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 Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:01 pm
Saturday, 7pm, sunny weather and a lot of beer. The makeshift party made their way from the pool up to the apartment soaking wet.
Ashley (not one for ruining her hair in public chlorine filled pools) had stayed upstairs to keep an eye on Harper.
Harper was quite upset, as one might understand, not being able to go in the pool with everyone else. Thankfully, someone was responsible enough to realize that throwing a toddler in a pool with about a dozen quite drunk adults clamoring around might make for various accidents. In truth, Ashley didn't want to deal with drying Harper off and restyling his hair as well.
So, Harper sat in the middle of the living room watching bitterly as soaked, laughing and intoxicated adults starting filling into the apartment. They were all talking amongst each other and the only attention he got was the occasional, 'oooh look at the baby!' or even that scary red haired lady hitting Soloman and talking about how she wanted a baby too. The apartment, already a wreck, was even more destroyed and littered with empty beer cans, pizza boxes, paper plates with half molded crusty food still stuck on, and this horrid foul smell that had to be identified. Harper's toys, mostly odds and ends the adults had picked up, were scattered like treasures among the legs of the adult; but all he wanted right now was someone to play with. Some ATTENTION for crying out loud!
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:08 pm
HOW he got dragged into this, Antony had no idea. He was soaking wet and starting to get cold. His father was drunk--actually, he was almost positive that Shade was halfway faking it. Either way, he was heading into a strange group's apartment and he had no way to complain about it.
Shade laughed and took another drink off his beer as he caught sight of the punk boy from the ball incident. He had thought the muscular guy was the one he had met earlier! He reached down, rubbing Antony's head and pushing him forward. "Look, Tony, one of the kids from your school!"
"Father--"
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:34 pm
Harper quickly caught sight of Antony, given the general size difference between him and most of the other people now flooding the apartment. He came to his feet carefully, not being helped by being bumped in to by some stupid man, and slowly made his way toward Antony. His mood was getting better until he noticed he was wet;
"HE GOT TO GO IN POOL?!!" He -screamed-, spinning to look at his mother who stared at Antony blankly and then used the infamous line;
"HE'S NOT MY KID. NOW GO PLAY AND BE HAPPY."
At that, Harper fixed a menacing glare on Antony and progressed closer to him.
Eliot, now sitting on what was once a clean couch, had two girls on either side of him and looked a few minutes away from passing out. Sunny was running around like some forsaken maid, and when he got to Shade he promptly went to snatch the beer can in his hand away from him.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:55 pm
Shade moved the beer before it could be snatched, his hand faster than expected by most people. "You should ask first," he said cheerfully before taking another drink. "Only polite."
Antony stared blankly at the kid heading for him, wondering what him going into the pool had anything to do with anything. He actually didn't like the pool very much, the chlorine made his hair feel disgusting. He needed a shower, and the sooner the better.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:05 pm
Sunny stared at Shade for a moment and then shook his head, "Nuh uh.. you douhnt have to deahl wituh.." he trailed off, his eyebrows furrowing. "Why am eyeh talking funneh?" He shook his head and pointed accusingly at Soloman, "you put something in eht, didnt youh?!"
Soloman grinned innocently and waved in a friendly way at Shade, "Please ignore my friend, good sir, his bottom lip was mangled in a horrible accident as a child. Come, sit! LET US PARTAKE IN THE BEER!" He motioned to the (floor) next to him and raised his beer can up, resulting in a triumphant roar among the other party guests as they did the same.
Harper got to Antony and stared at him accusingly. "Why did you get pool and no me?!" He asked, quite seriously, even passing his glare to Shade before realizing he was the plastic ball guy and cracking a grin, "That your daddy?!"
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:16 pm
"That's my father, yes," Antony said, glancing back at Shade and trying not to make a face at how filthy the place was. "He's the one that took me to the pool. I suppose that's why I went and you didn't," he finished, fighting the urge to correct the kid's grammer.
"Is that your father?" he asked, pointing at Eliot.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:30 pm
Harper looked to Eliot and scrunched his nose, "No!" He snapped, a very 'are you kidding?!' look on his face. "I no have daddy, just mommy." He pointed at Ashley, who was currently sitting next to a man who was draped over half her body and saying;
"Just save me the trouble and castrate yourself now."
"You have mommy too?" Harper asked, forgiving the insinuation that he was related to Eliot. "You come play now." He informed, motioning for Antony to follow him as he walked deeper into the land of the dead apartment living room.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:37 pm
"No, only a father, and a feien, who spends most of her time in Father's pocket," Antony said as he picked his way carefully though the mess. This was his image of hell, he thought darkly, drunken men, high pitched, annoying, laughing women, the smell of alcohol so heavy that he felt a little sick to his stomach.
He was starting to think it might be better not to have a mother.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:21 pm
Harper made it to a corner and discovered a green plastic ball. It was covered in beer, and was now sticky. Instead of reaching for the ball, however, he first picked up the plastic plate that was covering the ball and promptly went to throw it at Antony's head, "Catch!" he yelled merrily.
Then he carefully picked up the ball, only to squeak when he discovered was underneath that. The source of the foul smell! A piece of pizza that had been sitting there for five weeks, complete with anchovies and pineapple!!
"Yum," Harper declared, reaching for the pizza, apparently about to eat it, "We share, okay?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:36 pm
He barely managed to dodge the plate before the boy offered him something so disgusting that he felt like he was going to be sick. "No, we don't," he said as he grabbed the slice, looking for a trashcan.
This place was WORSE than hell, and his bare feet were getting sticky. ON CARPET.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:43 pm
Harper stared at Antony indignantly when he stole the food, "HEY!" He yelled, pouting, "I hungry!" he protested, quickly moving to try and take the pizza back. There was a trashcan, somewhere. His name was Sunny. (And there was inevitably an open black trash bag in the kitchen, which had some slightly fresher food items too so it seemed the obvious destination.)
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:46 pm
He headed for the kitchen, holding the pizza up high, so the boy couldn't get it. "You have to have something better than this to eat here, right?" he asked as he threw the pizza away.
He was in a nightmare, and he would have trouble sleeping for WEEKS.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:58 pm
Harper was now quite unimpressed with Antony. He stole his food, though his intentions were all well and nice that didn't matter to Harper. "I wanted pizza." He said matter of factly, glaring at Antony.
He flagged down a nearby adult and had her pull out some chips from a bowl resting on a counter. She was on her way after that, but Harper was munching away happily. "There chips on counter." He declared, though by then it was obvious. "Me an Sunny went to store today and I picked em up!" Atleast that meant they were fresh.
"Do you have a broder or sister?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:02 pm
At least they didn't look green, Antony thought, fighting the urge to start cleaning. This wasn't his house and it was impolite to do that sort of thing, or so he believed. It was unfortunate, that.
"A--no," Antony admitted. "Do you?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:06 pm
Harper shook his head, "Mommy says no an that I never will, but that mebbe Eliot has 'illegetamayte' kids on a airplane." He stared off into space for a moment trying to register his own words before shrugging, "Wish I did! You want?" He asked, while measuring Antony's size up.
He gave a bright smile shortly after and grinned at Antony, "You tall enough. Come!" He ran back into the living room and toward a bedroom door.
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