Jester (Man x Man) ✔

5) f r a u d s

Dam-Bi was wearing bright pink lipstick and she was chewing watermelon bubble gum, which was her favorite. She had just sat at their table in FAB, greeting Eli by blowing a big bubble that popped loudly.

"Shirley isn't here yet?" Dam-Bi asked. She was all so cute with her round face, colourful patterned clothes and black hair tied in two small buns, but her voice was deep. Whenever she started talking, you had to check twice the words actually came out of her mouth. 

"Am I not enough company for you?" Eli simpered and set his phone on the table. He had already finished two drinks, getting a head start from his friends. 

"You know I love you, Eli-boy." Dam-Bi said sweetly, but then started grinning with a glint in her brown eyes: "But even you can't beat Shirley." Then she dropped her bag on one of the seats and went to get something to drink. Before she made it back, Brandon and Ash joined the table.

Brandon was Shirley's twin brother and they both had this sort of a soft hippie vibe on them. Brandon's hair was chocolate brown and it fell on his face in curly locks. To emphasize that soft look of his, he had thick glasses and most of his clothes were either brown or khaki green. Brandon was usually quiet as a mouse, but sometimes he couldn't keep his mouth shut even if he tried to.

"I see someone's been here for a while." Brandon smirked and nudged Eli's shoulder lightly, before he too went to get something to drink. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eli shouted after him, a cheerful tone in his voice. Brandon just shrugged and continued walking. 

Eli relaxed his back against the backrest of his seat and took a big gulp from his glass. If he wasn't going to have an unforgettable evening, hopefully he would have a night of full oblivion. And to forget, he needed to keep tossing the booze, which was exactly what he did.

"Are you drawing me again?" Eli narrowed his eyes and tried to give Brandon a humourless look, but he couldn't help the grin from spreading on his lips.

"I can't help it, when you look like an angel." Brandon wiggled his eyebrows. "A shit-faced angel covered with tattoos and attired in leather, but anyway."

"If that's the case, I'm taking this fallen angel to dance." Steven informed before grabbing Eli in lockstep and dragging him to the dance floor. Then they danced, jumping and fooling around until they were sweating and in desperate need of beverages. 

When Eli tried to pay for his drink, he couldn't complete the payment. So, he had run out of money again. He apologised to the bartender and strained his neck to look around for a familiar pair of ice blue eyes. As soon as Eli spotted the owner of the eyes, wearing a black turtleneck shirt with black trousers and golden jewelry, he headed to him.

"Tell me you have something." Eli bid and slumped to sit on the leather couch.

"I do, you know I do, but Eli.." The man, Logan, was the owner of FAB, but he was also a friend of Eli's. 

"No buts, I need something." Eli cut him short and luckily he didn't object this time. Instead he told Eli to wait and disappeared in one of the rooms that were only for the personnel. Eli could feel how jittery he was, bouncing his leg and looking around with wide eyes.

"You know what to do, right?" Logan asked a while later, placing a black bag at Eli's feet. Once Eli nodded, he continued: "Just say to the bartender your drinks are on me today."

"Really?" Eli got excited like a child in a candy store. He hugged Logan tightly and exclaimed: "Thank you, you're the best!"

"Just take it easy and don't forget to drink water too." Logan smiled fondly and gently pushed Eli away. Eli took the bag, made another attempt to get the drink and walked back to his table.

Later Eli and Steven made a bet. They wanted to see which one of them could make Ash laugh first. Still, no matter how many jokes Eli and Steven made — and no matter how badly the others cracked up — Ash wouldn't so much as smile. Eli tried to loosen him up with booze next, but he still refused to give in. They even dragged Ash to the dance floor and bounced around him, but the expression on his face was as humourless as ever.

Eli made sure to bombard his Instagram with stories and even added a picture of him and Steven on his feed. He had over 3000 followers, who probably all thought he was the happiest guy on Earth. How easy it was to fake happiness on social media. All you needed was a few nicely set pictures, some clips from pumpkin spice latte in a park, laughing friends and smiles plastered on your face. It was so easy it was almost sad. 

Not to mention that many of those followers probably envied Eli and his 'perfect life'. Little did they know about the sleepless nights, the kitchen that gathered dust when it was left unused for months or how fast the trash bags started to smell if you didn't have the energy to take them out. Eli couldn't help but feel like a fraud, an imposter.

"When did you draw this?" He slurred, slipping through the pages of Brandon's sketchbook. Brandon liked to draw people and usually those people happened to be the ones who sat at their table. He was a good drawer and the portraits he made were easily recognizable. Not just that, they seemed to hold an emotion, a fracture of the model's deeper essence.

"That's from the first night." Brandon had an uneasy look in his brown eyes, almost like he thought Eli had busted him from doing something he wasn't supposed to do.

"Can I have it?" Eli was surprised by the pleading tone he managed to use. Brandon just shrugged nonchalantly, so Eli tore the sheet from the sketchbook, carefully folded it and tucked it in the breast pocket of his leather jacket.

"I miss him so much.." Eli complained, not bothering to hide the fact. He took his phone, unlocked it and shoved it to Steven. Eli was so wasted he could have told the others all his secrets, which was the reason he normally avoided getting that shit-faced. There were certain things and topics in his life that he wanted to keep from his friends.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Steven grinned amusedly. "Take a picture? Call a taxi?" Eli sighed, exaggeratedly, and puckered up his lips.

"You need to call Benjamin and tell him to come get me, because I miss him so fricking much." He bid before he gulped down the rest of his drink and staggered to get another.

Maybe there was a good reason why you shouldn't text or call when drunk, but no one ever said anything about making your friends do that for you.. Right? Besides, right then Eli couldn't have cared less. If the rules said he wasn't to see Benjamin again, well, screw the rules.

There was nothing more Eli wanted than to curl up in Benjamin's embrace, let the warmth of his body lull him to sleep and have just one morning his only company wasn't the voice that told him there was no reason to get up at all.