Wow...
It's been a long time now. Maybe not as long as you guys might feel it has been, but for me, it feels like an eternity. The past two to three weeks went by way too fast and too slow at the same time...
A lot has happened in my life, which is why I'm only uploading now. I haven't been writing at all after November and hitting my Nanowrimo goal of 70k words. Originally, I already wanted to upload my medieval fanfic but I suppose I can forget about that now, I doubt anyone would wanna read it, still xD
Anyway, uh. I've had many catastrophes happen in the last three weeks which made them feel like three years. Someone close to me died and there's a lot of stuff, bad stuff, going on in my family and close friends circle. So I'll probably sink back into obscurity after this chapter, depending on if I can pick up writing again.
Doesn't help that this chapter is probably not the easiest to upload since there's some adult content in here... I've been contemplating for a long time if I should upload it, but here it is I guess.
All the characters are 18+ and since I'm European, that's the legal drinking age here. No, they're not in the US. Yes, I know Luz is from Connecticut but they are not in Connecticut in this fanfic.
So yeah, see you guys around.
WARNINGS:
- ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
After dinner, the four of them put all their used dishes into the dishwasher and started it, before getting their shoes back on to run to the supermarket really quick and get some of the cheapest beer they could find.
Amity still couldn't understand why it had to be the cheapest.
"But, guys, I have enough money to-", she began again when they headed out and Gus slung his arm around her shoulders, shaking his head at that.
"To buy the whole supermarket, we know.", he said and she rolled her eyes, making Willow and Luz laugh, "But, you poor, sweet, naive summer child, we are here to teach you a thing or two about taking on the world."
Grumbling, she shook his arm off and quickly fled to Luz's closer proximity, where she already felt much calmer. It wasn't that she had wanted to be mean to Gus, but his teasing had annoyed her.
"I don't need to be taught stuff.", she mumbled, making Luz softly nudge her, "I just wanna experience a little."
Gus, being understanding about her fleeing, merely chuckled.
"And you will, just trust us with this. It has to be cheap beer, otherwise, it won't be as much fun.", he promised. Amity couldn't really do much more than believe him on this one.
"Okay. If you guys say so.", she finally relented and Gus gave a sharp nod, quickly followed by Luz and even Willow.
They arrived at the supermarket and it quickly became a game to find the cheapest beer. Of course, everyone had an unfair advantage against Amity because she had never had a beer and they had already bought some cheap beer before, knowing which brand was more expensive and which was cheaper. In the end, Willow found the cheapest one, it had a special-offer price and they just couldn't resist. Laughing, Luz and Gus wrestled for a sixpack of beer while Willow already took another pack that they hadn't spotted and walked ahead to the cashiers. Finally, Luz and Gus joined them while carrying the sixpack simultaneously and before anyone could do anything, Amity already pulled out her wallet and went to pay.
"This one is on me, guys!", she announced and, much to her relief, her newfound friends merely cheered and thanked her.
She showed her ID to the cashier and they left the artificial light to bask in the last rays of the sun, already opening their first can of beer, and with the first, horrible bitter taste of the beer touching her tongue, Amity understood what it meant.
She looked over to her friends, young and adventurous like her, and she felt like she could take on the whole world, as Gus had said. She breathed in the fresh air of the evening and looked up to the darkening sky, while they walked down the parking lot, the asphalt beneath their sneakers still radiating heat from the sun today.
She knew what it meant now. She knew what it meant to go out and have what she was wearing, but nothing more, with a cold beer in her hand, free from responsibility or reason.
She was drinking the worst beer, it literally tasted so bad, and her friends were laughing. Above them, the first few stars were blinking and the sun was bidding them a good night by projecting the most beautiful stripe of red onto the horizon as she took a sip.
Life was good, she decided, when she watched Gus and Willow chasing each other, trying not to spill their beer, while Luz was walking next to her, taking a sip and holding the sixpack in her other hand.
She once again leaned against Luz's shoulder, a far more difficult task while walking, but Luz wrapped her hand holding her beer around her, taking care that the open can wouldn't splash on her clothes, and Amity could smell the bad drink next to her face.
"You feel it?", Luz asked and Amity giggled, nodding.
"It feels... Weird.", she began and hummed, shrugging, "Almost as if my whole life just shifted slightly to the left and feels much better now."
The alcohol began being noticeable and she took another sip, grinning up at Luz.
"It certainly feels amazing to be out with you guys. Much better than to sit home alone or to be out with my old friends."
Luz pulled her closer, before taking her arm back.
"Well, prepare yourself! Because it will get much better!", she exclaimed, getting cheers from Gus and Willow, while lifting her beer, "To Amity!"
Her friends echoed her and took a big gulp of the terrible beer that started tasting amazing with time. Amity laughed and lifted her can with them.
"To you guys!"
"To us guys!", Gus loudly echoed, making everyone laugh before he attempted to down his beer which Luz successfully prevented by slamming a hand on his back and making him splutter.
They were finished with their first can of beer by the time they reached the park and sat down, everyone grabbing another one. Amity tilted her head, already feeling much more buzzed than she had the feeling her friends were, but she took a second can regardless.
"And uh, what do we do now?", she asked, but everyone kept their head turned upwards, their gazes towards the sky. Amity looked up as well and her jaw fell.
A thousand stars were already gleaming on the darkening sky, just moments away from the night, and she could see so far out. They had picked a clear night, with a sky so vast she almost felt small and insignificant. Almost.
Only until Luz took her hand, and smiled at her.
When she was reminded who she was with again, she suddenly felt like everything was smaller than her. Luz was next to her, she felt her warmth and their amusement, and she felt like nothing could hurt her. Not her mother, no responsibilities, nothing could slam her down.
She was invincible.
She felt like she could deadlift mountains.
"Nice, isn't it?", she asked in a hushed whisper and Amity nodded, so amazed at the wonderful sight that she almost forgot to breathe. Oh, and the stars were nice to look at as well.
"Yeah...", she mumbled, before looking back up again and lying back, to stare at the stars more easily. Luz followed suit and offered her shoulder for her to rest her head on, which Amity more than happily did. Willow and Gus were watching the stars silently, so she had no reason to be embarrassed. In truth, she wouldn't really feel embarrassed in front of them.
She guessed the alcohol had something to do with that because she could already feel the beer. She had never had a beer before. Sure, she drank sparkling wine and some champagne and maybe even some red wine, but only at fancy parties where there was no other option for adults, and her parents expected of her to "act her age" and fit in.
But now, drinking that beer with her friends, and lying under the stars while cuddling, she felt so comfortable that she let the tipsiness take over her senses. It made her feel courageous as if she could do anything right now.
"Are you happy?", Luz suddenly asked and Amity shrugged, reaching over to blindly grab Luz's hand. It was where she suspected it, on her stomach.
Somehow, all of this felt so right, so natural. Especially with Luz.
"... Right now, yes.", she replied and Luz nodded, getting the hint. Amity did not want to think about her life right now and Luz respected that. They stayed silent again as they watched the sky going from moderately dark to pitch black, the stars coming out to shine and the constellations seemingly drawing lines on the sky.
Amity loved everything about this moment, the silence with these three people she had come to like so much over just about two weeks, and the small banter from time to time.
The cheap beer that suddenly, at the second can, tasted like the most wonderful drink she'd ever had, and the complete freedom.
The night and the park gave her the feeling that she could go anywhere right now. She had friends, she had her shoes, and she could go anywhere she wanted. If she wanted to walk through the streets at three in the morning, she could, and if she wanted to go visit a supermarket again, she could.
There were no limits.
She was drinking the cheapest beer, lying on the grass in a park with no fences or benches, and she couldn't feel richer right in this very moment.
All the world was still heated up from the hot summer day, and she felt her surroundings, the air, the trees, the asphalt, slowly cooling down, coming to a serene rest. She could feel the soft, fragile feeling of confidence waft through the air and seep into her every pore, making her feel like the impossible could be possible, right at this moment.
As if she could kiss this girl right next to her and her parents wouldn't even care, as if she could just do what she pleased and nobody would even bat an eye.
Smiling, she turned back to Luz who grinned back, and she felt her heart beating faster.
"This is so cool.", she whispered and Luz nodded, "I didn't know such a feeling could be caused by something so simple."
Shrugging, Luz squeezed her hand and took another sip from her beer. Amity took the opportunity to sip as well, sitting up together with Luz before settling back on the grass again.
"Sometimes the most simple stuff is the best.", Luz wisely said and Amity couldn't help but giggle at Gus' loud snort before Willow finally raised her voice at that.
"Luz, you're so sappy, it's not even funny anymore.", she laughed and Luz turned to the side. Even if the situation was too funny, Amity already missed the contact as she turned to Willow as well, smirking along with her.
"Wow!", Luz defended herself, "That was really smart to say! Don't tell me it's not true!"
At her defensiveness, Gus sat up and chuckled, lightly punching her shoulder.
"It is true, but it's more meaningful if you don't say it, but let it hang in the air!"
At that, Willow rolled her eyes and Amity laughed more, shaking her head at him.
"And now you're so wise?", she teased, making Gus puff out his chest.
"Of course! I'm the wisest!", he claimed, making all of the girls around him laugh.
"You almost ate a rotten tomato for breakfast this morning and Luz chased you all over the flat with that.", Willow deadpanned, making Luz nod enthusiastically. As opposed to him, she could just be proud of her childishness, since she hadn't made the claim.
Merely grumbling, Gus lied back down and Luz chuckled, softly kicking his calf and in turn receiving a fist on her shoulder, before following him.
Amity and Willow shared a look, before settling back in the grass as well, Amity not passing up the opportunity to lie on Luz's shoulder again. Snuggling in, she took care not to lie too heavily on Luz's arm, before looking back up again.
As if they had an agreement, nobody spoke again for a while. They watched in silence while the sky above the darkened and started sparkling more and more. The star constellations became brighter, started wandering, and Amity almost believed to see a theater play starting in the sky.
The figures became visible more and more, and she was sure it was the alcohol, but her mind started weaving stories about the figures in the sky, serpents and dragons, knights and maybe, an unhappy princess, waiting for a reason to fight alongside her fearless champion.
Sighing softly, she nuzzled her nose into Luz's jacket and felt her arm around her back tightening, before looking up to the sky again.
The alcohol was now definitely coursing through her veins and she already felt her mouth and chin getting kind of numb. She was a lightweight and not even afraid to admit that. Normally she had hated drinking, but mostly because she had been forced to.
Drinking with her friends, of her own free will, was entirely different. Humming, she emptied her can of beer, earning an approving grunt from Luz.
They looked up at the sky for another while, before Willow excused herself to the toilet. For a second, Amity wondered where she wanted to find a toilet in a public park, before remembering they had passed a small hut with according signs on it, her mind at ease.
Gus quickly jumped up and offered to go with her, so she wouldn't have to be alone. Amity furrowed her eyebrows but didn't question it. She just supposed Willow didn't like to be alone.
Luz and she remained silent for another little while before Luz began chuckling and Amity looked up to her, furrowing her eyebrows. The beer had really begun showing effects in her now, and she felt how her mind wasn't as fast or sharp anymore. For some reason that was a funny feeling.
"What?", she asked and Luz shook her head, pulling her closer.
"Oh, nothing. My friends are just cheeky, that's all.", she mumbled and Amity huffed, patting her side.
"If you chuckle that's uncomfy.", she complained, which of course made Luz chuckle more, craning her neck to make eye contact.
"Excuse me, princess?", she asked and Amity growled.
"Stop laughing. And don't call me that.", she mumbled, trying to go back to that amazing feeling of feeling incredibly strong, while feeling incomparably small to the gigantic universe, while her mind made up some stories about star constellations.
Luz shuffled out from underneath her, making her whine, only to let her head rest on her lower arm, looking down at her.
"Are you a little grumpy?", Luz teased and bopped Amity's nose.
But she couldn't help it. Now that she saw Luz's face in front of the blanket of stars that filled the dark firmament above them, she felt even more starstruck than when she had been looking at the stars themselves.
She swallowed the snide remark she had been trained to shoot back whenever being teased, to challenge and show superiority, and just stared. Luz's expression softened when the hand she had used to bop Amity's nose with came up again, starting to brush along her cheek.
"... You okay?", she finally asked and Amity almost missed it, looking at her and seeing a thousand times more spark in Luz's eyes than in the millions of stars above them
She didn't even care if it was her heart or the alcohol making her poetic like that.
"Yeah...", she whispered, her voice dying in her throat, before feeling Luz now resting her palm against her cheek.
She would have never thought that a touch so small and seemingly insignificant was such a big thing to her. In her psychology studies in school, she had read that something as being touch-starved could actually have an effect on the mental health of a person, and she had jokingly self-diagnosed that.
It had been nothing more than a short self-deprecating thought at the time, her head somewhere else, her worries directed to school, family disappointment, and fitting in.
But now that Luz was touching her that way, she couldn't help but feel that she had been craving a touch like that in a long, long time. Maybe forever.
She closed her eyes and leaned against Luz's hand, sighing contently and basking in the tenderness Luz gave her for the moment, before opening her eyes again.
"I feel the beer so hard.", she finally mumbled and Luz laughed, shrugging.
"That happens, when you don't drink usually.", she referred to their conversation when they had just entered the park when Amity had already remarked how she was feeling the alcohol. Right, she had already said that.
Somehow, the world seemed too fast, and at the same time, not fast enough. She put on a dopey smile, before mischievously looking around, spotting a few late-night park visitors besides them. Some teenager groups, some older couples, some drunk people.
"Know what feels really weird, but also really good?", she asked and Luz shrugged, leaving her hand on Amity's cheek, sensing how much she needed that right now.
"I'm sure you'll tell me in a second. Your mouth barely stopped working from the supermarket to here.", she teased and Amity grumbled. Had she really talked as much?
She didn't really pay any attention.
"I don't-", she began but shook her head, trying to stay with the topic, "It's weird but good how I'm incognito."
Luz pulled up her eyebrows at that and took the last gulp from her can as well, leaning her head far back before looking down to Amity again. She could smell the cheap beer in her breath when she turned back to her.
"Incognito?", Luz questioned and Amity gestured around, listening to the faint music from some club down the road, and to some of the people on the park paths.
"All these people here have no idea who I am. It feels... It feels amazing.", she tried formulating her feeling and Luz laughed, before leaning down and lifting her eyebrows.
"What do you mean?", she asked and Amity jumped on the chance to explain herself, humming in thought before opening her mouth again.
"Well, you know... Nobody here knows I'm a Blight. It's liberating to be nobody for once, to drop the facade and be allowed to be myself.", she explained, making Luz smirk, "Being a Blight is always such a responsibility and I know slipping up could make my parents really mad. I'm glad I don't have to be perfect here."
Humming, Luz shook her head.
"But what if you are perfect the way you are and the Blight facade is an illusion of societal norms dictating what's perfect?", she asked and Amity stuck out her tongue, smacking her shoulder.
"Smartass.", she commented and Luz laughed.
"Okay but seriously, what do you mean?"
Shrugging, Amity looked around and gestured again, before turning back to Luz. She had so many thoughts, most of them incoherent, and tried formulating what she wanted to bring across. It seemed so hard and so simple at the same time.
"Here, I'm a nobody. Just, some girl. There's a net worth on my name that's probably bigger than the GDP of some countries in this world and yet, here, nobody knows. I'm a nobody. That's so relieving.", she tried to be eloquent and sound smart, but couldn't hinder Luz from smirking at that.
"Weird time to be flexing your wealth."
Rolling her eyes, Amity was ready to escape from her offender's embrace, but Luz caught her and she didn't fight back when the construction worker trapped her beneath her.
"Okay, okay, wait. But-... I don't agree, you're not a nobody. Who are you right now? I mean, you can be anybody. Who do you think you are right now?", she asked and Amity snorted.
"Like, to anyone seeing us here?", she asked and Luz nodded, "Well... I think I'm just another teen, because I look younger than I am, flirting with a classmate."
It had just slipped out but she didn't care correcting herself. It was true after all, they were in a compromising position and it wasn't like they weren't flirting.
Luckily, neither Luz nor her could see the simultaneous blush spreading on both their cheeks.
"You're just another teen flirting?", Luz teased and Amity pretended not to hear the crack in her voice.
"Yeah. Nobody knows I'm definitely over twenty, and nobody knows I'm a Blight. I'm just another somebody in the dark, happening to be trapped beneath another somebody.", she cheekily shot back and Luz laughed on top of her, before rolling off. She would have lied if she had claimed she had wanted her to get off.
"Yeah, I guess that's cool... I could just as well be a really well-known celebrity to anyone walking past and they wouldn't know.", giggling at the thought, Luz nodded, "I know what you mean, that is relieving."
They watched the stars for another while, staying silent before Luz finally reached for her third beer. Amity accepted the can as well when Luz handed it to her, and they sat up to open them. The beer was still cheap, even if Amity couldn't imagine an expensive beer would taste better, but it was what they had. Somehow, it made her feel funny as if she was free to do whatever she wanted. She had still not understood how this feeling came from a can of cheap beer, but it did and she wouldn't change it for the world.
Let me know if you liked it.