Kurapika vs Peer Pressure

Folding laundry: the bane of my existence. I had spent all morning putting my clothes away, and to make matters worse, my music, my only escape from this monotony, was interrupted with a phone call. It was from Chrollo. I'd never forgive Hisoka for giving him my number. I had considered blocking him, but I was planning to use his caller ID to track him down and kill him one of these days. Hence, I simply let it go to voicemail.

Not even five minutes later, my phone made another noise. I was so enraged I was about to throw it against the wall, but just as it was about to leave my fingertips I saw that I had a text from Leorio. I fumbled to catch my phone before it hit the ground.

Opening up my messages, I was greeted with this wall of text: Hey Kurapika, it's Leorio. I was thinking since your birthday's coming up we could all meet up at my place and have a little celebration tomorrow at 7! Let me know if you're available. By the way, Gon and Killua already said they could come.

I despise how you text in paragraphs, I sent back. I'll be there.

The rest of my laundry folding was void of distractions. Well, almost void of distractions. I kept thinking about going to Leorio's house and it made me fold some of my shirts wrong.

--

I wasn't expecting much from a slob like Leorio, but I was pleasantly surprised by the effort he put into the ambience. He'd even put out some balloons—infantile taste I must say, but classic birthday decor nonetheless. For dinner he made spaghetti, probably because it was the only thing a simpleton like him couldn't mess up. The plating was atrocious, but it looked edible. Out of 5 stars I would give it a 3.5.

"Bon apetit!" he said as he handed me a plate, but all I could focus on was the noodle hanging precariously off the edge.

"What is this, Italy?" I snarked. He ignored me.

The rest of the dinner went well, seeing as I did not get any food poisoning from Leorio's cooking. But after dinner it all went to shit. Leorio got up to get a bottle of what could only be alcohol and brought it back to the table.

"You're going to drink in front of children?" I said, appalled. "I always knew you were classless, Leorio, but this is unbelievable."

"Don't worry, I got them Monster energy drinks so they won't feel left out."

I had to admit it was kind of sweet of him to make sure the kids were safely included. Still, it was irresponsible to drink with them in the room!

"It's okay, Kurapika!" said Gon reassuringly. "My aunt Mito drinks sometimes, and once she even let me have a sip!"

"They would legally be able to drink in Italy," Leorio moronically pointed out.

"This isn't fucking Italy, Leorio," I said.

"All of us have had alcohol before, it's no big deal," said Killua.

I was silent.

"What, seriously?" said Killua.

"It's illegal until you're 21!"

"It's legal now," said Leorio. "Come on, it's your 21st birthday!"

"You're all peer pressuring me and I don't appreciate it."

"It's okay if you don't want to--" Killua cut Gon off with a jab to the stomach.

"One drink won't kill you," said Killua.

"It'll be fun!" said Gon.

"Et tu, Gon... Fine, you win." I couldn't let myself get owned by a couple of 16 year olds, so I allowed Leorio to pour me a drink. I took the tiniest of sips, making sure to keep a scowl on my face so they knew I sternly disapproved. Admittedly it tasted pretty good, like an exotic fruit that hadn't been invented yet, but I wasn't going to let them know that.