KILL YOUR DARLINGS ✸ Saltburn

𝒊𝒗. drunkenly beautiful

𖤐 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑭𝑶𝑼𝑹:
╰┈➤ drunkenly beautiful ༉‧₊˚.

OXFORD WAS NOTHING IF NOT IT'S PARTIES. LED and strobe lights surrounded, green in one room, purple in the other. And the place reeked of sweaty young adults and booze.

The party scene never was something Meredith enjoyed, she just stayed for the company--and because she didn't know how to say no to any of the dozens of invites she'd receive.

Max had been on her left, drinking up a storm and urging her to do the same. He was wearing a blue and white striped polo that now wore stains from both sweat and alcohol. The poor boy was probably one of the drunkest here, and Meredith knew that her conscience wasn't going to allow him to get taken care of by anyone else.

"I'm going to use the restroom." She shouted over the music, yet still somehow kept grace and ingenuity in her voice.

Max nodded, but still, barely paid any mind to her--which Meredith wasn't sure was a blessing or not.

She wasn't actually going to the restroom, she just wanted to get out of that god-awful room. Instead, she went out the front door and leaned over the porch's railing. There had been a boy beside her, he had short-trimmed blonde hair and was wearing a plain black t-shirt. He had a cigarette between his lips and with single look at the motion, you could see the multitude of tattoos he had painted across each one of his hands and up his forearms.

"You want one?" he asked, voice gruff as he shook the cigarette cartridge, leaving two cigarettes out to grab.

Meredith shook her head at first--she didn't drink, didn't smoke. She focused on her studies and refuted anything that would get in the way of that. However, tonight, she was feeling rather on-edge and daring. She blinked, looking back at the boy before nodding. "Actually, yeah."

He gave a slight side-smirk with the corner of his lip, which almost scared Meredith. Slowly taking the loose cigarette, she froze. "You didn't lace this or anything, right?"

The question was stupid, obviously, but so was accepting a cigarette from a stranger.

He pulled the paper from between his lips and blew out a huff of smoke, fighting a laugh. "No, I didn't lace it."

She offered an awkward smile, but didn't say anything. Just placed it between her lips and waited for him to light the tip.

Once he did, she inhaled and felt the warm air at the roof of her mouth, but it went down too fast for her to catch it and before she knew it, she was coughing.

The boy across from her coughed out a laugh of his own at Meredith's suffering but Meredith's entire body was now flushed with warmth from embarrassment.

"I don't think smoking is for me." she said, once finally recovered.

The boy agreed with a nod. "Your first time?"

She nodded. "Is it that obvious?"

He gave another one of those half-grins, giving her an answer without saying anything at all.