InsaneJournal

Who: Maria DeLuca, Isobel Evans-Bracken, Michael Guerin, Liz Ortecho, and Max Evans
What: Getting the group back together
Where: Local dive bar
When: Weekend after this
Rating: PG-13 for alcohol
Status: Complete


Maria DeLuca wasn’t going to let turning 13 years old and weird dreams about a town she had never been to ruin her good time. She was the type of friend that planned things and get togethers and that didn’t stop now that she was back with her friends from high school. It only drove her more to want to get them all back in a room together and just hang out. Plus, it was the only way she could get Max and Liz in the same room together where it wasn’t completely obvious that she was watching them. Hell, she even told Isobel and Max to invite Michael because she didn’t want to leave anyone out.

She made it to the bar a couple minutes early so she could stake out a table for their group. It was early enough that the late night crowds hadn’t showed up yet so she made her way to the bar and ordered herself two Moscow Mules before going to lay her claim on a table and waited for the others to arrive.

It wasn’t long before Isobel entered the bar, dressed in jeans, shoulderless shirt, her hair up in her signature ponytail, with heels adding more height to like always. She looked around and smiled when she spotted Maria at the bar, within a few steps she was by her friend. “Here I thought I was always the early one,” she teased lightly, “Hello!” She shifted to lean against the bar, ,”Moscato,” she ordered and then turned to Maira.

“This was a great idea,” she told her, “I’m really looking forward to seeing what is going to happen tonight and I did text Micheal, so he should be here.”

Michael wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into. He wasn’t exactly the group hang type. But Isobel had insisted and he knew there wasn’t much of a point arguing with her. He came from the garage not bothering to clean up after work, well at least not past wiping off some grease.

Dressed in his usual jeans and t-shirt he walked into the bar spotting Isobel and Maria. He was surprised that he was there before Max. Walking up to the girls he heard his name. “Ordered me to come is more like it,” he joked giving Isobel a grin before ordering himself a beer.

When Maria had texted her about a group hangout, Liz had known that her best friend was doing this primarily to get her and Max in the same room, which Liz was totally fine with; in fact, Liz had thought that it would be even better if her and Max showed up together, considering they were more or less a thing now. So she had texted Max and suggested they go together instead of separately to get a better reaction out of everyone.

Dressing in a pair of black skinny jeans and a nice top, Liz had picked up Max about twenty minutes or so before the time Maria had told them to meet at the bar then headed over, “Ready to go in?” She asked, lacing her’s and Max’s fingers together before they entered the bar.

“Might as well get it over with,” he teased, squeezing her hand. Not that he was wearing anything fancy either. A polo shirt and some khakis but at least he felt presentable. “Five dollars says you’ll get grilled by Maria and I’ll get grilled by Isobel by the end of the night.” Or both would happen.

“Shall we?”

Maria's face lit up with she saw Isobel wander in and meet her at the bar. "It should be a fun night. And speak of the devil," Maria drawled as she gestured to Michael who came wandering in. His comment about being ordered to attend didn't surprise her at all and she let out a chuckle, "Glad you can make time for us, Guerin."

Her drinks appeared in front of her and she slipped the bartender a couple bucks for a tip, "there's a table over by the dart board we can probably claim." She lifted up her drink to take a sip as her eyes watched the door.

Isobel nodded her head and then turned to Micheal when he corrected her. She narrowed her eyes, but then flashed a big smile, “you came, didn't you. Thank you.” she added and then shifted to the bar, “get him whatever he’d like,” she told the bartender as she shifted to slide her card over to pay for their drinks and get her wine.

“Oh, I like that,” she commented to Maria, “though it’s been awhile since I’ve played with darts.” .

Unlike Maria and Isobel, Michael didn’t really care what was going on with Max and Liz. That was their business. As long as Max was happy that was what mattered to Michael. He was here for the drinks and that was pretty much it.

“Figured I could fit you guys in between all the other bars I have to go to,” he half joked. Because he did spend most nights at one bar or another. Usually he would insist he could pay for his beer himself but he knew Isobel liked to treat him and with the amount he drank it’d be nice to have a night off paying.

“You gotta come out with me more, Is.” She’d be a pro at darts in no time.

“You’re on. Let's do this,” Liz smiled at Max then headed inside, glancing around for their friends who she quickly noticed at the bar. Squeezing Max’s hand as they approached their friends, “Looks like we’re the last ones here.” While Liz had seen everyone separately, seeing everyone together was a little surreal, but it was nice at the same time. They were only missing Kyle and Alex.

“You can blame me,” Max answered easily. “Just couldn’t do anything with my hair.” He was obviously kidding, trying to deflect from any very obvious comment about their joint arrival.

“Oh, puh-leaaaase, start going out with Michael, Isobel. I want to have video evidence of you trying to keep up with him,” Maria couldn’t help but laugh around the rim of her glass. God, the idea of Isobel going out with Michael was going to keep her amused for hours. Hell, she would probably crash the whole thing just so she can see it first hand. Thankfully Liz and Max walked in and immediately distracted her.

She let out a low whistle at the sight of them holding hands and grinned, “Mazel Tov! Apparently I didn’t need to get you two in the same room sneakily, you already beat me to the punch.”

Isobel looked at Maria and then to Micheal, “clearly I can hang with him, I just know my limits now.” She smiled at him, “I got to say, I don’t miss those days,” she chuckled as she took another sip of her wine, “but I will come out more and play darts!” Then the whistle happened and she turned her body to look at the door and started to chuckle at Maria’s words.

“Look what we have here,” she teased lightly as she picked up her glass, “about time you two showed up.” Jokingly she added, “you’re late.”

“I’d like to see you try and keep up with me,” Michael challenged Maria. Not many people could after all. Isobel had in the past, they had been friends for a long time after all. But she had grown out of that phase, unlike Michael.

But then Max and Liz entered and everyone seemed to be focused on them. Michael merely raised his brow not sure why this was such a big deal. “About time,” he said mostly in reference to them being late, not so much to them being together.

Liz couldn’t help but smirk a little as everyone reacted to her and Max’s arrival, “We wanted to show up casually late and surprise everyone.” She wouldn’t admit it to Maria, but she was glad that she had been able to get ahead of her attempt to get her and Max together, “So, what did we miss?”

A shrug at the greetings. “Like I said, I’ll take the blame for being late.” A glance to Liz. “I’ll get you a drink.” He’d get himself one, too. They’d need them after all.

“Don’t wish for things you can’t have,” Maria replied to Michael with a wink over her cup before taking another long sip of it. They had all been able to hold their own back when they were younger, but Maria definitely felt herself starting to slow down the older she got. It wasn’t a bad thing though because Maria was trying to not drink as much as she used to. Something about OC air made her want to be a vegan and do a juice cleanse, it was disgusting.

“Not a whole lot,” Maria offered as an answer to Liz, “Just talking Michael challenging Is to a drinking contest, basically. And we’re going to steal that table over by the darts once you get your drinks.” It was nice to see Max actually out and about and he seemed far more relaxed now that Liz was by his side.
“I’m just standing here looking pretty,” Is offered jokingly as she shifted step away from the bar, letting Max step in her place. She really didn’t have much to offer for the moment, she looked over at Maria and winked at her, “I’m going to head to the table.”

“Never do,” Michael replied with a smirk. For one he definitely wasn’t the type for wish for anything. But also he and Maria both knew that he had almost had her once. Granted that was a long time ago and they were both drunk. He wasn’t about to bring that up now. That was no one else’s business.

“A drinking contest I’d win,” he clarified to Max and Liz. “I guess congratulations are in order?” Seemed fitting at least, since apparently that was a big deal. Michael still didn’t get it but everyone else seemed excited so of course he’d at least acknowledge it. He wasn’t a total dick… sometimes.

“I’m gonna go help Is,” he added, following her over to the table.

Liz smiled and thanked Max as he offered to get her a drink, “I’m sorry, Isobel, but I’d have to agree with Michael. I just have this feeling that he’d win a drinking contest.” Not that she didn’t think Isobel could hold her own against him, but Michael just seemed the type to be able to drink more before it actually affected him.

“So are we going to have a darts competition?” Liz asked, noticing the darts board near the table that Maria had indicated and that Michael and Isobel were now on their way towards. “I can tell you right now, I’m probably gonna lose cause I haven’t played darts in forever. Now if we were talking about pool, I might be able to get by alright.”

It didn’t take very long for Max to get a glass of wine for Liz and a beer for himself, returning to the group. “Unless we’re split into teams. Then maybe we can stack the teams to make them even,” he suggested. “Either way, though, I’d be up for darts or pool.”

“We can definitely do a darts competition if we wanted,” Maria liked this idea because it gave them some fun competition instead of just standing around and drinking, “Splitting into teams wouldn't be bad, but we’d have to have one person sit out since we have an odd number.” She was already trying to figure this out as she made her way with Max and Liz over to the table and set one of her drinks down. Maybe there needed to be some kind of wager for this to be even more fun, but she would offer up that suggestion once they figured out if they wanted to do this or not.

Isobel got a stool and sat her glasses down, looking over at the trio and then to Micheal, “thanks for joining us,” not like she gave him a choice, but he showed up and she wanted him to know she was grateful for that. She looked over at Max and Isobel, “He’s happy, I like that.” She picked up her glass taking another sip, “so darts….aim for the middle, right?”

“Alright then,” Michael said, taking a sip of her drink. “Isobel’s not on my team,” he joked, nudging her shoulder with his. He couldn’t help it after that comment. But Isobel should know he joked out of love. Or as close to love as Michael Guerin got.

“But maybe we shouldn’t do teams,” he went on. It was an odd number like Maria had said. “One person sitting out is no fun.”

Liz accepted the wine from Max, thanking him and took a sip as they made their way over to join Michael and Isobel, “I’m fine with either. But can you really do teams with darts? How would that work?” Liz was also trying to figure out exactly how this would work. “How many darts are there?”

“You’d go in rounds,” Max suggested. “Three darts each, I think. Add up the points. Or we could do brackets like March Madness. See who is the best darts player here.” Without use of powers though he couldn’t exactly say that.

“I think we might have to do the rounds and then just drop out the lowest scoring person to make it kind of like a bracket,” Maria took a long sip of her drink before she wandered over to the dartboard to write down their names, “Should I do a random draw on who should go first? There’s usually a website for that kind of thing.”

“How about you four just play and I can do the commentary, I don’t mind not playing this time,” Isobel smiled at them. “And you all know I love talking smack about everyone” her hand waved at them, “that way we all can have fun.” She winked at her friends and took a wink, “Ladies should go first.”

“Alright - Liz, Maria guess that makes it your turn.” Whoever went first Michael didn’t really care. He was just looking forward to a night of drinking and darts. More so the drinking, but darts were fun too.

Liz took a sip of her wine before putting the glass down on the table with everyone else’s drink and moved towards Maria, “I’ll go first to get this over with.” She picked up each of the darts and moved back to the line on the floor that indicated she was the correct amount of feet away, “Now don’t make fun of how bad I am.”

“No one is going to make fun of you,” Max assured her. “Like Is said...it’s just a friendly game. For everyone. No scores kept. “So relax and enjoy. Unless someone gets hit with a dart, we’ll just focus on the company.” And he was okay with that too.