𝐢𝐭'𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 to get sean to go up onto the roof of heather poulette’s house with him after what he’d just done to himself at esme’s birthday a matter of weeks ago, but the promise of weed and the appeal of getting away from the noise of the party ended up finally being enough. plus, craig was purposely annoying when he begged. he’s sat with his long legs sprawled out down the slant of the roof, a raspberry white claw that he’d poured vodka into in one hand, and a partially smoked, lit joint in the other. “oh, so get this dude,” he starts in, bringing it up to his lips to have a generous hit from it and holding it in for a moment before he speaking through a cloud of his own exhalation. “lola comes up to me in the hall today right, i’m at my locker, and she goes, ‘hey craig… i hear you’re single again’…” he hands the joint off to sean as he begins to do an almost scarily accurate impersonation of lola’s mannerisms and the way she talks, switching seamlessly between it and his own story-telling tone. “and i’m thinking to myself ‘right… i don’t remember being taken, but i don’t care to go there with her right now’. so i just say to her ‘oh yeah? where’d you hear that?’.” he rolls his eyes into the back of his skull as he regales it, “she says ‘oh, well, i just noticed you’re not hanging around with ellie anymore. and..’ listen to this shit bro, she goes, ‘and kendra told frankie who told me that she heard ashley telling paige, terri and hazel that you guys are never getting back together.’” he pauses for dramatic effect, “but i bet she didn’t tell them that we’ve hooked up twice since she’s been back.” he shakes his head, having a sip from his canned drink. ashley still wouldn’t publicly speak to him at school or outside of it despite being seen going into the bathroom together at esme’s party, and ellie hadn’t spoken to him or acknowledged him at all since word went around about it. that, coupled with the fact that, “and then lola asked me if we can hang out over spring break.” have him concluding aloud to his best friend, “they say i’m crazy but these degrassi girls man… they’re all fuckin’ crazy. one second they act like i’m the worst, the next it’s like…” he trails off, “maybe i am the worst, i don’t know. maybe i don’t care, you know? maybe i’m a bad guy.” he shrugs, though it’s clear to anyone who knows him well enough (and sean certainly does) by his tone that he doesn’t mean that. he reaches back out for the joint.
sean’s sat next to craig, knees bent a little as his heels dig into the roof. one of his hands grips onto a beer - a tame choice compared to the excess of alcohol that he’d been mixing whilst in the heat of the party that’s still happening in the hose below. it’d been one of the reasons he’d been so hesitant to come up here in the first place. but craig’s convincing, and annoying, and sean can’t notice the way that the backyard is spinning ever so slightly as long as he doesn’t look down. so he looks up at the stars as he drinks down some more of his alcohol. it’s calming - he hasn’t felt this much at peace in a while. things are comfortably quiet between the two of them (aside from the dull, easy-to-ignore throb of the music in the home below) and sean had forgotten just how easy things could be when you’re no in a stalemate of eternal silence with your best friend. he’s still getting used to having this again, taking in every moment. when craig starts speaking, sean looks over. he takes in his side profile and how expressive he is. his own hand has been resting just behind craig, ready to catch him by the back of his shirt if he were to start falling forwards. when the joint is offered he moves to take it, eyes darting to craig every time he leans even a little forwards during his dramatic re-telling of this interaction. he’s exhaling the smoke when craig pauses for dramatic effect, causing sean to laugh and splutter out a “what?” right on cue, but sean would be lying if he said he was shocked. the way that news travels around degrassi is impressive and lola being this desperate to latch onto information about craig, of all people, is inevitable. “maybe you just attract the worst,” sean plays along, eyebrows raising as he offers the joint back to craig after one more. “what did you say?” he asks, trying to make it sound like he’s asking out of interest and for no other reason at all. “she’d do anything you said, y’know. lola.” he says before pausing to drink some of his beer. “i don’t think she’d be able to keep it quiet, though. remember when she told me she was into you, like, five seconds after we met. zero chill.”
