A/N: I had a request to do a plot summary. Which, since this story is kind of… not really one coherent plot, here's the summary of the Ally & Arthur plotlines up to this point. Leon's friends party-crash on Leon, so he brings them to an ice cream shop to meet the rest of his friends. Unfortunately, this leads to Arthur confronting Francis in the bathroom, being kind of douche and accusing him of a) being in love with Leon but refusing to admit it and b) letting Antonio take advantage of him with this whole wedding thing. This leads to Fran getting upset, running out of the shop, Leon following, and then Arthur being an ass to Gill and pissing Mattie off. Meanwhile, Ally's having issues with her relationship toward Arthur because she feels like they should be taking it to the next level but she's scared. She and her sister conversed about it and now… we see what Arthur and his roommate, Alcide, (who's staying with him for the summer) have been doing this whole time. :D


Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Part 29: In Which Arthur and Other Al Get Drunk

There were few things in the world more wonderful than booze.

Sex had it beat, but that was really the only thing in the world that Arthur considered more pleasurable than booze. And this whiskey was good enough to even call that assumption into question. Whoever it was that supplied Francis—and by extension, him—with alcohol knew their stuff.

Someday he should find out who it was so he could thank them. He wasn't sure if he could have gotten through the past few years of his life without the steady flow of booze.

He wasn't sure how long he and Alcide had been drinking for now. An hour, maybe? Or two? He honestly didn't care. It had been long enough for his mind to become wrapped up in a warm haze of pleasure and for his hand and eye coordination to become completely shot. As was readily apparent when he reached into the space that separated himself from his ambrosia and found himself unable to find the bottle of whiskey.

"I can pour that for you." And his was why Arthur really liked his roommate. 'Cause he was nice enough to actually help a guy out when he needed help pouring himself a glass of whiskey.

He was also a really great guy to drink with. Which was kind of unexpected with how quiet and unobtrusive he was… Hell, Arthur's first impression of his roommate was that Alcide was probably totally straight-laced. The type of person who never drank or experimented or anything along those lines. But he'd been happy to discover that Alcide could hold his liquor impressively-well and really didn't mind Arthur imbibing every so often, so long as he kept from making too much of a mess.

He held his liquor even better than Arthur himself.

Course, if you asked the bloody frog, Arthur couldn't hold his liquor at all. Fucking git who didn't know he was talking about.

The two of them were currently sitting on the floor with bottles of rum, whiskey, and beer arranged in a circle between them. Like they were making a sacrificial offering to Dionysius or something like that. Arthur wasn't sure what time it even was, but it was definitely late… Well after midnight and he was absolutely going to regret this in the morning.

But who cared? He'd had to deal with a bunch of idiots today and alcohol was the only recourse after something like that.

Alcide poured himself a glass of beer, hands somehow still steady after however many glasses he'd had… Definitely quite a few, although not as many as Arthur himself. He then yawned and leaned against the wall behind him.

"So, you know what I meant when I said everybody here is insane now."

He really should apologize for that. He'd known that letting Alcide stay with him for the summer meant that he was going to have to deal with the town's insanity, but today had been pretty unrepresentative of what they normally dealt with and he knew that his poor roommate had felt insanely uncomfortable.

Part of it was his fault; Arthur would admit that… In his own mind, at least.

He'd gone too far when he yelled at Gill. Really, he'd just been pissed off at Francis for being so fucking annoying and Gill managed to be the one who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He needed to apologize to her as well—and Mattie. Pissing off Mattie was something that he'd never wanted to do, because he actually liked Mattie. Plus she was his girlfriend's sister.

He'd apologize sometime tomorrow—or later today, if you wanted to actually pay attention to the clock. Not 'til after he dealt with his massive hangover, though.

So he'd admit that a lot of what had happened today was his own fault, but there was a large chunk of the brain that could be settled down right in front of the frog. Because he was an aggravating, hypocritical git who just drove Arthur insane. Partly because he somehow couldn't see that he was doing the exact same thing now that he'd harassed Arthur for doing just last year. He was chipping away at his own future happiness just because he felt guilty about his past…

Arthur groaned and leaned back, his back making contact with his desk. There was a beer bottle within arm's reach, he managed to catch it after a few tries and dragged it toward him, fighting with the bottle opener for a few moments before he finally managed to snap the cap off.

"Sorry for all that shit you had to see."

Alcide made a sound of disagreement and moved his arms in an only-slightly inhibited movement. "No, no. It was fine."

Liar. Arthur had ditched him so he could yell at Francis in a public bathroom and then came back to the table to upset Gill and make Mattie angry… Potentially worst roommate ever?

At least he was giving him free booze as an apology gift.

"It wasn't fine. I shouldn't've made you sit through all that."

Alcide didn't respond to that, which was definitely an affirmative 'yeah, you really should have been a less shitty roommate'. He instead asked after taking another drink, "Who is the person… Umm, Fran? Who is he?"

…Ugh, that was not a question he wanted to answer right now. He wasn't drunk enough to have a conversation about that idiot, which was saying something because he was reaching the point where he really should stop drinking. Not that he was going to listen to that logic.

"He's a git. An annoying, perverted, hypocritical git who doesn't listen to anyone even when he knows they're right. Fucking idiotic frog bastard idiot…"

And now Alcide was staring at him like he was insane, although he hurriedly turned his head when Arthur caught his eye and busied himself by taking another drink.

The thing that honestly bugged Arthur most about Francis was that he was his closest friend if you didn't count Ally. Just think about what that said about him. He did have other friends, despite what people might insinuate, because he wasn't totally pathetic. But his two closest friends were the two people in the world who were most likely to drive him absolutely insane and who he spent ninety percent of his time arguing with. That made total sense.

"Fucking idiot. He's fucking annoying."

Stupid, fucking… But then he was interrupted from his complaining thoughts about how annoying the bastard was by the sound of his cell phone.

Which was sitting right besides Alcide, who glanced at the phone and then picked it up to look at the caller ID.

"It's Allison."

"Give it."

Again, probably not the best idea. Talking to his girlfriend after drinking rarely ended well. They'd usually end up arguing; he'd end up crying, but fuck it… He didn't care right now. He brought the phone to his ear. "Al?"

And was greeted by a cheerful, "Hi, Artie!"

She always sounded so excited, even when it was some ungodly hour of the night. Why was she even awake right now? He wasn't really sure what time it actually was—and was avoiding finding out—but he knew it was late. And he also knew that Al wasn't the type to usually stay up til all hours of the night. Not unless she was working on a project that she'd procrastinated on for way too long.

He sighed. "What do you want, Al?"

It was funny how you could practically hear the pout in her voice when he responded like that. He felt a smile twitch along his own lips, especially after she continued with a "That's mean, Artie! I wanted to call you to say hi!"

A definite lie. He knew Al. she wouldn't be calling him this late unless she wanted him for some reason. Usually because she'd stayed up watching horror movies and wanted him to comfort her, despite the fact that he'd told her a million times to stop watching the stupid things if they scared her that badly. He rolled his eyes and tapped his fingernails against his now-empty glass in a distracted half-tune. "No you didn't. You called because you want something, so what is it? Did you watch one of those movies again?"

He honestly would be surprised if that was the reason why she was calling. After what had happened today, he really doubted that she would have gone home to watch horror movies.

"No," And her voice was softer now, uncharacteristically quiet.

Arthur sighed and rubbed at his eyes. He wasn't sober enough for this. "Al, everything's fine, okay? Francis is going to be. Gill will be fine. Don't worry about them."

She didn't answer for a long moment and Arthur leaned his head back against his desk. He caught Alcide's eyes and his roommate hurriedly made a motion with his hands that pretty clearly stated 'I'm going to go back to my room and give you some privacy now'. Arthur nodded back in response, rather grateful. Alcide was a good guy.

Sometimes it hit him just how much he loved Ally. It was something that he'd denied for a long time, but really… It was stupid to not admit that he'd been crazy about her for years now; 'crazy' really being the only appropriate word to describe the feeling. Their relationship made no logical sense; He knew that. The two of them were complete opposites in just about every way imaginable and those differences usually led to them spending most of their time arguing. They very rarely did anything that an actual normal couple might do… Honestly, it even felt weird to try to do anything overtly romantic with Al.

But God, he adored this girl. Just the sound of her voice made him feel a warm contentment that was better than all of the whiskey in the world.

And it was probably said whiskey that was making him feel so sappy right now. She hadn't responded yet, but he continued without letting her respond. "Al, I love you."

She could sometimes be frustrating, irritating, aggravating… All those synonyms. But she was kind and had an amazing sense of justice and cared for other people and he absolutely adored those aspects of her.

"I love you too, Artie." And those words made him feel a strengthening of that warmth. He smiled, staring up at the ceiling. He was probably going to be absolutely mortified tomorrow when he remembered all these sappy, butterfly feelings, but he didn't care right now.

Although, the part of his mind that wasn't completely drowning noted that her tone sounded… Strange. Not upset, but definitely different than it normally sounded. He tried to grasp that thought, but it slipped away before he could figure out what exactly it meant.

"Hey, Artie?" And there it was again. Al sounded… hesitant, maybe? In a way that he rarely heard her sound.

He frowned and sat straighter, trying to sober himself up by force of will. Something sounded off and if Ally was upset, then he should figure out what was going on… It was just really hard to focus when he felt like his thoughts were all drifting around like balloons.

"What?"

There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the phone. He tried to imagine what she was doing. She was probably ready for bed; she should be in bed right now. Something had upset her enough to call him, though, and it wasn't a horror movie.

Then she spoke. "My… my mom's gonna be gone all day tomorrow and I know Mattie's gonna be out with Gill too. So, um… Do you want to come over?"

…Okay. That was not what he'd expected to hear her say.

And for a very long moment, Arthur didn't answer. The silence hanging between them like something palpable. A thread or sheet or something like that maybe. Because he was honestly too confused to answer. What in the world did she mean by that?

"Why the bloody hell are you calling me at…" He finally glanced over toward the clock on his bed. Four am. Tomorrow was going to be hell. He'd have to remember to turn off his phone before he went to bed tonight, because he was not dealing with any of this town's insanity before he was ready for it, "Four in the fucking morning to ask me if I'll come over to your house tomorrow?"

Ally's tone was defensive when she answered, which meant that this was probably about to turn into a fight. "Well, it's not like you were sleeping or anything. You're totally plastered right now, so it's not like I'm interrupting anything important."

Getting 'plastered' was important, thank you very much. Especially after a day like today.

But she interrupted him before he could respond with something that would definitely be appropriate for the situation and not at all escalate it. "Just, could you come over, please?"

This was strange. This was very strange. Also suspicious, but he sighed. "What time?"

"Like, five-ish? Would that be okay?"

It'd give him plenty of time to get over his hangover, at least. "Yes, that's fine."

The relief in her voice was also suspicious. "Oh, good! That's really good. Super good. Umm…" She trailed off. "I should probably head to sleep now, then. It's really late and I'm gonna need time to get ready so… Night night, Artie! Make sure to leave yourself some aspirin by your bed for tomorrow morning!"

Probably good advice. Not that he really wanted to admit that. And get ready for what? "All right, goodnight, Al."

And she'd already hung up. Of course.

Arthur sighed, setting his phone down, and then glanced around his bedroom. There were empty bottles everywhere and also a ton of wet spots on the floor where he'd spilled various drinks. Definitely not something he should leave until tomorrow to clean up.

Yeah. Fuck that.


A/N: Yaaay! New chapter so quickly! Why? Because homework sucks and writing is good procrastination tool! Huzzah! :D

So yeah, hopefully that summary was good? It's really hard honestly for me to summarize this story because… It's very much not a single plot. It's more just a million plotlines all going toward one mess of tangledness near the end. So I'll try to write out summaries of the main plotlines as I come to them. Since the updates have been few and far between, I imagine there are a number of people who are a little lost. Sorry.

About this chapter… Eh. Arthur's really not doing much that's interesting right now, but I still needed to show his response to what happened at the ice cream shop. Ally, however… Hmm, what exactly is her plan? I guess we shall seeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Also, drunk people are hard to write. So Arthur probably didn't act drunk enough, but meh. I tried.