SETSUNA: A Rose In A Gun Barrel

3. Dice Games

The two people looking at each other were stuck in their silence. Alexis stood in confusion as she has never seen her friend like this before.

"You good, friend?"

Oscar tried to swallow a chuckle when she was waved off, the woman in front of him never breaking their eye contact in the process.

"Oh forreal?" Alexis was perplexed before laughing off the gesture. "Well aiight, ima go and say bye to some people around here and then we can go." When she walked past and disappeared into the dancing crowd, Oscar cleared his throat and braced himself with both hands on the table. One glance down and he could see four different colors and their meanings.

"..would you like anything to drink?" The woman tried making her voice louder so he could hear her over the music but Oscar shook his head.

"Can you explain all this to me?" She smiled, pointing to the first cup.

"The green cups are for single partygoers-."

"Partygoers..?" Oscar teased, making her cover the smile she couldn't hold back. "I'm sorry, keep goin'.." She calmed herself and pointed to the next stack of cups.

"The red ones are for the partygoers in relationships.." Oscar nodded and followed along. "Blue ones are for the um...experimental kind of partygoers." His brow raised at the explanation. "Then we have the black cups for the 'it's complicated' partygoers." Kids these days, Oscar thinks to himself like he's not near their age range. He couldn't help but give it to whoever thought of this idea though. It was very clever.

"This is smart.."

"Right?" There was such a perk in her voice, he could actually hear her tone unlike last night. "As you can see, the green and blue cups are in low supply.." She shrugged, looking back up at the man. "College students can get into lots of messy shit and I'm just trying...to help..you know.." The energy around her flipped an entire 180. "Wait..you're a student around here?"

Oscar shook his head, hands going nervously back into his pocket. "Nah..I'm just here to make sure that idiot is still breathing." He pointed over to Aléjandro who was back into Alexis' face no matter which way she turned. The other two shared a small chuckle before being swallowed up by the atmosphere but their silence felt more comfortable this time around and they tried to hold it as long as they could until someone walked up to grab a cup. Oscar moved over to the side to give them space. It was a tall, more slender guy, who must've been a well known student because it seemed like everyone who saw him waved or dapped him up. His dreads were newly done up and in a ponytail, his skinny gold chain shining even under the low lights. He looked like he had a reputation to uphold and from the outside, he was doing it very well.

None of that really appealed to the woman he was trying to press up on in this instance.

"Sup shawty.."

Her face suddenly held a tight lipped expression, one step backwards and Oscar subtly stepped around the table closer to her. He wasn't bad at all at reading the room and when he did, he could tell she was uncomfortable with this man's presence.

"Oh you still don't talk?" He pressed further. "You been looking jhi cute over here." This man was taller than both of them with a cup already in his hand, it was blue. Oscar didn't have much of an expression on his face, only gauging everyone's body language.