DEFEATISM

09

Group Chat

Nicknames, as made by Maverick

Galilee: Maze Runner Eyebrows Guy
Jerry: Seinfeld
Elodie: Melodie
Benedict: Cumberbatch
Maverick: Clara's beard

Tempest: StormyDarlington: Darlington
Marcellus: Marky Mark
Calypso: Homer's Girl
Moonie: Moonie
Ro: Ro your boat

Clara's beard

hey does everyone else have no internet?? cant stand campus wifi
Message undelivered

~~~

Darlington practically melts out of bed the next day. The ground is cold, but he always sweats so much when he drinks. He rubs his head and the memory washes over him. He flinches, pulling himself upright, and checking the room. So much of the evening is a blur. He looks around, checking his desk. There is a bottle of whisky on it, that wasn't opened when he left for the party, but now there is a decent amount gone. He's fully naked as well. Everything after Tempest dragged him out of the party is pretty fuzzy. She took him to the bathroom, and they ran into Moonie crying in the bathroom.

Fuck, did he and Tempest?

He struggles into his bathroom and stares at himself in the mirror. No, he didn't have sex, he thinks. There is no condom in the bathroom garbage, so he doesn't think that is what happened. She probably just brought him back to his room. He must've stripped in the night. Sweaty.

But, Tempest is pregnant. If he was pushy, if she was into him in a way he doesn't think, he might have thought it was fine, since she was pregnant already. When he is drunk, he doesn't think.

Darlington feels so nauseous. Despite this, he throws on his track pants and a t-shirt, and beelines out of the door for the floor above, where Tempest is.

~~~

Maverick hasn't seen Moonie since during the party. He realized she was gone about ten minutes after they finished flip cup, after he had spent time congratulating his other teammates. He wanted to thank Moonie last, because she started it all. Moonie was so kind, going slowly on purpose to give Darlington a chance. Yet, he looked around, and she was gone. Tempest said she went to walk Darlington up to bed, and they called it a night pretty soon after that.

It's noon, and he waited in the kitchen, hoping she would come down to make breakfast. Lots of the resident assistants don't eat breakfast, but Moonie loves to make eggs, bacon, toast, and throw together a fruit bowl. Breakfast with Moonie is like breakfast on a family sitcom, where there is more food and heart than there would ever be at a breakfast in the real world. She never came.

So, he made them a box of mac and cheese, leaving some leftovers for whoever happens upon the lounge next, and he knocks on her door.

Inside, Moonie stumbles toward the door. She was up late, and her head is pounding.

She opens her door and she is startled to see Maverick on the other side. He's smiling at her, and in his hands are two bowls of mac and cheese.

"I don't know if they are any good," Maverick says. "We don't have any milk, so I had to use water. There was butter in the fridge though, so that should do."