location: xavier’s manor. when: shortly after 10:45pm, 12/31. who: @billie-foster
------HIS HANDS WERE antsy. places like this gave him the oddest sense of crushing darkness, despite the lights being clearly on, dimmed. it was the people, how many of them were packed together like sardines talking and galivanting and otherwise pretending everything in the world was alright. it took five minutes for redd to lift more than fifty bucks from a combined two people, wallets replaced in pockets with their owners none-the-wiser. he was skilled at surveying who was an easy mark, who wasn’t ... and she? was not an easy mark.
still, he stood beside her, pushed toward a table where glasses were being poured - he imagined they would switch from whatever they were serving to champagne once it drew closer to midnight. but for now ... for now he lifted one of the glasses from the table and offered it to his companion-by-circumstance as if they were old friends. as if he knew her. as if he’d always known her. perhaps she made him feel guilty, just her presence. he swallowed the feeling down in lieu of false comradery.
“ in a room full of people chatting and dancing you’re stuffed off to the side like a forgotten scarf. by choice or? ”