Beautiful Mess [UsUk / AmeDen]

Chapter XXXVIII

July

Summer was supposed to be easy going and relaxing, with trips to the beach and funny named cocktails such as Little Engineer, Woo Woo or, the worst one on the list, Sperm. Honestly, who would ever go to a bar or a club and shamelessly order something under such a name? The first one is embarrassing itself, imagining person asking the waiter "Can you bring me a Little Engineer?" And let's not even mention the last one. Perhaps that's not even the worst of them, which would be quite a surprise to know.

Well, summer wasn't that easy going and relaxing for a couple of new college graduates, their family and friends. They didn't live at the Yale dormitory anymore, but found a nice little apartment for each other near the university by Matthew's request, since he needed to be close to his brother in case something happened. Adrienne didn't mind.

Summer was also quite busy with planning surprise parties, because there were three birthdays to celebrate. Alongside the birthdays, the World Cup finale was getting closer, and they all wondered who would be this year's winner. Adrienne cheered for France, while Alfred purposefully cheered for Russia. Arthur even prepared an English flag to wave for the final, hoping that his country would reach that far.

On the first of July, Matthew celebrated at the dormitory, Emma being the main organizer of the party simply because she was the best at doing it. They invited all their friends and made it seem as if an accident happened so that Matthew had to come and help, faking his panic since he knew exactly what was going on. He was awaited by a big banner on which it stood, written out in perfect calligraphy, 'Matthew, happy 22nd birthday'. He was more than sure that was Alfred's work, since the boy had a couple of notebooks where he practiced calligraphy, and the background was painted in pastel colours, a spectrum that was Alfred's latest aesthetic obsession.

Today was a different day, and it involved two parties that would probably merge into a big one as the day went on. The Fourth of July. They weren't only celebrating America and the Declaration of Independence, but something more important - Alfred's birthday. It was scary to him, he was twenty years old, no longer a teenage boy. Not that a number changed his stupidity, Arthur commented, all in good fun. The two of them were getting along better than before, enjoying friendly banter and bickering like good friends would, although they still haven't properly talked things out, waiting for the perfect moment to do that.

He woke up at about nine in the morning, just to find out he was alone in the room. Which meant Arthur was already with the others preparing something. Goddammit. He never liked surprises, they made him anxious and he hated not knowing what to expect from things. But since his friends were definitely out there, putting their effort in making him happy, he was going to play along and pretend they weren't doing anything.

After a few minutes of simply lying down on the bed aimlessly scrolling through social media on his phone and procrastinating getting up, he finally decided that was enough and climbed down to get on with his usual morning routine, which consisted of going to the bathroom, taking his medication and putting on clothes. It was boring, in his opinion, but had to be done nonetheless. Especially the meds part, since he couldn't function without those.

He chose a pair of light blue ripped jeans and one of his favourite white All Time Low t-shirts, the one with the Future Hearts album logo on it, since this was a special occasion and that was a special piece of clothing to him.

In August, they were going to the band's concert in Connecticut's Oakdale Theater, and he could hardly wait for that. He was going to have the time of his life with all the people closest to him.

"I wonder what would happen if I missed a dose of meds once... I mean, I hear voices nonetheless, would I just get more panicky about it?" He asked himself as he took the small white pill, downing it with water right after. "Never mind, I'm not even going to try that."