RP: Brothers

[rar_stephen]

Date: Saturday, 14 September 1999 | Evening
Characters: Stephen Cornfoot, Liam Cornfoot (NPC), Joshua Cornfoot (NPC), Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Cho Chang
Location: Utopia
Status: Public
Summary: Stephen's brothers visit.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[rar_stephen]

Joshua shrugged and stepped inside Stephen's flat. He looked around. There wasn't much to be seen in the front room. There were bookshelves crammed with books, but there wasn't a table to eat at. He supposed his brother ate on the couch or standing up or not at all if he was working. There was a completely lack of colour on the walls, and Joshua didn't know how Stephen could stand living in a white box.

But he turned back to Stephen. "Bastard is bloody annoying. He wouldn't take no, and he threatened to hex me and drag me out into the street in my pants. Besides, I hadn't eaten dinner and he said he was paying."

[rar_stephen]

Stephen closed the door behind Joshua. "Liam is completely shite at hexes. You could have him immobilized in less than a second. He'd still be stroking his own ego by the time you cast the spell; he'd have no idea what was coming."

Stephen hadn't seen Joshua in over a month, not since Stephen had moved into his own flat. None of the brothers had spoken about what had happened to the family, and he was a little curious as to how his brothers felt about their family situation.

[rar_stephen]

"Would you two prats stop talking about me as if I'm not in the bloody room," Liam whinged. "And you should both thank me. The two of you have the lamest social life I have ever seen, and I'm trying to get your arses out of your moldy flats and into the nightlife so you can pull a bird for once in your life."

[rar_stephen]

"Liam, I have a social life," Joshua quipped. He dropped onto Stephen's couch and leaned back. "And I definitely don't need your informational guide on 'How to Pull a Bird.' Besides, I've pulled a bird in the last year. When was your last go?"

[rar_stephen]

Stephen tried to tell Joshua and Liam that Utopia didn't exactly have 'food." They served small appetizers and such, but neither of them seemed to care. When they arrived at Utopia, it was crowded and Liam wormed his way into reserving one of the pool tables after the current players were finished.

Until it was time to play, the three brothers found a nearby table and dug into baskets of chips, crisps, and fried chicken pieces.

[rar_katie]

Katie had debated stopping by Marcus' house but chickened out at the last minute. She didn't want to have to deal with Marcus' father if Marcus wasn't in. Instead she went to Utopia for a pint and maybe a game of pool.

When she walked in, she spotted Stephen and Liam with another bloke and grinned at them. "Fancy meeting you here," she said, joining their table. "How've you been? Is this a friend or another one of your fit brothers, Stephen?"

[rar_stephen]

Stephen leaned against his pool stick as Liam racked the pool balls. Joshua walked over with a pint for himself and one for Liam. Stephen didn't feel like drinking tonight. He had a lot on his mind.

He looked up when Bell walked over and grinned at him. "Oh, hey," he said in response to her. "I don't know if you can call him fit, but yeah, this is our other brother Joshua."

"Well, hello there, Katie," Liam said as he moved around the table toward her. "Are you meeting that bloke here tonight or are we lucky enough to have you all to ourselves?"

[rar_katie]

"Don't be cruel, Stephen. Joshua's a handsome bloke," she said chidingly. "I'm Katie Bell," she said, extending her hand.

"Hey Liam. No, he's a bit upset with me at the moment, so I'm afraid I'm all yours," Katie said. "Can I join in or is this a brothers only game?"

[rar_cho]

Cho was glad she and Angelina had decided to get out tonight. While shopping the evening before, they had discovered neither had plans for Saturday night. Both thought some fun at Utopia sounded much better than staying home tonight.

The pub already had quite a crowd when they arrived so they made their way over to the bar to wait for a table to become available. After placing their drink orders, Cho turned around and took a look around at the crowd. When she saw Stephen over at the pool tables, she smiled as she nudged Angelina and motioned in his direction. "Looks like Stephen had the same idea tonight." She noticed he was talking to some blokes, as well as Katie Bell, and it looked like they had a reserved pool table. "He seems busy right now, but we should say go and say hello at some point."

[rar_angelina]

Angelina turned around and scanned the crowd when Cho said she saw Stephen. "Where?"

Cho pointed and Angelina finally saw the bloke. He was at the pool tables, playing with two men she didn't recognize. Katie was also there with them. Angelina didn't realize Katie and Stephen were friends, and she said as much.

"Are Katie and Stephen friends?" she asked. Then she slid off the stool and grabbed Cho by the arm. "No reason not to go over and say hello. I'm sure he'd love to see you."

[rar_cho]

"I don't really know. They both live in our building, so it's probable they know each other." When Angelina suddenly said they should go over to say hello, Cho picked up her drink from bar to take it with her. "Sure, that sounds good." Angelina collected her drink as well, before they made their way over to Stephen.

[rar_angelina]

Angelina grabbed her drink, and she and Cho weaved their way through the Saturday night crowd. When they arrived at the pool table, one of the blokes spewed his beer all over an unsuspecting waitress. Angelina grimaced as the bloke tried to apologize and clean up the mess.

Angelina and Katie hadn't spoken since the dance class when Katie had admitted to lying to her. She wasn't completely settled with how she felt about that, but she smiled anyway. "Hey Katie," she said. Then Angelina glanced at Stephen. "Hey Stephen. How's everyone doing?"

[rar_stephen]

Stephen didn't like this one bit. He didn't like not having talked to Cho more about his family and their strange dynamics, but then again, he didn't even like thinking about talking about his family with her. It seemed so...private and shameful. How did one even begin that conversation? Surely she wouldn't want to really hear it--she was always so polite, but no one really wanted hear about another person's shite.

Cho leaned toward him, and the irrational fear he had about his brother Liam charming the pants off her faded. Could it be that Liam wasn't her type? Wasn't he everyone's type?

Stephen shook his head. "Thanks, but don't worry about it," he told Cho. He wanted to explain to her that his brothers didn't notice him in that way--in a way that dealt with women. Then a slow smile tugged his lips. "You're--you're good at pool?" He shook his head again. "Don't tell. Let's surprise them."

[rar_cho]

She grinned when he liked the idea of her playing her best against the other teams. Stephen handed her one of the shorter cue sticks and she stood it by her side as everyone got ready. Stephen had said not to worry about his brothers but she knew how her own brothers could be and sure enough, Liam soon continued his teasing. He seemed nice enough though, and she grinned as she noticed he was now directing his flirting at Katie

[rar_stephen]

Cho mentioned she was 'good' at pool, but it looked more like brilliant to Stephen. He was surprised by her skill and total control of the pool table. Was there anything she couldn't do? Soon, she had won the game for him. He laughed at Liam's expression.

"Pool hustler," Liam teased. "Good thing we weren't playing for money."

Stephen rolled his pool stick between his hands and smiled down at Cho. "Your corrupt childhood sounds far more interesting than ours. We wouldn't been allowed within 50 kilometres of a pub."

[rar_stephen]

Joshua chatted with Angelina, who was a right friendly bird. They talked about Quidditch and her job at The Sweetshop, and by the time he was promising he would stop in to try some sweets, the pool game was finished.

"What the...?" he asked, and Angelina laughed. She leaned over toward him and smirked.

"She's good, no?" Angelina said. Then she looked over at Katie, and Joshua wondered if the two birds weren't exactly friends. So far, they had neglected to really speak to each other.

Joshua nodded. "She's good, yes," Joshua answered. He moved closer to Cho and Stephen; now he was really curious about the bird his brother seemed bent on keeping away from Liam. What was his baby brother up to? Could he be interested in a girl? Surely not. Stephen didn't exactly have the social know-how to date. And after Stephen found out about their mother's betrayal, he'd said some extremely unfavourable words about women as a whole. Joshua also thought Stephen had sworn to never fall victim to a woman

[rar_katie]

Katie took a sip of her pint as she and Liam stood off to the side watching the others play.

"You know, I think pool is really meant to be a spectator sport," she said with a grin. "At least for me, anyway."

[rar_stephen]

"Ah," Liam said with a slow smile "it can be fun. If you're playing with others as rubbish at it as you are. Looks like we're out of luck tonight, love."

Liam cast his eyes in the direction of Stephen. He was standing a bit close to the petite bird, and it looked as though Joshua had been drawn into the conversation. Liam was very curious to know what was going on lately with his youngest brother. The tall bird had gone for another drink, and Liam focused on Katie again.

"What do you feel like getting in to now?"

[rar_katie]

"Looks like," Katie agreed.

"Getting into?" She raised an eyebrow. "It sounds like you want to be getting into some sort of mischief, there. What did you have in mind?"

[rar_stephen]

"There's always dancing," he said and nudged Katie with his hip. She was a good bit shorter than him, but they'd had no problem working together on the dance floor. Her lip was pulled into a mischievous grin and he cocked an eyebrow in response. "Unless you've got something more exciting in mind?"