InsaneJournal

Chillin'
Who: Gabe and Liam
Where: The park
When: Late afternoon

After dropping off a number of job applications and confirming details on the house purchase, Gabe was ready for some time to relax. He knew it wouldn't be long till he had to work to pay the rent, so he might as well take advantage of his free time while he had the chance. Hopping on his bike, he rode down to the park, then spent the next hour or two shooting hoops with some of the guys from school. It was a nice day to lose track of time. Gabe's eyes scanned the park as he wandered away from the basketball court. A guy had been found dead here just a few days prior. It was such a crazy thought, all the murders and attacks happening, but then he could count himself among that number. His just hadn't been reported, and he'd lived to tell, or to keep it a secret, whichever he preferred.

It wasn't that Liam didn't love his siblings, he just couldn't stand being around them for too long. Usually he'd end up wanting to punch Ryan in the face, or that stupid little snake that had showed up, and Jack was almost as bad as Ryan. The town was small, but it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would; it was a curious little place that turned out to be pretty interesting. Vampire bar, hunter attacks, and even a death. It was still nothing compared to Detroit, but Liam was a little happy to have left that place behind. It was his home, but admittedly a bit of a crap hole. Driving aimlessly through the streets, Liam parked his car and investigated various stores, tried out a restaurant that he decided he liked and tried to remember where it was for future reference. Coming upon a park, he sat down on a bench and people watched for a bit, fully intending on lighting up a joint he had rolled before leaving his house. Things were always so much more interesting when he was high and, when people watching, he preferred to be completely stoned.

Gabe smelled the smoke before he saw it, his werewolf nose ever sensitive and curious. The owner was unfamiliar to him, but looked about his age, making Gabe wonder if he was new to town or just visiting. People didn't really pass through Scarlet Oak. Why would they? Maybe he'd come in to check out the vampire bar. Regardless, he was ballsy to light up a joint in the park. "Most people at least try to hide it," Gabe grinned as he walked to the guy. He wasn't shy about talking to people he didn't know, and thought it might be nice to meet someone new and interesting.

Twitching slightly as someone walked up to him, Liam looked around for the source of the voice. The anger that was usually always burning low inside him, didn't flare up, the effects of the joint between his fingers already taking over. "I guess I'm not most people," he said with a shrug, bringing it to his mouth again and breathing in deep. He held the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds before exhaling and looking a little annoyed at the guy who had walked up. Liam wasn't exactly the most friendly or nice person, but he'd been in Scarlet Oak for a while now and hadn't really met anyone his own age. (Or anyone outside his family, for that matter.) This kid looked around his age and he wasn't giving him dirty looks for smoking up, so maybe he wasn't so bad. It might be nice to have someone to hang out with. Holding out his hand with the joint, he silently asked if he'd like to join. "Liam," he added with a nod, a simple introduction he thought.

"Gabe," he answered with a small laugh as he accepted the joint with a smile. He was going to reek afterwards, but since he already needed a shower, it probably wouldn't matter. So long as he was clean before he saw Claire or his mother. Inhaling deeply, Gabe handed back the joint before slowly exhaling. Good God. "Thanks. Are you new to town?" he asked. He knew everyone that he'd graduated with, and most people a year older and younger. Liam wasn't the least bit familiar, so he could make assumptions, but it seemed better to ask, just in case.

Bit of a girls name, Liam thought, but the kid seemed cool if he'd randomly start smoking up with a complete stranger in the park. Scarlet Oak was tamer than he had thought, if people would trust that easily. "No problem," he answered, grabbing the joint and taking another long drag from it. The stuff wasn't as good as the stuff he'd been able to get back in Detroit, but it did the trick and he was soon feeling quite a ease. "Uh, yeah. I just moved here with my siblings," he said slowly, nodding his head. Liam scrubbed his face and let his eyes focus lazily on the tree in front of him. He was pleasantly high and could feel the giggles coming on.

It wasn't that Gabe trusted easily, but that he was pretty sure that smoking pot was tame in comparison to all the other trouble he could get into. Now that he had to worry about losing his temper and ripping people to shreds, anything that mellowed him out seemed like a decent idea. "Where from?" Gabe asked, sliding onto the bench to sit sideways and face Liam. "Got lots of them?" Siblings, he meant. There had to be at least two, when spoken in the plural. Gabe wondered how his own brother was doing. It'd been a while since he'd seen him, though next time he did he needed to thank him for the fake ID.

"Detroit," Liam answered, nodding his head a little longer then usual and trying to fight back a laugh. One of the things that bothered him about getting high was the laughing he couldn't seem to stop. "Three of them, and you?" he asked, turning his head to look at Gabe with slightly bloodshot eyes. Liam had a slightly dopey smile on his face now; he felt the effects of the weed in his system and tried not to laugh for no reason. It made him feel light, not only physically but emotionally too. All the things that bothered him didn't matter so much when he was stoned.

"Just one. An older brother," Gabe answered. He was almost about to laugh himself, though he was sure there was nothing funny about it. Maybe it was just the expression on Liam's face that made him think so. It felt like it would be appropriate to laugh. "Damn, this place's gotta be tame compared to Detroit," he said, thinking about how different it had seemed moving to Scarlet Oak from New Jersey. "What brings you here? Just some place new? School?" There were lots of good reasons, and Gabe suspected that at least someone had come for a job. Money seemed to be the root reason for most people moving, unless they were getting pawned off on another relative, like he had.

Only one brother? Liam couldn't imagine only having one brother. As much as his siblings annoyed him, he still loved them more then anything and only having one still didn't sit well with him. Even hypothetically. Shaking the thoughts from his head he laughed. "Understatement of the year, dude," Liam took another hit from the joint and then passed it back to Gabe. "For the same reason that it's Detroit." The lie was that his family didn't like how dangerous it was, when it fact they were part of the reason it was, but Liam kept that part to himself. The huge sum of money they had stolen was part of it too, another part he wasn't going to tell Gabe.

"True enough," Gabe laughed, accepting another hit off the joint. He was less weary about getting caught now that he had ears that could hear just about anything in the area. Even high, it would be hard for a cop to sneak up on him. "Things have been a little wild lately, with people getting kidnapped and killed and whatnot, but that's really all recent. I've been here for almost three years now, and it's the biggest thing that's ever happened." Even then, he was sure it must seem like nothing compared to what went down in bigger cities. Since Scarlet Oak was all Gabe had known since the Light of May, he wasn't sure if things were worse elsewhere or better.

It never really bothered Liam, that he'd get caught smoking a joint. Mostly it didn't cross his mind, which is why he lit up right in the middle of park. He didn't a give shit what other people thought. It was tiring being someone you're not, hiding that person no one is allowed to see, so when it came right down to it he didn't care if he got caught with a joint. "And here I thought we were moving to Small Town, USA were everyone knows each other and no one ever gets hurt," he said dryly. It certainly had been a surprise to move here; it didn't have anything on Detroit (and Liam wasn't sure there was a city in the US that did), but this little town was something all on it's own. Full of strange people and even stranger occurrences.

"Everyone does know each other, and believe me, that makes it worse," Gabe said, taking a drag before handing the joint back to Liam. When he exhaled this time, he began to feel the effects, the world around him becoming just a little bit hazy. "People don't have a lot to do, so they make their own trouble. And then everyone knows everyone else's business. Can be a bit of a hazard at times." The crowd Gabe ran with usually put his life on social display, but now that high school was over he was hoping that might die down a bit. College was supposed to be big enough that he could fade into the background a little. While he liked the attention, he didn't always like the trouble.

Liam cringed at the idea of how small Scarlet Oak was, because once he thought about it; the place was fucking tiny. It would have been slightly disconcerting to him, if he and his siblings weren't so fucking good at lying. Taking the joint back, Liam pinched it in between his thumb and forefinger, taking another long toke. It had gotten significantly smaller since they had started and soon he was going to give up and just roach it. "One of the perks of living in a city, most people don't really give a fuck about anyone else. Most of the time anyway," There would always be gossip, no matter how big the place was. It all came down to people, Liam had found that it was their nature to cause shit between each other. "Thanks for selling the place, by the way," he joked, laughing.

"Hey, I tell it like it is," Gabe said with a lazy laugh. "Thanks for the high." He was feeling like it might be a good time to lay in the grass and watch the clouds. He was sure that was the pot talking, but why fight it? He definitely wasn't going to be hopping on his bike any time soon. "I think I'm gonna wander off and find some food. No good at playing ball now, so... see you around?" If Liam was just hanging out there today, he was sure he'd see him some other time. It was a good place to cross paths and meet new people.

Again he laughed, this time a little quieter than before as his head started pondering the world and life, how strange things were and that fact that he was sitting on a bench getting high with some guy he didn't know. Life could be weird. "No problem, man," he said, scrubbing his face as it started to feel numb and tingly. This was going to be a good high, Liam could tell and he suddenly had the urge to lay in the grass and watch the sunlight through the leaves. "Yeah, dude, for sure..." Gabe seemed like a pretty cool guy and if Liam wasn't so high he might have put a little more effort into the conversation, or not... you never really knew when it came to Liam.