Late Evening, Lobby, Mocha, Apt 113, Amarie, Emma, Lucas, Travis, Closed.
The taxi pulled up at the Manor, and Emma was still miffed. "I say we go find some more fun somewhere else, what do you think Amarie? I mean, it's still way early, we could probably find another club that would let us in?"
Amarie closed the door of the cab with a polite click. It hadn't been the cab driver's fault but Del Avilar would be drawing a sharp breath soon if she had her way. "I dunno," she said. "Somehow all the fun has gone out of it."
"Or we could just go up to my place and watch DVD's and if we stop off in the Mocha first we can clean them out of muffins and cookies and take some big hot chocolates upstairs too?" Emma grinned, that had the makings of a plan about it, that idea did.
Amarie grinned too. "Hell yes," she said. "I've got some DVDs that aren't strictly out yet. D'you mind being a pirate for the night? I could fetch them while you get the goodies. Here," she thrust some money into Emma's hand, "that's for the food."
Emma opened her mouth to refuse the money, but Amarie was already moving, so Emma shrugged and stuffed the cash into her pocket, she'd give it back later, and headed into the Mocha to get the supplies required for a sleepover.
She wasn't worried about anyone observing her now, she was coming home, safe and in one piece, but the fringing on the skirt swished around her thighs and the heeled shoes clicked and clacked on the floor as she strode to the counter, intending to get all the nice edibles they had left at this time of night. She even noticed a familiar person at one of the tables, but by the time he might have looked up to see who was making all the noise, she was concentrating on the counter.
"Well well, Mary, aren't you dressed to kill! Who's your target?" she could clearly hear the snickering from the table that was occupied by Lucas. The boy stood up seeing her, however, and approached with a cigarette behind his ear and tattooed arms visible by the well fitting punk band t-shirt he was wearing. He smelled of cigarettes and a little bit of alcohol, but he did not seem to be drunk - just talkative.
Thing was, Emma was in one of those contrary moods, and having placed her order, she turned to face Lucas, and tilted her head slightly, "And if I said it was you?" She smiled, leaning forward a little, one hand coming to rest, the fingers just touching the middle of his chest, "What would you say to that I wonder?"
She trailed her fingers downwards slightly, looking up into his face, "What? Nothing to say all of a sudden? Well, there's a surprise." She chuckled, "As it happens, company would be nice tonight, Amarie and I just got home and I was thinking movies and hot chocolate and all the muffins and cookies from the Mocha, want to join us? Amarie says she has some DVD's that aren't technically out yet?"
Lucas blinked at her straight forwardness, but then just grinned really wide as an answer taking that as a challenge. "Oh I see you're that kind of a Mary today! Gotta say I'm not complaining," he said smugly and leaned against the counter and did not bother covering up that he was checking her out from head to toes. "So you girls are gonna watch like Ice Age 3 and eat muffins and have lemonade, is that right? Come on. I could get my hands on something a little better than lemonade and I can't come to a party empty handed, now can I?"
"Then you'd best go get it and meet me back at my place, and I have no idea what dvd's amarie has, but come on, Ice Age has been good for a laugh so far!" Emma leaned one hip against the counter too, ignoring the complaint from the barista, and considered Lucas right back, as it went he wasn't a complete wash out, far from it, but he wasn't perfect and didn't want to be, which just made him even more interesting. "Apartment 113, and best bring enough for four?"
Emma pulled her cell from her purse, and sent Amarie a quick text Met someone, and he has booze, got a friend you can bring too?
"Enough for four? Sheesh, I need a bloody trolley..." Lucas smirked, pushed himself off the counter and walked past Emma. Continuing the cheekiness, he hopped in the air and gave a gentle kick on Emma's bottom that felt like a slap of a hand. "Hey - no hands!" he defended himself right away raising his hands up and glancing at her over his shoulder as he walked away.
"Watch it you, or the trolley will be welcome and you won't!" Emma chuckled, refusing to even acknowledge the kick, because come on, she'd barely felt it as it was. The barista said something, and she turned back to the counter, "What? Oh yes, on the apartment tab please, 113, and I'll just take all that to go, yes."
A couple of minutes later she was sliding her door key into the lock and somehow not dropping the hot chocolates (four of just in case) or the muffins and cookies. Now all she needed was her guests!
"Hi," Amarie stepped out of the stairwell door, grinning and swinging a paper sack in her hand. "Met Vinnie in the hallway. Good job I'd put my jeans back on. Anyhow I got a coupla movies. The new Star Trek and I haven't seen Wolverine yet, have you?"
She bounced across to Emma and looked around. "Where is he then?"
"Getting the booze, where's yours?" Emma snickered, "He doesn't want to come to a party empty handed, so he went to get some drinks. How thoughtful! He's a snarky wotsit though, ooh," the tray of chocolates wobbled, "give us a hand with the hot chocolates? I don't want to drop them and have them go to waste?"
The door opened, and luckily nothing else seemed in danger of being dropped as Emma pulled the key loose from the door and poked the door open wider. "There, and in we go."
Amarie paused, the lights above the elevators down the hall catching her eye. "Look, here's someone now," she said. "I gave Travis a call. It might be him."
Turned out it was Lucas instead of Travis. He stepped out of the elevator, looked to the other end of the corridor and then turned to the right direction. When he spotted the girls, he grinned and started towards them carrying a bag that looked rather heavy.
"Oh it is the delectable Amarie!" he said recognizing her. "The one with the scary big brother, right?"
Travis hadn't needed the elevator, having been just down the hall himself. He'd gotten the call from Amarie, decided to change his clothes and walked out after hearing a noise in the hallway. It must've been Lucas's greeting that he'd heard. "Oh hey there you heading this way? Need a hand or two?" He asked seeing Lucas not so empty handed.
"Hey, thanks but I'll be fine. Emma's place should be right here anyway," Lucas turned to the other young man and pointed to the general direction of the apartment with his thumb. ((Aaaa help have Travis and Lucas met already? I have vague memories of it but not sure of how far it went? Introductions needed? -Elina)) ((I think they have met, so for this we can waive the introductions unless the girls think it'd be necessary. - paula))
"It is right here, come on you two before I drop the muffins! Travis, give us a hand?" Emma grinned, and hoped to hell and back that Alec wasn't waiting inside... or skulking behind a potted plant or anything and overhearing what was going on. "DVD's, hot chocolate, muffins, great company, honestly, what are you two waiting for?"
"Hey, babe," Amarie grinned at Travis, holding the door open for him and Lucas to get off the hall. "You'll never guess what! Me and Emma were minding our own business in Babylon and this guy who lives here threatened to tell my bro' and made us come home! So I think we deserve a bit of a party don't you?"
Travis being closer and asked for grinned as he walked over to Emma. He looked at her as if she were crazy for the amount of stuff she had carted in with her. "What'd you do? Buy out the Mocha for the night?" He didn't have any objections to that, he was just joking with her. Turning to Amarie he frowned. "Bullies like that aren't ever any fun, but at least Emma's is a safe enough place to party. Not far from home and no running into tattle tales."
"No that's what we thought," Amarie agreed and passed him the bag with the DVDs and took some of Emma's burden from her. She smiled at Lucas as he approached and went into Emma's apartment to free the door so they could all come inside.
Emma grinned and nodded, "I was having a great time until he basically pulled Niles away, and then, oh, do you think your's lives here too Amarie? I know Niles does." She chuckled at Travis, "Yup, the Mocha is out of muffins and cookies, I bought the lot because what's better with DVD's than snacks?"
Emma followed Amarie, leaving the door open, and heading straight for the kitchen, "Last one in shut the door?"
Travis followed the girls, feeling a little like a jerk for not waiting on Lucas since he might have a difficult time closing the door... But when invited in by girls, Travis was following. He went into the living room to sort out the DVD's.
That was Lucas who stepped in, pulled the door shut behind him, and walked further in looking for a place where to put his bag.
"Hope you have room in your fridge, Emma," he said and spotted the kitchen. "Cause the beer needs to be ice cold!"
"Oh there's room all right, bring it over?" Emma grinned at him, pulling open the fridge door, "Apart from the fact I haven't been grocery shopping for a couple of days, the cat eats the fridge clean fairly regularly!" There was indeed plenty of room, and some careful can stacking would make the most of that too.
Lucas started to move the beer from the bag to the fridge but left out four cans - one for each. "I also nicked a bottle of wine from Tommy if you girls prefer that to beer," he said presenting a white wine bottle with lots of difficult words in French on the label.
Brought up on nips of wine at the restaurant, Amarie grinned at him and said, "Sure. Hey, that's a good one isn't it? I dunno French but I remember - I think - Enzo said something once." Her grin broadened. "Anyhow, beer gives me gas so wine'd be fine."
"Yeah, but only one bottle? I'll stick to the beer I think for now," Emma smiled, "since there's a lot more of that."
Having set the movies down and wandered in at the beer discussion Travis piped up. "I found where Memphis has some Jack stashed if you wanna drink that too. Can get it replaced before it's missing."
"Nope, not for me," Amarie said. "I'm gonna have some of this ..." she scowled at the bottle then giggled. "There's a typo. They left the S out. Bastard Mont - um - monterchet? ah who cares? Does it need to be cold? Bet it does." And she went to put it with the beer in the fridge.
"I bet Tommy would say something like 'it is required to be at exactly 10.4 degrees celsius to get the best out of its delightful aromas'," he said changing his accent to imitate Avery's much more sophisticated one. "But I'd just open the bottle and drink it. But I'm not gonna touch it anyway so you girls do what you want with it. Travis? A beer? Help yourself to the rest of 'em." He handed Travis a beer and nodded towards the fridge.
Travis laughed at the imitation, more so because it sounded snooty and formal than anything he'd know to be accurate. He hadn't met the Tommy guy Lucas was talking about yet, nor did he know anything about wine except it came from grapes. He didn't much think he wanted to either. He took the beer Lucas had offered, popped the top and took a sip. "Thanks."
"Hey, shall I go put a DVD on?" Amarie said closing the fridge door. "I borrowed these - shh - don't tell, huh? Star Trek - the new one, or Wolverine?"
Lucas followed Travis's example and opened his beer too. "That's a tough choice. I've wanted to see both but haven't yet."
"Well, we have all night, why not watch both?" Emma grinned, and grabbed a hot chocolate for herself, "I think we can really enjoy ourselves, I mean, is anyone working tomorrow? Schools out, and tomorrow is Sunday! Let's just, kick back and relax."
Travis shook his head. "I don't hafta work tomorrow, so I'm all for both."
"Me neither so let's go for it," Lucas said with a grin. "After you, ma'am," he turned to Emma and gave a comical bow gesturing her to go first to the living room.
Amarie was already in there sitting on her feet by the DVD player and feeding it a disc. "Dunno which one this is," she said. "I picked blind. Hooooh, kay, there it goes."
"Oh, we forgot the food! I'll be right back," Emma snickered, setting her chocolate down and heading back for the muffins and cookies, "Oh, and the hot chocolate can be microwaved, but I'm drinking mine first, cos I like it better that way?"
Setting the food down on the table in front of the big sofa, she settled into a corner and popped the lid off the take out cup. "Ready!"
Travis picked a spot on the couch to sit, figuring that if need be he could move to the floor or Amarie could always just sit on his lap. "Grab the remote and come up here with me, Amarie."
Amarie giggled and complied, settling at his side with a sigh. "Here," she offered the remote to Emma. "Owner gets the gizmo - that' our family rule anyhow."
Lucas settled down on the floor leaning his back against the arm rest just by Emma's legs. "And which one is it...?" he said and made a drum-roll sound and imitated playing the drum until the film started.
"Why this one of course, or would you prefer that one?" Emma teased, settling back and getting comfortable, leaving the remote on the arm of the sofa, "Help yourself to the food, it won't last long I'm sure."
Travis reached forward and pulled two muffins out of the box. He handed the chocolate one to Amarie. "This is a nice idea here, Emma." He declared, pulling the wrapper off and taking a bite.
"Well, we were out dancing, but," Emma shrugged, not quite willing to admit to being sent home, and still kind of cross about it, "sometimes it's just as much fun to come home and do something else after?" She turned the volume up a little on the TV, the DVD player always seemed to play more quietly than the TV programmes did. "Right Amarie?"
Amarie, happy as Larry nestled against Travis with a chocolate muffin, agreed whole heartedly. "Yeah, dancings cool but after an hour or two those shoes make my feet hurt.," she said. "This is much more fun. Ooh look, this is a cool bit!"
Lucas chuckled admiring the action bits on the TV screen. "There's nothing like big explosions and girls who like big explosions, right Travis?" he smirked and reached for a muffin.
Travis nodded. "Oh yeah." He settled his arm around Amarie's shoulders. "Explosions are awesome."
Emma chuckled and settled back with her hot chocolate, ready to just enjoy some uncomplicated company, with happy snacks and even some drinks. All in all, the evening wasn't ending as badly as it might have done.