Normally I don't sing. Like, ever. I hate it. But when a song like this comes on, how can you NOT sing?!
"GEORGE!! GEORGEEEE!!!!" I yell, continuously waiting for the reply, "Shh. I'm trying to watch a show."
"YOU SHOULD'VE WATCHED YOUR MOUTH BEFORE YOU TALKED ABOUT MY FATHER THOUGH!"
"I didn't say anything that wasn't true. Your father's a scoundrel, and so it seems are you."
"SO IT'S LIKE THAT?!!??"
"Yeah I don't fool around. I'm not one of your little schoolboy friends-"
"I'LL SEE YOU ON THE DUELING GROUND!!" I kept screaming, "THAT IS UNLESS YOU WANNA STEP OUTSIDE AND GO NOW!"
"I know where to find you, piss off-"
"I'M TRYING TO COOK NOW!" Victor interrupts the track.
I sigh and flop down on a - okay about three - beanbags. I continue to bob my head to the track, though.
I quietly observe the rest of the room. Everyone seems to be engaging themselves in whatever they're doing, but it's clear they're partial to the music. Ah, the joys of living among trash. I close my eyes, imagining the gunshot and soon enough, it comes. Ah, the joys of pretending to be dead.
...
I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. Is this- my train of thought is cut off as I hear Deja starting to sing to herself while preparing her patent-pending 'sugar on sugar' punch.
"Look around, look arouuuuund," I hear her say.
"How long have you known?" the computer algorithms pieced together to sound like Lin-Manuel Miranda singing sound.
"A month or so"
"Eliza, you should have told me."
"I wrote to the general a month ago. I begged him to send you home-" Deja sings soulfully.
"WHAT IS THIS!?!" Victor screams despite being not five feet away from Deja.
"Yeah!" Azai chimes in from across the room, "Can we hear something lit?"
"But-" Deja protests in a high-pitched tone, frustratedly waving her hands around as if to convey that thIS IS HER SONGGG.
"Sorry Deja-chan, I've got the phone here," Victor says almost teasingly as he whirls his phone off the counter to skip the song.
"I know these chords," I think to myself as I mock the piano accompaniment to the beginning of any KG song.
"You say," Victor begins to vocalize, being silently accepted as the most avid singer. "The price of my love's not a price that you're willing to pay. You cryyyyyy in your tea, which you hurl in the sea when you see me go by. Why so sad?" evidently he's never heard the term overacting. "Remember we made an arrangement" (AU where my character can actually roll/flip r's XD) "When you went away. Now you're making meEEE MAAAD. Remember, despite our estrangement, I'm your maaaannn."
"You'll be back. Soon you see, you'll remember you belong to me. You'll be back. Time will tell. You'll remember that I served you well. Oceans rise. Empires fALLLLLL. We have seen each other through it all. And when push comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion-to remind you of my love!"
"Da da da da da," everyone bursts out full-on singing, "da da da da dya da da da da da da dya da!"
"I'M DONE!" Victor announces out of the blue. He holds up a pot, handling it with oven mitts. Of course they're magenta. Why do those come in magenta...? Pushing away that thought, I walk over.
"You need some... Guinea pigs?" I ask, begging for free samples.
"You realize the party's in like..." he counts on his fingers, "six songs?"
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Gimme hot chocolate," I respond intellectually.
"Fine," Victor sighs. He grabs a ramekin from the stack on the counter and ladles a bit of the pot's contents into it.
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm," I mumble as I take a sip of the cocoa. It's.. um... kind of still burning my mouth, but that's not my fault. It's my chocolate addiction's fault. I signal Victor with my thumbs-up of approval. He gives a slight curtsy.
I walk back over to the beanbags with my ramekin, tuning out the rest of the group until Aindriú comes crashing through the front door.
"Heyyyyyyyy, did you guys miss me?!?"
His enthusiasm is met with a collective "No." from the audience.
"Well now," he explains, "We have signal."
"Wow Aindriú!" I say, "Way to satel-lite up a room with your dish-covery!"
"That didn't even make sense!" Azai interjects.
"Shhhhhhhh," I quiet them, "I'm on a roll." I turn my attention back to Aindriú. "A roll of film, that is."
"Okay please get better context we're STREAMING movies for god's sake," Aindriú says, exasperated.
"You know I'm punny!!" I say. Everyone just sighs. "You'll Be Back" winds down and a mixer noise starts.
"Ah, Mr. Secretary!"
"Mr. Burr, sir!"
"Hah!" Azai exclaims.
"What?" I ask, mildly confused.
"Burr's not in the room where the party setup happens, is she?" they speculate.
"ILLUMINATI CONFIRMEEEDDDD!" Victor screams.
I shake my head almost imperceptibly at his comment. Don't we all know the illuminati are real?! Victor literally started a branch of a Jr. Mason society, he can't object to that. I laugh in my head, but externally, I am silent as the unlocked front door creaks open.
(Do you hear that? That's the sound of me failing to edit this chapter. Thank y'all for readinggggggggggggg)
