Butter Pecan #30, Watermelon #23, Coffee #4
Author: winebabe
Title: College Is For Drinking
Story: LNOVERKILL
Rating: PG-13
Flavor(s): Butter Pecan #30: dizzy; Watermelon #23: watch your step; Coffee #4: fan
Extras: Malt [lost_spook asked: “When did Adelaide first meet Matthias?”]
Word Count: 1738
Summary: As if there was any other way these two would have met.
Notes: Adelaide Auer-Beckford, Matthias Elizalde, Augustine Kovach. 4 years pre-canon, the end of August.
All the windows were open in the apartment, several people Matthias didn’t recognize from school balancing precariously on the fire escape outside, cigarettes between their fingers as they laughed and talked. It was hot, even for August, and having so many people crammed in an old apartment without air conditioning would have been torture for him if he hadn’t grown up used to the heat and humidity.
Augustine, on the other hand, kept ripping his glasses from his face to wipe the sweat from his brow. His pale skin was already dusted with red around his cheeks, and the dirty looks he periodically shot in Matthias’s direction didn’t go unnoticed. “You dragged me here,” he shouted accusingly, nearly drowned out by a white girl rapping about her daddy issues.
“This music is very bad,” Matthias replied, choosing to ignore Augustine’s bad mood for the time being. All he wanted was some free alcohol, and then they’d go back to the dorms--that was the agreement. Natalie from his Art History class had invited him, and since she was exactly the kind of bubbly person who would probably serve as a good “in” for future parties, he’d thanked her for the invitation and promised to show up. Augustine had only come along because Matthias had begged him to, whining endlessly about how once their classes hit the second month they’d both be too swamped to do anything.
“Yes, it’s horrific,” Augustine agreed, scowling. “I don’t even drink, Matthias. I don’t know what you wanted me here for.”
“Bonding,” Matthias answered, which only elicited a vicious scoff from his roommate. “I’m gonna go see what they have in the kitchen. Are you sure you don’t want to drink?”
“I’m sure.” Augustine was eyeing an empty couch cushion, and the second Matthias turned away he made a beeline for it.
The kitchen area was just as crowded as the rest of the apartment, and Matthias had to slip through the crowd in order to make it over to the liquor set up. Natalie did not disappoint--there were several different bottles of hard liquor, and when someone opened the fridge, Matthias could see it was stocked full of beer. He grabbed himself a cup from on the counter, filled the bottom half with rum, and then topped it off with room temperature Coke. Half the cup was gone in a few gulps, empty in a few more, and refilled all in the space of about a minute and a half.
Matthias caught sight of Natalie across the room and waved at her, laughing when her face lit up on recognition. Apparently just a glimpse was good enough for her, though, because she never tried to come talk to him; Matthias wasn’t sure whether he was grateful for that or not. He watched her get swept away in a group of giggling girls, and when he finally peered around the wall into the living room, he saw Augustine was no longer sitting on the couch.
Sure enough, when Matthias pulled his phone from his pocket, there was a text from Augustine. [I left. Have fun,] it said, and Matthias just put his phone away with a sigh. He hadn’t even expected Augustine to agree to go, so the fact that he’d entered the building was enough of a surprise. And, although it was kind of terrible and he knew it, Matthias had no plans to actually hang out with his roommate at the party.
Matthias downed the rest of his drink again, refilled it, and headed out onto the fire escape to light a cigarette. The space had been vacated while he was still in the kitchen, and although it was nice to be out in the fresh air and away from Natalie’s awful playlist, it didn’t feel like it was any cooler outside. The cicadas were loud, screaming from the tops of the trees across the street, and the end-of-summer atmosphere lulled him into a trance while he smoked.
It felt like it happened in slow motion, but in retrospect Matthias knew it had happened in a few seconds at the most.
A pair of floral boots swung in from above, the person inside of them landing about a foot in front of him with a heavy thud. A grinning black girl straightened her posture and shook out her lavender curls, and the grin quickly turned to laughter as she took in the sight of Matthias, pale and wide-eyed, holding an empty cup--the contents of which had been thrown onto the kitchen window. “Hi,” she said.
“Parkour?” Matthias ventured, and she laughed.
“No, I’m a gymnast. Well, I was a gymnast. Old habits die hard, I guess.”
“Old habits?” he raised his eyebrows, smiling at her. “So this was like, a normal entrance for you?”
“More or less. If I can use something as a bar, I probably will.” The girl, still grinning, offered her hand to Matthias. “I’m Adelaide.”
“Matthias,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Oh--sorry. I got some of my drink on myself.”
“I’ve had worse,” Adelaide assured him, wiping her hand off on her jeans.
“So, are you one of Natalie’s friends?”
“Who’s Natalie?” Adelaide asked. She glanced in the window and then turned back to Matthias. “Oh, is this her party? I live upstairs; I just thought I’d crash.”
Matthias laughed. “I was invited. I don’t really know her, but it’s rude to turn down free alcohol.”
“I’ve heard it’s bad luck,” Adelaide said and winked. “I guess I’m your plus-one now, so, mind getting me a drink?”
“It’s your lucky day,” Matthias said as he followed her inside, “because that’s about the only thing I’m good for.”
------------------
After an hour of enthusiastic drinking, Adelaide was no longer the graceful gymnast Matthias had watched swing in from the balcony above. She dragged him out into the sticky summer heat, tripping in her clunky boots, giggling. “Who was that girl again?” she asked, and it took Matthias a minute to understand what she was talking about.
“Someone from my Art History class,” he answered. “I barely know her.”
“Mhm,” Adelaide replied, tugging Matthias along with their arms linked together at the elbow.
“Are you going to school here?” Matthias asked, taking a few long strides to match Adelaide’s pace. He pulled his arm away and then threw it around her shoulders.
“Yep,” she told him, smiling and tilting her head to the side so she could look up at him. “It’s my first semester.”
“Mine, too.”
“Yeah? How old are you?”
“Twenty,” Matthias answered with a sigh. It was a sore spot for him, showing up to college with all the 18-year-olds fresh out of high school. He’d had to work for the two years after graduation to save up enough money to pay for even one semester, and he was planning on getting a job just as soon as he settled into his routine. Even then, he knew he’d be taking out loans and bullshitting his way through scholarship essays for the rest of his college life.
“I’m nineteen,” Adelaide told him, still smiling. “You took some time off, too?”
“I didn’t really have much of a choice. I needed to save up the money so I could even go to school.”
Adelaide nodded. “My schooling is paid for, but I still need a job to pay for my apartment and everything else. I work at this community dance studio, teaching kids ballet and stuff. It’s a lot of fun. And there’s a cafe near there that I think is still hiring, if you were looking for a job.”
“I’ll check it out, thanks,” Matthias replied, knowing after that night they’d both probably have forgotten all about their conversation and, likely, each other as well. “Why are you a year late in starting college?”
She sighed and reached up to push some of her hair out of her face. “My mom wanted me to go back to Haiti and spend some time with my cousins and grandma. If they all weren’t so stubborn, I swear my mom would’ve had our entire extended family living with us here.”
“Are you from Haiti? I was born and raised in Mexico, and my family moved here when I was about 11, but every summer they’d ship us all off to stay with my grandparents. Dad didn’t want us to forget where we came from, that kind of deal.”
Adelaide laughed. “Yeah, I can relate. I was born in Germany, actually--my dad has dual citizenship--but my mom’s entire family is Haitian and she’s the first one to have left the island. I’m sure you can imagine how heavy that is.”
Matthias nodded. “My parents are moving back after my youngest sibling graduates from high school.” Adelaide was right, too; a heaviness had settled over their conversation, and although he wasn’t used to opening up, to friends or strangers, Matthias didn’t feel the need to hold back, either. It could have been the alcohol, or the presence of a pretty girl who was showing interest in him, but he chose to think instead it was their instant connection.
“I’m an only child,” Adelaide told him and made a face. “My dad just wanted one kid, but my mom wanted a hundred. All her siblings have, like, at least five kids each. They like big families.”
“Your mom can adopt some of my siblings if she wants,” Matthias laughed. “I have four--three brothers and a sister. Paloma’s the youngest, and then there’s, uh, Andre, and Marcos, and Sonny.” He tapped each one of three fingers as he named his brothers.
“Sonny? That’s a real name?”
“Yep, it’s a real name. And Sonny hates it, too. He’s the oldest--my mom’s excuse is that she was too young at the time to think of any good names.”
“Oh God,” Adelaide laughed. “That’s horrible. She really said that?”
“Mhm.”
“It’s hot,” Adelaide announced, whirling around and nearly toppling forward onto Matthias, who reached out and grabbed her around the shoulders. “Wanna go up to my apartment?”
“Uh,” Matthias said, and Adelaide swatted his upper arm.
“Not like that. I have a fan up there.”
“Oh.” He shrugged. “Yeah, sure, then.”
“Great,” Adelaide said and grabbed him by the hand. “We’re gonna be friends after this, I think,” she announced as she led Matthias back down the sidewalk to the apartment building.
Matthias laughed. “Yeah, I think so, too.”
Title: College Is For Drinking
Story: LNOVERKILL
Rating: PG-13
Flavor(s): Butter Pecan #30: dizzy; Watermelon #23: watch your step; Coffee #4: fan
Extras: Malt [lost_spook asked: “When did Adelaide first meet Matthias?”]
Word Count: 1738
Summary: As if there was any other way these two would have met.
Notes: Adelaide Auer-Beckford, Matthias Elizalde, Augustine Kovach. 4 years pre-canon, the end of August.
All the windows were open in the apartment, several people Matthias didn’t recognize from school balancing precariously on the fire escape outside, cigarettes between their fingers as they laughed and talked. It was hot, even for August, and having so many people crammed in an old apartment without air conditioning would have been torture for him if he hadn’t grown up used to the heat and humidity.
Augustine, on the other hand, kept ripping his glasses from his face to wipe the sweat from his brow. His pale skin was already dusted with red around his cheeks, and the dirty looks he periodically shot in Matthias’s direction didn’t go unnoticed. “You dragged me here,” he shouted accusingly, nearly drowned out by a white girl rapping about her daddy issues.
“This music is very bad,” Matthias replied, choosing to ignore Augustine’s bad mood for the time being. All he wanted was some free alcohol, and then they’d go back to the dorms--that was the agreement. Natalie from his Art History class had invited him, and since she was exactly the kind of bubbly person who would probably serve as a good “in” for future parties, he’d thanked her for the invitation and promised to show up. Augustine had only come along because Matthias had begged him to, whining endlessly about how once their classes hit the second month they’d both be too swamped to do anything.
“Yes, it’s horrific,” Augustine agreed, scowling. “I don’t even drink, Matthias. I don’t know what you wanted me here for.”
“Bonding,” Matthias answered, which only elicited a vicious scoff from his roommate. “I’m gonna go see what they have in the kitchen. Are you sure you don’t want to drink?”
“I’m sure.” Augustine was eyeing an empty couch cushion, and the second Matthias turned away he made a beeline for it.
The kitchen area was just as crowded as the rest of the apartment, and Matthias had to slip through the crowd in order to make it over to the liquor set up. Natalie did not disappoint--there were several different bottles of hard liquor, and when someone opened the fridge, Matthias could see it was stocked full of beer. He grabbed himself a cup from on the counter, filled the bottom half with rum, and then topped it off with room temperature Coke. Half the cup was gone in a few gulps, empty in a few more, and refilled all in the space of about a minute and a half.
Matthias caught sight of Natalie across the room and waved at her, laughing when her face lit up on recognition. Apparently just a glimpse was good enough for her, though, because she never tried to come talk to him; Matthias wasn’t sure whether he was grateful for that or not. He watched her get swept away in a group of giggling girls, and when he finally peered around the wall into the living room, he saw Augustine was no longer sitting on the couch.
Sure enough, when Matthias pulled his phone from his pocket, there was a text from Augustine. [I left. Have fun,] it said, and Matthias just put his phone away with a sigh. He hadn’t even expected Augustine to agree to go, so the fact that he’d entered the building was enough of a surprise. And, although it was kind of terrible and he knew it, Matthias had no plans to actually hang out with his roommate at the party.
Matthias downed the rest of his drink again, refilled it, and headed out onto the fire escape to light a cigarette. The space had been vacated while he was still in the kitchen, and although it was nice to be out in the fresh air and away from Natalie’s awful playlist, it didn’t feel like it was any cooler outside. The cicadas were loud, screaming from the tops of the trees across the street, and the end-of-summer atmosphere lulled him into a trance while he smoked.
It felt like it happened in slow motion, but in retrospect Matthias knew it had happened in a few seconds at the most.
A pair of floral boots swung in from above, the person inside of them landing about a foot in front of him with a heavy thud. A grinning black girl straightened her posture and shook out her lavender curls, and the grin quickly turned to laughter as she took in the sight of Matthias, pale and wide-eyed, holding an empty cup--the contents of which had been thrown onto the kitchen window. “Hi,” she said.
“Parkour?” Matthias ventured, and she laughed.
“No, I’m a gymnast. Well, I was a gymnast. Old habits die hard, I guess.”
“Old habits?” he raised his eyebrows, smiling at her. “So this was like, a normal entrance for you?”
“More or less. If I can use something as a bar, I probably will.” The girl, still grinning, offered her hand to Matthias. “I’m Adelaide.”
“Matthias,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Oh--sorry. I got some of my drink on myself.”
“I’ve had worse,” Adelaide assured him, wiping her hand off on her jeans.
“So, are you one of Natalie’s friends?”
“Who’s Natalie?” Adelaide asked. She glanced in the window and then turned back to Matthias. “Oh, is this her party? I live upstairs; I just thought I’d crash.”
Matthias laughed. “I was invited. I don’t really know her, but it’s rude to turn down free alcohol.”
“I’ve heard it’s bad luck,” Adelaide said and winked. “I guess I’m your plus-one now, so, mind getting me a drink?”
“It’s your lucky day,” Matthias said as he followed her inside, “because that’s about the only thing I’m good for.”
------------------
After an hour of enthusiastic drinking, Adelaide was no longer the graceful gymnast Matthias had watched swing in from the balcony above. She dragged him out into the sticky summer heat, tripping in her clunky boots, giggling. “Who was that girl again?” she asked, and it took Matthias a minute to understand what she was talking about.
“Someone from my Art History class,” he answered. “I barely know her.”
“Mhm,” Adelaide replied, tugging Matthias along with their arms linked together at the elbow.
“Are you going to school here?” Matthias asked, taking a few long strides to match Adelaide’s pace. He pulled his arm away and then threw it around her shoulders.
“Yep,” she told him, smiling and tilting her head to the side so she could look up at him. “It’s my first semester.”
“Mine, too.”
“Yeah? How old are you?”
“Twenty,” Matthias answered with a sigh. It was a sore spot for him, showing up to college with all the 18-year-olds fresh out of high school. He’d had to work for the two years after graduation to save up enough money to pay for even one semester, and he was planning on getting a job just as soon as he settled into his routine. Even then, he knew he’d be taking out loans and bullshitting his way through scholarship essays for the rest of his college life.
“I’m nineteen,” Adelaide told him, still smiling. “You took some time off, too?”
“I didn’t really have much of a choice. I needed to save up the money so I could even go to school.”
Adelaide nodded. “My schooling is paid for, but I still need a job to pay for my apartment and everything else. I work at this community dance studio, teaching kids ballet and stuff. It’s a lot of fun. And there’s a cafe near there that I think is still hiring, if you were looking for a job.”
“I’ll check it out, thanks,” Matthias replied, knowing after that night they’d both probably have forgotten all about their conversation and, likely, each other as well. “Why are you a year late in starting college?”
She sighed and reached up to push some of her hair out of her face. “My mom wanted me to go back to Haiti and spend some time with my cousins and grandma. If they all weren’t so stubborn, I swear my mom would’ve had our entire extended family living with us here.”
“Are you from Haiti? I was born and raised in Mexico, and my family moved here when I was about 11, but every summer they’d ship us all off to stay with my grandparents. Dad didn’t want us to forget where we came from, that kind of deal.”
Adelaide laughed. “Yeah, I can relate. I was born in Germany, actually--my dad has dual citizenship--but my mom’s entire family is Haitian and she’s the first one to have left the island. I’m sure you can imagine how heavy that is.”
Matthias nodded. “My parents are moving back after my youngest sibling graduates from high school.” Adelaide was right, too; a heaviness had settled over their conversation, and although he wasn’t used to opening up, to friends or strangers, Matthias didn’t feel the need to hold back, either. It could have been the alcohol, or the presence of a pretty girl who was showing interest in him, but he chose to think instead it was their instant connection.
“I’m an only child,” Adelaide told him and made a face. “My dad just wanted one kid, but my mom wanted a hundred. All her siblings have, like, at least five kids each. They like big families.”
“Your mom can adopt some of my siblings if she wants,” Matthias laughed. “I have four--three brothers and a sister. Paloma’s the youngest, and then there’s, uh, Andre, and Marcos, and Sonny.” He tapped each one of three fingers as he named his brothers.
“Sonny? That’s a real name?”
“Yep, it’s a real name. And Sonny hates it, too. He’s the oldest--my mom’s excuse is that she was too young at the time to think of any good names.”
“Oh God,” Adelaide laughed. “That’s horrible. She really said that?”
“Mhm.”
“It’s hot,” Adelaide announced, whirling around and nearly toppling forward onto Matthias, who reached out and grabbed her around the shoulders. “Wanna go up to my apartment?”
“Uh,” Matthias said, and Adelaide swatted his upper arm.
“Not like that. I have a fan up there.”
“Oh.” He shrugged. “Yeah, sure, then.”
“Great,” Adelaide said and grabbed him by the hand. “We’re gonna be friends after this, I think,” she announced as she led Matthias back down the sidewalk to the apartment building.
Matthias laughed. “Yeah, I think so, too.”