Life is Short...Why Waste It Being Sober? [Emily]

As he walked he allowed himself to think of how much easier it would be if he had just learned to apparate instead of dropping out of school. Granted, he did have means to loads of transportation between the muggle and the magical world, but he would love to know how it felt like to just pop up at random places. He sighed heavily as he walked the rest of the way to the pub. The air was cool, maybe even a little damp, but Julian didn't mind at all, somehow it helped him clear his head and he was grateful.

Just before opening the door, he tossed his cigarette in the street somewhere. His eyes searched the place quickly, noting the amount of people there was not too overwhelming and he was relieved by this. He wasn't too keen on overly large crowds, actually, he didn't really like other people much at all. But he knew Emily through Elaine, being her other best friend, and he had gotten to know her a bit. He smirked a little to himself, knowing that Emily and Eva didn't get on much, but he didn't really understand why. He always figured it was because of some complex womanly thing that was more alien to him than pantyhose. He allowed himself to think of all this as he walked straight to the bar and grabbed two empty bar chairs and held one with his jacket so no one would take it. As he glanced get comfortable and rolling his sleeves up, he knew this wasn’t really Emily's ‘place of peace’ sort to speak but Julian also knew she wasn't much of a small talker...unless she had a couple of drinks in her system.

Emily would be apparating somewhere near by any minute now. Julian ordered his first drink, keeping his tap open, and drank it quickly. Gesturing with his hands to the bartender for another one as he topped his first one off, he had had a long day with clients and couldn’t wait to get his body to relax a bit, even if it meant getting a little too drunk. He pondered ordering a drink for Emily, he wasn’t really sure what her poison was that she preferred but he ordered her a long island iced tea. All women love long island iced teas, he thought. He would be surprised if she didn't- it was sweet, with all kinds of liquor in it, she would have to like it.

The bartender came over with Julian’s second glass of whiskey and Julian didn’t take it straight to the head like he did with the first one. He looked behind him to see if he recognized anyone but then turned right back around as a group of older women starting gawking at him as though he was an alien. Tattoos or no tattoos, the wizard didn’t always like the stares he received from other people. And if he was honest, didn’t have the energy for them today especially at this moment seeing as he was just trying to mellow out and grab a drink with a friend. He glanced at his watch hoping she would come soon but he leaned over the counter comfortably just before he downed his next drink, the bartender came over with another. Julian nodded as a silent thank you, he did appreciate the service.

Outfit: http://www.polyvore.com/out_for_drink/set?id=83448159

Emily didn’t get to go out much with any sort of variety of people, let alone friends that were male. Tonight, however, she was taking that risk. She doubted that there would be any consequences, because he wouldn’t find out what she’d been doing in the first place, but if he did, jealous though he was, there was always the excuse that Julian was just a friend. And he was. In fact, he couldn’t have really been anything else. Not with a certain other guy on her mind who was about a billion times more suspicious. Em had failed to mention to her boyfriend, if calling him that was appropriate anyway, that she’d gone with another man to a wedding as his official date, and she didn’t plan on telling him outright unless he asked. It was always the worst when she got caught in a lie.

After pulling on a typical leather jacket, Emily stared at her appearance in the mirror. Chucks. Plain dress. Natural makeup. That was what she considered dressing up. She wasn’t one of those girls that would be in pain all the time to look a certain way and she wasn’t a girl that would put on so much eyeliner so as to try and create an optical illusion of black craters in place of her eyes. Emily assumed that most of the reason she and Julian were meeting up like this alone was to discuss Elaine, which she didn’t really have a problem with, considering that she liked talking about others much more than she enjoyed talking about herself. The only problem was that the location he’d set had been a pub, and the twenty-one year old wasn’t naive. She didn’t get drunk often and she didn’t intend on doing so tonight, but those who knew her well enough knew that the best way to get her to say anything was to make sure she was... well, a little looser, so to speak.

Snatching her handbag to take along with her, Emily closed her eyes and thought of the location they’d settled on, popping up close to it in a matter of seconds. Upon entering the pub as discreetly as possible, Julian wasn’t hard to miss. Emily didn’t really understand the whole tattoo thing, just as she didn’t understand Eva’s stupid hair (she realized it was a childish thought, calling someone’s hair stupid), but to each their own was the best argument she could come up with to support that in any way. His jacket was draped over the barstool next to him, so she smiled and hopped onto it, safely assuming that it was saved for her. “Hey, Julian.”

Glancing at the bar, she noticed that he’d ordered her a drink. “Oh! Thank you, you didn’t have to. I appreciate that.” Sipping at it cautiously, she recognized the taste immediately. She liked Long Island iced teas, though she reminded herself to be careful with how much of it she drank at once -- Emily wasn’t really proud of the fact that she was a lightweight in the simplest of terms. She supposed some of that came from not drinking much to begin with, but as of late she’d had more of those escapades. Maybe she was building up a tolerance. “So.” The brunette began, resting her elbows on the table and leaning over to look at her companion, “I trust you’ve been well? What’s the idea behind all this?”

He turned to her once he heard her, after taking in her appearance for a second he replied, “Hey there, legs.” He winked and smiled hugely knowing this comment would either make her embarrassed or roll her eyes. Probably the latter, “You’re welcome love. Drink up,” He tossed another grin her way. Julian wasn’t really ready to get to the point just yet, “Yes, I’ve been well,” He looked at her playfully, “Are you suggesting that there is an ulterior motive behind me wanting to see your face?” He pretended to be appalled by this, making it obvious he was joking, he put his hand on his chest, “I’m insulted.”

He took a sip of his liquor, “Anyway, I guess I wanted to seek your advice about something…since you're not only beautiful but intelligent...” Julian flashed his best smile, even though flattery never got him anywhere with Emily. He meant what he said but Julian was obviously trying to butter her up to prepare her for his news. Emily was indeed a bright witch and he already knew she would know he wanted to talk about Elaine. But she had no idea about his last encounter with Eva. He laughed at himself in disbelief, “We’ll get down to business after I have another one of these,” He shook his glass gently, holding it up. “Let’s just say, I’ve really fucked up this time. I’m not sure I’ll be able to fix this.” He searched her face for a second, “Yeah, you’ll probably need another one yourself…I’m afraid you’ll kill me if you’re sober.” He whispered the last part mostly to himself. He waved the bartender down and pointed at Emily and put up his index finger as to say ‘one more for her’.

“I swear will tell you just let me get you a little liquored up first.” He smiled and playfully pushed her cup to her lips as to encourage her to drink. Knowing she hated small talk, he decided to take a stab at it anyway, “How about you tell me what you’ve been up to? How’ve you been?” He took another sip awaiting her reply. “No one word answers please.” Although he knew her enough to know she would most likely not tell him much. After her reply he would have to tell her about Eva soon. He could feel the warmth from the alcohol spreading slowly as the bartender came over with Emily’s next drink. He was not looking forward to Emily's reaction to his news but the alcohol made him feel just a tad more brave.

Emily had to force herself not to turn red all the way down to her neck when Julian commented on her legs. The dress wasn’t even short. She didn’t like short dresses, generally. They gave away more than was necessary, and skimpy attire in public had always been tacky to her. If everything was already showing, nothing was left to be desired, and Emily didn’t like people with no class or tact. A certain girl came to mind, and she gritted her teeth through another halfhearted grin. After she slid into the stool, the brunette waited for her friend to be done quipping before she even bothered to open her mouth to say anything else, but took them all gracefully with eyerolls and half-smiles at the appropriate moments. “Uh huh,” Emily murmured against the rim of her glass, chuckling quietly at his feigned hurt. It was so like him to crack stupid jokes like that. It hadn’t taken long to feel familiar with Julian, as he was just so.. socially savvy, at least compared to her, and so it hadn’t taken them long to really become friends in the first place. It was nice to have a casual friend that she could talk to without them knowing exactly what she was referencing at times.

“I figured you’d be ‘seeking my advice’, you know.” Emily muttered, just loud enough for him to hear, accompanying her sentence with air quotes in the implied place. “But you don’t have to fib so much. Compliments really aren’t necessary, unless... it’s something really horrible.” Em’s trimmed eyebrow quirked. It wouldn’t be unlike him to do something ridiculous and then not know how to get himself out of it, and it wasn’t as though all of his other hooligan friends could do much in the way of advice. She nodded knowingly after he affirmed her previous prediction. Great. Well, it wasn’t as though Emily hadn’t been through her fair share of seemingly irreparable issues, so of course she would do everything she could to help her friend get out of his pickle.

Though she’d been sipping gingerly on her drink before, she hadn’t been expecting Julian’s little shove of the glass to her lips, which accidentally clinked against the tips of her rather large front teeth. She reacted to this with a muffled cry and made sure to wipe the liquid that had escaped out of the corner of her mouth with a napkin from the dispenser next to them on the bar. “Okay, okay, jeez. I suppose I’ll have to just take your word for it.” Pausing to push the straw around in her tea, she looked down at the counter and shrugged. “My life’s not too exciting, you know. Nothing really deviating from the usual. I’m getting so sick of the amusement park job, though. I might quit it soon and just cut down on buying so many books every month.”

Emily’s green eyes widened at the new drink sliding towards her front and the old glass being taken away. Another one?! She knew she’d drunk that last one too fast and the blades of the fan on the floor of the bar were already looking.. well, twitchier than they should have. She really needed to stop letting people get her drunk. It wasn’t something she was used to and she wasn’t certain she even liked it all that much, but if Julian thought she needed to be a little past her limit, well then, who was she to contradict that? Taking another large gulp of her tea, Emily fidgeted in her seat, assessing Julian’s body language. He was nervous, and her nerves seemed to be dissipating with every drink she drug into her mouth. “Come on, mate, what is it. Out with it.”

Typical Emily, he rolled his eyes playfully as she chimed about buying too many books. He shook his head; it must be nice having books being your worst problem in life. Of course, he had no idea that she was being vague about what was really going on with her so he was at least glad that she was okay. He thought for a second as her words reregistered, who the hell would get sick of an amusement park? Of course he had no idea what working at an amusement park entailed either since he pictured her playing games all day. No, that can’t be right, he kept his thoughts to himself, “Whatever makes you happy. I say quit. Fuck it.”

He laughed as he watched her eyes widen when her new drink came, “Oh yeah, it’s that kind of night, love. Cheers.” He threw the rest of his drink back. One, two, three, and four, he was binge drinking. He was feeling free, loose in the limbs, and uncaring. His problems suddenly seemed to be minuscule as he thought of them. And he wondered to himself why he even wanted to talk about them. He looked down at her from his chair with a faintly confused expression.

“Yes sir.” His confusion vanished and was replaced by a smirk as she ordered him to spill his news, “Well. I hav- HAD feelings for Elaine, but I sort of…messed with Eva. You know that’s her (other) best friend.” He waved his hand, ignoring the fact that Emily despised Eva at this point, “But Eva has encouraged me to let it go, so I did. Elaine, I mean. I’m done. I don’t even know why I wanted to talk about this actually…” He rubbed his chin with his hand as he thought, and decided it was best to let it go,“Let’s just get hammered. A grown man with a crush? That’s not sexy, it’s sad. ...Why bother chasing someone who doesn’t want to be chased?!” He smacked his hand on the counter to emphasize his point. The hit was a little loud and the bartender threw Julian a suspicious look. Julian mouthed ‘sorry’ and moved his hands onto his lap. He didn’t want to ruin his chance of his good service...or get flagged. He thought of Eva’s words to him, “It really doesn’t make sense, does it, she’s right. She’s just a friend.” He grimaced.

The liquor he drank hit him fast. Perhaps it was the lack of food in his system and there was nothing to absorb the alcohol in his contents. His thoughts were a bit jumbled, but he was speaking his mind. Emily would surely think the same, right? Was she feeling good yet? He had to slow down his drinking if he wanted her to be on the same playing field as him. Elaine was his friend and there would be nothing more to it than that. He had to grasp the reality of it and it was easy given his state of mind, "Let's do some shots, yeah?" He tried getting the bartenders attention but he was occupied so he turned back to Emily, "You're a good girl, a bit...reserved at times but still...why hasn't someone been after you, I wonder?" He was being honest but he thought again, "Because you're too smart for that, huh?" He grinned, answering his own question thinking that Emily was too brilliant to be involved with petty things such as relationships and the continuous problems they come with. And he couldn't be more wrong. She was indeed brilliant...but she was human after all.

“It’s a longshot that anything would make me happy these days, my friend.” Emily said morosely, casting Julian a glance out of the corner of her eye. Except maybe being problem free -- particularly in the area of her love life, however harsh of a term that was, but Emily was well aware that that wasn’t happening any time soon. She sipped her Long Island some more, nodding. “I suppose it is that kind of night. I hardly ever have these kinds of nights, but I suppose I trust you well enough to let this slide and pretend like it didn’t happen in public.” Emily laughed, almost musically, and was surprised that she was having this much of a good time. Not because she was with Julian, but because she wasn’t angsting over every single little thing right now. Maybe that was the alcohol speaking, or whatever concoction was in her glass.

Frowning at the last part of Julian’s sorrowful story, Emily shook her head. “No. Eva is a manipulative bitch, Julian, and even if she’s your friend, you’ve got to know her slippery tendencies.” Em slid the empty glass of her old drink across the bar and replaced it with the new one, forgetting that there was a straw in it and simply taking a swig from the rim. “You shouldn’t listen to her. Letting someone else tell you how you feel or how you’re supposed to feel, especially when they were the problem in the first place, isn’t a good or healthy way to go about things.” Attempting to soften her facial features, Emily tried to remember that this was neither a seminar nor a teaching session and that she was simply trying to advise her friend on what to do about his situation with her best friend. She didn’t like that he’d wasted his time with rainbow hair, but nowadays, it seemed like every man in Britain had traveled down that cave without repelling ropes.

“I think it makes plenty of sense that you like Elaine.” A genuine nod followed this, and she turned her body toward him to better convey her message. “I don’t see the allure that seems to come as a package deal with Eva, but… I can tell you that Elaine is someone that is worth pursuing. You shouldn’t let a mistake get in the way of your real feelings for someone that deserves your attention, Julian. Even if she doesn’t return your affections, I can tell you that you’ll get a better friend out of Elaine.” A blush colored her cheeks. No, of course crushes weren’t sexy at this age, but what was one to do? Quirk an eyebrow and pretend to be sultry throughout all her encounters? That wouldn’t work -- but they were talking about Julian and his girl problems. It was getting harder to stay focused when even the blurry, soft lines of her eyelashes were catching her attention.

Ugh, shit. The interrogation she’d known had been coming. Why everyone was so interested in her romantic interests and where her personal (and boring) soap opera was going was foreign to her. Not that she could really tell them half of what was going on, anyway. Most of it was too top-secret for that, and Emily would have to be careful what she let slip while she was a little more inebriated than she was used to. “Alright, fine, but only a couple. I’m already drunk.” The brunette said just loudly enough to be heard over the noise. She was pleased that all her syllables were still audible and understandable even in her state. She didn’t really get sloppy with her speech when she was drunk, more with her actions and the content of what she was saying.

“Oh, yes, obviously I’m too smart for the entire world, Julian.” She muttered, hearing the bite in her own voice and laughing afterwards to lighten the mood. “No. I just … I don’t know. I suppose that no one’s really stood out ultra bright to me until very recently.” She said hesitantly. How was she supposed to go gentle with this?