NOVOCAINE ━ Grizz Visser

01. Curtain Call

ONE CURTAIN CALL

There were not enough words in the english lamguage to describe how much Wes absolutely hated West Ham. He had liked it at one point, small towns were always fun until you got sick of drinking shitty beer in the same rich kid's basemement every weekend or the gas station parking lot got too boring. He had liked it when he had a girlfriend to share it with and a best friend to call when he needed. Now, he didn't have either of those things. Sure, it had been a year since the infamous break up, but getting over things was not Wes's speciality.

"Do we have to be here?" Wes asked his friend, Daniel as they settled into the auditorium for the school play. He was never much of a drama kid himself, but for some reason Daniel had dragged him here. Scratch that, he knew why.

"We need to support Sahar!" he exclaimed through a whispered-yell, "I don't understand her theater kid shit, but I will be front and center for every show she does."

"What is this show even about?" Wes sighed as he grabbed the program Daniel had grabbed before they sat down. He wasn't exactly well-versed in theater, if he was being honest.

Daniel shrugged, muttering, "Fuck if I know."

Thus began two hours of probably one of the most boring shows Wes had ever seen. In his defense, he wasn't much of a theater person. Watching people stand and talk on a stage for two hours wasn't really his thing. He had no problem sitting through a musical, but this was just utterly boring. In his opinion, their best friend (well, and Daniel's girlfriend), Sahar, carried the show. After what felt like forever, the curtain finally drew and the cast came out for their curtain calls. Wes was ready to leave, but unfortunately, Daniel wanted to wait to see Sahar.

"Dude, we're literally going to see her tomorrow, why does this matter?" Wes sighed as he leaned against the railing, keeping an eye out for when the girl left the dressing room.

"I brought her flowers!" Daniel scoffed as his face brightened up, signaling that he had spotted the girl. Sahar squealed as she ran up to Daniel, hugging him before grabbing the flowers and kissing the boy gently. Wes pretended to gag next to them.

As the two chatted, Wes had an inkling that someone was staring at him. Looking around, he noticed Grizz Visser's eyes on him. As soon as Wes made eye contact, the boy turned away, but it was too late. Wes bit his tongue and stopped himself from going over there to ask what Grizz's problem was. Unfortunately, him looking over there seemed to garner Harry Bingham's attention.

"Hey! You guys coming tonight or what? It's BYOB!" Harry called over to them with a smile.

"I'm good, thanks," Wes called back. He had been sketchy of parties ever since the events that conspired a while back. Parties were practically ruined for him now, but that was probably for the best so he didn't end up being an alcoholic by the time he was 21.

"Come on!" the curly-haired boy shouted, "Amaya's gonna be there."

Wes's only response was to flip Harry off, the boy's cheeky grin infuriating him. He didn't hate Harry, they used to run in the same circles when Wes was with Amaya. Being friends with Grizz had given him an in, but once he separated himself from them, he figured he was probably better off than being in the company of Harry Bingham. Thankfully, his attention was diverted as Cassandra and her sister, Allie, approached them and Wes was able to return to the conversation between Daniel and Sahar.

"Wes, you should go to the party!" Sahar pushed, seeming to have noticed the conversation between Wes and Harry. Considering he had pretty much yelled across the auditorium, that made sense. Yeah, Hary was never one for subtlety. "It'll do you some good to let loose!"

Wes scoffed, "Yeah, no. Remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah, because you never shut up about it," Daniel teased with a small smile, "I thought we were doing our usual wrap party. Horror movies and too much popcorn?"

Sahar shrugged, "Yeah, that sounds good, I just think Wes needs to get out of the house more. You've become a total recluse."

"I have not!" the boy argued, scoffing at the accusation, "I just don't feel like wasting time hanging around people I don't even like just to drink some shitty beer and wake up with a headache. Sue me!"

"Yeah, okay Socrates," Daniel scoffed.

"Baby, Socrates was the one who questioned everything, not one who frowned upon teenage activities," Sahar patted the boy on the shoulder with a gentle tone of voice, biting back a smile as she looked up at her boyfriend.

The moment was interrupted by Wes feeling a vibration in his back pocket. Pulling out his phone, he saw that his sister was calling. Sighing, he pressed answer and put the phone against his ear.

"Winnie? What's up?" he asked. His older sister, Winona, hated phone calls more than anything in the world so he knew this must have been urgent. Part of him was worried, but nothing really bad ever seemed to happen in West Ham so it couldn't be too awful. At least, he hoped.

"The smell is back," Winona said with a sigh, "I went to take the dog out and got totally hit with it. Just wanted you to be aware before you left that theater because I think it's somehow worse than it was before. Anyway, that's all."

"Ugh, I thought something was wrong," Wes complained, pinching the bridge of his nose, "All right, thanks for the heads up. The three of us should be heading back home soon, so see you in a bit."

"All right, see ya," the girl muttered before she hung up the phone. Wes sighed and placed the phone back in his pocket. That was one of the many bad things about West Ham -- the smell. The mayor usually said it was a sewage leak or something like that and it had been fixed for a while, but it was absolutely heinous.

"What was Winona calling about?" Sahar asked, pulling her attention away from Daniel for a moment to meet Wes's eyes.

He sighed, "The smell. It's back."

"Oh, Jesus fucking Christ, again?"

woo first chapter! i hate writing first chapters and i've never written a fic for the society before so y'all gotta BEAR WITH ME i promise it'll get better from here okay thank you for tuning in