not in love! | THE SIDEMEN

iv. blame it on the alcohol

"THERE'S NO WAY I GOT A SEVEN," Vik exclaimed in protest rather loudly, his voice surely having carried through the walls and into the neighboring hotel rooms. His fury was directed at Ethan, who read out the number on the dice Vik had just rolled for him. "I can't even see straight to tell for myself but I couldn't have landed on Mayfair again, there's no way!"

"Splash the cash, pussy," Lennon announced with a grin, watching as he reluctantly handed over the last of his cash and one of his property cards.

Their game of Monopoly had been ongoing for about three hours now, and considering they had turned almost every movement into an excuse to drink they were fairly drunk again for the second time that day. One rule involved downing the entire contents of their glass if put in jail, another included having to take a shot when passing 'GO' and Vik just simply had to drink every time he complained.

"That's another complaint, get it in you lad," Harry guffawed, nudging him with his elbow and instantly regretting it when it caused the drink in Vik's plastic cup to spill slightly onto his white bed sheets. As there were no tables, or furniture of any kind in the room, they had the Monopoly board spread out over the bed and their cups held tightly in hand. The Guernsey boy didn't care much if there were any spillages, the name on the booking was tied back to Josh anyway. But he was starting to fret that Vik would end up vomiting soon enough and he'd have to give up the good room to sleep with one of the other two.

Vik was a sloppy drunk, that was clear for most of their day anyway. Ethan was a rather annoying drunk, who tried to start an argument over anything and got himself into a proper strop if he didn't get his way. Meanwhile Harry and Lennon seemed to handle themselves a little better, occasionally bursting into random bouts of dancing and laughing at almost everything. A formidable dent had been made in Harry's alcohol stash already between the four of them.

A knock at the door interrupted their laughter, sinking them into silence as Harry's face dropped. Fixing the 'I Love London' beanie still  atop his head, he crossed the room and opened the door only wide enough to reveal himself and not the group behind him.

"Hello, sir," the worker kindly greeted, although his voice was assertive.  "We've received a number of noise complaints about your room number, I understand it is a Saturday night but please try to keep it down for the sake of the other guests staying here. It is one in the morning."

"Yeah, absolutely!" Harry stammered awkwardly, the colour draining from his face. "So so sorry about that, you'll not hear a peep from me again!"

When finally the door was closed, he turned to meet the smirks of the three others still remaining on the bed, having heard every word he said.

"Whew," he huffed after over-dramatically wiping sweat from his brow. "I showed him anyway."

Re-joining the game, it was only a matter of time before Vik went bankrupt, succumbing to the harshness of the game and finally resorting to leaving out of shame and tiredness. Ethan rose to join him, claiming that he was also tired and didn't want Vik to take his room and end up vomiting all over it, but the not-so-subtle wink he gave Harry suggested otherwise. Decidedly ignoring it to save from any awkwardness, Lennon shuffled around to the other side of the game board until they were face to face.

"I'm sick of this game, not gonna lie," she yawned, tossing the small metal dog onto the board and leaning back against the wall.

"Thank god you said it," he sighed in relief, falling backward until he was splayed out on the blanket.

"I followed you back on Instagram by the way," she brought up, winking when he turned his head her way, "stalker. Don't make me regret it."

"Maybe I wanted to see if you were horrible looking before puberty so I could emotionally blackmail you with screenshots," Harry fired back, subtly lifting his phone to verify that she did actually follow him. Sure enough, the notification was there.