one last time, multiship

asher, you good?

˗ˏˋ yes, we meet 'ˎ˗

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"merry christmas bitches!!"

"aidan, what on earth—"

"it's december already, don't come at me!"

it was december first, the day the teens had agreed to meet on. there was a new escape room in town, and they had a special christmas themed escape room going on from the first to the twentieth of december, before they shut down for their workers to have their christmas breaks as well.

earlier that week, john had made a new group chat with nadia, mackenzie, jules, lauren, jaeden, lily, william, aidan and asher. he made a new one, because he didn't want tacoda, ashton or isaak to go. this was meant to be a fun bonding activity, and no one wanted them to spoil it.

the teens had already had a month of school break because of the pandemic happening, and honestly speaking, they were all endlessly bored. they'd watched netflix together on zoom, played among us on zoom, had a virtual talent show on zoom, and practically everything they did was on zoom.

but, on november twenty ninth, in light of the christmas spirit, as well as the covid cases being down for over two months already, the government announced a new social bubble rule. each person was allowed to go out twice, as long as the group they hung out with was with ten or less people. so, john took the opportunity to organise something, without the other boys.

no one questioned anything about it, besides, the boys were so called "additions" to the group. they were added to the group when mackenzie dated each for a few months, but they were too nice to kick them out after they were all over.

"where on earth is jules?" lauren, exasperated and still bored, asked multiple times, before a sweaty and panting jules arrived, asher in tow.

no one really liked asher, but he was part of their group because julianna sort of had a thing with him.

"finally, let's go in and register now— we've been waiting for ages, jules. where were you?"

still puffing and breathless from their short run, jules breathed out the words; "it..wasn't...my...fault? it was asher's, he was late. blame him, girls."

nadia rolled her eyes playfully, then stepped forward to have her temperature taken by the friendly check-in girl at the desk. after all of them had signed in and filled out declaration forms, they went in the waiting room. it was decked out in black christmas decorations, and the room was dimly lit. it looked like there was dust on the ceilings as well, which made the ambience even cooler.

"hey guys, did any of you have to put in weird details in the form we had to do online?"

apparently, lily had to put in things she'd never even think an escape room form would ask for— questions like "your parent's full names", "your best friend's age", "how many relationships have you had?", "your best memory", and really weird stuff like that.

"oh you got asked stuff like that too? i thought i was the only one that got asked those things, except they asked me how old my parents were and what my biggest fear was too. i put down black holes and clowns!" aidan exclaimed, making a poker face while he was at it.

laughing, john responded with "what the fuck, i remember i got asked how much my house rental was. i don't even rent a house? i live with my parents and lauren, how on earth would i know how much the rent is when i'm pretty sure we own the house?"