Pretty. Odd. || RYDEN

One

I walk downstairs looking for Pete, walking into the record store and seeing him dozing off behind the counter. I reach for a bottle of water and dump it all on his head making him wake up with a start. "Dude, what the fuck!" I simply shrug, "You were the one sleeping during work hours Pete. Shouldn't have gotten stayed up with Mikey last night. I'll be nicer next time," I crossed my fingers over my heart, "I promise dude. Now come one, Andy expects us there with booze at 7, it's already 6:30." "You could've woken me up earlier Ryan!" I shrug, "You looked so adorable sleeping Petey!" I say in a sing-song manner.

We head back upstairs, Pete going in the bathroom to wash up. At quarter to seven I walk in the bathroom, much to Pete's dismay, "You should've knocked! I could've been naked you know." He says looking at me as if I've lost my mind, three years of living with him, I wouldn't be surprised if I did. "I've seen you naked before, no homo, and besides you're not so it doesn't matter." "I guess you're right," he says as he's putting on eyeliner. "Dude, seriously? You're 21, let it go." He mumbles something along the lines of, 'its not a phase mom.'

We reach Andy's apartment at about 7:10 and he's already on our chests saying that if we can't come on time, we shouldn't take responsibility, we hand him the alcohol as a sort of peace offering. We walk into the house and Pete heads straight for the kitchen, searching for beer. I head over to the living room, looking over to see who's there, Mikey, Gerard, Joe, Spencer, Ray, Tyler, Josh, Patrick, Hayley, Frank, Ashley, and Melanie. This is gonna be fun.

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It's late and somehow I've ended up on top of Melanie, admiring her two-toned hair. Its like black but half of it is like cotton candy pink and it looks so pretty and Melanie is so pretty. I hadn't realized I'd said that all out loud till I hear Melanie squeaking out a tiny thank you, struggling underneath my weight. I quickly get off of her and try to hide my embarrassment when Ashley comes up to me with little square pieces of funky-coloured papers, my eyes widen, "Is this what I think it is Ash?" I pop one of the papers on my tongue and quickly post it on Tumblr with the caption: tonight's fun, courtesy of one blue-haired lady. My phone blows up with notifications but I ignore them. I feel the drug kick in. "Where did you get this stuff from Ash? It's mind-blowing." She shrugs, "Got it from a guy down in Bedstuy, he owed me." That's the best part about Ashley, I don't ask her questions, and she doesn't ask me questions but we understand each other.

I hop on over to Gerard, Josh, Hayley, and Tyler who are to be smoking a joint. I join them and take the joint from between Hayley's lips and kiss her before she begins to protest. I take a draw, snapping a picture, then letting the smoke out and snapping a picture again. You'd think they'd gotten sick of me always taking photos but they're weirdly cool with him, they even feature in my pictures sometimes. So far, my tumblr has seen Mikey and Pete making out, Josh and Tyler being all cuddly, and Ashley and Melanie popping pills of god only knows what. If you scroll enough, there's even a picture of me in a bathtub, covered in milk. When it comes to me, people have learnt not to ask questions.

I take the girls outside on the balcony and make them line up. They love posing for tumblr. Hayley lights up a cigarette, "Should you be smoking that with shows coming up?" Ashley asks her but she just shrugs and says, "It makes my voice husky and low." I pass a joint to Melanie which she gladly accepts and quickly takes a drag and makes smoke rings while exhaling. I snap a couple of pictures of them and post them up.

We all go back in the apartment while Joe is in the middle of pouring shots for everyone. We each take one glass and yell out "To the beginning of a new semester!" while clinking our glasses together. We all down them quickly, everyone scurries in search of chasers, I sit back and remember my conversation with Frank a couple of years ago.

"Dude, what the fuck? Does your throat not burn? How can you survive without a chaser?" I shrug, "I don't know man, I just like the burn, I guess." "You're fucking weird, Ross." I tip my glass in his direction, "I'll drink to that, Iero"

Its gonna be a fucking amazing semester.