The Aristocrat

They call it pinot and all things messed up

Thursday 22nd.

"Who's ready to get smashed?" Hugo hollered the moment he strolled into my room, Victoria linked to him to an extension of his body. Their hands molded together and the space between them was non-existent as usual. Unlike usual though, a deep worry line dented Victoria's forehead. 

"No one," Fleur uttered, her eyes trained on the laptop in front of her. She quickly tapped away at the keyboard, her focus intense. Even with school was out for two weeks she was still studying putting us all to same. I'd barely looked at a textbook since the end of term. 

"I am," Ivy protested eagerly. Pushing herself up off my bed she waited like an impatient child for Hugo to pull out the goods. She'd already started drinking, but the idea of more variety excited her. Victoria who simply rolled her eyes, moved around them to join me and Chester on the little sofa I had next to my dresser. 

Whipping his arm into the air, Hugo raised our attention to the full black leather duffel bag he was holding. With a small shake, a rattle echoed out of the bag, the sound of bottles clinking together. Ivy stared at it excitingly. 

Snatching it out of his hands, Ivy threw the bag onto my bed beside Fleur. Tipping out its contents Ivy assessed what Hugo had managed to score. Fleur was pretending not to notice the two desperate people studying the pile of full bottles for something to start off with. 

"You guys are pathetic," Chester chuckled to the side of me. My legs were sprawled out over his lap, his hands rested on my ankles, thumbs rubbing friendly circles into my skin.

Ivy ignored us, pawing at a bottle of wine and clicking off the top. Not bothering with a glass, she pushed the bottle to her lips and took the largest gulp of the red liquid. Hugo chuckled at her and picked up his own bottle of liquor. A thick energy buzzed off him, eyes wide and mouth raised in a dazzling grin. 

Victoria, who'd squeezed herself onto the sofa beside Chester, threw Hugo a filthy glare that not one of us missed. Especially Hugo. 

"Don't be like that," Hugo shrugged towards her, rolling his eyes at her attitude, "Just cause you're not in a good mood. It's just a drink."

Vic scoffed loudly and threw her middle finger up at him in anger, "I don't care if you're drinking. But I do care when you do other stupid shit."

Paying attention now all of us, even Fleur no longer attached to the laptop screen, frowned. Vic and Hugo barely ever fought and when they did it was mainly because of silly little things. I wondered what he'd done this time for Vic want to call him out on it in front of all of us. 

"What'd do you do this time?" Chester called to Hugo, shuffling his back further up the cushion and positioning himself higher. Moving my feet from his lap, I lifted them until he was comfortable and then laid them back down again. 

Hugo heaved a sigh eyes trained only Victoria. 

She had a sour expression smothered thickly across her face and she arched her brows at him, "tell them."

Silence. Hugo stood with his bottle silently, his way of telling us he wouldn't be the one to say it. When he took a swig of the drink Victoria told us for him, "When I went to pick Hugo up, he was hanging out with Thomas and Luce. They were doing coke."

"Again?" Chester blurted, instant disappointment radiating from each one of us in the room. 

"It wasn't even that bad. I did one line," Hugo defended as if anything he said could make this better. But the shame was there, lying behind his defensive tone and lively eyes. We all saw it. 

Victoria shook her head and ripped herself off the sofa. The anger in her stance was enough to signal the fight that was about to go down between them, "I don't give a fuck how many lines you took. You had some and that's all that matters."