Eridan turned, and lazily glanced at the clock. He was just tipsy enough to not be able to read the numbers - all he knew was it was sometime around midnight, from the way both arrows were pointed upward. He sighed and looked back into his drink, swirling it around as there was a silence in the bar while the small, local band changed songs, shifting through their music.
A slow drum came in as the band starting, the lyrics a jumble of words, or so it seemed to the drunken troll. Other drunks talked, speech slurred, while others awkward shifted out on the makeshift dance floor, which was just tables pushed aside to make room for drunks to stand and pass out, but in the darkness no one cared. Certainly not Eridan. A boring piano joined in their melancholy chorus as the bell to the door rang, Eridan looking up, hoping some fun would join the bar. Otherwise he'd have to stumble his way back home and most likely pass out on his own doorstep, like he'd been doing for the past 3 months, every since Feferi left him.
His friends eventually got tired of his whining and bitching about how she broke his heart and finally convinced him to go out, get some drinks and meet new people, but it always ended out the same. Karkat, Gamzee and Eridan would stop by some small bar looking for one night stands, and Eridan would wind up at the bar, piss drunk and crying to every woman who smiled at him because they always looked like her. Karkat and Gamzee would've been long gone by then, and Eridan always struggled to get himself home.
Tonight was different. He finally talked to a woman without bawling his eyes out or vomiting on her dress, both of which he'd done too many times before. She was now on the dance floor, some tall creep with his hands up her skirt, violating her goodies, but no one cared, certainly not Eridan, though he knew he didn't have much of a chance, even if she was drunk enough to take off her dress right there in the bar.
But as the bell rang and Eridan lifted his head, everything started over again. The urge to cry, vomit, hide, disappear into his vodka.
In entered the beautiful troll with the curves he knew too well, perfectly shown in this little white dress that barely covered her hips, exposing these little pink panties as she sat on a stool, leaving her legs uncrossed as she laughed with the person she had entered with. Eridan quickly stood up and moved to a table with a woman who sat alone, hoping not to be noticed. He saw her eyes flicker in the corner of her eyes as he moved. Shit.
She gave his hand a tight squeeze and sauntered towards Eridan, holding her little class of tonic like a stake, and he was the vampire. She gave a fake smile, paying to attention to the woman who sat in the opposing side of the booth, and put a gentle hand on his arm.
"Eridan!" Her voice dripped with fake enthusiasm as she batted hey mascara thick eyelashes. "Funny running into you here!" What the Hell are you doing here, Ampora, this isn't your part of town, is what pink eyes really read as he dully looked back, blinking slowly, eventually closing his eyes as he inhale deeply, taking her all in. It seemed like just yesterday they were meeting, talking, having coffee, kissing, fucking, snuggling, watching girly movies that he always made fun of even during the film, and to the moment when he walked up to the apartment and heard two voices; a familiar moan (seemingly happier one), and a deeper voice that belonged to some other man. The pain, the numbness, how stupid and betrayed he felt, it all rushed back and he felt tears welling up in his eyes as he blinked heavily, looking up and coming back to reality.
She was gone - he probably spaced out for a while, and she was grabbing her coat from the back of her stool and folding it over her hand, holding the guy's hand as she turned back around while he paid for their drinks, and the look in her eyes said so many different things, but Eridan could make out one.
Grow a pair and move on, I sure as fuck did. If she wasn't so mature, it would've been one of those moments where she would've stuck her tongue out and smirked, but she simply stood on the tips of her toes and kissed the troll, who slid her hand over her ass as they left the bar.
Eridan shakily got up, gripping on the edge of the booth and looking down at his feet, scuffling along as angrily as he could as he tried to rush for the door, someone grabbing his shoulder and turning him around.
"Hey," It was Gamzee, his black hair ruffled in a sexy mess as his shirt was buttoned two buttons off - It wasn't even his shirt at that. "You okay, bro? Ya' look like you just saw yourself a motherfuckin' ghost!" He chuckled deeply, patting his friend on the back, not really caring about what went on while he was most likely making someone scream upstairs.
Eridan only pushed him off and stumbled outside, the snow falling in gentle little sprinkles against the black sky, which twirled and swirled around him as he tried to stand straight, only stumbling into the road and getting jostled by someone walking. The streetlights barely guided his way as he tried to think of which way they went, and he didn't even notice he was crying until some people stopped ahead of him and stared as he passed. He didn't notice he was calling out her name or that he felt like he was going to be sick, if not die from this insane pain that pounded his empty heart.
Two shadows up ahead appeared and he recognized them by the way her hair tumbled down her back, and his heart pumped a final, sad, defeated ache, walking faster to catch up but only stumbling more, and they stopped, the guy turning around but Feferi quickly grabbed him by the coat and they continued walking.
"F-F-Fef...!" Eridan cried out, and the shadows started walking faster, turning around the corner and fading, Eridan falling to his knees as the sobs came back.
He had gone so far, yet had so much more to go, and she crushed all his progress with those legs of hers in heels as he clawed chunks of his hair, doubling over and vomiting on the sidewalk, his heart might've been in that mess as well as he groaned, holding one hand out to support himself as the tears wouldn't stop.
It was pathetic for a grown man to find himself like this, his friends not even caring what he was out doing. He could be dying for all they cared, and they're fucking drunk sluts while he's chasing the girl of his dreams.
And it all started sometime around midnight.