who: bunny and fallon (@sullngirl) where: the stones’ basement party when: night
Parties sucked. The Stones’ parties ruled. Both of these truths Bunny fully believed.
If you had stopped Bunny on the street (they’d walked here) and asked them, “Where you headed?”, they would’ve lied. Without a thought. One of the convenient things about being a Bend Records employee was that Bunny could, if and when they preferred it most, pretend that the activity before them was actually a requirement of their job. “I’m actually doing a little research for work tonight,” Bunny could’ve said to that hypothetical passerby. Or, if they were going for humor: “Turns out my coworkers are huge. Fans. Of doing your job right. And as it stands today…I’m that hard worker that can’t say no to the perfect lesson in exceeding expectations.” They would pause. “I’m kind of a mystery, and I exceed ‘expectations’ just by being normal for once.”
But it wasn’t for research purposes that Bunny was standing in the Stones’ basement. Nor, they realized as they stared straight at some would-be party king peeling off their T-shirt, were they here to surprise people. As fascinating and unique as that would’ve been (and Bunny was all about unique), Bunny was here to have fun.
Parties sucked…but everybody always said the Stones’ parties ruled, so why not benefit from that for once?
Mostly they were at the party to drink and listen to good music. (And the music was delivering.) But Bunny caught sight of Fallon Wu—maybe the last familiar face they’d ever be prepared to encounter in that basement—and they knew instantly, intrinsically, that they would be socializing a little more than planned.
Bunny set their beer on an end table (they needed a reason to come back to that particular spot, and it had been a great, unproblematic spot) and picked their way through the crowd toward Fallon. She was alone, thank Christ.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” Bunny told her honestly. (This was unusual for Bunny to ever say, let alone think—they prided themself on being “glad” about very few things. “Glad” meant, as if it were plastered on the biggest billboard around, “I need this!”) “This is, believe it or not—actually, guess. Guess if I’ve been to this place before. I’ll give you a hint, and it’s that I spent my first half hour here tonight staring down some football player from my high school who was glaring at me. Genuinely glaring. I’m an acquired taste, but holy shit.”
The incredible, cool thing about Fallon was that she probably thought the party was somewhat silly, too.