. achilles heel

[henry albright]

Cal takes a sip from her drink and Violet smiles when the drink is back in her hand. Watching the waves of his second dose coat his features as she brings her own lips to it. A moth to a flame. The perfect way to describe the other half of their friend group. Her mind wanders to the secret that she keeps for Kitty and Henry. The marriage that she beared witness too. How would Dom feel if he knew that the one he hated the most was tied to Kitty in a way he would not be?  "So weird," she mumbles, taking a second to respond as she finally tears her eyes away, to focus on Cal. It was strange that Henry happened to be in the same place, the man mixing with their group was something she knew her best friend loathed. His hand grips her as they head further into the crowd and away from the scene taking place behind them. A few steps in and they're out of her mind too. "Of course nothing can ruin this night, it's me and you babe," she whispers into his ear (more so shouts due to the music), as Violet's hips slowly rock back and forth to the beat. "I feel so good right now." The alcohol buzzing through her, watching as Cal joined his high. "Tell me how you're feeling." The words sound desperate out of her mouth, wanting to live through his experience, not fully ready to tackle that on her own yet.  This is going just as he expected. Dom ruining the high he'd built up with just a few words out of his mouth. One of the things he did not enjoy when he was tangled up in Kitty, the lingering presence he offered. "Likewise." Henry clips back, sipping his drinks as he watches for any emotions to come across Kitty's face. She greets him with a sympathetic look, but Henry could handle Dominic as always. Something that he wished he didn't have to while he was having fun this evening. A sarcastic chuckle falls from his lips as he's hit with another insult. "I think we both know my type is right in front of us." His eyes shoot to Kitty, a smirk tugging at his mouth as she tries to silence Dom with her hand. How would their conversation be after they've left him? Dominic would probably pout, wanting comfort from her for ditching Dom for Henry. He knows this story too well. "I'm here for a couple more days. I'll call you." Henry takes a final look at Kitty, before leaning in to kiss her cheek. An action he only hopes will further irritate the man standing next to her. "Behave yourself tonight." He whispers, before pulling away.

[calvin keller]

If he was being honest, Cal's mind had transcended so far away from Henry and that situation it was like trying to find Waldo on a crowded page, only visible if he squinted and the page shined just right. And he wanted to do neither of those things, tuning in instead to Violet's murky voice, the shine on the bow of her lip, the chaotic slow down of the world crashing in on him and rising up his throat simultaneously. Smile depthless and deep, nodding into the echo in his ear that felt like velvet, the smooth of her skin as his hands traveled the expanse of it all. Limitless, effortless... "Unstoppable," is his answer, the night expanding physically in front of him. Choices veering in smears of red and blue, purple and green, arrows pointing dangerously back to the bar or right under his nose, tugging Violet closer as his touch sang, as the world slowed to the pinpoint of their proximity. Drug deeper by the sheen of her skin, the lingering perfume that hit him in waves, Cal's heart unexpectedly flips in his chest as he pulls her back to stare at her. "You're still beautiful Vi - you know that right? Fucking gorgeous."

[kitty smith-sato]

The floor under Kitty's feet starts to slip, the room tilting like they are in a fairground funhouse, though she's having absolutely no fun. Henry mentions her being his type and though it would be an immense compliment elsewhere, with Dom in her arms it feels damning. He's condemned her evening and she's fighting a rising fury at both of them, entering into a pissing contest that had no winner but plenty of losers, chief amongst them her evening. Her cheeks are burning as one is kissed, her body stiff as she offers only a curt nod in response. Henry is left to slip back to his friends and she can just imagine the conversation; who was that? What the fuck was up with that guy? It churns her stomach to be on the lips of a group she's so decidedly set against. Before she says anything she squeezes him tighter, manoeuvring herself so that he's at his front and looking up at him pleadingly, still clinging on. "Don't let this become something it doesn't have to be." She wants to say that she loves him, that it's him forever, that she'd kill for him if it came to it. But his gaze is glazed over from drugs and drink, and there's the hint of a snarl in his expression that she knows she's powerless to stop. And besides, it would be a pretty pathetic display, and there were far too many people here for that. "Let's go, we'll have more fun just the four of us. Maybe we can get Violet to overdose again, wouldn't that be fun?"

[dominic vinten cuvo]

If his eyes rolled any harder he worried they might pop out of his head, a head that was already lolling about emphatically on his shoulders like it might go any second as well. Sometimes it moved to the beat of the music, other times it was animated with speech or accompanying the judgmental pass of his gaze. In his stupor Dominic is certain he can beat Henry in any competition Kitty could conjure, though his temptations lie in the verbal rather than the physical. As enjoyable as it might be to get his hands around the boy’s neck, Dominic preferred a sharp tongue and the power of body language, not immune to the primal masculine draw of a puffed chest and daggered glare. Anger supplies a wonderful voltage to his havocked system, his ultimate prize being achieved in Kitty choosing him—for now. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he claims over the music, hesitant to let her go until Henry was returned to his flock of nobodies. Their own tagalongs were off somewhere, the night still young enough to salvage. “I wasn’t kidding about them,” he mentioned over his shoulder, waiting for something at the bar. “They’re being totally reckless,” he sighed, turning with two drinks in hand. If Kitty made a fuss, he would insist that one was for her; if not, he would drink them both. The latter was more preferable but less likely. He shouldered his way back to where he somewhat remembers Calvin being, stomach twisting at the sight of him with Violet. First Kitty, now this. "Oh look, honey," he purrs to Kitty with the amused fondness of a supervising parent. "History is repeating."

[violet spencer]

Unstoppable. Cal says a feeling that Violet knew so well. Violet's smile lifting even more as she continues to enjoy the music. Body becoming loose, eyes closing to truly feel the music as her sober minds feels further and further away. Seconds, or minutes pass as she sways to the Charli XCX remix pumping through the DJ's speakers. They were dancing separate at first but somewhere along the lines, their bodies became intertwined. She briefly remembers the feel of Cal's hands tugging her close, by her hips, to close the space. Her drink is now gone, but Violet barely pays that any attention as she feels her other drinks finally doing the trick. The tolerance she had out the window, but surprisingly she was steady thus far. He shocks Violet when he stops them, to stare at her through drug induced eyes, feeding her with compliments. His words make her stomach twist in the form of pleasure, happiness. Violet lifts on her toes to give him her thanks, planting her lips on his for a short peck. A kiss was nothing out of the ordinary for the two, Violet feeling the most comfortable with Cal. "You sure know how to make a girl feel good, Cal."

[calvin keller]

Violet had become a strange, protected harbor for Cal. Over the extended time of having her here they'd faded into moments soft and static, trading evenings at his house, waves mindlessly looping out the windows, and days where drinks drip into moon eyes, thoughts hazily spilling from sanguine lips. It's that familiarity he clings to now, cherishes immensely, heart all but combusting in his chest at the press of her lips to his own. Cal clutches her hip to keep her steady and close, testing that her mouth hadn't been a mirage before leaning back down to relinquish the space he'd taken. Eyes slicing open pointedly, curiously, as his hand slid into her hair and the kiss deepened. As if he knew he was being watched, as if the world was a game (wasn't it?), lips drawing back to pull into a hazy smile. "We've got company," he murmurs in Violet's ear, spinning her around to face the music and the familiar, blurry faces of their friends. Arms slung casually over her shoulders. "Who got what in the divorce, pray tell?"

[kitty smith-sato]

Henry's intervention had brought the night shudderingly to the point of almost no return, a point it always reached but not usually quite so quickly. It was when her moderation became less a position of power and more one of boredom, the gulf between her mental state and that of her friends' widening to the point where she knew she'd either have to leave or catch up. Even with this chasm to traverse, Kitty's relieved when Dominic makes his way to the bar, ignoring the drinks as her mind races to catch up with recent events, possible next moves burrowing out in front of her, needing her concentration to decide which would be most fitting.  She stops dead at the sight before them. "Ew," is all she says, voice flat. Internally, though, she's anything but unmoved-- a predictable creep of envy mingles with a surprising pang of disappointment. It's as though she's been deep into passionate conversation about the works of Joseph Wright and Caravaggio, only for her conversation partner to mention who they really like is Damien Hirst. How gauche. Approaching the two, she looks at each in turn, carefully taking them in. Cal's wider eyed than when she left him, which makes it easier to see the encroachment of pupil on iris, something that makes all of this slightly easier to swallow. "Ew Violet," she says, nose crinkling in visible disgust, "if you want to take advantage of the inebriated you should go join Henry's table."  She turns back to Dom, lowering her voice though she was still in earshot of the other two. "We should leave, he can't be like this in public."

[dominic vinten cuvo]

Seeing Calvin and Violet together is less of an affront to his system than the sight of Kitty and Henry, but witnessing anyone interact with his favorite playthings did something sinister to Dom’s nerves. Of course the more altered he was, the louder the voice of jealousy became and the harder the need for possession pulled. It’s why everything went haywire with Kitty and Calvin interacting, short-circuiting his brain between ultimate desire and rabid envy. Spikes on an otherwise flat heart monitor, rushing the drugs faster through his blood, giving him a brief flicker of something to care about. For once Violet doesn’t need to be picked up off the floor, but it’s Calvin whose eyes are black and wide like saucers of ink. “Well, sport. I was granted sole custody of you,” Dom is delighted to report, face splitting with that Cheshire grin as he assessed the state of him. That pill must have been good! He’s regretting passing on another dose, but there’s a new supply of intrigue—a land of opposites, with Calvin down, Violet up, and himself still stealing air at the surface between sobriety and total destruction. His arm slips over Calvin’s over Violet’s, tactfully untangling the two, his touch lingering on Violet. “My goodness, Vi. You look delectable tonight,” he said to the blonde, Calvin's wavering, boneless body their buffer. “What do you weigh now… ninety-three, maybe ninety-four pounds?” he speculated, making a circle with his thumb and index finger around her wrist, marveling at all the empty air between. This would incense Kitty, which was fair game now that he had prevented her from being with Henry. He'd won his prize, what else to do with it?

[violet spencer]

His lips push for more when Violet's sure they were about to spring apart. Deepening the kiss and his grip on her hip, she leans into the kiss. The familiarity of Cal's cologne touching her nose as the kiss greets all the other senses. The world moving around them as they enjoy the unstoppable chemistry that always sparks between them. She feels the eyes on them, as Cal pulls apart and murmurs the words she was just thinking. Kitty and Dom were joining, having just witnessed their little show. She's ready for Kitty's comment, something that would try to shame her for the comfort that Violet had in her sexuality. And she comes in full force, speaking on Henry's group where Henry returned to, knowing well that Dom would nor Kitty would ever allow him to dabble in their shenanigans for the evening. If her friend were to come just a little bit closer, she'd see that Violet was nowhere near sober. Though Cal was the worse of the two. She decides to ignore Kitty, appreciative that Dom is in her space again. He manages to untangle the two of them, his fingers toying with her wrist. "Close. Almost pushing one hundred." She'd weighed herself earlier that morning, the scale stating ninety seven pounds. "So where to next?" She dares Dom, giving him the leader title as Cal was beyond inebriated, just along for the ride.

[calvin keller]

It's a rare moment to find Calvin Keller the least sober of the group. Often biding his time, pacing his sips, leaning in to the energy just enough to hurt, to heal, to watch someone else break or fall in front of him. But no, not tonight. Tonight he knew he was fucked the second the pill rattled down his throat, a typical half measure that'd gone awry at the expense of...himself? Hie eyes refocus on Dom, then Kitty, with every blink, unsure if he just can't keep them straight or they're swapping places in front of him in rapid fashion. "What's mommy doing, running off with her tennis instructor?" Looking over Kitty's slim shoulder to where Henry had retreated, a nondescript table with nondescript characters that likely led one-note lives. Cal's suddenly exhausted at the prospect of trying to guess all their names, the only hole in the surface he can clear one when Violet admits her weight. "Did you say pushing one hundred?" Maybe he wasn't the only one incredibly fucked up or he was straight hallucinating at this point, neon shapes tracing the slopes of her bones through her skin. Seemed like the later, Cal looking wildly for the exit. "We need food, that's where we're going."

[kitty smith-sato]

Fingers in a ring around a dainty— no, a paltry, ailing wrist. Flames of fury lick at Kitty's throat, flashes of what it would be like to snap those brittle bones, the satisfaction of splinters showering to the sticky floor. For all her strategies and her long games, sometimes she wanted nothing more than to nuke the city in which she stood, to destroy everything in a flash of white and a nuclear shower, skin coming off in sheets, eyes melting in skulls. She probably shouldn't have stayed up late watching Hiroshima documentaries on a comedown, but here she was. Her mouth remains closed, lips pulled into a tight line as she refused to outwardly take the bait. No, she'd just have to get particularly creative with some of her Violet hate blogs later, maybe photoshopping Violet's head onto Eugenia Cooney's body.  She turns her attention to Calvin, cold eyes surveying him with blank aversion. It was extremely out of character for him to be this way, but that didn't matter. Suddenly exhausted by all of them, she trails behind as they pour upstairs, heading god knows where. Safely behind the cover of Cal's frame, she slips her phone out of her clutch and rushes out a message to Henry. Sorry about that. I'll call you when I can, wait up.  Restoring it to her purse, she breathes in the fresh air, shaking her hair back off her shoulders. She slips her hand into Calvin's pocket, speaking as she does,  "I'm calling your driver, don't get too excited." Retrieving the phone, she holds it up to his face to unlock it.

[dominic vinten cuvo]

He feels more drunk than he is high. Though his preference skews toward the reverse, Dom assumes the encounter with Henry must have driven some of the effects right out of his system, a shot of unwanted sobriety when he’d rather have a needle of adrenaline to the heart. Another excuse was that they were rusty, all that time apart from one another risking "change" and "growth." It now felt a spoiled, unpredictable night which intrigued Dom, understanding the power Kitty must feel when she is the least fucked-up. Dominic untangled from the two and circled the girl who had earned equal amount ire and affection tonight. “Don’t do that to me again,” he warned low against her ear, lingering for a moment longer to spring a loud kiss against her cheek before abandoning her side. Just like that his two drinks are less mysteriously gone, one charitably donated to Violet as they gathered up to leave. The appeal of power via sobriety soon dissipates, Dominic sidling up next to Calvin in the car that arrives for them, arm slung over his rubbery shoulders. There’s vague chatter with the driver, Dominic using his sturdiest voice to request the nearest fast food drive-thru to feed his ailing friends. Speaking of ailing: “Do you have any more?” he asked quietly of Cal's lovely pills, watching his friend’s body loosen and churn with ecstasy. He was jealous of the seat, as if Calvin was being poured across the leather. “I want to join you.” Round three in four days, why not?

[violet spencer]

Violet ignores the rest of the conversation after admitting the weight she was heading to. Tuning them out but only hearing the words 'food' shouting from Cal's mouth. Dom graciously places a drink in her hand as they begin their trail to the exit of the club. She'd have the drink finished before they were entering the car. Cal's body swaying with every step he takes, Violet trying to concentrate on her own. Making sure she's not caught in another act of appearing too drunk. As if everyone didn't already know she was on the path of relapse.  Kitty calls Cal's driver and they're sliding into the back seat. She feels her eyes becoming heavy, fighting the urge to let her head rest on the seat, if she did she'd slip into a slumber. But her gut told her to fight back, not to let her guard down which would be gone behind her eyelids. Violet pulls out her phone, texting a few people back and listening to Dom request a pill to join the high Calvin was experiencing. He's the first one to step away. The interaction irritating him, just as any conversation with Dom typically did. Henry wants to look back and see how the two head back to their group but he holds off. Heading in the direction of the friends he left behind. 'Brother and sister', Henry often found a silly way to describe them. No matter what Katherine said about family being important (Dom), the term struck a nerve when it came to Dominic. And he didn't know anyone that looked at their siblings the way Dom did so with Kitty - a look of possession and hunger. Henry retreats back to a corner booth in which his friends were waiting. A few of them with curious looks on their faces as he slides back into the booth, remembering at the last minute to grab their requested drinks. "Sorry about that boys, ran into my ex." The group knew bits and pieces of Henry's relationship with Kitty, mostly just the downfall. He leaves it at just 'ex' and they'll know who he's speaking about. The conversation turns to someone else, thankfully and he's back to sipping on the whiskey. His phone vibrates - Kitty's name hitting the notification screen. Sliding up to unlock his phone with the facial ID. Fingers typing a response back. OK. We're about to head back to the hotel.

[calvin keller]

Snapshots burn against the crackling film of his memory, stitching together some semblance of point A to point B. The lights, the halls, the icy thrill of Kitty's stare and the featherlight slip of her touch into his pocket. Instinctively catching her wrist when she held his phone up, blinded by the light of it yet drowning in the reveal of how tiny she truly was. For a moment he remembers, he believes, she goes to tug away and his hand clutches further instead, thumb pressed against the center of her palm before letting go. Swears on the shutter of her breath as they tear into the endless night. Then it's the back of the car, the buttery leather like silk against his skin as he stretched in earnest. Cal wasn't sure if he was even on Earth anymore, conversation almost foreign in the lulling rush of his ears. Only aware that they were moving, that Dom wanted something, saucer eyes dripping his way before he realized the request of an even playing field. Somewhere in his body, his mind, Cal snags a semblance of reality and holds it close, pushing up to hover against the smoked-out window. "Sorry," he sighs, shoulders like a marionette in their brief movement. "I offered, you declined." He's lying but Cal feels he deserves it for now, watching the landscapes whirl by like impressionism in warp speed. "Should we go back to mine after?" He pushes instead, suddenly desperate for a french fry but also to keep moving lest he drop to sleep any second. Rather having the option of his own bed than another banquette, the world still tilting in its wonder.

[kitty smith-sato]

Kitty hand waves Dominic away, the urge to go home roaring in her ears. She fantasises about being in her dads' apartment, sinking into a bubble bath and staying under the water indefinitely, a hot, perfumed limbo in which she could pretend she had never met any of these people. Could imagine being Henry's wife, really being his wife, prim and polished and perfect, shiny and scary and most of all, secluded from them. From the endless repetition of private cars and bleary eyes. Walking up the stairs affords her a view of her reflection in a mirrored wall, subtly tilting her body each way to assess her size. Soon it's her wrist caught in a grip, though it's Calvin's. His hand is warm and his grip is strong, reactive, softening as their hands slip together and finally apart. Her breath hitches, exhaling into the breezy night. It should thrill her to have unfettered access to his phone and it does. She makes the call but keeps her thumb subtly circling the screen, keeping it from fading to black and locking away its secrets once more. In the car, she stares determinedly out of the window, assessing, making sure that everyone was too fucked to notice what she was up to. Confident of this, she finally gets to look through the device, scrolling through messages, DMs and finally, photos. There are some really quite beautiful nudes of a blonde woman she doesn't know, which she airdrops to herself, just in case they come in handy. Finally her own phone buzzes and she immediately switches to that, body angling even further towards the door as she reads Henry's message. Locking it quickly. Eventually she looks up, her stomach growling as they pull into the In-n-Out drive thru. "I'll have a Sprite."