Who: Lennon and Tobias When: around 9 p.m. Where: the theater, then Lennon's room
Lennon couldn’t cope with what had happened today with Chase, and he really wasn’t. He hadn’t reached out to anyone else, hadn’t done anything but feel awful and wish he was anywhere but here. He hadn’t touched his computer again after that exchange, didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on today except there was supposed to be a party in the billiards room. He wasn’t interested. He’d gone down there to get a bottle of whiskey during the afternoon but that had been the extent of his excursions until he’d decided to go hide in the theater.
He’d put in some random movie and was sitting in the dark otherwise, working his way through his bottle. Not the best solution; this was one thing that had helped to get him into the trouble he’d found himself in. Drinking too much. He’d never had to deal with living in such close quarters with the same people, with nowhere to escape when things went bad. His coping skills had devolved since he’d been here. When Lennon was thinking clearly, he would admit that. Maybe at some point he’d want to fix it, but he wasn’t there yet.
By nine o’clock there was about two inches of liquid left in the bottle and Lennon was plastered, enough so that he was silently crying about a scene in the movie where two people had broken up, occasionally sniffling and wiping his cheek with the back of one hand. Or maybe that wasn’t what he was crying about. It didn’t matter either way.
Tobias hadn’t been sure he wanted to go down to the party that evening, simply because he figured getting drunk in front of a bunch of people who were still sort of strangers to him was a bad idea. Not that he had to get drunk, but he’d feel the pressure to drink if everyone else was, and Tobias was too much of a lightweight for a couple of beers not to affect him. Instead, after spending awhile in his room sketching, he decided to track down Lennon and see how he was feeling.
When Lennon didn’t come to his door after Tobias knocked, he headed downstairs to check the billiards room, thinking maybe Lennon felt like socializing after all. A quick scan of the room told him differently, so Tobias started wandering the house, peeking into various rooms to try and find his friend. When he reached the theater, he heard a movie playing and quietly peered inside, not wanting to disturb anyone else if it wasn’t Lennon. But he recognized the back of Lennon’s head and breathed a sigh of relief as he slipped into the theater and quietly shut the door.
“Hey,” Tobias greeted, walking over to join him. He paused when he saw the bottle, and Lennon’s face. Concern etched his own face immediately and he moved over quickly to sit down beside him. “Oh, crap… what’s wrong? What happened?”
At least it was Tobias. Lennon couldn’t think of anyone else in the house he’d want to find him like this, completely pathetic, drunk and emo. He wedged the bottle between his knees and lifted his t-shirt to wipe his face before answering. “He hates me,” he said, his tone hollow. “Called me a liar, told me to fuck off. At least--” His voice hitched. “--it was over messages, not in person.” He wasn’t sure if he could have handled that at all. Everything was terrible, probably more so because of the vast amount of alcohol in his system.
Tobias had to assume he was Chase. He frowned, wondering why they'd had that conversation over the network and not in person. But Lennon looked pretty wasted, and upset, and Tobias didn't want to make it worse. And it didn't really matter now anyway. "He doesn't hate you," Tobias said. Hate was such a strong word, in Tobias's mind. It wasn't like Lennon slept with Kiley or anything. Was Lila such a betrayal that Chase hated Lennon? Tobias couldn't wrap his brain around that at all. "I think maybe he's just upset. Once he cools down, you guys can talk it out."
Really, the only reason they hadn’t talked in person was because Chase had messaged him before he’d gotten out of his room for the day. Lennon was thinking that had been a mistake too. Right at that moment in time, he could think of more screw ups than good things he’d done. He’d even forgotten his knife, although he wouldn’t have cared if somebody had tried to beat him up right then. It felt like he deserved it. “I dunno,” he mumbled. “You didn’t see what he said, how he said it.” He definitely didn’t like Chase talking to him like that, like he was the enemy. He tipped the bottle up again, taking another couple of burning swallows.
"How well can you see how someone says anything over a computer?" Tobias asked, even though he understood what Lennon meant. He reached over and slipped his fingers around the nearly empty bottle to gently pull it away from Lennon. "Did you drink this whole thing?" He hoped not. If Lennon did, he was going to be really sick in the morning. "You should have come to talk to me."
“You can tell a tone, sometimes,” Lennon said, the last word slurring a little. He tried to keep hold of the bottle, but Tobias ended up getting it away from him. Not much left, anyway. “Yeppppp,” he said when Tobias asked if he’d drank it all. “Every sip ‘cept the ones you just stole.” He felt so completely awful that he wasn’t sure what to do next, so he let his head drop onto Tobias’s shoulder, shutting his eyes so he could pretend they weren’t leaking again.
Tobias sighed and set the bottle down on the floor by his feet, carefully, as not to dislodge Lennon from his shoulder. “You’re going to be so sick in the morning,” Tobias murmured, reaching out to place his hand on Lennon’s knee in comfort. He glanced at the movie, and then at Lennon, or what he could see of Lennon. “Let’s go back to your room. You should lay down and try to sleep this off. I can go make you some coffee or something.”
Lennon didn’t necessarily want to go to his room, but sitting here until he passed out probably wasn’t the best plan either. “‘Kay,” he mumbled, sitting up enough to wipe his face with his shirt again and struggling to his feet. It didn’t matter to him how sick he’d get; what he’d needed was a way to disappear for a while, and drinking seemed to be his go-to since he’d been here. He didn’t bother to shut off the movie that was playing but instead headed toward the door.
Tobias quickly found the remote and flipped off the movie, and the television. He grabbed the nearly empty bottle of alcohol and carried it with him, reaching out to take Lennon by the arm. "Chase'll be okay," Tobias said, knowing that Lennon probably wouldn't believe him, or even remember this later. "He's mad now, but he'll cool down. People make mistakes all the time. I can talk to him if you want me to."
Lennon stumbled along, already questioning the wisdom of deciding to come down here because that meant he’d have to ascend a flight of stairs to get back to his room. “Better not,” he said of Tobias talking to Chase on his behalf. “He’ll think you’re taking sides.” If Lennon had been in a more logical and less hurt-feelings frame of mind, he would have realized that wasn’t like Chase, but he wasn’t right then. The stairs were an ordeal, even with Tobias helping, and all Lennon wanted was to just lie down and give up. He didn’t and they finally got to the top.
“I don’t think he’d think that,” Tobias said, even though he wasn’t really sure. But Chase didn’t seem like the petty type at all. He grunted softly as he helped Lennon up the stairs, gripping Lennon tightly around the arm in case he tripped or fell. When they got to the top, Tobias sighed and relaxed his hold. “You better not get alcohol poisoning. Cecilia’ll be super pissed. Me too. I’m not good at taking care of sick people. I have a projectile vomiting problem.” He smiled softly and nudged Lennon playfully, even though he knew Lennon was probably too drunk to realize he was teasing. “I really wish you had come to find me instead of drinking an entire bottle of whatever this is.”
Lennon only had enough energy to concentrate on moving forward, and he wasn’t noticing any nuances in what Tobias was saying to him. Everything was terrible, so terrible. He just hoped he wouldn’t start crying again, because that was embarrassing. When Tobias said he wished Lennon had come to find him instead of drinking, he turned his head to look at him with bleary eyes. “Me too,” he said. Except these days he was always concerned he’d be interrupting Tobs and Madison; the less time he spent around both of them at the same time, the better. He sighed and then stared down the hall. “Which one’s my room?” he asked. Yes, alcohol could make you stupid.
Tobias motioned ahead with the bottle still in his hand. "That one. It has your name on it and everything." Should he make Lennon coffee? Get him something to eat? They said to drink water and take meds before bed, right? He could do that. They had over the counter stuff in the bathrooms. "We'll get you something to drink," he told Lennon as they neared the door. "Uh, water. Not more alcohol. You could have really made yourself sick, man. People die from drinking too much, you know?"
“S’posed to drink lots of water when you’re drunk,” Lennon said. That much he knew. He should, with as much as he’d been indulging since he’d been here in the house. He hadn’t had shoes on, so once they were in the room he immediately started taking his pants off. It was a complicated procedure that involved him sitting on the arm of the couch so he wouldn’t fall over, lifting his hips and shifting his legs until he had the things off. He left them on the floor and stayed where he was as he tried to decide if he wanted to visit the bathroom before bed. He should brush his teeth, but that might trigger his gag reflex, so no. Decisions were hard.
“Yeah, I’ll get you water,” Tobias promised. “Lots of water. And some aspirin too. Maybe that’ll make tomorrow hurt less.” He set the bottle down and sighed, watching Lennon. It didn’t seem like his friend cared much if he was there or not, and Tobias hesitated when Lennon got undressed and stayed on the couch. Finally he turned to walk into the bathroom to find a glass and fill it with water. “Do you have aspirin in here, or do I need to go find some?”
Lennon was definitely not with it. When Tobias asked him about aspirin, he pushed up from the arm of the couch, dressed in his underwear and a t-shirt, and started carefully across the room to the bed. “There’s some in there. Top drawer.” He hadn’t made his bed earlier, and it was a mess of disheveled covers. Perching on the edge of it, he rubbed at his eyes, not liking how stiff his face felt. There were going to be a lot more things not to like by the time morning rolled around, he thought.
Tobias filled the glass with water and came back out to offer Lennon the water. Then he opened the top drawer and found the bottle of aspirin. He fumbled for a moment but managed to pop the lid off the pills. Tobias shook out four and handed them to Lennon. “Take these and try to drink the whole glass, okay? Maybe I’ll get your wastebasket and keep it by your bed in case you feel sick tonight. Do you need anything else?”
Lennon managed to get the aspirin to his mouth and swallowed all four of them at the same time, slamming down at least half the water like it was a shot. His stomach instantly regretted that so he slowed his roll, putting the glass down on the floor carefully and sitting back up. He gazed at Tobias when he asked if Lennon needed anything else, wishing he could say what was really on his mind: I need for you to not be with Madison. What is it about me that makes nobody ever want me? Even as drunk as he was he was aware of how self-pitying that would sound, so he definitely didn’t say it. Instead he leaned forward enough to rest his cheek against Tobias’s middle. If his friend thought that was weird, then he felt sure he could blame inebriation.
Tobias nearly reached out to stop Lennon from drinking the water that fast, but he merely let his hand hang there until Lennon slowed. He felt badly for his friend, that he had gotten this drunk over something he couldn't exactly control anymore. What happened happened, but Tobias knew Chase would come around. They were all friends there, and that was more important than some mistake. He returned Lennon's gaze, his brows coming together in concern until Lennon leaned forward to set his cheek against Tobias's stomach. Understanding how shitty Lennon must feel, booze included, Tobias sighed softly and ran his hand over Lennon's hair before rubbing his back. "Come on," he murmured. "You need to lay down. I can stay with you, if you want me to."
Tobias’s touch nearly brought Lennon to tears again; he squeezed his eyes shut so it wouldn’t spill over. He was such a wreck, but at least Tobias wasn’t pushing him away. There was that. He sighed, the sound catching in his throat a little. “Stay?” he said, not moving yet. “You don’t have to stay all night if you don’t want. I know I’m gonna be a mess tomorrow.” He didn’t feel the need to inflict how sick he was going to be on anyone. Finally he managed to push himself back enough to lie down gingerly and pull the sheet over himself, curling into a ball and placing one hand over his stomach as if to hold it in place.
“I’ll stay,” Tobias said, brushing his hand through Lennon’s hair again before Lennon pulled away to lie down. He hadn’t bothered with shoes earlier, so he crawled onto the bed and stretched out beside Lennon. His friend would be sick in the morning, probably, but that didn’t mean Tobias would ditch him. Besides, Lennon would have done the same for him if Tobias had been the one upset and drunk. Scooting in toward Lennon, Tobias slipped his arm around him and rested his head comfortably on the pillow. “Everything’ll be alright, okay? I promise.” He was being redundant, but it felt important that Lennon know it, at least.
Lennon felt warmer the second Tobias’s arm rested on him, and he adjusted his own arm to cover it. While he might wish this was a different scenario, for right now it was enough. He’d get through the night, and things would be okay or they wouldn’t, but… yeah. There was nothing else he could do right now. “Thanks,” he said, his voice very soft. There was one lamp on in the corner of the room, and while normally he would have turned it off when he was ready to go to sleep, he let it be for now. It meant so much that Tobias was here with him, but in his current state he couldn’t find the words to tell him. He had a lot of things to say to people, he felt like, but it would have to wait.
Tobias didn't think it was necessary to say 'you're welcome'. It wasn't like this was a chore, or even a favor. He wanted to be there for Lennon, and if he got sick in the night, at least he'd have someone there to help him through it. "Get some sleep," Tobias murmured. Tomorrow things would get better. Maybe Lennon and Chase could work things out. If not, maybe Tobias could talk to Chase and try to smooth it out himself. He wasn't sure how successful he'd be, but it didn't hurt to try.
There wasn’t anything else to be said, and that was all right. Lennon inhaled a deep breath and then let it out, then shut his eyes. Despite how unhappy he’d been all day and how plastered he was now, he felt safe and very mildly hopeful. Chase wouldn’t hate him forever over this, would he? He felt like intentions should mean something, and he wouldn’t deliberately hurt Chase. Maybe he could try to get Chase to see what it was like here for him. Might work, might not, but it was worth a try. He began to drift, anchored by the slight pressure of Tobias’s arm around him.