Empty Hearts

[Peyton Sawyer]

((ooc: This doesn’t really matter but Peyton is wearing this))

Peyton sank into one of the cushiony chairs in the living room of the house she shared with Rach, Dan, Ioan, Kat, Andy, and Archie. She was surrounded by bottles of beer, friends, and various sweet treats and bowls of popcorn and other munchies. Peyton curled a small bowl of popcorn onto her lap with one arm while taking a sip of beer in the other.

“Boys suck! No, men suck! Men who play guitar, sing and don’t care about anyone but themselves and their stupid car suck!” she mused aloud, her lips pulled together in a disgruntled pout before she took another long swig of her beer.

Peyton was angry at herself really more than anyone else. She had dumped a perfectly good guy: Harrison Grant, in order to get with a not so great guy: Greg Viswanathan.

“Why do guys never call?” It was a statement more than a question as she pushed herself up from the chair once more, set her popcorn on a side table and lumbered across the room for another girly drink to go with her beer, only to return with a pink bottle in one hand and her half-finished beer in the other.

((ooc: Anyone and everyone can join the girl’s night out/night in sob/rant fest!))

[Rachael Barnes]

Rach flipped the top of her beer bottle and shifted back in the sofa, curling her legs up underneath her, before she took a long swig from it. Gesturing with the bottle to Peyton she shook her head, "Cullen, you've had a serious reality check here. You dump a perfectly lovely and nice guy for another one who seems a bit more... badarse and rebellious and is, fuck it don't ever tell Greg I admitted this but, hotter. Then it turns out that he's a dick, surprise, surprise. Look, we've all been there... some of us literally," she noted with a roll of her eyes. Hooking up with Greg Viswanathan had to be one of the stupider things she'd done but hey, he was a pretty damn fine kisser - an admission she would take with her to her grave.

"Oh come on, you can't call Greg a man!" she protested, laughing darkly at this before she reached out and stole a handful of popcorn from the bowl Peyton held. "Guys never call because they're not programmed to actually remember to call us by our definition of 'later'," Rach suggested as Peyton went to fetch another drink before eyeing her brother suspiciously, "You got any input Dannyboy? Oh, no, I forgot, you're pathetically shit when it comes to girls, my mistake," she took a quick crack at her brother, reaching over to ruffle up his hair because she knew he hated it before scrunching back into the sofa cushion again.

[Lacey Holloway]

Lacey sat on the floor in front of the sofa, carefully painting her toenails a pale pink. "Eww, why Greg? Does he even wash his hair?" she asked with a suspicious eye squint.

She was friends with Rachael, as the two shared both a Hogwarts house and a rather dismal view of other people, but she didn't know Peyton that well. Still, she kept looking furtively at the blonde out of the corner of her eye -- Lacey always thought she was unbelievably gorgeous but played it off as a platonic appreciation, constantly asking the girl things like where she got her hair cut and what shade of lipstick she was wearing.

"You dodged a bullet, babe, and that's the honest truth," Lacey said while raising a glass of red wine (her one tipple of choice) before polishing off the last of the drink.

[Adam Reznik]

(ooc: Okay, I couldn't choose! Adam has just been in the kitchen causing lols.)

Adam had kept himself carefully removed from the conversation the girls were having. He'd always had more female friends than male, so that part wasn't making him uncomfortable, but he still couldn't bring himself to speak poorly of the guys they were talking about.

No, Adam's mission at this get-together was clear and simple -- he was cooking up food as a trial run for his snack van, which would either be a wildly successful venture that pulled him out of his unemployment rut, or more likely, another unwise detour on his circuitous life path. This was reinforced by a sequence of events that played out over the course of a minute: he dropped a baking sheet on his foot, spilled a container of flour on the counter and somehow managed to set the smoke alarm off.

"Uhhh sorry everyone! Carry on!" he yelled into the other room while removing a tray from the oven with one hand and attempting to stretch his long arm to wave a towel in front of the alarm with the other. His food tasted great, mind you... the mayhem was just a side effect.

[Ella Thomas]

((ooc: Can we assume Ella tagged along with Adam because she's been busy, tonight is her rare night off, and she wants to spend time with him, even if it's in someone else's house?))

Ella didn't really have much to contribute when it came to guys and relationships - her only ever relationship was her current one with Adam and they'd sort of made the transition between friends for aaaaages into a couple quite easily. It probably helped that they lived together anyway. And she'd always had a bit of a crush on him. So her perspective was a tad limited to say the least but hey, she could provide general moral support to Peyton and an optimistic 'it will get better, you'll meet the perfect guy and you'll go skipping off into the sunset' general kind of outlook.

At this point Ella sat quietly on the beanbag opposite the sofa, slowly sipping at the white wine she'd brought along, as she listened to all the other girls talking. "There must have been something about Greg, right?" she asked, looking between Peyton and Rachael for confirmation, before shooting a worried look at Lacey as she figured neither she nor Ella understood the appeal of Greg - the difference was Ella wanted to be supportive of other peoples' right to be attracted to inherently messed up individuals. That was, until she jumped in her seat upon hearing the incessant chirp of the smoke alarm and her primary mission turned from one of sympathy and consolation to checking Adam hadn't burned the kitchen down. She gave a soft roll of her eyes at the other people in the living room (a look which conveyed a good-natured, fond 'eee what's he like?' about Adam) as she quickly jumped up from the beanbag and headed into the kitchen, wine glass still in hand.

"Hey Adam?" the brunette spoke up from the doorway, "Hon, not that I want to reign on your parade or be a backseat cook or anything but is everything under control?" she asked in concern, abandoning her glass on the counter top to instead gently take the towel from him and take over his waving duties so he could concentrate on removing the tray from the oven. Sighing softly she admitted quietly, "I have very little perspective on what Pey's going through... do you have any clue on what I'm supposed to say? Am I suppose to agree that boys are icky and stupid or just tell her she'll find someone better or-?"

[Adam Reznik]

"Fine! Tooootally fine," he reassured Ella in a falsetto sing-song while tossing the towel into her hands. He managed to get his food out of the oven, but his thumb slipped from the potholder and he had to abruptly drop the tray onto the stovetop with a loud CLANG to avoid burning himself. Holding his thumb to his mouth and bouncing around slightly, he pointed to the food. "Look! Most of these aren't even burnt!" He stuck a toothpick in a spicy meatball that had been cooling on the counter and handed it to Ella. Adam had attempted to cook something from every region of the world that he was even remotely familiar with, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that this was Not a Good Idea.

Taking a kebab for himself, Adam shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, personally, I like those guys a lot," he said through a mouthful of food. "I'd recommend offering up your own complaints, but... heh, that might be weird with me standing ten feet away in the kitchen?"

Adam then put a hand to his forehead and rubbed the spot between his eyebrows, looking uncharacteristically serious for a second. "Els... this is a good idea, right? People like my food?" He pulled up a chair and sat down for a second. "I mean... the loan I took out is nothing compared to what Leah and Noah and maybe Abe will have to pay back someday, right, but they're getting degrees from top-ranking universities and not, you know, a filthy used snack van." Adam hated making plans or thinking about the future. It stressed him out, quite frankly, which was why he bounced even the most minute life decisions off of Ella first.

[Ella Thomas]

"You know, when you say things in a falsetto, that's when I worry it's actually the contrary," Ella pointed out simply with a fond smile as she anxiously waved the towel in front of the smoke alarm, glad as it seemed to appease the device after some seconds and Adam therefore could now concentrate on damage limitation. That was, until she heard him drop the tray onto the top of the oven and spun round to see him clutching his thumb. "Adam!" she exclaimed in surprise, quickly taking his hand and leading him, regardless of any forthcoming protests, to the sink where she held his hand firmly under cold water to minimise the burn. She did, however, relent as he handed her a spicy meatball and she tasted it and found it was actually pretty good. Not that she ever doubted the outcome of his cooking efforts, just his methods which very often resulted in injury to his person and/or their kitchen.

Letting go of Adam's hand underneath the cold tap after a while she stepped back, drying hers on the towel she still held, before shrugging, "I don't really know Greg and Harry and such to be honest. They can't be that terrible, surely?" she suggested optimistically before taking another bite of the meatball, frowning as he said about offering up her own complaints about their relationship. "But... I don't... I don't have any complaints about you or about us," the brunette noted simply, "If you have your own grievances about me could you maybe tell me what they are before you tell them, mm?" she asked shyly, feeling their conversation had suddenly become a lot more serious as Adam's usual expression faded into one of seriousness.

"If what is a good idea?" Ella bit her lip, abandoning the towel and toothpick to instead take both of his hands in hers, "Oh Adam. Listen you just... you just need to maybe have less accidents, practice the recipes some more, hone your timings, yes? You have never been like your siblings, you wouldn't be happy at the prospect of half of the things they have in their lives and futures. This idea, this snack van, it's so... so you and if it's something you really want to do, you'll make it work because you won't want to see it fail." Squeezing his hands gently she added, "For what it's worth, I believe in you and your food. Plus, you can't be having doubts or giving up on all of this because your falafel is hands down the best I've ever had."

[Adam Reznik]

"Maybe you're getting confused by the name? They should call it... truth-setto. Heh," Adam grinned, acting like nothing was wrong. After burning himself, he relented just enough to let Ella do her Healer thing and run his thumb under cold water, even though he'd suffered similar injuries about a million times before. Many of them that same day.

Adam shrugged. "It's just Greg, really. It's that whole dumb swagger front, you know? I don't think he's actually a bad person," he hedged carefully. Rock music was a whole different animal than what Adam played -- you couldn't be the folksy nice guy plucking away at a guitar in between home-cooked meals. He could see how that could mess with someone's head. "Yeah yeah, okay," Adam laughed when Ella said she didn't have any complaints about him. "Want me to volunteer some? I don't understand taxes. I tear through the house like a hungry bear. Yesterday, I left toenail clippings in the shape of a smiley face on your favorite book." Adam had a certain charm, sure, but even he knew that he could be a little... much. "I'd tell you anything, promise. This face is not a face that can conceal silent suffering, trust me. Want to invent someone to trash talk? I'm thinking Alejandro, a Latin lover who came between us by trying to seduce you and making me question my sexuality."

Adam nodded, feeling a little ridiculous for even bringing it up. He didn't want anyone worrying about him and it wasn't like he could back out now, anyway. He then laughed and did a little jig. "Ha ha, okay, how much falafel have you actually eaten in your life? Be honest," he prodded her jokingly.

[Spencer Hastings]

((ooc: Not that it matters but Spencer is wearing this))

Spencer climbed off her vespa and walked it to the side of the house, leaning it against the far wall and removed her helmet and placed it inside the seat before fishing for the most important item in her bag: the wine bottle she had borrowed from her housemates. She had officially graduated from Hogwarts and started at Uni as an art student. She really loved painting but that wasn’t all she wanted to do. She was thinking about getting an internship at the Ministry, she just had to figure out what it was she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

She opened the door and smiled at everyone. “Heya Peyton,” she hugged the blonde who bounded up from her seat, obviously having already consumed a few too many of whatever was in her cup, and practically lunched herself at Spencer apparently assuming that Spencer having just gotten out of a very long and outwardly seeming serious relationship was a kindred spirit amongst skeptics and naysayers.

“I brought wine,” she said waving the bottle around in front of her. It was quite a good bottle of red wine; her roommates would drink nothing less.

Suddenly noticing Lacey sat on the other side of the room she felt entirely underdressed with paint smudges across her t-shirt. She ran a hand unconsciously over her hair which was a bit on the wild side.

[Peyton Sawyer]

Peyton smiled at Lacey, in a way she did when she was trying to convince someone of something probably when they didn’t want convincing, “Come on, Greg has great hair,” she argued with a laugh.

“Spencer!” Peyton enthused as the girl walked through the door and jumped up from her seat, nearly spilling her drink all over Dan before setting it down not so gracefully onto one of the tables, weaved around the sofa and put her arms around Spencer in a tipsy hug.

“Ooo wine!” Peyton exclaimed, very nearing that foggy happy stage of being pissed where everything, even the smallest things seem fun and exciting or funny. Grabbing the wine from Spencer’s hand she ran into the kitchen, and shouted, “We have wine!” a little more loudly than she needed to at Adam and Ella before rushing right back out of it again and into the living area. She flopped down into her comfy armchair again.

“I like jerks okay!” Peyton said almost defensively, but in a rather cute manner before grabbing another beer. “Why am I always attracted to bad boys? It’s like a curse. Oh! Or those with commitment issues, or arrogant bastards,” she giggled as she said the word bastards, Peyton didn’t swear that often or talk ill of others, it was amusing even to herself when she did, “I mean really, what is attractive about a guy who is a pompous jerk, honestly?” she rambled, and then sighed, “I’m like a fucking Bronte sister yelling Heathcliff, Heathcliff across the moors,” she said waving a hand dramatically as if this might illustrate her point better.

[Lacey Holloway]

Lacey stared at Peyton with a look on her face like she'd just opened spoiled milk. "If you want to sit around lovingly stroking hair like that, you might as well become a lezzer," she said, more viciously than was entirely warranted. She felt uncomfortable with nothing to contribute. There were only so many times you could complain about getting slobbered on by Rhys Armitage before it became increasingly obvious that it was your one and only experience with a boy.

She glaced up when Spencer walked in, trying to appear casual despite her nerves, though she giggled in spite of herself as Peyton tipsily embraced the girl. "Wiiiiine! C'mere, be my new best friend," Lacey said while patting the spot next to her on the floor for Spencer to sit, resting her head against the other girl's shoulder. "Do you want to share a terrible boy story or talk shit about Greg Vis... whatever. Vishwishakstan?

[Peyton Sawyer]

“Maybe I should then,” Peyton joked raising her beer to her lips and took another sip. “Spence, you have pretty hair, you’d be my girlfriend right?” she asked teasingly. Then she laughed, “Yep, and a white picket fence and everything.” She threw her head back and laughed as Spencer couldn’t quite remember the supposed usual number of kids to qualify for the nuclear family. “Okay wife, which nail polish do you want,” for being such a tomboy Peyton had tons of nail polish, an entire drawer full.

“Rach, how is your love life going? Better than Greg and his excellent hair I hope?” Peyton took another sip of her beer. Then she turned to Dan, "You've been awfully quiet there mister, got any cute girls fawning over your new Quidditch-superstar status?”

There seemed to be a lull in the conversation, “Wow, am I bringing down the mood that much?” she asked then added, “Ooo I know, I know, we could play truth or dare?” she placed her hand on her heart, “A drunk Peyton is a truthful Peyton,” she said dramatically and then laughed, unable to hold the faux-serious expression.

[Spencer Hastings]

Spencer laughed as Peyton tackled her and then smiled, trying very hard not to blush (and she was successful if looking down for a second didn’t give her away) as Lacey called her over. Peyton took her seat again, and Spencer sat on the floor in between Peyton and Lacey.

Spencer smiled at the drunken blonde, “Yeah, sure Pey, we’ll get married and have 1.2 kids, or is it… I have no idea,” Spencer trailed off unable to remember and shook her head. Glad to be off the topic of lesbians, being a very closeted one herself and thinking the idea of dating Peyton really wasn’t a bad one (she was gorgeous) Spencer turned her attention to the polish. “Hmm, how about that one,” she pointed to a purple one, “What do you think Lacey, would it look good on me?” she asked the redhead next to her holding up the colour.

Glancing from Rach, Dan and then to Peyton she shrugged, “I’m game if everyone else wants to play,” Spencer said quietly.

((ooc: Anyone and everyone else is allowed to be milling around there too, and they don’t have to play truth or dare but I thought it might bring up some fun and possibly awkward or drama filled moments?))

[Ella Thomas]

Ella found herself laughing through the worry and concern she always felt when Adam was cooking, "That could be it, aye," she conceded lightly at his truth-setto point. The momentary reprieve via a pun didn't completely distract her from switching into Healer mode and taking control of the situation by pretty much manhandling Adam over to the sink so he couldn't protest or carry on like nothing had happened.

"Greg's the one that looks like Dan a bit? With the hair?" she asked, brow knit in confusion as she tried to remember who Greg and Harry were, having only seen them on the very odd occasion. "Well I've came across enough of those kind of people at Hogwarts, they usually mellow eventually, realise the swagger thing needs to go if they want to stay friends with people for any length of time. Either that or he'll become a world-famous rockstar and no one will care if he has swagger because he's 'cool'," she pointed out, biting the last of the meatball carefully off the toothpick. "Adam, if I got upset about toenail clippings, I would have walked out months ago," Ella suggested with an oddly fond smile considering what they were talking about, "Besides... I don't understand taxes either and between us I'm not sure most adults do. And what's sitting down to read Pride and Prejudice without you having left something beside it for me to see?" Her smile grew as he made up a Latin lover, "Oh god Alejandro..." she said, as though savouring every last syllable of his name, "...what a man," she played along, making her voice wistful and longing, a faraway look in her eyes.

She smiled tightly as Adam seemed to brush all sincerity of their conversation aside with a little jig. Which was fairly normal Adam behaviour, to be honest. "Hug it out?" she suggested, opening her arms up in an offering before she smiled, "I've ate falafel before yours!" she protested, "Hey, I was being sincere and nice! And also possibly offending your mum's falafel in the process but yeah..." she trailed off non-committally.

[Rachael Barnes]

"'There must have been something about Greg'," Rachael repeated Ella's words before looking at her with a sickly sweet smile, "Oh Els, it's really cute you think that. You got lucky with finding Reznik and you two fitting together, let's just leave it at that," she advised, watching as the girl left to investigate what on earth Adam had done to set off the smoke alarm, before she turned to Peyton, "He's a not too shabby kisser, right, that's his only saving grace. And he doesn't pretend like he gives a shit about your day or what films you like or whatever, he's upfront about just wanting to get off with you, if nothing else. I kinda appreciate that upfront honesty vibe, what you see is what you get. Unfortunately what you see is a moody, swaggering, hipstery poser, am I right?" she asked for confirmation, throwing her arms open as if inviting the rest of the room to chip in on what other defects Greg Viswanathan had. So she liked trash talking boys she'd previously kissed, so sue her.

"Pey, honey, we all like jerks, I think it's actually programmed in us all to be attracted to people who are so unstable and flawed... we think 'wow they're so hot and rebellious' and a little bit of us thinks we can be the one to change them for the better, to fix them," Rachael suggested. For her, it was almost philosophical, but the fact she'd just grabbed another handful of popcorn and took a large swig of beer somewhat ruined the philosopher effect. "Heathcliff is the epitome of that. And look where it got Cathy," she concluded grimly with a dramatic pause as though pondering the fictional woman's fate.

Scoffing she shifted off the sofa, abandoning the beer to grab her own bottle of black nail polish, before she shrugged, "Love life is non-existent, truth be told, Cullen. But hey just gimme a few seconds to make up something really in-depth and detailed and no-holds-barred on the sex to freak Dan out," she grinned evilly, casting a look at her brother who had been rather uncharacteristically quiet through the whole thing. "Oy, wake up Barnes!" she taunted, waving her hand back and forth in front of her twin's face, "Don't mind him, he's clearly just dazed by how girl conversations go. And probably quite glad he hasn't dated anyone in this room," she suggested for him, eyebrows raising as if daring him to defy her. "Oh come on, truth or dare, really?" she sighed slightly, relenting then only because she could see Peyton needed a fun game to keep her mind off things, "Fine. Who's starting?" she asked, her gaze sweeping across the room whilst she steadily applied a coat of nail varnish to her left hand.