Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Part 62: In Which Arthur is Embarrassed

"Artie!"

Oh, Christ.

Arthur just barely had time to brace himself before Ally threw herself at him, wrapping herself around him bodily like a very inebriated octopus.

"I missed you, Artie!" she exclaimed, much too loudly and directly into his ear. "You missed all the fun! We played a panty game and a question game, which was kinda boring cuz Antonio's favorite ice cream flavor is just regular chocolate, which is laaaaame~ But we had lots of food and played in a bouncy house and had lotsa drinks!"

"I gathered that last one," Arthur tried to extricate himself from her grasp, but was about as successful as one might be if trying to actually escape from a drunk octopus.

He should have just stayed inside, but his—let's call it boredom—had managed to get the better of him. When Allison called to tell him that she and the rest of the bachelorette party were currently waiting outside of Francis's locked gate, here to 'crash' the bachelor's party, he'd been too curious to just remain behind when Antonio ran off to let them in.

He'd also been interested in seeing how Antonio would go about letting them in, since the git wasn't likely to think through the process logically and go find Francis and ask him to open the gate. It was much more likely he'd just run off down the road, make it all the way down to the end, and then realize he had no idea what the code was either…

That was exactly what he did, by the way. The idiot was lucky Arthur wasn't about to let a bunch of girls stand around outside at night. He'd taken his time finding Francis—just to make sure Antonio actually made it to the end of the road and realized what an idiot he'd been—but then let Francis know what was going on.

The frog had seemed somewhat surprised, but then proceed to take it annoyingly in stride. He'd smiled, said something like, "Well, the more the merrier, oui?" and then went off to the security closet.

Yes, something Antonio had clearly forgotten, you didn't have to leave the mansion to open the gate. Arthur had followed Francis into the small room, eyes immediately moving across the many monitors showing various shots of the mansion to focus on the screen showing the front gate. There was Antonio, clearly getting bawled out by Lovina; Feliciana looked like she was trying to play peacemaker, but was failing miserably; Al was laughing hysterically; the other girls all looked either resigned or like they wanted to help but weren't sure how… And Leon was leaning against his car, staring at the camera like he knew they were watching him and just wanted them to get him the hell out of there.

Francis had giggled at that and leaned over to a microphone set up next to the screen, pressing a button before saying, "Bonjour, mes amis! I did not realize we were going to be receiving more guests tonight, or I would have left the gate open!"

Lovina paused in her berating and immediately began turning her head around, clearly unsure where the voice had come from. The camera was rather difficult to identify if you didn't know what you were looking for and the microphone was practically invisible. It was also currently turned off, so Francis and Arthur couldn't hear anything being said on the other end.

Probably safer that way, knowing Lovina's mouth. She was definitely yelling something at them, but as she wasn't receiving an answer, finally decided to express herself in a way that couldn't be misunderstood. She walked to the gate and kicked it, hard enough that it visibly vibrated on the screen.

Francis laughed again, then clicked the microphone on. "Do not worry! I will open the gate for you in just a moment, and then cher Leon can drive you up to join our little party! We are looking forward to having you!"

Arthur had rolled his eyes. Speak for yourself. He didn't say anything, though, as Francis moved to a keyboard closer to the door and typed in a series of letters and numbers.

FRB1990812CO

"Well," he spun around and flashed Arthur one of his more annoyingly saccharine smiles. "I can't say I expected this, but it should make things more interesting…"

Arthur snorted. He wasn't going to bother with any actual response. Instead, he pushed past the annoying frog and went to the door to wait for the girls and Leon to drive up to the house… And regretted it almost instantly, as he was soon to find himself practically crushed to death by his girlfriend.

He wasn't entirely sure he'd followed what she was saying. Something about a bouncy house and drinking and a…panty game? What the fuck even was that?

His mind had started wandering off into decidedly R-rated territory as he pondered this question, so Ally's exclamation of "Artie!" combined with full body shake might not have been the worst-timed thing.

Fuck, was she normally this heavy? He was having trouble keeping both of them upright, as she kept leaning more and more of her weight against him. He'd never actually seen Al totally smashed before and he was starting to wish things could've stayed that way. He couldn't get her to let go of him and it was just…

"Now, all of you! Listen to me!"

He was jerked back to the present reality by a sudden, militarily-commanding voice.

When the car had rolled up, Ally had jumped out before it even came to a complete stop and immediately launched herself at Arthur. The others had apparently progressed at a more natural pace, although Arthur could tell from their expressions that Al wasn't the only one of this group who had imbibed more than she was used to. Leon was obviously sober; he'd pulled himself out of the driver's seat and gravitated to Francis's side, but his expression was that of a man who was determined to have as little to do with whatever was about to happen as possible, neither to hinder or help.

Feliciana, Lovina, Mattie, and a slightly sheepish, but mostly happy-looking Antonio had climbed out of the backseat. Feliciana and Lovina were clearly the worst off—besides the girl who was plastered against himself, possibly. Feli was giggling at absolutely nothing and swaying back and forth on her feet, looking about five seconds from toppling over and finding it absolutely hilarious. Lovi was holding herself together reasonably well, actually, but her eyes gave her away. They were completely unfocused on the people in front of her and it was clear that she was struggling to not overbalance.

She took a step forward in what Arthur was pretty sure was supposed to be an angry stomp, but which turned out to be more of a stagger. Antonio was at her side in an instant, his arm under her hand like some gallant prince out of a fairy tale or something idiotic like that.

"I said!" Lovina said, her words coming out in an irritated-sounding slur. "You all better listen to me! We hadta come here cuz you all are idiots! Capische? Stupid… Stupid boys who can't even have a good bach-bache—party for 'Ntonio!"

"Aw, Lovi, that isn't very nice to say!" Feli interrupted. "They tried their best!"

"Not good enough!" She whirled around and absolutely would've fallen if it weren't for Antonio's grip on her. "My husban'-ta-be should be happy at his party!"

Antonio's eyes did an almost-literal sparkle at those words. It was enough to make a guy sick; thankfully, Arthur's attention was suddenly distracted. Or, perhaps not so thankfully, as he was distracted by Ally trying to do some kind of movement that managed to knock her off balance and toward him. He just barely managed to catch her.

And almost wished he hadn't, because they were now facing each other with their lips mere centimeters apart. Which was embarrassing, but not nearly as problematic as the fact that somehow her hand had also managed to land directly on his crotch.

Arthur felt his cheeks immediately heat up as he felt her press down more solidly, as if trying to keep her balance by pushing on whatever body part happened to be currently at hand

And Arthur's brain cells were going to murder each other for that thought.

He needed to push her away, but his various body parts were currently in varying states of control rebellion. Fuck, he shouldn't have drunk so much tonight. Even if he could hold his drink much better than her, it still left him vulnerable.

At least Ally hadn't seemed to notice anything amiss, but that just emphasized how very drunk she was and how not okay this was and how he really needed to push her off as soon as possible, no matter how good it might feel.

Arthur prayed no one had noticed; he grabbed Ally's arm and pulled her hand away, then gave her a little push. "Don't cling to me," he grumbled.

She ignored him, but thankfully moved so she was now wrapped around his arm. As far as Arthur could tell, no one had noticed his momentary discomfiture, distracted by a completely incoherent argument Lovina and Feli apparently were engaged in.

"Never!"

"Awww, but I thought they were cute, Loviii~!"

"I am never-ever-ever wearing 'em 'n that's final!"

"What are you talking about?" Antonio cut in, and Feli was immediately pounced on by her sister before she could answer.

Some inanity, no doubt. Arthur wondered whether he should just head back inside. Adding the girls to the mix had clearly just made things worse.

"Anyway!" Lovina barked out before he—or anyone else—could make an escape. "Like I was sayin' afore I was rudely interrupted, we came to make 'Tonio's party better. And we're gonna start with a new game."

Joy. That was exactly what Arthur wanted to subject himself to tonight.

"We're gonna play 'Never Have I Ever.'"


A/N: Heyo, so less time between chapters for this one! Yay!

Let's see, so regarding the chapter, writing drunk people is annoying and difficult and I can't decide whether I really want to do so or not. So I kinda keep going back and forth with it. Hopefully y'all can get the gist of who is the slurriest from the dialogue. xD

I always find it amusing how when you get people drunk, you get such totally different personality traits out of them. I feel like Lovi is actually a similar drunk to me… Normally an introvert, but gets really talkative once she's been drinking for a while. Which could be quite interesting now that we're finally getting to the 'Never Have I Ever' game. Which will be the last event of this bachelor's party that never ends, btw. Woohoo.

Life update… My family and I are still living with my aunt after our house fire. I think we're going to be building a new house on the site of our old house, but we really don't know yet because insurance is being the biggest bitch ever. So… We're going to be here until further notice. It kinda sucks, especially since her house is REALLY cold. But, at least we have somewhere to live.

And I have something to look forward to now. I was accepted into a grad program at St. Andrews University in Scotland for this upcoming September, which I'm really excited about. I'll be studying museum and gallery studies and hope that after this, I'll finally be able to get a real job. Maybe even in Scotland, since I haven't had much luck in the US and after the fire, I really don't feel any ties holding me here.

It'll be a new start, which I feel like is just what I need right now.