Beach Party

He shrugged. "Be my guest. I'm just having just sooo much fun" he deadpanned sarcastically. To say he was bored leaning against the stupid palm tree by himself near a drink table would be an understatement. As long as they weren't annoyingly peppy and optimistic about the party, he didn't mind having some company. Victoria was one of the unbelievably small amount of people that he didn't want to rip his ears off while speaking to. In other words she was OKAY... he GUESSED. He certainly wasn't one bit relieved that she had shown up, and his mood did not improve by THAT much. ... And even if it any of it were true he was not about to admit it.
He raised a brow when he saw her cringe and glanced back to the couple only to cringe himself once again, they had gotten worse. Lovely. "Oh God, it's like they're boars doing some sort of sick mating ritual or something."
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Nick wordlessly climbed up onto the car, settling down beside her with one leg propped up on the car (he'd wash it later). He set his beer down and leaned back on his elbows, looking up at the sky. ".... It's already dark but we can't even see the stars with all of the light. This sucks." He didn't know why he felt the need to say something. He had just started feeling a bit uncomfortable lately when Annie went off on his own for some reason. He blamed this time on the alcohol. Yeah that's it, maybe he was starting to get a little buzzed.
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He had turned a bit to face the ocean, standing beside her as he watched the waves feeling quite relaxed. "That girl that wears a lot of leather? Pass. I'm pretty sure she'd bite my head off." He looked to her slightly with a small teasing smirk that didn't quite reach his eyes. He was feeling more content and chilled out then mischievous for once, damn he loved the beach. "So you're looking for girls then, huh? I'll have to mention it to Manda."

Murphy looked over at him, almost giving him her signature "bitch, please" look, before deciding again it and leaned back on the windshield. "What are you talking about? Of course you can see the stars, idiot." She looked up, and pointed to the first one she found. "Right there! See?"

Victoria raised an eyebrow in the direction of the couple, smirking.

"Personally I'm expecting them to start screeching at each other anytime now," she nodded her head. Right in that moment, the couple started passionately making out and being quite... liberal with the placement of their hands.

Victoria's cringe intensified and she turned into a shade of red. Oh, God. Weren't they embarrassed to be doing that in public, for Christ's sake? She awkwardly averted her eyes.

"So, what brings you to this..." she paused. "I can't even find something bad enough to call it."

With the party now in full swing, Manda had left to mingle and Drusilla was busy trying to get drunk (the woman was IMPOSSIBLE to drink under the table, so she usually made bets on it). This left Helen alone with her textbooks, just like she'd wanted... and yet, she was lonely. Usually Drusilla demanded attention, but at parties she didn't need to demand it-it came right to her.

Helen sighed and pulled out her phone again, this time to call someone. Dialing the familiar number, she couldn't help but wonder if she looked alright. If she was breathing too hard, if he'd be able to hear over the noise from the party, if he would even answer...

But, he did.

"Oh, Edward," she giggled with relief when he finally answered. "No, no it's nothing important I just... Wondered if you wanted to come to this party thing? Manda dragged me here, and Drusilla drove, and you know how they are..." It took Eddie a while to reply, but when he finally did it put a smile on Helen's face. "Oh, okay! I'll see you soon, then?" And with that, she went to go stash her books back in the truck.

"Oh God, this is a public place not your mother's basement." he grumbled as he scowled with disgust in the couple's direction. His focus shifted back to Vivi. "A so called friend begged me to come. I don't know why I even bothered, she hasn't even shown up." He leaned back, putting a little bit more of his weight on what he was leaning against. "What about you? Could it be you're seriously the "partying" type?"
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Nick grinned a bit and looked to the side, holding in a laugh. "I'm pretty sure that's a helicopter. Pfft, good work." He reached up to cover his face with his hand, for some reason finding this much funnier than it was.

Murph smiled widely, nudging Nick with her elbow. "You dumbass that's a st-..!!" She couldn't help but laugh along with him. "Holy crap it is a helicopter, god damn it!!" She sat up a little and stared. "I swore that was a star-man my eyesight sucks!!"

She scoffed. "As if. Candy asked me to come, and since she's the only thing making the Build-A-Bear experience bearable, I'd just thought I'd show some gratitude."

She looked around, sighing. "But I can't find her anywhere, and this whole thing was a bad idea," she scrunched up her nose. "Also, I'm going to find the DJ and put poison in their drink if the music doesn't improve anytime soon."

"Pffft- buzzed? Dude... I only had like..." Tom thought for a moment, and then tried to count on his fingers before giving up. "Not that much. I can walk in a straight line and everything!"
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"Well, Your hands came dangerously close to my eyes, and I can still see" Ced grinned. "I think I'd like this party better if there was less drinking and more daylight"
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"I'm disappointed Casanova, I thought you were better at picking up girls than this." Candy shook her head. "But maybe I should meet Manda, maybe she'll teach you the proper technique~"

"Uhuhhhh..." Hiro nodded slowly, and soon enough they arrived at the car. "Open the car for me? If you're not buzzed." He smirked.

"Dude, I can open a door... I'm not that stunned. He walked towards the parking lot and then began to yank on the car door. It wouldn't open. It took Tom a few moments to realise that it was the wrong car. "I was just checking to make sure this person wouldn't get their car broken into!"

"I would thump you on the back of your head I weren't carrying Nabi." He rolled his eyes, and went into his pocket. "I'm starting to think going swimming is a really bad idea." Soon, the door was open and Nabi was inside.

"I'm 6'5 man, I don't think the water's going to be too deep." he smirked, rubbing his neck

"Have I told you I haaaaaate how tall you are? I look like a damn midget compared to you."

He let out a genuine laugh. "No it doesn't, you're just crazy." He smiled a bit and pushed her with his shoulder. "There's a difference. Even if they didn't see well, they're still great to look at if it makes you feel better." He couldn't help but stare at her for a bit before feeling uncomfortable once again and looking away, especially after what he had said. What was the big deal? He had joked around like that before, why was saying something like that bothering him now... Was it because he meant it? 'Damn it, what the hell is wrong with me? Must be the stupid beer.'
(wow that was really bad and oddly hard to write idk why ; ____ ; )
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He couldn't help but chuckle a bit to himself when she scrunched up her nose. The girl was still as strange as ever, not that he was complaining. "It all sounds like one long annoying sound of buzzing nonsense to me, but if you stopped it then you'd be able to hear all of the bullshit people are spewing right now. So that girl with the tacky name, is she as peppy and passionate about the job as you are?" he asked with a small tight-lipped smirk.
(silas no you do NOT insult Candy-bby -3- )
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His smirk grew, eyes squinting a bit as he failed to hide how amused he was. "Are you insulting my charming skills there?" He stepped forward and laughed a bit. "Trust me, if I were trying to pick you up, you'd be in my arms right now, precious" he said with a wink and a grin. He suddenly stepped back and stretched, walking a bit towards the ocean. "Buuut why waste a good line when it's obvious you're already into me~?" he teased before smiling. "Im kidding, I'm kidding. No need to eat my first born child."

She shrugged and wrinkled her nose in thought. "You know what? I think I'm really over that child eating kick anyway. They're all snotty and gross. Work has really made child consumption lose its appeal, you know?" as usual, her tone was eerily serious despite the fact that she was indeed only joking. She glanced out over the water for a moment and then looked back at him. "So what about you? What brings you here Anthony?"
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"You're just jealous because you can't thump me on the back of the head without jumping like a kid~"
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Byron was leaning against the trunk of his car, scrolling through his phone. Apparently those who had invited him at opted not to show. After being sick of standing around amongst a drunken haze, he'd decided to retreat to the somewhat more quiet parking lot and have a cigarette. He'd yet to kick his smoking habit, but no longer had any desire to quit.

Thankful that the parking lot was still fairly deserted, Helen started to search for Drusilla's truck. The thing should not have been as hard to spot as it was-Silla had picked out the biggest, most brightly colored truck she could find. Yet, Helen had a time searching through cars to find it. She'd forgotten her glasses, so that was likely a big part of the reason...

Nevertheless, she found it after a good fifteen minutes of searching and went to toss her things in the front seat. On the way to the truck, she caught a whiff of something truly awful. Helen couldn't place the smell at first, but it and the awful burning sensation in her nose were both very familiar. She coughed, muffling it with her hand, and unlocked the door. Despite her efforts to hold back as she put away her bag, she sniffled. Sniffling, she managed to get a particularly good nostril-full of smoke, and she sneezed. Helen's sneezing, since the dawn of time (or the beginning of her life, but that sounds so much less dramatic) had always been very loud and distinctly kitten-esque. This was certainly no different, and she found herself blushing and hiding her face, lest she have been noticed.

Byron frowned and raised a brow at the sound of the sneeze. He'd thought he was alone in the parking lot. He lowered the cigarette and craned his neck, and sure enough, there stood Helen. He was unsure whether or not it was her at first, but after a moment or so, he was nearly positive that it was. Should he try and speak to her? What would she say? Would he be slapped? These were just a few of the many thoughts running through his mind. In the end, he decided he would simply stand there and hoped that she might notice him. The thought of approaching made him uncomfortable when he was unsure of how she would react to seeing him.

Helen waited and waited to see if she would be acknowledged, but when she heard nothing, she finally looked to find the source of the smoke. Before doing so, she grabbed a few Kleenex, however. Cigarettes affected her so badly, it was really quite-wait. Cigarettes. That's what the smell was! How could she be so stupid, it was obviously cigarettes. Byron always used to smell like them and she hated it... though, now the smell brought back so many memories, she almost didn't mind it at all. She checked her phone for a message from Edward-and there was none yet-then reasoned she best wait for him here in the parking lot, conveniently close to the stranger that was already reminding her of... someone she truly missed.

For the sake of starting a conversation, she looked around to try and get a look at said stranger. Without her glasses, Helen couldn't tell who it was, but that certainly didn't stop her from commenting on his lack of decorum. "You know, generally it's nice to get a 'bless you' or something when you have a coughing fit and start sneezing all over the place." Hm... Not her best, but it'd do. At least she'd get a response with that.

(NICKIE BABYYYY ;;A;; THESE NOISES I'M MAKING AREN'T HUMAN.)

Murphy sighed, and leaned back onto Nick's chest. "But I don't wanna seeeee hellicopters I wanna see stars!" She whined. She obviously didn't see the big deal in leaning all up on her friend like this, she always did it when they were alone, but lately, she felt like something was weird about it. She felt more tense or awkward when it came to him, but she was sure that it was just the seasons getting colder (even though it was the dead middle of summer), or the fact that they were older, and not kids anymore.
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"I can still thwap you, you butt." He grumbled, and closed the door. "C'mon, let's go."

Tom blinked for a moment and then smirked "You want to thwap my butt?~ Sorry, my butt is off limits"
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Byron turned his head, grimacing a bit sheepishly. "Sorry... I must have forgotten my manners. he dropped the cigarette butt and stepped on it, before awkwardly putting his hands in his pockets, unsure of himself.

"Yeah. People get waaaay too touchy-feely when they're drunk, if you get what I mean," she raised her eyebrows at a couple of people nearby, amused. "And the water's probably too cold to swim in right now," she sighed. "Which is a bummer, because that's what makes the beach really fun."

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"No, she's actually doing way better than me making the job seem like a good thing," she folded her arms, her lips twitching as she remembered something. "She made a kid cry once. I don't know what she told him, but I heard it was reasonably creepy and it had him bawling in no time," this time she really was smiling, though a bit guiltily. The mother of the child did threaten to issue a complaint, too. "It was a bit too satisfying, to be honest."

She then rolled his eyes at him. "And her name isn't tacky," she pursed her lips. "Well, it could be tackier."

"It's fine just..." She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I literally had nothing else to say. I'm... Helen, by the way."

Hiro's eyes widen before shooting a glare at him. "Oh ha, ha, very funny."

"tell me about it... Especially when that person is Wally! Be thankful you're not around when he gets cuddly" Ced smirked.
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Byron raised a brow and couldn't help himself now that she didn't seem to recognize him. "Really Helen? It's been a while, but you don't have to reintroduce yourself"
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"Hey, you're the one that said it, not me~"

"I never said anything!"