The dim glow of the school lamp posts lit up the way as D and Max trailed back to Rookman Hall. The silence between them was broken by Max's occasional stumble and effort to right himself before falling. D had offered to let him rest on his shoulder, but he was refused each time. "So...that was some crazy party, right?"
D attempted to bring some levity into what he honestly considered a very creepy walk. "Yeah..." Max responded without looking at him or smiling. D felt the difference in his demeanor immediately. The subtle warmth that had been there whenever they'd talked prior was replaced with something else. "You and Izzy seem pretty tight. Do you like her?" D turned around to look at him as he continued walking. Max let out a deep sigh that made D's sigh look like coughs as he said. "Yup."
D tuned back around, noting that it was probably the wrong subject to talk about at the moment, but he continued.
"Look, I'm sorry about what happened with Flynn and all that." He tried to look Max in the eyes, but Max avoided looking at him either due to his drunken haze or out of spite. "I swear, dude, I didn't start shit with him."
Max just continued to trudge forward without saying anything. They walked in silence, knowing that, particularly where they were going, made the walk feel much shorter. After a few more minutes of walking, they came to the student union and crossed through some sort of courtyard till they saw their hall.
The spire of a building cut through the dark night like a matte black knife in the night sky, and its dark marble courtyard fountain glittered in the moonlight. "Look, man, can you say something?" D stopped walking in front of Max,
"Anything at all?" Max just stopped and stared at him, whispered some Norwegian swear words that D couldn't hear, and walked around him. This time, D took the hint and just kept walking. They passed other students on the way, but neither of them seemed to know, so they paid them no mind.
They soon approached the outside of Rookman hall, the bright light of the main desk and first floor lounge beaming through the front glass windows. A few students sat in the lounge and a few others were walking inside the hall, no doubt from some other party.
D sucked in a deep breath and stopped walking again just before they were in close view of the windows, and looked at Max. "Dude, how are we going to get to our room?" He silently hoped asking a question that wasn't about the party would make Max open up a little. "W-we will just...walk up?" Max pointed up with his pointer finger and thumb.
D let out a small sigh; it would've been a larger one, but he could feel that Max was more tired of "how are we going to sneak you past the front desk?" He pointed with his thumb and pointer finger, mocking the way Max had done it. Max was too drunk to notice, but nonetheless thought about what his friend said. But D already had a plan. D asked, "You still got that water bottle Izzy gave you?"
Max reached into his pocket, pulled out a crushed-up water bottle, and handed it to D without looking at him. D ran over to the fountain in what could be called an attempt to be stealthy; a few of the passing-by students looked at him. He scooped up some fountain water into the bottle and jogged back over by the edge of the building, where Max now sat against the wall.
"Here," D handed the bottle to Max. He pushed the bottle away, along with D's hand, "I am not drinking from that." D shook his head and squatted down beside him. "It's not for drinking, dude, it's to spray you with."
Max jumped back from D slightly, stirring more than he had the entire walk back. "I-I am NOT doing that either, hva i helvete (what the hell)" D unconsciously began tapping his foot, getting impatient and cold, he said, "C'mon man, we need you to look sober sooo..." He tried to hand him the water bottle again.
Max just stared at it for a long beat and then finally looked at D and swiped the bottle from his hands. Without a second thought, he tore off the cap and poured it right onto his head, still looking at D, who stood there, mouth agape. After dumping the entire bottle on himself, he dropped it and sat for a minute in silence.
Max stared at the sky above them, slowly swaying back and forth, trying to focus on looking sober for a few moments. "Well?..." D asked a bit meekly, unsure where Max's head was at. Max's eyes went from the sky over to D, and he sighed, not a sigh of frustration but one of readiness. Max put out a hand signaling D to help him stand, and D took it readily.
They walked over to the front door and attempted to open it, only to be met with an unmoving force. No matter how hard D pushed the door wouldn't budge and he stepped back and sighed. As he stepped back and peered in at the person at the desk, who was...Val, she was making a pointing motion to down to her left side.
D looked to his right and finally acknowledged the small, metal V-band scanner that had been there the whole time. The scanner had a sign on the other side that said insert wrist. D looked at Max with a worried expression before slowly inserting his wrist. The machine grabbed his wrist and scanned the credentials of his V-band before letting go of him. "S-since when were these things here?" Max asked, sticking his arm into the machine.
D shrugged, and the doors unlocked as they entered the main desk area. The black tiles under their feet were a strange change to the wet grass and pavement outside. The interior of the building was only slightly less black in coloring compared to the outside, with a few splashes of dark wood here and there. "Hey, guys, how's it going-", she paused for a moment as she saw Max doused with water and D slightly roughed up from his fight with Flynn at the party.
"Everything alright, guys?" she re-asked, a bit more concerned in her tone. "Yeah, yeah, we're chilling," D said, trying to walk in front of Max as much as possible with his smaller frame. "H-hi Val," Max managed to say in a relatively normal-sounding voice as they went towards the elevators. "You both seemed to miss the meeting earlier." She said as she slightly leaned over the front desk to keep them in view.
"Did you want to hear what you guys missed?" "Nah, nah, it's all good, we'll just ask Roxy to fill us in on the details," D said with a fake laugh, peppered at the end for politeness. D pressed one of the silver buttons denoting his and Max's floor, the elevator immediately opened, and the two stepped inside. Before the door closed, Max stuck his arm and head out the door, saying, "Bye, Val!" In a slightly louder voice than he probably should've.
The elevator ride up was mostly silently with the occasional grunt or groan from Max as he leaned against the elevator wall. A dim ding sound sounded as the doors opened and they stepped into their familiar dark colored hallway. The pair stepped out into the dimly lit hallway and began walking to the left, their room sat on the opposite end of the floor from the elevators, but both felt some sense of relief knowing the journey was almost over.
As they walked past the myriad of doors between the elevator and theirs, they both took notice of the decorations some of their floormates had put up. "Y'know any of the other people on our floor? Besides Val, that is."
Max shook his head while eyeing one door that had a black and red streamer setup hanging from the top. The pair walked past the door of the emergency stairwell, and D peered into the slit glass window in the metal door as they passed. A flicker of movement, a ripple seemed to pass in the shadows on the other side of the door.
D stopped in his tracks, Max bumping into him. "W-what's up?" Max asked, looking down at his friend. D said nothing; he stood there unmoving before saying, "Nothing, man, I just need to sleep. I'm out here seeing things," He let out a chuckle to ease his nerves. They continued walking and finally came upon their door, "Well, at least...you didn't get plastered."
A slight smile, the first one in a while, laced Max's tired, slovenly face. D didn't have to look at his friend to know he was smiling. Hoping to continue this good will he added, "One of us drank too much, one didn't drink at all." He said pointing between both of them.
"Maybe next time we'll convince Roxy and balance it out." They both laughed silently as to not wake anyone. "So that's where you were instead of the meeting?" A voice called from behind Max, a voice they both knew.
Especially since it had just greeted them more than 10 floors down in the lobby. D turned and saw Val standing right next to the emergency staircase, door still closed. "Whoa, creep around much? You following us?" D said in a loud whisper. Val's body pulsed with a dark, shadowy energy, and she disappeared into the floor right before their eyes.
"So you're some sort of teleporter or something?" D let out a sardonic laugh, "Big whoop, what do you want?" Without him noticing, a trail of shadow wound behind his and Max's legs and raised up behind them, forming the shape of Val. "Not a teleporter, more of a shadow-stepper." She said delightedly as she stood between them and their door.
"I don't know if you boys know this, but underage students are drinking on campus? Yeah, that's a big no-no," She said as she pointed two fingers at both of them. "You going to narc on us? Really, Val?" Said Max, looking to D for some approval for using the word narc correctly. "Well, as your RA, it's my job to report any...unsavory behavior like this."
D threw up his hands in an appeasing gesture, trying to lower the tension. "Let's all just calm down and forget about this, alright?" "Hmmm, maybe we could if you two help me with something." The typical warmth or nervousness was gone from her face and tone. The only thing left in its wake was pure predator. "What? You need two assistant RAs for the floor?" D said, giving a half-smirk that didn't reach his eyes.
"No, though that would be funny. I want you two to join my club." D's eyes went wide in disbelief, and he began laughing while holding onto Max's shoulder for support. "That's what this is about? Your little-what was it again? Lacrosse club?" "LITERATURE club, you'd do well to remember it...seeing as you're now its newest members."
D sighed and looked to Max, "Max, prove to her you're not drunk. Do a handstand or something." Max blinked in slight shock and sighed. He began stretching to start his handstand. "Stop, I don't need any displays of sobriety." She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small breathalyzer device. "Just breathe into this, and we'll know the answer." She tossed the device to D, and he caught it near his chest. He looked down at his hands for a moment and looked to Max. Neither one said anything for a long moment.
A sense of understanding passed back and forth between them; they couldn't do this. So they had only one choice. "Fine, we'll join your little club-" D said before Max could get a word in, but since they were on the same page, he said nothing. "Good! I'm glad to hear that!" Val yelped before covering her mouth, realizing what time it was and how close they were to people sleeping. "I'll be up first thing in the afternoon to get you for the club's first meeting of the year, okay?" "Fine, whatever. Goodnight, Val."
D spat out her name like it was a horrible word you shouldn't say in front of others. D took out his keys as Max stood behind him and opened the door to their room. They found their third roommate in her bed on her laptop in red and white matching pajamas. "Sounds like you two had an eventful night." She said, not looking at either of them. D shrugged and said nothing as he hopped into his bed. The exhaustion of the night's events was weighing him down like cinderblocks. Max, who was surprisingly still standing, began blatantly undressing as if Roxanne wasn't even there, said "W-we had a night" and hopped into bed.
"Sounded like it, the way the RA tore into you for missing the meeting." D, who was honestly barely listening as the relentless pull of sleep tugged him along, exerted one last bit of effort to turn over to face the ceiling. "You heard all of that?" he asked, looking over to Roxanne, who continued typing away. "I'm certain people in Alaska heard you, with the amount of noise you were making." He knew any attempt at conversation with her was next to futile, but he persisted anyway. "What do you know about the clubs here?"
For a moment, she stopped typing and looked up as she was thinking. "I know it's required every student to be in at least one club, and that all clubs hold a booth near the student union the day before classes, and-" D cut her off. "Hold up, everyone has to be in a club? Well, I guess Val saved us the trouble of looking for one."
He looked to Max for some sign of excitement or approval, but Max just lifted a thumbs-up into the air. "She invited you to her club?" Roxanne said, slamming the laptop's top down. "Uh, yeah, did you not get an invite?" Roxanne blushed and thought about throwing her laptop at D's head, but just sighed and said, "No, I guess not." "Why don't you come with us tomorrow? It'll be fun." Max said, looking to D for similar approval, believing he'd done a good thing.
D sat up and looked at him with a mouth open scowl of horror and made a head chopping motion as he mouthed the word 'No'. "You think she'd be okay with that?" she asked, still not seeing D making the stopping motion to Max, who either didn't understand what it meant in his drunkenness or just didn't care.
"Sure, Val seems to like all of us. You should come too." "I- uh will, thank you guys." With those words, D pulled on his face and fell back into his bed, and not another word was spoken that night as they all went to bed.