Déjà Vu

--take a slice

TW: drug usage (+ affects/consequences that can come with drug usage), ab/se mentions, very, very minor sexual harassment, homophobia/homophobic language, hopefully i didn't forget any?

fair warning a lot of this chapter is dialogue and it was a stylistic choice, not me rushing. as characters get more and more affected by drugs i like to emulate that in my writing so the style will change slightly towards the end. 

The couple arrived fashionably late to Alfred's cookout–which of course meant that the party would already be in full swing, and that Lukas would be forced into an uncomfortable situation the very moment he stepped into Alfred's backyard.

With that mindset, he wasn't really surprised when Alfred appeared out of nowhere and hugged them both so tightly that Lukas felt like his guts were getting squeezed out.

"Holy shit, you're here!" Alfred cried out, bouncing on his toes. "I'm glad you two made it, thought you weren't coming!"

"Well, we're here," Lukas muttered, hunching his shoulders and pulling out of the hug. "Mat, why don't we-" But Mat wasn't there and in a small moment of panic, Lukas whirled around, scanning the large group for his partner. He finally caught a flash of his strawberry blonde hair over by the bonfire with Gilbert. Yet again, Lukas wasn't too surprised. "Ugh."

"Everything okay?" Alfred asked, pulling his braids back behind his shoulders, raising an eyebrow at Lukas' weirder-than-usual behavior.

"Mat made a new friend."

"Sounds 'bout right." It was Alfred's turn to look for their friend, and when he finally caught sight of him, he looked a little shocked. "Whoa, is that Chad? Sheesh...man's standards get lower every day."

"Look, he's practically drooling over him."

"If it helps? Much less than he drools over you, Bondevik." Alfred chuckled, clapping Lukas on the back and effectively knocking the air out of him. "Buuuut if you need someone to hang with till Mat recovers from Chad fever, you can stick with me!"

"With all due respect, I think I'll just go inside for a little while. I'm not really in the mood right now, you know?" Lukas said, lowering his head.

Alfred frowned, but nodded. "Uh- sure. Okay. I'll let Mat know where you are when he asks."

"If he asks, you mean."

"He will, Lukas. Calm down."

Lukas shrugged his shoulders and walked towards Alfred's back door, trying to look casual as he did so, though every so often some sweaty body would bump into or some drunk person would stomp on his feet and at that point he just began to plow through the partygoers till he got to the door. When he finally made it inside, he took a few deep, shaky breaths, leaning against the door and massaging his temples.

While taking that deep breath, however, he caught a whiff of something - a familiarly disgusting aroma that made him break down coughing. Ew. He wondered who exactly was in here smoking pot.

He stepped further into the house and found a whole group sprawled around the living room, some with blunts in hand, others just downing full bottles of vodka, and only two of them didn't have anything at all. Thankfully he wasn't on bad terms with any of these people - he couldn't be because it wasn't like he knew any of them really well. There was Matthew, Alfred's brother, and then Francis and Arthur who were rumored to be seeing each other. There was also Abel, who Lukas definitely wasn't surprised to see - he was a known stoner and he certainly never hid it. Lastly there were Ivan and Alin; out of everyone, Lukas knew those two the least. Ivan was a year ahead of them, had graduated the year prior, while Alin was one of the outcasts who always hung out in the shadows. They were all wildly different people, and yet were all settled down watching Jeopardy.