Brightside | ✓

28 | long live

"I need the four of us to promise that no matter what happens tonight, we will do everything we can to make sure those two do not get the entire bar to sing Defying Gravity. Okay?" Moxie asked. Her glares across the table were pointed and promised pain if her wishes were not granted.

It was a request placed in the middle of said two grabbing the table drinks—high on Defying Gravity and the remaining intoxicating smell of pink glitter and green face paint.

"Will punch out Mav if I need to," Eddie said. "Stevie kind of scares me."

If ever there was a celebrity who could win a boxing match after being pulled from the crowd, it was Stevie Kealoha.

"I think it's just the leftover green tinge to her skin," Moxie said.

"Fair enough." Eddie still didn't want to count on herself winning a fight against her. Maverick on the other hand? One round. Total knockout.

"Respectfully," Axel said, his knee was against Eddie's and she tried to ignore it. It was merely the way he was sitting, she told herself, not anything more than that. "I was scared of her before that."

"You should be scared of all women," Moxie said.

"Oh, I am," Axel said. He motioned to the eyeliner and stray fur left on his face from the show. He looked more like Teen Wolf than the goat man of Oz in that moment. "Why do you think I didn't take this off? Scared to ask for a wipe."

"I thought you were just... doing something." Eddie wasn't complaining in the slightest about the eyeliner. It was a little embarrassing.

Axel shook his head. "Terrified."

Cruella pulled a pack of makeup wipes from her purse. Because that was what bisexuals were good for—Eddie was pretty good in the bandage, cigarette, and lighter department, not so much the makeup department. "Please use this before you rub your eyes or get fur stuck in your drink."

Axel already had his finger in his eye. Typical man. He looked guilty about it, though. For whatever that was worth. "I think I'm going to commit to the bit. Thank you."

"Look!" Stevie said, dropping drinks down on the table. Her soulmate followed after, dishing out the rest of the glasses to the table. "They had Swamp Waters!"

Axel the newly minted raccoon winced. "Oh, fuck me."

"Okay, you really need to stop saying that," Eddie said. (Because she might've listened.) (Shut the fuck up.)

"You should probably take a sip of your Shrek's Piss, Axel," Moxie said.

"His what?" Stevie asked. All but curled her lip at the white man at the table.

"It's a Massachusetts thing," Axel said.

"It is not," Cruella said.

The members of the table looked at her quizzically. Axel fought against a wide smile as best he could. Maybe Eddie was looking too closely for her own good.

"How would you know?" Moxie asked. Twirling a piece of Cruella's hair around her fingers. Nobody was strong enough to point it out. "Aren't you from California?"

"Uh... yeah," Cruella said. She tried meeting everyone's eyes once. "But I have... family from there... They don't say Shrek's Piss. Just him."

"And what would we say if I said my dead mom called it that?" Axel asked.

"I would say I missed out twice on having a dad," Maverick said. "And my birth mom didn't want me."