once again • [f.m. + r.m.]

never

November 11, 2015
Midtown, Manhattan, New York

"Look at them. They're still drinking. They drank all last night."

"They're being absolutely pathetic. What do you think is bothering them now?"

"I bet you Lucas contracted an STD and Riley's running off to Jersey."

"Hey now. They're not that heavy on the booze. No liver failure happening any time soon."

"I don't know man. Lucas looks pretty close to it, though."

"Farkle still looks like a ghost. I don't think that Pinot Noir is doing anything helpful for him."

Lucas rolled his eyes and looked over at Charlie, Zay, and Billy with a menacing glare on his face. "We can hear you guys."

Zay snorted in amusement, as he crossed his arms over his chest, "As if we care." He studied the heir, who was sitting on the floor of the living room with a half empty bottle of vodka in his hand. "What bottle are you on now? The 5th?"

Lucas scoffed as he took his bottle from the living room table, "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Well, Stuart was curious as to why you cancelled your planned phone call shit thing," Billy shrugged, "So we came to check on you but we didn't know we were gonna stumble onto a drinking marathon."

"Fuck off," Farkle groaned, as he started to feel his head aching, "God, hearing your voice makes me want to vomit."

"Or maybe it's that excessive alcohol," Charlie chuckled, as he walked over to Farkle, who was pretty much passed out, sprawled on the sofa.

Farkle groaned louder, "We just want to drink in peace. Do you three really have to be here?"

Zay snatched the Pinot Noir from Farkle and tossed it into the nearby trash can.

Farkle sat up, with an offended expression on his face, "Hey! Do you know how much that bottle cost?"

"Shut the hell up," Zay rolled his eyes as he snatched Lucas's bottle out of his hand. He turned to Billy, "Get them a glass of water or something."

Billy did as told, with an amused smirk on his face.

"So, what's bothering you two now, huh?" Charlie took a seat next to Farkle. "You two seem really out of it."

Lucas huffed and brought his knees to his chest, "I don't want to talk about it."

Farkle added, "I'm just stressed."

Zay opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment, the elevator doors parted and Missy and Vanessa walked in.

"Oh, God," Missy groaned, "They really are wasted." She shook her head in disbelief as she set her Givenchy purse on the living room table. 

"Lucas, what in the actual hell is your liquor cabinet?" Billy asked, as he entered the living room with two glasses of water, "It's like half empty and you just restocked it a couple weeks ago."

Lucas took a glass of water from him and shrugged, "Yeah, yeah."

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she sat on the floor across from him, "Lucas, you know we're here for you even if we don't exactly like you 100%. We've been friends since like forever and we're supposed to be there for each other, so what is it? You don't usually get this wasted."

"It's just-" Lucas started to answer, but Farkle interrupted him.

"Riley agreed to go on a date with me," Farkle said, as he rubbed his temple.