Booze, The Truth And A Dare Or Two [Marnie & Co.]

[Karalie Heise]

Her blossoming friendship with Marnie was something she could have never foreseen.  Who would have thought her ex boyfriends ex girlfriend would be so, well, normal. Marnie had been easy to talk to, and Karalie felt semi drawn to the girl.  Besides, it was always good to have girlfriends to gossip with, wasn't that what her mother had told her? Someone to confide in, and who better to confide in than someone who had lived through the same kind of pain? Or at least similar.  Luke hadn't cheated on Marnie, but that didn't mean she wasn't burned by the boy.

When their conversation had recently turned to drinking, Karalie had admitted that she'd never really indulged.  This was entirely because she was afraid of what might happen if she were drunk.  How many memories would she take? Would she be able to control herself? She'd sipped wine in the past and had even taken a taste of her daddy's beer once, but getting full on drunk was another story completely.  She and Marnie had talked about a safe environment for Karalie maybe getting smashed for the first time, or rather Karalie had done most of the talking.  Of course Marnie was on board; it was high school after all, and they were talking about getting drunk! Karalie figured it was a good way to let herself get closer to the other girl an maybe make their friendship more concrete.  

Carter had, of course, been kind enough to assist in procuring the contraband needed for this little girls night in she had planned with Marnie.  He was definitely someone she wouldn't mind having a few drinks with.  Maybe.. depending on how things went with Marnie.  For now, she wanted to test the waters and have a babysitter present.  One she could trust, especially if things got weird with her roommates.  Last thing she needed was for Penny to find out and get a monitor. That was Marnie's job; don't let her crappy roommate grab any more dirt than necessary to get her in trouble.

When will you be here? She shot off to the other girl, sitting in her room looking at the many bottles she had to choose from.  Where did she begin? What mixed with what? How badly was she about to regret this night?

[Marnie Sullivan]

Unbelievable. Seriously unbelievable. If a precognitive classmate had pulled Marnie aside two months ago and told her she would soon be sneaking alcohol into Hammel and getting drunk together with her ex-boyfriend's latest ex-girlfriend, Marnie would have gone to the school's recruiters and insisted that that classmate was a fraud. But sure enough, once she and Karalie had opened up to each other a little, schemes began cooking. Marnie herself had very little experience, having imbibed exactly twice before, and both within the last year - one at an illicit dorm party shortly after moving in, and the other during a maybe-sorta-woulda-been a date with an upperclassman named Brooke - but apparently that was more than Karalie had done, so that was enough for her to pretend she knew what she was doing.

It was lucky that Karalie knew someone who could hook them up - ugh, "hook them up," what was he, a drug dealer? it made it sound so much worse than it was - because Marnie was actually pretty clueless. At best she could've tracked down whichever students had bee'd their own bee at last May's shindig, but she barely remembered where it had taken place, let alone who had been there or whether they had graduated or not. But Karalie got over that particular hurdle herself. All Marnie had to do was show up and not make a fool of herself.

on my way, she fired back, before turning back to the mirror and conducting one last search for spots and stuck-out tags before heading out. That was the downside to living on the same floor instead of in the same neighborhood - you couldn't say you got lost or stuck in traffic, you just showed up. But if this was anything like last May, no matter how tightly she and Karalie kept their lips sealed, someone else was bound to hear what was happening, and she wanted to look halfway decent in case they did.

Casual stroll down the hallway, no need to draw attention, and there was 406 in front of here. Marnie let herself in and peered around the dorm for a glimpse of Karalie's room, letting out an excited "Hiii!" as she shut the dorm door behind her. "How's it goi-"

Her eyes grew wide as they fell upon the selection Kara had managed to conjure up; clearly she had underestimated the girl.

"Nice!" Marnie hissed, grinning but trying to keep her voice down. Casual, so casual. "What's on the menu, Karalie?"

[Karalie Heise]

Marnie lived down the hall, so it wouldn't take long for her to get there since she was on her way.  Karalie chewed at her nail, a bad habit she'd picked up over the years, one her mother would flip if she saw.  All she could do was look at the alcohol and then pace a little.  She was terrified and excited at the same time, acting much less like the little flirt she'd been when she'd asked Carter for this favor and more like the little girl she still sort of felt like.  She heard the door open and looked at Marnie, sighing.  Last thing she needed was Penelope barging in again!

"Menu?" She repeated, shaking her head.  "I have no idea what any of this stuff mixes with or tastes like or.. do I look like I know what's on th'menu?" She drawled, her southern voice dripping with excitement and unease.  She was usually such a good girl..  "I had no idea he'd go an' get all this! We can't drink this much stuff!"  Which meant one thing, really; they'd have to do it again before the year let out.  She couldn't bring any of this stuff home! She grabbed the cups and pushed them at the other girl.  "Yer the lush, go'n mix somethin' up."

[Marnie Sullivan]

"Lush? Excuse me!" Marnie laughed, even as she tried to tame her nerves. She recognized maybe a couple substances on sight, but the rest... well, she probably knew most of them by name, even if she didn't know how they tasted or what they went best with. With any luck, she could inspect the labels without giving away how much she'd oversold herself. "Give me a bit and I'll whip something together."

The first bottle that caught her eye proved to be what she expected, but on its own it didn't help much. Marnie didn't know that much about liquor, but she'd learned pretty quickly that vodka on its own was awful. Fortunately, she didn't have to look far for something to tame it with.

"Regulah, or diet, madame?" Marnie asked, affecting a terrible mimicry of the sort of English accent she might expect from a high-end butler as she poured the clear liquid and then soda into her own cup. Enough to mask the taste, that was the important thing. Her drink prepared, she took Karalie's cup and began splashing vodka in "say-when" doses.

"Tell you what, I'll trade you a drink that's not terrible for info - who's 'he'? I thought you weren't seeing anybody?" Marnie smiled roguishly, pleased to apparently have the upper hand. "He must like you though, to pull this off."

[Karalie Heise]

Karalie tucked her hair behind her ears and sat on the edge of her bed, watching Marnie get to work on the booze. She was actually going to do it.. she was going to get drunk. Not just have a sip of her momma or daddy's, but actually go and get pie-eyed.

"Diet." She answered, deciding if she was going to drink all this garbage, she might as well not digest a million calories in the process, especially since she probably wouldn't be feeling up to doing much tomorrow. She wasn't dumb enough to think she wouldn't have a hangover, though what that entailed was still a mystery. Sure people complained about it, but would it be so bad? After everything she'd been through and seen and experienced through others, she didn't really think it could be so awful. Then again, she couldn't really pull up any hangover memories. Drunk memories.. well she had a few of those, but they were a bit blurred. Funny thing, memories..

Marnie was suddenly asking questions, Karalie pursing her lips in response.  "I hope he does."  She replied in a somewhat dreamy voice.  "His name's Carter.  An' he's.. well he's french."  She grinned despite herself, chewing her bottom lip.  "An' I ain't exactly seein' him.  Not yet.. but I sure do hope tuh, cause he's.. He makes Ryan Goslin' look like uh garden tool in comparison." Karalie giggled a little, looking down at her hands.  "Marnie, this boy is beautiful.  Like, statue beautiful.  Like, I wanna statue of him in here to admire all th'time.  I think I'm smitten."  She had no one to gush about Carter to, but she wanted to see more of the boy.  She would do anything to see more of him..

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie's grin widened as she topped off the new drink with a bit more soda - just to be on the safe side - and passed it over.

"If it weren't for all this - " she nodded toward the forest of bottles at the disposal - "I'd think you'd dreamed him up. He sounds incredible." Of course, if such a person did exist in Pilot Ridge, it only made sense it'd be the former beauty queen she snagged him. Go figure.

At another time, such a thought might have felt bitter to Marnie. But as she sipped her own drink, she herself pleased, even with just the opportunity to hear Karalie gush like this. It was the sort of thing they might've done months ago, had they no reason to avoid each other the way they did. So rather than feeling jealous that Karalie had apparently caught herself a dreamboat, Marnie was just grateful they could now indulge in this kind of girl talk.

"So where'd you meet him?" she asked, after perching herself cross-legged on the other girl's bed. "Let me guess - was he rescuing kittens from a house fire? Receiving a key to the city for heroic deeds?"

[Karalie Heise]

A dreamy, bashful smile slipped past her lips as she took the drink Marnie offered.  He did sound incredible.  He kind of was incredible..  "He is sort've uh dream." She agreed, her voice mirroring that dreamy look in her eyes.  Just thinking of the boy got her all hot and bothered and she hoped she would have enough sense about her not to do anything stupid while drunk.  Like call, or text.. that would be bad.  That would be really bad.

She giggled softly and sipped from the cup in her hand, savoring it a moment to decide if she liked it.  It wasn't bad! Much better than the wine and beer she'd tasted prior to this.  She like it.  Sort of.. it was still strong and a little gross, but not what she had expected.  She drank a little more before pulling the cup into her lap, holding it by her painted fingers.  "He's not that perfect. I don' think, anyway.  But.. maybe?" She giggled again shaking her head and gazing at Marnie.  "I actually ran intuh him.  Like, I was tryin' tuh get back home an' wasn' really payin' much attention an' knocked intuh him.  Fell right on my rump there in th'now.  He helped me up an'.. an' asked for my number."  The color crept up into her cheeks and she sipped the drink again to try and hide her bashfulness.  "Then we met up for coffee.. Listen, whatever happens, don'chu let me call or text him, got it? Yer officially on Karalie duty!"

[Marnie Sullivan]

Oh, this was going to be fun. Karalie was still cold sober, and already she was on a roll. What would she be like, even just tipsy? Marnie hid her smile with the rim of her cup as she took another sip. She knew she'd have to be careful herself - with as little experience as she had, she didn't really know what sort of drunk she would be. Talkative, maybe? Willing to spill secrets? The thought worried her a little, but it was comforting to see that that was exactly was Karalie was shaping up to be. Maybe Marnie wouldn't even have the opportunity to blab her own business, if they kept up like this. Or maybe it wouldn't even matter - how drunk would Karalie have to be to forget if she accidentally let something slip about Safia? It wasn't like she could just calculate that sort of thing; it was fun to pretend she knew what she was doing, but this was certainly going to be an adventure for both of them.

Which still might require a little disaster prevention, she realized.

"Here," Marnie said, extending her free hand toward Karalie. "Give me your phone now, and that way if you get tempted later you won't be able to contact him. Karalie duty officially begins now!" She could trust herself to hold onto a phone, couldn't she? Surely she could.

[Karalie Heise]

She watched Marnie extend her hand and she looked down at it curiously.  When she asked for her phone she felt her eyes widen slightly.  Karalie wasn't fond of handing over her possessions.  Not because she was afraid Marnie would leave with it, but what sort of things might get imprinted on it? Anything that happened that evening.  Maybe that wasn't the end of the world, though.  Especially if it stayed in the other girls pocket.  

She hesitated a moment before pulling out her phone.  "Alright, jus'.. gimme a second."  She swiped it open and double checked that no new texts had come in.  When none had she closed it and handed it over to the other girl.  

"I'm trustin' you." She reminded, pointing an accusing finger at the other girl, smiling playfully afterwards and letting out a little giggle.  "I cannot believe we are doin' this."  She shook her head, taking a deep sip before wrinkling her nose.  "Hey.. How long does it take tuh get tore up? An' what're we gon'do once we are?"

[Marnie Sullivan]

"I hope you were setting it to silent," Marnie scolded playfully as she tucked the phone into her jeans. "I can't stop him from texting you, after all."

Unfortunately, she didn't have a solid answer for Karalie on that one - probably not too much, since she knew it was stronger than beer and it didn't take much beer to feel a buzz, at least for her. So instead, Marnie just shrugged. "We'll find out, won't we? Bottoms up!"

-

An embarrassingly short time later, during which they stuck with their vodka concoctions rather than venture to the more unfamiliar drinks available, Marnie was trapped in a fit of hysterical giggles.

"I was, I was, I just, like, turned green right there in front of everybody!" she managed to get out between laughs, her face aching from smiling so hard. This particular memory, her first manifestation, had been mortifying for a while after it had occurred, but time and drink had suddenly turned it very funny to Marnie. "I spent all semester wondering, you know, was anybody gonna ask me and bam!" The exclamation came out a bit - a bit - louder than she'd expected, and she clapped her hands over her mouth before dissolving into laughter once more. "God, jus' imagine if I could, like, shoot fire or something, right?"

[Karalie Heise]

Silent? She supposed she should have.. What if he did text her?  "No, but ya'll can not lemme answer!" She shot back, not sure she would have the restraint not to write back.  What would happen if she did text him back? No, Marnie was in charge! She had her phone, she wouldn't even know if she got a text.  She'd answer him in the morning if by some miracle he thought to message her that evening.

Marnie didn't have an answer for her and she looked down at the contents of her cup.  "Bottoms up." She repeated, wincing as she drained her drink.

-


"Green?!"  She repeated, her ribs aching from laughing so hard at Marnie's story.  Who knew the other girl could be so funny?  "Oh, m'lord! Why couldn't I have seen that?!" It was a wonder their paths didn't cross more often in the past.  Sure, they had known each other but why weren't they friends before now? When Marnie mentioned the fire she all but lost it, bending over as she giggled, covering her face with her hand.  "That'd be awful!" She agreed, looking back up with creased, amused eyes, her polished hand covering her lips as she tried to subdue her laughter.  She could almost imagine Marnie breathing fire on a bunch of kids.  Ugh, it was terrible and hilarious at the same time.

"I wish my first time had been so funny!" She finished her drink and held her cup in her hand, looking inside as if to wonder where it had all gone.  "I was jus' huggin' my momma an' suddenly I got this image of havin' my eyebrows bein' waxed at th'salon.  It hurt like th'devil! I remember pullin' back an' slappin' my forehead."  She repeated the action, and then started to laugh.  "Like the pain was fresh, but it faded as quick as th'memory.  Had no idea what happened an' just ran off."  It hadn't been funny until now, and though she wasn't laughing nearly as hard as she was with Marnie's story, she was still rather amused.  

"Alright, we need tuh figure out how tuh use th'rest of this stuff.  I need uh change up."  She went the her little mini bar, courtesy of the every beautiful Carter, and gazed at the bottles.  "Eeni meeni miini moh.."

[Marnie Sullivan]

"Oh nohoho!" Marnie hooted, unable to sound properly horrified through her laughter. "That sounds awful!" And it did, somewhat. At least in her case, as humiliating as it had been, the change was visible to everyone. She'd never considered it much of a blessing but it did mean she'd never had to wonder if she was just imagining things or hallucinating.

But the mental image of a younger Karalie, smacking herself in the face and running away - how confused her mother must have been! Could she blame Marnie for laughing, really?

"I jus' realized, y'know what is hate about that the most?" she pondered aloud, the occasional giggle will bubbling out of her as she spoke. "You'd get all the pain but not the nice eyebrows!"

By the time she managed to compose herself, Karalie was in the process of moving along to different drinks. Marnie watched her count them off and decided to stay out of it; she'd just about reached the limits of her booze knowledge, and if Karalie picked something terrible, she could just blame luck of the draw.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Proclaiming to take a dorm room back was a noble task. Prior to Christmas, it had been weeks since Lucy had slept in the usual room in dorm on the ladies only floor. Penny had practically moved into her own, despite the few things she often went back to her own for, but things were supposed to be different and Lucy was intent on keeping it that way.

Regardless of whether the door to the common area was locked or not, Lucy didn't mind. She had keys now, and she wasn't ever really one to knock anyway. So without any delay, she simply swung the door open to the common area. She had every intention of waiting it out to see the psychometrist arrive back from classes when she would, but something else caught her attention instead. The sound of what could only be described as incoherent laughter and an equally incoherent accent caught her before anything else.

Curious eyes darted in the direction of the ajar door she'd never really gone towards before. The last thing she wanted to do was actively start something with the roommate, but then, it didn't take a genius to guess what that upbeat tone meant. Stepping through the distance, Lucy reached forth through the break and knocked twice, pressing her palm to the door and easing it open slowly a moment later.

"Ladies," The ink manipulator practically cursed, a string of tsk sounds passing her lips and hanging in the air past the word itself. It was impossible not to piece everything together in an easy instant. Be it the obvious smell, the inconsistent movements of either of them or the physical evidence itself. It all added up so simply, especially for someone like Lucy Serrano, "You can't get sloshed in four-oh-six and not invite your resident Aussie. We're like, ancestral drunks."

[Karalie Heise]

Marnie had hit the nail on the head; the pain without any of the benefits.  Granted, it only lasted a second, with none of the residual pain that followed after a waxing, but that was beside the point.  Her mother had been so confused, and Karalie had to cover by saying she'd though a bug was on her head.  How does one explain they'd seen a memory from their parents mind? It didn't make sense.  "Trust me, that was mild in comparison tuh some've the stuff I've seen from them."  A chill ran down her spine thinking of some of the other stuff.  "I don' wanna think 'bout nonuh that." She giggled, grabbing the bottle of Bacardi and showing Marnie.  "I heard uh this." She giggled unscrewing the cap and taking a sniff.  It all smelled like some variation of nail polish removed.  This one less so than the vodka, but still pretty nasty.  And she was ingesting this? No wonder her head was spinning like a top.

"Alright, rum 'n coke.. that's uh thing." She looked to Marnie for verification before pouring sound into her cup and then some soda on top.  When finished she took a sip and all but spit it out across the floor.  "The fuck!" She cried before laughing and looking in her cup before back at Marnie and cracking up.  She didn't realize how little Marnie had actually poured into the cups before.  She'd filled hers almost a third with rum.  She realized the error of her ways the hard way; it only took a little.  "That's terrible! Here, ya'll need tuh take some've that." She giggled, stumbling her way to Marnie when an unwelcome, familiar voice all but crooned from the doorway.

"Well, yer not our resident anythin'.  Ya'll don' actually live here." She reminded, pointing her cup angrily at Lucy and taking a shaky step towards her but no more.  She was still aware of everything, but her balance could be a little better.  "Why does she think she lives here?" She asked, offering Marnie a semi confused look.  Who had decided that this dorm was open to the public for anyone to just waltz right into?  

[Marnie Sullivan]

A rum and coke - which was definitely a thing, Marnie nodded - sounded like a safe next choice. Only two ingredients, right in the name, how hard could it be to make one? But somehow, Karalie found a way, and Marnie doubled over cackling while the other girl cursed and stumbled over to foist some of the failed mix on her.

The sudden knock on the door made Marnie jump, the remainder of her drink nearly sloshing out of her cup. Was it a dorm monitor? Had they been caught? But no, her panic faded as quickly as it had set on - another student! With an accent! Who also liked to drink apparently!

"You never told me you had an Australian friend!" she scolded playfully, Karalie's discomfort flying straight over her head. There was too much to be distracted by - the relief that they hadn't been busted, the pleasant tingling in her face, those tattoos!

Marnie hopped to her feet, wobbling a little but staying upright, and swung the door properly open to usher the new arrival inside. How did she have so many tattoos? Was she eighteen already, or maybe the rules were different in Australia or something? She would have to ask.

"Hiii, come in, come in! We have plenty!" On that note, she bustled back to their selection of drinks and grabbed a new cup to thrust into the girl's hands. "Help yourself, we have plenty, I'm Marnie, where'd you get so many tattoos?" Wait, was she rambling? She was rambling, wasn't she? Maybe she'd better fix herself another drink as well, at least while she was up.