Almost Everything | on hold

02 | Masquerade Parties & Weird Revelations

[02 | Masquerade Parties & Weird Revelations]

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"You deserve a better version of me tonight" Theodore sighed miserably while fixing the simple black mask covering his eyes and nose. "I know this party is pretty important to you so I'm apologizing firsthand if I end up screwing it up somehow." He glanced at Reagan from the mirror facing him, a bored expression plastered on her face.

Reagan grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. She gave him a stern look and started fixing his bowtie. "Theodore Eugene Barron, you have been nothing but a delight since the moment I met you. Albeit a bit annoying and pessimistic at times, but a sweetheart nonetheless. So don't worry, I prefer this fucked up version of you very much."

With a slap on the shoulder and an encouraging smile, Reagan kissed him on the cheek and added, "Besides, the least I could do is put up with your annoying ass after you offered your house for me to impress my stupid old high school friends so they don't think I'm a loser." Theo gave her a look, he opened his lips to tell her that taking a gap year didn't make her any less of a person but she pushed him out of the bedroom before he could say anything.

Theo's hands went to his hair to tug at it -a nervous habit he had- before he remembered how hard Reagan has worked to style it perfectly. Sighing again, he made his way down the corridor and down the stairs, heading towards the wine cellar where he could practice his speech and hopefully learn how to keep his nerves in check for the night.

The wine cellar was a weird pick for a sanctuary place. But it strangely was. Even though Theodore had no intention of ever using any of the wine there for his own amusement. He doesn't think he's ever used the wine cellar for its actual purpose. It was only twice or thrice that he's ever felt the tingling, sour taste of the red wine on his tongue and even then, he still didn't like it so much. It was too sour, too bitter. It attacked his taste buds harshly and always left him with tear stained eyes.

Perhaps the reason why he loved this place so much was because of the memories attached to it, the bad and the good ones. He could still remember quite vividly how his five year old self would sit there for hours with his older brother as their parents fought for decades. His brother would try to make a joke every now and then, sometimes even sing loudly in a stupid manner just so Theodore wouldn't listen to their parents' nasty jabs at each other. Looking back at it, he realized that he was trying to protect him.

But that stopped afer their mother left them in that exact same year. His brother had stopped caring all-together and after a couple of years down the line, he started bringing girls into their house that would end up staying till the morning. Theodore recalls sneaking into the wine cellar at ungodly hours of the night just to watch his older brother waste himself into oblivion with the rest of his highschool friends. The dull look in his eyes never left, even when he laughed at his friends whenever they did something stupid. It was confusing for Theodore how someone could put on a mask that well without anyone ever noticing.