Delicate Pulse | Violentine

Drawing Names

Brody speaks up and the chatter dies down. "Okay! So this is everyone?"

"No one else likes us," mutters Aasim.

Louis grunts. "Wrong! Everyone loves me."

He yanks Clem's hat from her head. She growls. "Hey!"

"Come on, Clem," he whines. "We need something to draw from."

She looks confused. Mostly enraged because Louis just robbed her but was confused. He blinks at her in awkward silence.

Christ. I forget Louis can't read women.

"As I said, you can make a gift for everyone," I start to elaborate to Clem. A tinge of heat flushes on my stupid face. Everyone is looking at me now, great. "But we like to draw names so we only have to get one gift for one person."

"Oh," she utters. "Like secret Santa?"

"Bingo," sang Louis. "Cause we're all lazy as fuck."

"Some of us actually have a life," retorts Ruby. Laughter escapes from a few of us, well, mostly laughter. Aasim is cackling. For fucks sake.

Not Brody though. She looks like she's about to shit her pants. "I thought...You told me you explained everything!"

"She knows now," comforts Marlon. "Let's write these names down and get this show on a roll."

Brody uses her notebook to write our names, then she takes the time to rip them carefully. "They all have to look the same otherwise you can see who is who," she explains. Sophie ends up helping her to speed up the process.

Every piece of paper is folded and dropped into Clem's hat. Louis takes charge, taking the hat to Brody first. He makes sure to jumble the names around before presenting it down to her. She covers her eyes with one hand and dips the other into the hat. She draws a name and unfolds it carefully. A beam of happiness spreads across her face.

Louis shakes the hat. The paper tumbles, popping like corn kernels. He steps in front of Omar. Quietly, he fishes a name out, nods to himself and slips it into his jacket pocket.

Louis whispers to him obnoxiously. "If you have me, remember that I love pork belly."

While he is distracted, Ruby pulls a name from the dangling hat out for herself. By the time Louis has realised it's too late. She's already read it.

"I'm holding the hat," bleats Louis. The biggest frown he can muster yanks the corner of his lips.

"And I already got someone, go on," she claps back, shooing him towards Aasim. I respect Ruby a lot. She's a good balance. She's sweet but has a bitter strike. She'll nurse you back to health but if you show some attitude she'll knock some sense into you. It's refreshing to be around. A good person to go to for advice.

The hat sways before Aasim who recoils slightly at the sight. "You really need to wash that."

It is a very worn hat. The thread is coming undone and the fabric is withering away. A few stains can be spotted here and there. I can't tell if it's ever been washed. Clementine seems quite offended

"Let's hope I don't get you," warns Clem. I allow myself to smirk at that.

Sophie and Minnie reach in at the same time. Intentionally or not, they do that shit a lot without realising it. I used to always point it out to them all the time. They would both deny it every single time, whether they were being serious or not. After a while, I felt like I was getting annoyed. So I stopped. They don't know that though.

Sophie bursts with excitement. "Oh my god, I know EXACTLY what to do."

I can't help but try hard to pick up Minerva's emotions but her face remains completely blank. She doesn't even flinch.