Of Misdemeanors and ***

Damion and Leon were, in fact, back from their little quest to attain alcohol as minors. They weren't in their own dorm room, however. "Maybe they got lost?" I asked sarcastically as I pushed open the door to my own dorm room, my head half turned over my shoulder as I directed the question at Hayden.

I stopped short in the doorway, causing Hayden to run into the back of me. "What...?" Hayden had begun to ask, but followed my gaze toward the center of the room and stopped with a grin.

Standing in the middle of the room, were Leon and Damion. Let me slow this down for you as much as possible, because it all happened too quickly to truly appreciate. Damion had his phone out, and was partially turned toward the door, his expression bordering on ecstatic and shifting into confusion. Leon, on the other hand, was just to the side of Damion, one of his legs was lifted just high enough for him to be stepping into something, that, upon further speculation turned out to be the bottom half of a certain polka dotted monstrosity. Leon was grinning from ear to ear, even as he turned toward the door and caught sight of Hayden and I. He paused, then set his foot down, stepping completely into one half of the bathing suit.

There was one glorious, awkward moment while all of us appreciated what just happened. And the first one to break the silence was Leon who said, "You jealous, Raven?"

I burst out laughing so hard that I had to lean on the door frame for support. Vaguely, I heard Hayden laughing behind me and then Damion and then Leon, who let the bathing suit drop to the floor while he sat on my bed. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked between laughs.

Leon leaned back on my bed, still laughing too. "I knew you were jealous," he countered easily, ignoring my question completely.

"Jealous, isn't the word I was thinking of," I said with a grin. Why the hell was he even trying on a girl's bathing suit? What possible thought process could he have had to compel him to do that? "Good God, have you two already been drinking or something?" I inquired once the majority of my laughing fits had subsided.

"Nah," Damion answered suavely, his own fit of laughter dying away. His eyes bounced between Hayden and I, a thoughtful crease adorning his brow. "So, uh, why are you two wet?" he added curiously, a single eyebrow raised to emphasize his interest.

I looked stupidly down at my dry clothes, which had replaced the wet suit long ago. Then I realized that my hair was still wet and hanging in tangles about my face. I touched a lock of my hair reminiscently and wondered how I wanted to explain myself. Instead, I looked over at Hayden, raising my eyebrows in a way that said "you wanna take this one?"

Hayden shrugged. "I was trying to teach Raven how to swim," he said truthfully.

There was a brief pause where Leon and Damion seemed to take in the information. Then Leon said, "Well...Did it work?"

Hayden said, "Sort of," at the same time that I said, "Not really." We exchanged glances while Leon and Damion laughed at us.

"How did that qualify as 'sort of' teaching me how to swim?" I asked skeptically. "I almost drowned half the time!" I exclaimed.

"Hence why I only said 'sort of'," Hayden replied matter-of-factly. "At least next time you flail around in water you'll be able to keep your head up for thirty seconds."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yeah. That'll give me thirty seconds to realize that I have no hope of surviving before I plunge to my watery doom. Thank God for that," I said sarcastically.

"Well, hopefully I'll be around next time. Then who knows? Maybe you'll succeed in holding my head under water long enough to kill me." Hayden's expression was filled with mild exasperation, but his eyes were lit up like he couldn't imagine a better conversation to be having.

"Wait, what?" Damion cut in, passing a glance between the two of us.

"Nothing," I said. "I just, sort of...well. You know how those, inflatable water wings work pretty well on little kids? And you think 'oh those probably work the same when you're older' then you try it and as it turns out, they don't do shit? That sort of happened," I attempted to clarify. My explanation was met by blank stares from all three boys. Which told me, that my metaphor hadn't been as awesome as I had originally thought. Apparently it sounded better in my head.

"She latched onto me like a Titanic survivor to a plank of wood," Hayden said in the dead silence.

Leon howled with laughter and Damion grinned absently while his mind seemed to wander elsewhere. Probably picturing the scene in all its hilarity. I scowled and threw myself dramatically on my bed, kicking my feet out to hit Leon's laughing form in the back. He let out a soft oof and leaned away from me slightly as his laughter died off. "It wasn't my fault you weren't very buoyant," I grumbled at Hayden, who was smiling absently.

Hayden merely rolled his eyes and looked sidelong at Damion. "How'd you two do? Everything in order?"

"Mission accomplished." Damion made a vague gesture toward Hayden's bed where I assumed the booze had been hidden. He smiled blindingly at Hayden and continued, "We're ready whenever you are."

"Awesome," Hayden said, returning the conspiratorial grin. "What'd you get?" he asked as a follow up question.

Leon was the one to answer, leaping up from my bed excitedly. "Whiskey for shots, and then Rockstars and Jager; for Jager bombs. We got some forties too, just in case. Jose Cuervo as alternative shots, and," he paused looking thoughtful then snapped his fingers in a revelation, "that's right, Sailor Jerry's. Also alternative shots," he finished with a wink.

Dear God, they weren't going to drink all of that, were they? I had a number of reasons why they should rethink their choices. First of all, were they trying to drink themselves into comas? I thought they just wanted to get a little tipsy, not drown out their Vietnam flashbacks. All of which I didn't inform them of, because they seemed genuinely stoked about the entire excursion. I didn't drink much, but I knew a few basic rules that these three apparently weren't aware of. One, being that you don't mix all of those different kinds of alcohols and get away with a normal, run of the mill hangover. They were going to get their asses handed to them if they drank all of those. My other problem, was that they had acquired Jose Cuervo, which would leave them with a nasty hangover all on its own.

The correct response Hayden should have had was, "Oh fuck that, I choose life." What he really said, was, "Hell yeah we are gonna get fucked up!" The three boys cheered like that was something to be happy about. And the only thing that popped into my mind, was how crazy it was that boys could just turn off the reasonable part of their brains whenever they wanted to. It seemed like a handy little trick, and maybe, just maybe, if I hung out with these three long enough, I might be able to master the art of going brain dead on command.

I managed to keep my mouth shut while they celebrated their pending shitty mornings. If they were trying on women's bathing suits while they were sober, I couldn't wait to see what they decided to do when they were shit faced.

Damion turned to me and announced, "We got you something too. Just in case you change your mind."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Right. And what might that be?"

Barely able to keep his excitement at bay, Leon blurted, "Wine coolers." When Damion narrowed his eyes at him, he smiled sheepishly.

"Always stealing my thunder..." Damion grumbled and pretended to sigh dramatically.

I laughed. "Thanks for thinking of me, I guess." At least wine coolers tasted good sometimes, and the chances of me getting drunk off of those were extremely low. "So, are you guys waiting for something in particular...?" I asked casually. They didn't seem intent on starting right away, since they still had everything hidden away like it didn't exist.

"Oh we're not drinking here," Hayden answered quickly. "Lee's loud now, imagine how loud he's gonna be drunk," he reasoned with a chuckle.

Leon looked ever-so-slightly apologetic for about half a second and then seemed to get over it.

"We're going to go somewhere where we won't get caught," Damion informed me with a wink.

"Oh. I see," I said, humoring them. Where the hell was there to go where they could drink without getting caught? Either way, maybe I could help get them out of trouble if they got into it, with me being the only coherent person in the group.

"Okay, I think it's dark enough," Hayden announced as he peered out the window. He turned back to the three of us with a slow smile. "Let's do this."

Shadowstep Academy is full of little secrets. Sometimes I wonder if the teachers are even aware of half of them. Either they go out of their way not to see them for the sake of the students, or they really don't bother to look around enough to see what the student body is up to in their free time. As it turned out, there was an abandoned eyesore of a dilapidated barn sitting way back in the woods. Which raised an entirely separate question for me, regarding just how big the property for the school was. It seemed like no matter how far we walked in any direction we were never trespassing or wandering into someone's front yard or something. So, either Headmaster Wilkins bought out the property around the school or he just bought a huge chunk of property to build the school on in the first place.

As far as the barn went, it was evidently the ideal place for minors to drink, or at least Shadowstep minors. Which my three friends demonstrated without anyone to prompt them. It was odd, to be sitting and talking with Leon, Damion and Hayden like any other day and yet there was just a slight difference when they would take swigs of rum or Jager and then I would remember just why it was that Leon was singing an off-key rendition of Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry". I, on the other hand, was completely sober and laughing my ass off when Damion joined in to turn the song into a duet. Hayden, however, only joined me in laughing hysterically.

"Oh, did Raven tell you guys yet?" Hayden said, breaking into Leon and Damion's song as he sat up in what seemed like some form of excitement. I looked at him with raised eyebrows, not sure what I had done recently that would warrant such a response. Had I cured Cancer in my sleep recently? You would think I would remember coming up with something like that.

Leon leaned forward and squinted at me through the darkness in the barn, since there were barely walls, there definitely wasn't any electricity for us to see by. "Whas'sat?" he slurred at me, looking curious.

I shrugged. "Ask Drunky Mcfail over here," I said, making a sharp gesture to Hayden beside me.

Hayden drew his shoulders up indignantly, looking harassed by my nickname. But he spoke as if I hadn't said anything at all. "She had a fun little bet going with Derek and she lost," he said just before he burst into laughter. Leon and Damion followed suit and laughed at my expense.

I stuck my chin stubbornly into the air and tried not to blush. "It was a close game!" I informed them in my defense.

"Sure. I saw how good you were with staves, I can only imagine you trying to use a pool cue," Leon jeered jubilantly, slapping me on the back in a good-natured sort of way that jarred the bones in my entire body. I leaned away from him with a mock-scathing look only to find myself leaning into Hayden instead. My hand had landed on his foot and I had my back against his shoulder. He didn't think twice or even look in my direction, but I leapt away from him like he had spontaneously combusted and had almost taken me down with him.

Damion laughed suddenly, drawing my attention to him just as he took another swig of rum. He met my gaze and grinned, but I could see the drunken haze in his eyes. "Careful Hayden, I think you might have cooties," he commented with another laugh.

Hayden stared at Damion for a long moment before he finally laughed too, though I was under the suspicion he didn't know why he was laughing. "Well, whatever. Back to what I was saying...actually no, you know what? Raven, you go ahead and tell them the terms of your little bet." Hayden nudged me in the ribs with his elbow and I smacked his arm on instinct. I needed to relax, I was acting all jumpy and weird. I mentally shook myself and looked at Leon, who seemed to be the one least likely to make a drunken move on me.

"It's stupid. But Derek wants me to go on a date with him or something." I shook my head in a way that showed how unconcerned I was with the entire ordeal.

Leon's booming laugh shook through the old barn and he inched closer to me, grinning from ear to ear. "You serious right now?" he asked sounding oddly eager.

I raised an eyebrow at him curiously. If he thought he was being quieter just because he had moved closer, he was sadly mistaken. "That's what he said," I replied with a shrug.

"Awesome," Damion said cheerfully, suddenly lurching to his feet, only to stagger a few steps and crash into Hayden. The two laughed wildly and shoved each other for a minute before Damion added, "How are we gonna ruin this thing?"

"Huh?" I said.

"The date!" he exclaimed optimistically. "We gotta make this thing go horrible," he reiterated happily.

"Oh, no. No way, you guys just stay out of it. Seriously, I don't want to see the collateral damage your guys' pranks will leave behind. Who knows? I might end up with no eyebrows if you come up with a plan now." I could only imagine what sort of drunken plan they would come up with.

"Dame's right, we gotta fuck this up somehow," Hayden agreed solemnly. The two friends then bumped fists as if sealing the deal.

I frowned now. There wasn't much point in arguing with drunk people, especially if they weren't even going to remember the night. They would forget about it completely by the morning anyway, so I just shrugged like I didn't care what they did. Then something thudded against one of the outer walls of the barn beneath the loft we had stuffed ourselves into. The hair along my arms stood on end. None of the three boys seemed concerned, however. "I knew this piece of shit was haunted," I wailed mournfully. Which was exactly what I had told them before we had set foot in the barn.

"Oh don't be a wuss, Raven," Leon said dismissively, leaning in close enough to send a breath of alcohol into my face. My head spun a little just from the smell, I could only imagine what his brain was doing from drinking that much. Had none of them heard of alcohol poisoning before?

"You say that now, but when doors start slamming shut and the walls start bleeding and some weird black haired pale-skinned ghost starts climbing on the ceiling, I am jumping for the nearest window. Whether or not you guys make it out is so not my problem," I huffed.

"Don't worry if that happens, I'm sure Leon will keep you safe," Hayden said with a wink in my direction. I gave him a withering look. His sarcasm was not appreciated. If we were all going to die because of some vengeful spirit even all of Leon's towering height and muscles wouldn't be able to keep me from a bloody supernatural death. Hayden was just being ridiculous and quite honestly I didn't appreciate--

I yelped in surprise when a drunken Leon encased me in his arms and dragged me into his lap. "That's right, any blood thirsty ghosts will have to go through me first!" he proclaimed proudly, ignoring my offended protests and my bright red cheeks. Hayden and Damion were no help. Unless laughing hysterically and cooing at me could be defined as help and not mortifyingly humiliating. In which case, they were more than helpful, they were downright Saints.

"Shh!" I whispered fiercely, slapping my hand over Leon's mouth and ignoring just for a moment that I was still tangled in his lap. The other two ceased their laughing long enough to realize that I was listening for something and followed suit, although they fell dramatically to the side to show just how hard they were trying to listen. They snickered to each other, like two mischievous five-year-olds who had given their parents the slip.

I reached out and clicked off the flashlight that had been set up between the four of us to act as our only light to see by. There were sounds of protest and I immediately shushed them and climbed out of Leon's lap without him trying to stop me. I crept to the edge of the loft and peered down into the darkness below. I shuddered when I realized I could barely make out the shape of the floor beneath. The three boys behind me had followed suit and poked their heads over the edge of the loft. "Stealth mode," Damion murmured in a suppressed chuckle, drawing similar responses from the other two. Evidently they had decided to forego silence and made probably as much noise as humanly possible before finally holding still on either side of me. Even when they weren't moving, their breathing seemed way too loud for "stealth mode". I didn't bother to tell them as such.

The front door of the barn was made up of two large double doors which groaned on their hinges whenever anyone so much as thought about touching them. One of the doors was left open a crack from when we had entered, and peering in through that crack was a lone head of dark hair. I stared in disbelief. Who could have possibly found that old barn literally out in the middle of nowhere?

"Dude," Damion whispered fiercely, looking seriously over at Leon on my other side and then me. "Where's the rest of that guy's body?" he inquired, sounding so horrified that I almost laughed. It was too funny for me to explain that it was on the other side of the barn door. Let him sit in his horror as punishment for making fun of me earlier.

"I-is someone there?" the boy at the door called out in to the barn. Clearly he had heard Damion so I shushed the three boys before they could call some sort of response. He stepped into the barn the rest of the way, gave a cursory glance in each direction, sending us ducking behind the small amount of cover that the loft offered. "Come on, it's okay," he called behind him suddenly, beckoning to someone on the other side of the barn door.

"This isn't my idea of a good time Mark," a girl called back to him, finally poking her head into the barn as well.

"She's right dude, haunted barns are bad news," another boy said, following the girl a few steps into the barn and looking around nervously. Why didn't they have flashlights or anything? If I thought I was going into a haunted barn I sure as hell wouldn't go in completely and utterly blind.

"Okay we can say we went inside, now let's get the hell out of here," the girl prompted, turning her gaze nervously upward. I ducked back instantly, just hoping the three would leave. I didn't recognize them from school or anything, but that didn't mean much coming from me. It wasn't like I knew everyone that had ever gone to Shadowstep. I barely even knew the kids that were in my own year. Most of the students weren't really narks but I didn't need anyone coming across my three drunken minor friends. As a side note, I was getting the hell out of there myself if there were going to be rumors about some haunting going on in there. Rumors started somehow and I didn't want to stick around and figure out why.

"Just a second. We still have to turn on the flashlight and call Jed," the first dark-haired boy said matter-of-factly.

Beside me, Hayden had a hand clamped over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. I hit him on the shoulder to discourage him further, but he only laughed harder, actually going red in the face a little from repressing the sound. Damion glanced sidelong and saw his friend's face and started to laugh himself, he pointed at Hayden's face and looked at me to see if I found it just as funny as he did. I didn't. So he got Leon's attention instead and Leon grinned like a moron. They both proceeded to laugh then, although quietly so I couldn't complain too much.

"They think it's haunted," Hayden sputtered, almost hysterical with amusement.

"We can arrange a haunt," Damion said suddenly very earnest.

I was just shocked they were managing to keep quiet enough that the other three kids didn't so much as glance in our direction. The girl handed a flashlight to the first boy then, clearly unwilling to do the deed herself. The boy fiddled with the light and swore when he remembered that the other boy had the batteries for the flashlight. They exchanged frustrated words as they tried to assemble the flash light properly.

"Oh, one sec," Leon said, seeming to have a revelation. He crept backwards, being surprisingly silent. Evidently getting caught drunk was no reason to be quiet, but for the sake of terrifying some poor people silence was of the utmost import. Leon returned with an old rusty pitchfork in tow. Oh, I could see where this was going.

"Perfect!" Hayden whispered fiercely, obviously extremely proud of his friend's find.

"Here, here!" Damion exclaimed next, passing an old moldy straw hat over my head and dropping it onto Leon's. That was never going to work. Leon with a pitchfork and a smelly old hat wasn't going to fool anyone. He was dressed in nice jeans, shoes and a contemporary shirt. No hat could cover that up.

Hayden focused on me long enough for me to explain as much and he nodded in understanding. "That's what you're here for, the brains," Hayden added with a low chuckle. He reached over me and shoved Leon's shoulder and said quietly, "Lose the shirt and the shoes dude."

Of course, drunken Leon didn't think twice about the information and promptly began to shed his clothing and kick of his shoes, then fixing the hat over his head again he grinned at Hayden who nodded in encouragement. The three boys moved further back into the loft and then proceeded to wipe dirt and grime all over Leon's torso and face, just to really sell the look. I was beginning to be shocked by my three friends' abilities to improvise while simultaneously being drunk off their asses. It was impressive and pathetic at the same time.

Someone cleared their throat below and I looked down to where the first boy--Mark, I guess--was standing at the edge of the room, eyeing an old lawnmower like it might spring at him. "Jed? Are you here?" he called half-heartedly, shining the flashlight in front of him. I noticed that the beam of light wobbled a little.

"You're doing it wrong," the other boy exclaimed.

Mark turned and gave him a sharp look, though it was hard to tell through the darkness. "Oh, sorry, did you want to try to talk to a murderous farmer's ghost?"

"This is stupid, let's just leave," the girl piped in, her voice leaping up an octave when something hit the wall below and just to her right. I looked to the side of me and saw that Hayden had thrown something to draw their attention that way, his face creased in concentration as he struggled to stand upright, staying close to the wall of the loft for support. "What was that?" she asked, her voice shaking.

Behind me, Leon was standing at his full intimidating height, his stance a little wide to keep his balance without trying too hard. On Leon's other side, Damion was sitting down and wobbling where he sat, looking a little dazed until he caught my gaze and smiled lazily. I looked away and shook my head. They all looked ridiculous, but I couldn't have loved them any more for their idiocy.

"Jed!" Mark called out a little more certainly, maybe even boldly, like he didn't actually expect anything to happen. "Come on out you murderous dick!"

Well if he was going to be an ass hole about it, I didn't even feel guilty about the trap my three friends were about to spring. Besides if the barn actually was haunted I didn't want to actually see a provoked ghost.

"Mark!" the girl called out in dismay, already inching backward toward the door. Just when Mark looked back at her with a mixture of concern and self-doubt was when Leon made his move.

I scrambled backward as he thundered forward, pitchfork in hand, straw hat askew and eyes wild while he threw him from the top of the loft. To his credit, he landed effortlessly on the ground below--which wasn't a little drop, it was at least four feet--right in front of Mark while he staggered backwards screaming. Leon then threw his arms up, brandishing the pitchfork in a threatening manner for half a second. "Bloody Mary ain't got shit on me!" Leon roared at the three teenagers, who were too busy screaming and tripping over themselves to realize that Leon had toppled to the ground seconds after landing. At least he had stayed standing for a few seconds, staggered to one side and caught himself on the stick end of his pitchfork while the three kids disappeared out of the barn. I could still hear them yelling as they disappeared into the distance. Honestly, I was surprised I could hear anything over the sound of my own wild laughter.

Leon was sitting on the floor, grinning proudly up at me while he tossed the pitchfork to the side. I stopped laughing suddenly, when I saw something at the corner of my eye and watched as Hayden laughed so hard that he fell out of the loft and slammed into the floor below, landing on his back. I gasped and sat up straight. "Hayden are you okay?" I asked in a rush of breath, though I didn't immediately climb down to try and help him. Leon lumbered over to him instead and peered down at him, waving his hand in front of his face like it might help.

Hayden took the gesture as an attempt to help him up and grabbed Leon's hand to try and use him as leverage to stand, and instead pulled Leon down on top of him with a grunt. Leon howled with laughter and Hayden followed suit. Apparently he was perfectly fine. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding in and sat with my legs dangling over the edge of the loft. "Okay, seriously. I think that's enough drinking for the night you guys," I said, trying my hand at sounding stern.

"Yeah, okay, Mom," Hayden called up at me, looking at me from around Leon's shoulder. I stuck my tongue out at him in defiance.

"That's fine, I guess," Damion said from behind me, standing so that he could keep himself upright by clamping his hand down on my shoulder in a death grip. He leaned away from me long enough to hold an empty bottle in the air so that he could proclaim, "The rum's gone anyway."

Leon and Hayden snapped to attention then, and chorused, "But why is the rum gone?!"

"O-kay. With that, I think we're leaving now." I tried not to laugh, because it would only encourage them further. I shook off Damion's hand and proceeded down the old wooden ladder like a normal person, rather than falling or leaping like a dumbass. We had used it to get up into the loft, so I wasn't sure why everyone else had decided not to use it anymore. However, half-way down, one of the ancient rungs on the ladder snapped and left me to shriek and free fall the rest of the way to the ground floor. If nothing else, I turned in the air so that I wouldn't land on my back. Instead of hitting the ground however, I collided with Hayden's body, which came sliding out of absolutely nowhere. We both slid into a pile of moldy hay and dust. I coughed and tried to wave some of the dust out of my face. Hayden yelled when I accidentally slapped him in the side of the head. I didn't apologize.

I looked down at him through the dust and mildew and my heart skipped several beats. He was mostly buried in the hay while I covered the rest of him with my body. As pretty as his blue eyes were, they were hazy with alcohol and full of anger that I didn't quite understand. He sat up then, and I scrambled out of the way so that I didn't end up in his lap. I had been in Leon's lap once already, I didn't think I could handle Hayden's too that night. "What the fuck?" he called across the barn and I followed his angry gaze to Leon who was sitting contentedly in the middle of the floor.

"You okay, Raven?" Leon asked happily, completely ignoring Hayden.

"Uh, yeah...did you just...throw Hayden like a human cushion?" I asked only half-certain that that was what had just happened.

"Did he break your fall?" Leon asked next, staggering to his feet.

I laughed once. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Then yes...yes I did," Leon admitted with a grin.

"Bullshit dude! She would have been fine without you throwing me like a human beanbag chair!" Hayden exclaimed crossly.

"He's right," I admitted thoughtfully as I walked to Leon in the middle of the barn. "But now I won't even have a bruise to show for it, so thanks Leon!" I hugged him briefly, which must have been the response he wanted because he pointed and laughed at Hayden. It wasn't until after I had my arms around him that I remembered he was covered in nasty old barn dirt and shirtless. I peeled myself away, feeling weird for having touched his bare torso so boldly. Not that drunken Leon seemed to notice or care for that matter.

"Oh, sure, thank him. I'm the one you landed on," Hayden grumbled, now trying to shake all the hay and dust from his clothes. Truth be told, I was totally just trying to get on Hayden's nerves, which was even easier when he was still drunk.

I ducked when Leon's shirt came flying from the loft and tagged Leon in the side of the head where it stayed until he peeled it away in confusion. I laughed at him and he shoved me sideways, actually knocking himself off balance in the process, but he managed to stay standing. Damion grinned from the loft and dropped Leon's shoes down next. "Oh good idea, put those back on before you get hepatitis," I urged and pushed Leon toward the shoes. Damion, meanwhile dangled over the edge of the loft by the sheer strength of his arms and dropped himself down, landing lightly on the ground beside Leon's shoes. I had to marvel at the fact that all three of them were capable of such feats of strength when I couldn't do anything like that sober, let alone drunk.

Leon was staring at his shoes, but switched his attention to Damion and threw his arms around him instead as he approached. "Hey buddy," he proclaimed contentedly, completely leaning against Damion like he was tired of standing altogether.

"Hey, no man love over there! Put your shoes on!" I corrected, pretending to be chastising.

"Listen to your mother!" Hayden quipped from behind me. I turned to give him a disapproving glare and he smiled a challenge back at me. Oh, he would get his in the morning when he was just waking up vulnerable with a pounding head. Payback was a bitch but so was loud music to someone with a hangover. Leon in the meantime began to complacently put his shoes and shirt back on while Damion set a paper bag full of left over booze on the ground and waited.

When Leon was done, he pulled himself to his feet, using Damion as leverage. One would think that he would have learned from his initial attempt with Hayden that something like that wouldn't work. Damion slipped sideways and sat on Leon's shoulder long enough for Leon to lose his progress and lay on his back instead, which then forced a groggy Damion to fall backwards and sit on Leon's chest instead. I couldn't help it. I laughed hysterically while Leon pushed Damion off of him, not exactly angry but not happy about the situation either. Damion merely grinned at him in a disarming sort of way.

"Okay, enough ridiculousness. Let's get out of here before those teenagers decide to come back with the police," I informed everyone quickly. I offered my hand to Leon and braced myself by leaning back with all of my weight while he pulled himself upward and finally got standing.

"Thanks pal," Leon said happily, patting me on the head like some small animal. I batted his condescending drunken hand away in vague irritation and picked up the paper bag just as I saw Damion reaching for what was left of the Jagermeister.

"Hey, no!" I scolded, smacking his hand away while he gave me a heart wrenching look of despair. If he hadn't been using it to get a hold of more alcohol, it might have worked on me.

"You're no fun, Raven," Damion complained with a huff, clearly giving up on the Jager. Good.

"She's so good to us though," Hayden said as he suddenly leaned against my shoulder, draping his arm around me. Uh-oh. A tired Hayden was going to be a real pain in the ass to move. I tried to ignore the fact that he had complimented me vaguely, although I couldn't decide if his sarcasm got harder to read when he was drunk or he had forgotten to make that sentence sarcastic at all. "Sincerity" wasn't exactly in the running. It was sort of like that lame horse that you see in horse races that no one thinks will win but some people still bet on it hopefully, trying to win boatloads of money.

"Aw, thanks...now lean on Damion, you can't crush him," I deadpanned, passing Hayden off to Damion who took on his friend's weight effortlessly. Honestly, I would have been better off dragging Hayden along rather than Leon, but having Hayden at such close proximity was making me all nervous and jittery. Damion would have been just downright awkward to support, enough said there.

"Cooties," Damion said with a laugh, pointing at Hayden half-heartedly. Hayden just scowled and started to walk forward, dragging Damion with him.

Which left me with Leon, who was doing an okay job at walking without falling, but I saw the concentration it took him. I ducked under his arm and tried to help stabilize him and he smiled down at me. "Thanks. Goddamn ground keeps moving." He paused just as we made it outside of the barn and looked a little concerned for a brief moment. "Wait. Is this an earthquake?" he asked me, looking alarmed.

"Nope. Just your brain giving up on standing," I corrected him with a grin and urging him forward so that we could keep up with Damion and Hayden. Getting those three up two flights of stairs and into their rooms was going to be a major pain in my ass, but at least our rooms were close together. Keeping them quiet and out of sight was going to be the more annoying part of my task. The further we walked and the more night air they breathed in the more restless they seemed to get.

~***~

"Hey, hey," I whispered fiercely over my shoulder as Damion and Hayden started a half-hearted wrestling match in the stairwell. "Stealth mode, remember?" I said earnestly, getting their attention long enough to get them to finish climbing the stairs while muttering "stealth mode" to each other as if to remind themselves. They started laughing then, but they were moving so I was gonna call that one a win. It was the final hall before we reached our dorm rooms and it was almost 2:00am, I was about ready to keel over from exhaustion.

I wrestled Damion and Leon's dorm room door open with absolutely no help from Leon, who had decided to lean against the door frame and take a miniature nap, while simultaneously pulling me to the side in the process. I pinched his side to get him to jerk awake again, almost stepping on me before I got his attention again and directed him into his room. He seemed to take the hint from there and staggered toward his bed without me, stripping off his shirt and kicking his shoes into the corner. His sheets were gonna be totally gross after the dirt he was going to roll into them. Damion shrugged Hayden off and moved toward his own bed with a yawn. He didn't even kick off his shoes, though he did try to remove his pants only to get them stuck around his ankles because of his shoes. Giving up on that riddle, Damion took his shirt off and crawled under the covers, shoes still on. I wasn't even going to help him out on that one. It was bad enough he had taken his damn pants off in front of me. I was mortified and bright red, but no one was in any condition to notice.

I set up trash cans next to each of their beds before I pulled Hayden off of the floor by the door and managed to coax him into walking next door to our own dorm. Hopefully those two knew how to deal with the horrible night they had created for themselves, all I could do was make sure they didn't fall asleep on their backs and drown in their own vomit. Whatever mess they made otherwise was completely their own problems.

Hayden, on the other hand was a different story. If he made a mess in our room, that was directly my problem. So he would either make it to the toilet himself or I would drag him there so he didn't puke all over the room. I dumped Hayden in his bed in the meantime. He didn't complain until he was on his side with one foot pinned to the floor while he blinked intensely.

"Whoa, whoa what is that? Are you gonna yak?" I asked, already at his side, ready to throw him in the direction of the bathroom if I had to. I wasn't exactly great at reading drunk body language, so any movement he made practically screamed "I'm gonna puke", whether he meant it to or not.

"Spins," he grumbled at me, closing his eyes tightly like that might stop it.

Oh, well that was fine, but he would probably have to spend the night in the bathroom at that rate. "Just don't throw up on yourself," was the only shred of sympathy he was going to get from me. I straightened and turned to go over to my own bed, but Hayden's hand closed around my wrist, keeping me immobilized.

"Wait," Hayden breathed the word at me. He wreaked of alcohol but I sighed and complied with his request.

I sat down on the ground in front of him, but he didn't let go of my wrist. "If you throw up on me, I swear to God, I will end you," I threatened idly. It gave me something to do rather than sit there thinking about how he was just inches away from holding my hand.

Hayden gave me a sarcastic look, like he didn't appreciate all the barf jokes I was making at his expense. "Keep talking about it and I just might," he replied after a long silence. Had it really taken him that long to come up with a coherent response? That was almost funny all on its own.

"Are you sobering up yet?" I inquired intrepidly.

"I'm starting to feel like shit, so, yeah, I think so," Hayden replied darkly.

"Well that was quick. Now tell me, what did you learn?" I asked in a condescending coo.

"Don't expect sympathy from women?" he offered, closing his eyes again.

"That doesn't sound right..."

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth?" he tried again.

"No, that's not it either..." I pretended to look thoughtful, as if I was really having trouble finding the lesson he was supposed to be learning from getting shitfaced.

"Okay. How about, only do something bold when you're drunk so you don't lose your nerve?" Hayden said, opening his eyes to look at me directly.

I stared back at him, confusion evident on my features. "Like what? Go skydiving naked?" I asked with a laugh. Maybe he wasn't as sober as I thought.

Hayden moved slightly and leaned toward me, his eyes clearly trained on my mouth. I stiffened visibly but he didn't seem to notice. He released my wrist and moved his fingertips along my cheek gently, letting them trail back into my hair. "Not quite what I had in mind," he said quietly, sending shivers down my back until I caught a whiff of the alcohol still on his breath, reminding me just why it was he was acting strangely. There was less than an inch between us before I could stop him and make him really consider what it was that he was doing. However, Hayden surprised me by stopping himself. Shortly before leaping upward and pulling his hand from my face to cover his mouth just after he gasped, "Oh shit."

I sat stupefied on the floor while he leaped past me and bolted for the bathroom. The door wasn't even closed by the time I heard him puking his guts out. I laughed a little breathlessly, only half of my mind on what had almost just happened. Unless I was mistaken, Hayden had just been about to kiss me before his gag reflex kicked in. I tried not to take it personally. On the other hand, was that something that sober Hayden thought about often? Or was that just drunk Hayden making a move because he was bored?

The first step to solving that mystery was standing up, so I did as such. The next step was a blank spot in my mind, so I put the thought from my head entirely. There wasn't any use in thinking about what had almost happened, otherwise I would just drive myself insane. So I crawled into my bed and tried not to be grossed out by the sounds of Hayden's violent vomiting in the other room.

I jumped slightly when paper crumpled against my face when my head hit my pillow. I sat up and turned on the lamp between Hayden's bed and my own and looked down at the slip of paper in my palm. I didn't recognize the handwriting, but the content made enough sense to tell me who had left the note.

In dark, blotted ink, the note read simply: Meet me tomorrow night, outside the cafe. 5:00pm. Don't keep me waiting.