Endearment

Chapter 16: Scavenger Night?

The weekend was filled with laughs and jabs at Jeff's self esteem this time. Of course with the bringing up of how, well..."shit-faced" Jeff looked on New Years every New Years since he was seventeen, it had been the joke of the house ever since. Granted, it'd only been two days ago I had brought it up to light but Jane especially was getting her fair share of revenge on making fun of Jeff for it. Sally, although once was comforting Jeff's derailing self esteem was now helping Jane demeanor it even lower than it already was for giggles. In all honesty this sounded very cruel but the expressions Jeff had made were much worth the crude humor even for my tastes.

Meanwhile, good ol'Rogers found himself popping up every which way I was to grab my attention or...something. Always bringing up how we had a pretty good "connection" and that we had "healthy communication" and that we should "hang out" more often. Now, I'm not one for questioning but...damn right, I was questioning. He loathed me. Now suddenly he wants to become my best friend just because we had a few hours of a good talk? Bite me. 

"Something the matter?" My actual best friend, or at least closest thing I had to a friend, Hoody asked as he jumped over the couch in the living room to sit besides me, a beer in his hand. Now, it was extremely rare to find alcohol in the woods. Well, it was quite common actually to find bottles that were empty at least from partying teens in the neighboring towns that came out to scout and camp and whatnot, but an actual beer that wasn't tampered with was as common as finding an actual needle in an actual haystack. No joke. Being one with much consideration compared to everyone else in the household, he poured half a glass for me and we clanked drinks. Both of us lifting our masks so that our mouths were revealed to have been able to drink, I allowed the sweet and sour liquid to go burn down my throat, causing me to scrunch my nose a bit. Okay...maybe this beer wasn't completely untampered with. It'd been many years since I've had vodka but it this certainly wasn't my first rodeo in  having a beer that had a shot or two of it in it. And this definitely did have it.

"...did you...?"
"No. Found it this way. Guess just 'cause the cap was still on doesn't mean it's safe."
"No, I mean I can still drink it. Can you?"
"Eh, I'm twenty three, I should be able to handle this I guess."
"Same." 

After taking another sip, I sniffed and quickly wiped my nose as I gulped down the content. It was an old habit of mine to feel somewhat congested whenever I drank alcohol. Maybe it was the pungent odor that cause my nose to scrunch and such, but whatever the case it just became a bad habit of mine I can't seem to shake off. 

"Also, to answer to your earlier question, it's just the new guy's been bugging me is all." I set my glass down and got up to grab some ice from the fridge. I figured maybe it'd help make it somewhat less strong because from what I could tell, it was much more than a shot or two of extra vodka. "You mean Toby? You're still stuck with him? Would'a figured he'd be out of ya hair by now considering Slender's usual "tour guide" routine," he finished as he put his bottle on the table to gesture air quotes around 'tour guide'. Since his mask was still rolled up a  bit, I could see that amused and cocky smirk of his. I sucked my teeth at that comment. "Yeah, well, I thought so too. Though I don't know what's going on with Slendy."

"Maybe the guy just doesn't wanna handle another pup."

"Pup. That's what we're calling ourselves?"

"You know what I mean. There's already, like, what? Ten of us total?"

I thought for a moment. There was Ben, Eyeless, Sally, Jane, Jeff, Silver at times, both Eyeless and Laughing Jack, Hoody and I. Although both Silver and LJ no longer live in the mansion and went God knows where, we'd still count them as our teammates of sorts. Now that I thought of each and every one of us, we were fucking freaks.