.” the first reminds him. “We gotta tell you to quiet down. It’s our job. We can’t just go encouragin’ noisy neighbors.”
“Right. Tony’s right. Calm down!” the second Tony says.
“Alright, we’ll be quieter,” Yvonne calls from the back of the room. Salem, standing near her, rolls her eyes.
As soon as the Tonies leave, the yelling and laughing immediately start up again, maybe even louder than before.
—
The party is chaotic as ever; someone has spilled fruit punch all over the floor, and a few of the counselors started up a game of Spin the Bottle, which is definitely not going to end well. Sydney sees Juniper trying to kiss a very perturbed Soren, who is hissing wildly and clawing at Juniper’s arms. Sydney’s gaze wanders over to a corner of the room, where he notices Rowan, clutching his knees as he rocks back and forth. Marisol is standing over him, rubbing his shoulders and trying to comfort him, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. His tearstained face is pulled into a grimace, and Sydney can’t tell if he’s just overstimulated or if Juniper convinced him to try some of his gin.
He glances over his shoulder at Jedidiah, who is listening to Juniper telling him some nonsensical story– Well, not really listening, as he looks very spaced out and doesn’t seem to be hearing anything the other man is saying. Jeddie would be fine if he went to try and help Marisol soothe Rowan, right? It would only be a few minutes, after all… Surely Jedidiah wouldn’t get himself into too much trouble.
Sydney slowly steps over to Rowan, knowing he prefers to be talked to in these moments, and coaxes his arms away from his legs to wrap him in a hug. He flinches slightly, but Sydney knows it’s okay.
A few minutes pass with Sydney gently whispering to Rowan, barely perceptible over the noise of the party. He occasionally glances up to check on Jedidiah– who, now, is nowhere to be seen. Sydney pats a mostly-calm Rowan on the shoulder and stands, looking around for Jedidiah.
After a few seconds of looking, his eyes lock on a circle of party-goers sitting on the ground with a bottle in the middle.
Oh no.
He spots Jedidiah moving towards Joshua– wait, Joshua? Sydney springs into action, ignoring the pain of moving so fast, grabbing Jedidiah under the shoulders and pulling him away. “Jedidiah! You can’t just– ugh!” Jedidiah goes limp, smiling up at Sydney. “Jeddie! I can’t hold you like this!” He sighs heavily– and then yelps as Jedidiah pulls him down to the floor into a short kiss.
Sydney registers cheering from the suddenly-gathered crowd around them. He pushes Jedidiah away, blushing profusely. “Jeddie, I love you, but you’re intoxicated.”
Jedidiah frowns. “But you’re so pretty. Gotta kiss that pretty face.” He moves his arms to try to pull Sydney back down, but ends up just flailing around like a dying fish.
Sydney snorts at this. “Jeddie… you’re very cute like this, but you are also very drunk.” He stands, hoisting Jedidiah up with him, who groans and thrashes around with little strength.
“ Sydney… ” Jedidiah pouts, eventually standing on his own– barely, though, Sydney still has to hold him so he remains steady. Sydney scans the room for something to do, figuring it was best to keep his drunk boyfriend occupied lest he get his loopy self caught up in more trouble. Leaving him unattended had led to him almost kissing Joshua (Sydney shuddered at the thought; he wouldn't wish that upon his worst enemy), so he knows better than to let the scrawny man leave his sight.
The shorter man eventually notices Mila plugging in a karaoke machine, and tries to catch Jedidiah’s wandering eye. “Hey, Jeddie, how about we do some karaoke?” Jedidiah nods limply, and they make their way in that direction. Sydney figures he looks quite ridiculous shuffling over there with his partner half-slumped against him, one arm hanging loosely at his side with the other draped over his shoulder.
Luckily, the karaoke session was relatively uneventful, consisting of Yvonne belting out some alt music Sydney recognized from their college days, Soren interrupting everyone to sing some sort of weird hymn to the Mother of Stones, and Jedidiah, Juniper, and Joshua mumbling the lyrics to a song clearly none of them knew in a messy, not-so-harmonious three-part harmony. At least he seemed to be having fun with it. Sydney considers putting on some Will Wood and joining in, but decides he’s content to just sit back and watch, grateful for a chance to set down his cane and rest his tired legs. For once that day, he could relax a little– He’d expected the party to be stressful, but Jedidiah getting drunk and causing trouble had not been on his bingo card for that night. It was good to be able to take a break from basically parenting him.
But of course, that wouldn’t last very long.
—
It was all going fine until truth or dare.
Sydney leads Jedidiah around the room, striking up awkward conversations with the few counselors who aren’t completely out of it, and convincing him to play a few rounds of Mario Kart and an off-brand fighting game he doesn’t recognize with Yvonne and a couple others (All of which Jedidiah loses miserably, of course.) He thinks he’s doing a pretty good job of preventing his partner from getting into chaos. But then Joshua loudly declares that he’s starting a game of truth or dare, and any semblance of peace Sydney had goes down the drain.
Before Sydney can stop him, Jedidiah blunders over there, flopping down onto the ground and just barely landing in a sitting position. A group assembles that includes most of the people there (Except Natsume, who had been promptly escorted from the room as soon as he was discovered). Salem doesn’t join in, but watches them warily from her spot leaned against the wall.
“Me first! Dare.” Joshua says, dropping his tone and sounding surprisingly serious on the word “dare”. Sydney isn’t sure that’s how the game works, but isn’t about to correct him.
Yvonne turns to him, smirking. “Okay then. Jump out the window!” She cackles.
Joshua frowns. “Pretty sure you have to say ‘I dare you to’.”
“That’s Simon Says, dumbass.” Yvonne retorts. “Whatever. I dare you to jump out the window!”
Joshua grins, running full speed towards the window. Various partygoers make sounds– some cheering, some panicked. Joshua suddenly grunts as he’s practically flinging himself into open air– Salem catches him around the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Yvonne gulps. This isn’t going to be fun.
“ Fils des pute – Yvonne! What the hell were you thinking?”
Yvonne blinks. “This is only a third-floor room. He’d only get battered up a little. Plus, I didn’t think he’d actually do it.” she mumbles.
“ Only the third floor?? A little ?! Shouldn’t the fact that he’d get hurt at ALL give you any sort of pause?! God damn it, Yvonne, this is your party! The safety of everyone here should be your top priority! And you’re risking that for what, some stupid dare?” Salem spits, letting go of Joshua (who slumps ungracefully to the floor) in her anger. “Do you want us all to get arrested??”
Yvonne glances to the side. “...no.” She knows Salem could have a temper, but didn’t expect her to fly off the handle like that. She guesses her dangerous dare was the last straw after all the chaos preceding it.
“For the love of God…” Salem shakes her head. “Please take some responsibility.”
Yvonne rolls her eyes. “Okay, dude.”
Salem clearly doesn’t quite trust Yvonne to take her words to heart, but she stops lecturing her and returns to surveying from the corner. “Alright, who wants to go next?” Jedidiah raises a shaky hand.
No one asks Jedidiah which mode he wants. Sydney thinks wryly how this is the most unorganized game of Truth or Dare he’s ever seen. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Yvonne rolls her eyes again and decides to just do it herself. “Okay, Jedidiah, truth or dare?”
“Hm….. truth,” he mumbles.
Yvonne thinks for a second, then her expression turns dead serious. “What are you working on in your office back at camp? Why do you never have time for your friends?”
Sydney chokes back a gasp. His mind races, swirling through a hurricane of thoughts in less than a second. Yvonne has no idea what a dangerous game she’s playing. Sydney knows full well that everyone at this party might die if Jedidiah answers that question, and judging by his current lack of ability to reason, he’s definitely going to. Part of him — a very large, loud part — wants to let him. It’s an appalling thought, but curiosity is gnawing at him. Jedidiah opens his mouth. He’s about to answer the question Sydney has been asking him for years. Even if his life ends painfully right then, at least he’ll know why .
But he can’t let him.
After a split second that feels like an eternity, he makes his decision.
Despite all the years of neglect and begging for answers which would not come, Sydney forces himself to lunge achingly forward, gritting his teeth, and clamps his hand firmly over his boyfriend’s mouth. His pale blue eyes bear right into Yvonne’s, pleading. You do not know what you could have just caused . Yvonne seems alarmed and confused, but wisely doesn’t question Sydney’s action.
Jedidiah blushes a little, reaching up to remove Sydney’s hand from his mouth, but before he can complete the gesture, his eyes roll up in his head. His face going slack and body limp, the scrawny man passes out right then and there and flops into Sydney’s arms.
Now it’s Sydney’s turn to blush, rearranging Jedidiah’s unconscious body into a more comfortable position. He feels a sliver of pity for his partner, not looking forward to the horrible hangover he’ll definitely have to endure when he wakes up. But at least he’s not about to tongue kiss Joshua Macheath. “Alright, that’s enough,” he sighs. “Let's get you home.”
—
Sydney gently ruffles the still-passed-out Jedidiah’s hair in the back of Salem’s car. He’d practically begged her to take them home, since Sydney had no license and his partner was, of course, in no condition to drive. She’d begrudgingly agreed, though made it very clear that she wanted the man to be completely quiet on the drive.
Soft music plays in the front seat, too quiet for Sydney to make out. He releases a silent sigh through his nose, glancing out the window at the dark sky speckled with stars. Tonight had been… A lot. He stifles a giggle, remembering Jedidiah’s unusually loose posture and woozy behavior. He admits to himself that yeah, it was pretty funny. And cute. But he cannot tell Jeddie about this when he wakes up. Absolutely not.
Truth be told, he likes doing stuff like this with Jedidiah more, even if it ends in complete disaster. It’s… nice, in a way, to be around him more. Antics are always more fun when you have someone to share in them.
He readjusts Jedidiah’s glasses. Maybe they won’t be going to parties quite as often, though. Wouldn’t want a repeat of tonight’s near-death experience.
Salem pulls up next to the apartment where the two of them are staying. Sydney opens the car door and awkwardly drags Jedidiah out, exchanging a polite nod with their impromptu chauffeur as he shuffles into the building. When they reach their room, Sydney lays Jedidiah down onto one of the couches and flops his own aching body onto the other. His eyelids droop unusually quickly after the excitement of the night, and he has one last thought before slipping into sleep.
I am never letting Yvonne mix Jedidiah’s drink again.