caring isn't for everyone | z.k •PRETTYMUCH AU•

•seven•

"Nick! Nick! Nicky!" She slurred from the other side of the door.

He so badly wanted to hit on the door and tell her to shut up but it'd be no use. The last thing he'd want his attention brought to her.

Nick left his post for a minute, just to go see what Edwin and Zion had been doing.

He pushed through people, almost shouldering them as he went through, only to see them in the same spot, entertaining the room standing on the table. He shook his head. Not in a bad way, but just in a humorous way.

He rushed back over to the door only to find Austin standing there, his ear to the door with a confused expression drawn upon his face. This alarmed him very much, causing him to now push past people, mumbling excuse me every now and then.

"Well he's coming right now, hang on a sec." Austin stands up straight to look at Nick, whose face only reads panic. "What's going on."

He laughs nervously. "What was she saying?"

"Nick! Oh Nick! Come here and—"

"Pause. I didn't do anything to her. I didn't touch I— I just noticed she was really drunk and sat her down and then she started taunting him with her drunk words— Austin. I didn't even hug her," His hands rose up in defense.

"But—"

"I didn't."

"You ain't even let me say two syllables!" He rests his hand on his shoulder. "Damn. But what I was saying was why does she keep saying she'll let you kiss her?"

Nick rubs the back of his neck. "To make a long story short, we went to the haunted house last Halloween and I tried to kiss her."

Austin sucks his teeth. "That's tough. But that's it?"

"Pretty much." (🤪)

"How much did she drink?" He asks, putting his ear to the door again.

"I don't know."

"But I would love to," Brandon interrupts, looking at the two with a smug smile. He rests his hands in his pockets, looking all cool and shit, even in the dim lighting.

"Hey Brandon." Austin speaks up causally.

"You know who this fool is?" Nick points his thumb at Brandon, who's appalled. "Actually you should!"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "He didn't do anything to me,"

"Exactly. You've had a problem with me apparently. You buggin' man." He brushes off his shoulder.

As Nick gets ready to say a choice of words, there's a loud scream that comes from the other side of the door. The three look at the door, then at each other simultaneously.

"What's that?" Brandon asks.

"Nothing."

"Amari."

Nick looks over at Austin, in almost what could only be described as disgust.

"Dude. I'm trying to let her sober up in peace. This guy is the last person that needs know her whereabouts."

Brandon adjusts his glasses. "You're acting like I'm a creep. So what, I cleaned her panties once. Honestly, yea, I'm still attracted to her but I'm not going to do anything silly. How drunk is she?" He asks.

Austin shrugs and looks over at Nick. He then looks over at the door and shrugs.

"Let's check."

He reaches for the door handle and swings the door open, only to see her still laid out on the bed. She's fully clothed but not very modest looking. Her head shoots up and she gasps.

"Is this a foursome?" She asked with such an innocent voice it sounded wrong.

"Holy fuck. Someone get Zion, they need to go home." Austin admits.

Probably the worst person out of the three to do so, Brandon walks away, in a attempt to find Zion.

He'd been in a corner most of the night, not knowing where to go without seemingly bumping into her. He'd been avoiding her all night just to stay out of problems but here he is, probably going to start what may become a small problem.

He walked up to Zion talking to some other dude, seeming like a meaningless conversation. He takes a big breath. "Hey Zion. I think you should take Amari home,"

His ears perk up and turn around to see him standing behind him with real concern. He was very suspicious, obviously from history but it seemed serious.

"Why?"

"She's drunk."

He shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it."

"You need to get her under control." He spoke up once more.

He wasn't afraid of the dreadhead boy. Not intimidated at all, suddenly.

Zion glared at him before passing by him, not even knowing where to go find her. Brandon followed behind to get in from and lead the way.

When they got there, the room light was on and it looks like she'd already fallen asleep somehow. Austin, Nick, and at some point Edwin found their way to them. They were all at the edge of her bed, looking at her. Not in a weird way but more caring than anything. It was Edwin who noticed the two walk in first.

"She was super drunk and then she just kinda dozed off," He looked over at Zion first, before gazing over at Brandon.

"But what was she doing before? This kid told me all about how I needed to get her under control." He furrowed his eyebrows at the trio, whom seemed a bit frightened now.

He rolled his eyes. "Alright that's my queue to leave." Brandon walks out.

Nick stood. "Listen. Mari was saying all types of out of pocket stuff. It's okay now, she wasn't actually doing anything."

This relaxed him a little bit. He didn't even want to ask what exactly at that point. He exhaled deeply, closing his eyes. Zion steadily tried to sober himself up, even the tiniest bit if it meant trying to take care of his girl. He massaged his temples before speaking. "I guess I'll take her home."

"Are you dumb? You've got alcohol in your system. You tryna get pulled over?" Edwin raises his voice in concern. "Stay the night. I'll even clear out right now."

"You need to sit down too. You've been drinking too." Austin adds, looking him up and down.

He was obviously both exhausted and intoxicated. His eyelids were low and his posture was sloppy, yet stable unlike his counterpart. He seemed agitated which is probably due to the tiredness.

"Well, can y'all get out so I can sleep next to her, make sure she's all good in the morning? I appreciate the help but I got it from here."

"That's cool. Let's bounce," Edwin announces, before the two other boys followed, mumbling friendly goodnights to the tipsy Zion.

After they cleared out, shut the door and turned off the lights, Zion collapsed in the bed next to Amari, who was well on top of the covers and comfortable to one side of the bed. He threw his arm over her, which caused her to stir but didn't wake her up.

"Ayo, get the hell up out of here, the party's over!" His New York accent came through as yelled at the top of his lungs, telling everyone to get out.

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