Don't drink and fly! Who: Harley and Bella When: Nighttime Where: Bella's house (PARTAAAY)
Bella had realized something today. On your twenty-first birthday, it was the sworn duty of everyone who knew you to try and kill you. No, seriously. True story! It seemed like everyone had brought alcohol, and Gabby had been damn insistent that the birthday girl had to do twenty-one shots. The birthday girl managed one and a half. Bella had never realized just how disgusting tequila was. So people kept making her drinks, and pinning her with various birthday girl memorabilia (she was up to a sash, a crown, two pins and a pink ribbon), and she was already quite overwhelmed. The room wasn't spinning, and she wasn't fall-down drunk. But she was pretty sure that this - this whatever state she was in - was buzzed. And it wasn't a bad thing! It was a learning experience. For example: buzzed Bella was twice as ditzy as sober Bella. Learning experience!
All in all, Bella's first-ever house party seemed to be going well. She was having fun, she was surrounded by friends (and really, after yesterday, she needed to be), and she was pretty sure her familiar was drunk. Naturally, people were just leaving their drinks wherever, and Ember was a bit too curious for her own good. It had been a long time since Bella had heard Ember's voice in her head, or felt anything even vaguely coherent. Where is that silly bird? she wondered, moving through the kitchen. People were listening to music and dancing in the living room, playing drinking games in the kitchen, video games in the basement, swimming and dancing in the back yard, and God only knew upstairs. Bella had locked the bedroom doors, but she had the habit of befriending extremely tricksy, clever, stubborn people. Whoops.
It had been far, far too long since Harley had been to a decent party. Of course he was going to help Bella celebrate her 21st - vampires be damned, no one was going to ruin that for his friend. And honestly, if there was anything Harley Villetta knew how to do and do well, it was make sure people had a good time.
He'd hit the liquor a little bit hard himself, but that was to be expected, and he hadn't forgotten about the birthday girl. He'd even gone through his entire house until he could find a pretty enough bag to put Bella's present in - a few bottles of Boone's Farm wine. She didn't have to drink them now, but it was like a rite of passage. The stuff also didn't taste a whole lot like wine, so he figured she'd like that more than, say, a bottle of Jack Daniel's or something. Present in hand and his hoodie slightly askew, he went searching for Bella. Honestly, he wasn't going to make it with a girl at her birthday party!
...Okay, maybe he was, but not right now. Grinning, he found his friend in the kitchen, coming up behind her to give her a great big hug. "Hey you! Don't go hiding now, you're the guest of honor!"
Bella squeaked and giggled, albeit in a somewhat higher tone than she normally would. Search for her probably drunken familiar temporarily forgotten, she managed to turn around and hug the hugger back. Oh jeez, that didn't even make sense to me. "Hi, Harley!" she greeted. "I'm not hiding, I swear!" Had the idea occurred to her when she was still one hundred percent sober, maaaaaybe, but probably not. It would have been rude. Bella didn't do rude. "I keep getting dragged all over the place! Gabby made me do shots. Well, a shot. I didn't do so hot at shots." Blink. "But I rhyme!" Rhyming had to count for something, darn it. "How long have you been here? I'm sorry I missed you getting here! I'm a bad hostess!" A kind of tweaked hostess. Miss Manners didn't prepare a person for how to remain a proper hostess while your friends tried to plow you with liquor.
"Good, because then I'd have to drag you out of hiding whether you liked it or not!" And he would, no questions asked, even if she wasn't actually hiding and just wasn't in the same room as he was. Harley hugged her back, lifting her up a little since she was smaller than him, and it seemed like a good thing to do at the time. "You're in high demand tonight, comes with the territory." He took a sip of his drink, some fruity concoction someone had mixed for him, before continuing. "And it's all good! Got caught up talking to people myself, but here! I got you a present!" He held out the bag to her. "Sorry it's not wrapped as pretty as it could be, I'm much better with digital designs than physical ones." The card he'd found was a pretty one, though, it all made sense in his head.
Bella squealed a little at the lift, wondering how much longer gravity would remain her friend. At the rate she was going? Not long. "Thank you, sweetie! You didn't have to get me anything. You coming is enough!" And Bella was just the sickeningly sweet sort of person to truly mean it. And even buzzed, she was still well-mannered enough to go for the card first. Small success there! She continued grinning brightly as she read the card, giving him a quick peck on the cheek after she did. She laughed when she looked inside the bag and saw a bottle. Popular gift tonight, that. "I'm gonna be an expert by the end of the night."
"It's your 21st! I couldn't just show up and get drunk as my present." Harley paused for a moment, "Okay, so that could have been funny, but you know what I meant." Harley was drunk enough often enough that Bella certainly knew what he was like by now. He wasn't a mean drunk, or an angry one, just even more flirty and happy than he was normally. And that kiss she gave him on the cheek? So not helping with that. "You know, we're catching you up for lost time," he teased. "And I figured you might like the stuff better than like hard liquor or something. Don't worry, we can save it for another night, I'm sure we all made sure you were well stocked."
Stone cold sober, Bella was a touchy-feely person - never stingy with the hugs or touches or friendly kisses. One could only assume that was going to get a lot worse when she drank. She was, apparently, a happy drinker. Her head felt bubbly. She liked bubbles. "I am not a fan of the hard liquor!" she announced, wide-eyed. "I found that out earlier. Gabby said I had to do twenty-one shots, and I said that would lead to alcohol poisoning, but she made me try. The only part of that business I liked was the lime." Hey. Earth elemental. It was required.
Harley was never the kind of guy who minded a girl who was touchy-feely. One of his arms looped around Bella's shoulders and kept it there, not intending to flirt with her, and yet, completely unable to help himself. "It's fun, but it's better when you mix it with stuff," he said, gesturing to the cup he held in his hand. If asked, Harley was already too buzzed to remember what was actually in it. "And what was she having you do shots of? Tequila? That's like asking to throw up in the first two hours of the party and that's just not fun." He made a face. "Come on, I'll make you something to drink!"
"Mix it with what?" Bella asked, then blinked at the question. "There are other kinds of shots?" Oh jeez, she'd said that out loud. And now she felt stupid. "Darn it, Harley, you're younger than me! You're not supposed to know more about this stuff than I do!" Or. Something. She was pretty sure Harley knew more about booze than any of her friends. Maybe tied with Gabby. And she didn't think Gabby knew so much as she simply inhaled. Either way, she allowed herself to be led. This should be interesting!
The riflebird let out a laugh, really closer to a giggle, but he'd fight that description tooth and nail if anyone asked him about it. "Only by two days!" he said, wiggling the same number of fingers in Bella's direction. "Of course there are! Come on, my little apprentice, let me teach you the fine, fine art of mixing drinks." Harley didn't so much as mix them as he poured some stuff into a cup and called it good, but that was neither here nor there. There was a small table set up with various cups and drinks and things, and that was exactly where Harley brought Bella. "Hmmm, let's see... oh! I know!" He grabbed the bottle of Smirnoff and what was left of the jug of orange juice. This wasn't going to end well.
No, no it absolutely was not, but Bella didn't know that! If she did, she would have been properly frightened. As it was, she was just extremely amused with what was totally a giggle. From a boy. A straight boy. Who knew. She sat on the countertop and watched, thinking anything with orange juice couldn't be that bad. "You don't look like you know what you're doing," she teased. "You look like you're winging it. 'Hey, Bella doesn't know any better, what weird concoction can I dream up?' Yup. That's what this looks like."
Harley had to set down his own drink, and let go of Bella, in order to proper make the drink for her. Granted his hand was no longer so steady, and his proportions were far from correct, being buzzed himself. One would think that, since he was a were, his tolerance might be a little better, but nope. Being an itty bitty bird who didn't eat much on a regular basis didn't help with that much. "I kind of know what I'm doing," he said, pouring some orange juice in a glass, then some of the vodka. He paused, inspected it, then added more vodka, just for good measure. "There! Try that. It's a classic." Technically speaking.
"Kind of," Bella repeated with a grin. "That's so comforting." But hey, she was a trusting girl. And Harley was one of her best friends. He wouldn't steer her too wrong. So she dutifully tried it, and waited to be horrified. Whether it was the orange juice or the fact that she was already buzzed, she couldn't be sure, but... it wasn't bad! Well, so bad. If she didn't think about it she didn't really taste the vodka, though it burned her throat a little. She paused for dramatic effect, and grinned again. "Well. I didn't fall over dead. Maybe you do know what you're doing. Kind of." And she laughed.
Since he was making drinks anyway, Harley looked over what had been in his drink, cranberry something-or-other, and figured it couldn't taste that bad if he added orange juice and vodka to it, as well. Shrugging, he emptied the last of the OJ into the glass, topped it off with vodka, and slugged down a big long sip. "I've been doing this for a while now, you forget. If anyone's going to know, it'll be me." Or you know, a professional bartender, which Harley was decidedly not. He was a party bartender through and through and no one had ever complained yet. He was smirking as she sipped at it, morphing into a full-blown grin when she spoke up. "See? I told you! I wouldn't steer you wrong."
Were Bella just a smidgen more sober, she would have stopped to think that alcohol that went down more or less like juice was probably a bad thing, but... well, she just wasn't. Tonight's world was completely void of bad things, and she was happy for it. Bad things needed to go away! More good things, please. And she liked this buzzed, bubbly feeling. It was rather refreshing! "Of course you would," she grinned. "Everybody is trying to steer me wrong tonight. That's kind of the point. I've resigned myself to this fate."
In Harley's world, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this situation. They were all hanging out with their closest friends, they were having a good time, what was there not to like? He wasn't immune to the fact that sometimes Bad Things happened at parties, but this was Bella's big night and he wouldn't let anything get in the way of that. "Nooooooo," he protested, wiggling a finger at her over the top of his cup. "Are you having a good time? That's all the counts, right?"
Bella smiled an extra-bright smile now. Beaming territory. She'd been doing that a lot tonight, and was bound to do it a lot more. "I am," she confirmed. "Thank you. Are you?" Because that was important, too. Her guests had to have fun! She had still not completely abandoned the idea of being a good hostess! All the while she kept on sipping her drink, and sure enough, once she forgot about the burning in her throat, by golly she forgot she was drinking at all! Funny how that happened. Mixed drinks were apparently one of the night's many 'good things'. No bad things, remember?
Harley let out another one of those giggle-laughs he was never going to admit to making come tomorrow morning. "Hell yes I am! You know I always do." Sometimes it didn't take much. Right now he was surrounded by good friends, there was liquor everywhere, and he had a cute girl who was celebrating her birthday. Really, what was not to like? Even though he and Bella were very much just friends, and no amount of alcohol could change that in his mind, the fact that they were still hanging out and spending time together made the riflebird happy. Now he just had to remember not to shift when he was drunk, and the night would end on a good note.
Bella squeed when he giggled, she just couldn't help it. "I didn't know you were a giggler," she teased. "It's ridiculously amusing." Ridiculously! Obviously she wasn't that buzzed, if she was still correctly pronouncing five-syllable words. "Maybe I need to go to these kinds of parties more often." Though not at her house. Totally worth it tonight, but it was going to be a horrible clean-up. Then again, if she went to someone else's house, she'd hate the idea of them having to do the clean-up. She couldn't win!
"I am NOT a giggler!" This was punctuated by another one, clearly defeating what he'd just said, but Harley ignored that, taking another sip of his drink. How many different kinds of liquor were in this by now? Hell if Harley knew. So long as it made Bella happy, he'd let her tease him, and his next response was to stick his tongue back out at her. "And yes, you should! You are going to come to my birthday party, yes? I'll be so sad if you don't." Harley had been looking forward to this so much, and for so long, that it couldn't be anything but epic. Dagmar even offered her house for them to party in, there wasn't a thing that could go wrong. That was a lie, Harley would know it was a lie when he sobered up, but right now? Totally an awesome thought in his head.
"Of course I'm coming!" Bella answered with a gasp, as if she couldn't imagine a world where she wouldn't. And, well, she couldn't. She did not miss her friend's birthdays. She grinned again. "Legally, I can return your gift favor. You broke the law. Bad Harley." Somehow, she had a feeling this would not bother him in the slightest. Call it a hunch. Oh yeah, because this was nowhere near new territory to him, like it was to her. It was at that moment, even whilst she was giggling, that she finished her drink and looked up at him. A thought occurred to her, and all at once her features went serious. "How will I know if I get drunk?"
Harley gave a little fist pump, completely thrilled at the prospect. The more people the better, in his opinion. And this was the big one, the 2-1, how could anyone miss that? He just gave her a little smirk and laughed, "Bella sweetie, it's only illegal if you get caught." He'd had Kai glamour his ID again, and went to that same liquor store to pick it up. No one was any wiser about it, and Bella had a great present. It all worked out in the end. At her question, Harley's head tilted to the side a little, staring at her curiously, one of the times when he did kind of look a bit like a bird in his human form. Truth be told she was probably already drunk, nothing Harley could do about that now. "When you feel like you're having a very, very good time," he said. "And if you wake up with a hangover tomorrow."
And just like that, Bella grinned again. "Well I felt that way before I started drinking," she pointed out. She pushed off the counter top and landed on her feet, suddenly feeling lightheaded, and her limbs feeling tingly. Whoaaaa... She looked around, and her vision seemed a little... wonky. The answer is: movement. Movement is how I will know I'm drunk. She'd only thought this, but she nodded all the same. "Yup," she decided. "I'm drunk." She said it as if she was discussing the weather. Yup, looks like rain.
"Well then, I don't know what to tell - whoa!" Harley noticed Bella wobbling about the same time she did, and he took a few steps forward to steady her. Which wasn't saying much, considering that Harley wasn't as steady on his feet either at this point, but he managed to do so without spilling his drink, so bonus points to him. "Me too, probably," he said, shrugging. "I don't mind. You should drink water, though. It'll help with the hangover tomorrow." He was going to stick with the booze, though. He didn't have to be to work early.
Bella laughed loudly, and it was a truly gleeful sound as she threw her arms around Harley. Yup, drunk. But that wasn't so bad. It was not nearly as scary as church made it sound! Okay, so living your life like this would be a bad thing, but now and then in the company of great friends? Not bad at all. "You're not drinking water," she pointed out. "That does not seem to jive with the party spirit. And I might lose my membership to the club of people that are twenty-one." That totally made sense.
Out of reflex, his arms went around her too, pulling her in close because he could. Harley wasn't trying to flirt, not really, it was just kind of what happened sometimes. And he could tell Bella straight up that living your life like this was definitely not a bad thing. Sure, he might not remember everything, but he was always hanging out with good friends, he knew it couldn't end too badly. "No, I'm not," he said, looking down into his cup for a second, "but I fully expect to be hungover tomorrow. I was just trying to help you. And this?" He made a half-assed gesture to the party going on around them, "Means you are in the club for good. And in two days I'll be joining you." That too made sense in Harley's head, maybe not so once it was said out loud.
Bella looked up at him and wrinkled her nose up. "I think you got early admittance, Harley," she pointed out. Really, she did. Or maybe he'd just been prepping for it, like it was a big exam or something. Somehow, it occurred to her that she was taking this 'drunk' experience far too seriously. But she grinned at the thought of being a member of the club. She liked this club. She liked her friends! They were good people. Harley was good people.
"YES!" This was shouted loud enough so the people outside could probably hear him - and Harley didn't regret a second of that. Hell, you could tell what room he was in by the sound of his voice, that was nothing new. As it was he somehow managed to stumble at the same time, reaching back for the counter in order to stabilize them both. "Whoa, okay, so maybe I'm a little drunk too." A little? Harley was the kind of guy who pregamed for everything, of course he was drunk. But it was all in good fun, and he enjoyed the hell out of every single second of it. And it seemed Bella was having a good time, too.
She didn't know what the heck he was shouting about, but he seemed pretty excited about it, so that was okay. Bella laughed loudly and leaned against him while she got her giggles under control. It only started to occur to her that maybe she was being a bit too friendly, but in her current mindset, it was hard to imagine such a thing. The world was lacking an awful lot of friendly. "Yup. You are," she replied, looking up and giving him a solemn nod. "I would know. I'm older than you." And as if to prove this sage wisdom, she stuck her tongue out at him. Who could argue with that logic?
C'mon now, this was Harley she was with. Since when was there such thing as too friendly with him? He was being a very good boy, all things considered, because if she'd been any other girl then he'd be trying to put the moves on her, regardless of his current state of intoxication. "Psh, by two whole daaaaaaays. You won't be able to hold it over me for long." And if she thought he was drunk now, his birthday was going to be epic. Seriously, someone needed to take pictures for him, because otherwise he wouldn't remember.
"Just because you're gonna turn twenty-one doesn't mean I still won't be two days older than you!" Bella objected. "I get to hold that over you for the rest of your life. And it will be glorious. It's one of the few things I have on you." At least until his birthday and she had pictures as blackmail. Okay, she probably wouldn't do that. It was a great idea for all of three seconds, and just like that! Boop. Gone. "My familiar is drunk," she announced, randomly. "I don't think familiars are supposed to get drunk, and she's hiding from me. I'll bet it's funny."
"Well, yes. But two days doesn't matter that much, so - there!" He stuck his tongue out at her, because he couldn't think of anything better to say in the moment. Bella was too good a person to really go through with anything like that, blackmail included. Hell, Harley was fully aware that he was going to do some really stupid shit in the next few days, and probably wouldn't even think to regret it until he was, oh, maybe in his 30s sometime. "Really? I kind of want to see it. I could shift and we could go for a fly together!" Yes, because drunken flying ever ended well. Not.
That thought made Bella laugh. A lot. The kind of insane gigglefit that made it almost impossible to remain upright. "Oh my God," she gasped. "Have you ever flown into a window? Or a wall? Or fudge the landing?" Were she sober, she might have worried that these were really rude questions. She was not sober. She was drunk, and going to stay that way. As soon as she stopped laughing, she was going to make herself another drink.
Harley made a face, "Dude, okay, you know those commercials where the bird flies into the window? I've done that! And it hurt! A lot!" He did not mention that he'd somehow lost his house keys that night and was trying to get back inside without his dad knowing. Yeah, it didn't work. But it got Bella to laugh, so that was a good thing, right? He knew he shouldn't shift, but drunk!Harley thought it was an awesome idea. Who said no to flying? He never did.
That started the gigglefits all over again, and harder than ever. It wasn't so bad. It wasn't like she'd never walked into a door - a material, visible, wooden door - just because she'd been too busy with her head in the clouds. That was way worse, right? Absolutely. "If you fly home, what do you do about clothes? It's not like you can just carry them. They're too heavy for a bird!" This was both a fascinating and totally hilarious conversation topic. Bella approved.
Holding onto a shaking girl in your arms who was laughing close to hysterically? Really kind of funny, and not easy to do when you were drunk, truth be told. Harley considered one arm still being around her to be quite the victory. "You ditch them, of course," he said, matter-of-factly. "I'm tiny enough as a riflebird, so they don't get ruined or anything, but someone has to bring them back to me. And then you hope your luck doesn't run out." Seriously, how many times had he flown home by now? It never ended well, but thankfully his dad wasn't too much of a dick about it. Sometimes.
Bella put her hand over her mouth and laughed again (okay, she'd never really stopped). "If you fly home tonight?" she asked, once she was calm enough to do so. "I'm holding your clothes for ransom. Until you admit I'm older than you. Like, for real older than you." And then she grinned. Yes, this was an awesome plan. Everything was just coming together tonight. Yay!
"Hey now! That's so not fair!" Harley attempted to pout and halfway succeeded before breaking out laughing. "Maybe I don't mind showing up at my house naked, if I decide to fly. What about that, hmmm? You are evil. Eeeeeeeeeevil." Said in jest, of course, Bella wouldn't hurt a fly. Truth be told, Harley hadn't given a second's thought to how he was getting home tonight. Possibly falling asleep somewhere in Bella's house, that didn't sound like a bad idea. But the night was still young and Harley was too drunk to think that far ahead.
Bella had actually planned, while she was still sober, for a lot of drunk friends to crash at her place. She was completely prepared. Extra pillows and blankets cleverly placed through-out the house and all. She sure as heck didn't want anybody driving. That thought made her laugh again. "Don't drink and fly. The post-Light of May public service announcement. It has a nice ring to it."
Harley had no intention of driving home, that was for damn sure. He knew no one would mind if he left his Firebird here overnight and after how much the repairs cost after the demon, he sure as hell didn't want anything else to happen to the car. "Don't drink and fly," he repeated, giggling like crazy at the expression for no apparent reason, "that's epic! I mean, it sounds like it's funny and then you get all woozy and you wake up with a headache and... yeah." Because he'd completely forgotten in the moment that Bella was very much not a bird like he was, and therefore had never flown in her life.
Despite the Twight house's large menagerie of birds, no, Bella was not one. And had never flown. And, oh yeah, was ridiculously terrified of heights and never wanted to. Sometimes she felt dizzy just watching Ember. But listening to Harley was still pretty hilarious. "We can't print up t-shirts and start a movement!" she declared. This sounded like a great idea.
When he was sober, he would remember Bella's fear of heights, and remember not to tease her for it. Not everyone was a bird like him, and therefore were more than capable of keeping their feet on solid ground. Harley? Not so much. "Oh my god, you can do that for my birthday!" Regardless of the fact that said birthday was in two days and it would be more than difficult for her to get shirts made in time. "I'll wear mine if you wear yours."
Oh yeah. Bella's face lit up at the thought. And even drunken-Bella was still Bella enough to know she needed to write this idea down before she passed out and forgot about it. "I will so wear mine!" she shouted excitedly. Like this was the most amazing thing ever. At the moment, it was. In five minutes there would probably be a new most amazing thing ever, but right now? This was tops. "I promise!"
"That is going to be so beyond epic!" As was having to explain why they were wearing shirts that said "don't drink and fly" on them. If anyone doubted the fact that he was also a bird, he'd shift for them, and then insisted they'd never seen such a beautiful bird in all their life. "That's it, we're coordinating that shit. Promise." He held up one pinky to her, to make the most solemn of all promises: the pinky swear. Yep, Harley was drunk, all right.
Oh yeah, and so was Bella. She even managed to look solemn and sincere as she linked pinky fingers with him. "Promise," she confirmed, before breaking out into another grin. "The movement begins!" Okay, probably not, but darn it it would be FUN. She couldn't wait to tell Alex. Maybe she could get him in on it. And Gabby! FUN TIMES!
Why shouldn't everyone they know get in on this? How was this not the best thing they'd ever thought of? Sure, something would probably trump this in five minutes, but until then, this was awesome. Harley was all giggles as Bella actually returned said pinky swear, losing his balance a little and having to hang onto the counter to keep standing. "Yessssssss," he said, "and if you have that for my birthday," a tall order, but he believed her capable, "even better."
When Harley wobbled, so did Bella, and that was when she finally realized she wasn't really standing on her own. Actually, Harley had pretty much been holding her up. When had that happened? Drunkenly, she tried to figure out if she was embarrassed or not. She thought she might be a little, but at the same time, it was kind of funny. She laughed and forced herself to back off, leaning against the wall - and then sliding down to the floor. "I will!" she vowed, as if she hadn't moved at all.
In all honesty, Harley hadn't realized he was holding her up either. He didn't mind having his friend so close, even though Bella was one of the few girls he knew who he wouldn't actually put the moves on. She was Bella, and she was one of his good friends, and he liked her just the way she was without having to let his riflebird flirtiness get in the way of things. No need for her to be embarrassed, Harley wasn't - but then again, Harley never was. "And that," he said, "is why you are awesome."