#ben 001.

[laureljacobs]

closed: @benj-hyun

location: the venue's bar

Laurel floated on the periphery of the crowd, her ostentatious, feathery black mask and stilettos giving her at least four inches of lift. Her dress, a long, strapless Jason Wu gown, kept hitting people as she went by because of how it jutted out at the hips and only got wider until the hem, leading to Laurel grumbling and pushing her way through the crowd, just trying to get back to the bar, as she muttered half-hearted sorries under her breath.

When she finally reached the bar, she fell onto it and groaned loudly, the multiple drinks in her system making her give less of a shit what anyone thought of her than she usually did. "Bourbon, rocks," she said succinctly to the bartender. "And..." she grabbed the poor, unassuming guy beside her by the elbow then pointing up at him. "Whatever this dude wants, too."

[auggievillanueva]

closed @benj-hyun

location: four leaf

Auggie rarely got nights off anymore, so when he did have them, he took advantage of them. He'd left Rosie with a sitter for the night before heading out to spend some time with friends from college. Although he'd only been at UCLA for a few years, he'd managed to hang onto a small core. They'd posted up at Four Leaf after Auggie mentioned he knew the owner, which his friends took to mean he could get them free drinks. (He let them think that, but he'd already slipped the bartender his card to cover the tab.)

As it got later and later, members of the group slowly trickled out, until Auggie was finally putting his last friend in an Uber and promising they'd do it again soon. He'd stayed the soberest of the bunch but was by no means completely clearheaded, so he figured he'd go back in for one more and decompress a little, while also waiting to see if Santiago would poke his head in.

One Guinness ordered and tab settled, he took up a seat at the bar and promptly split the G, holding the glass up in front of his eyes to check his work. "Hey," he said to no one in particular but sort of to the person next to him, who he'd registered when he sat down but hadn't yet fully looked over to take in. "Look, I still got it. Who ever said being a parent makes you boring?"