Birds Of a Feather

11. This is Halloween! [part 3]

A few hours and a lot of drinks later, the guys were lazily sitting at a table near the bar. Jeff was basically in a coma, half asleep on the table, Layla and Eddie were chatting in a corner, Sara was drinking and talking to Mike, both making fun of other people and their silly costumes and inventing imaginary dialogues between characters, while Stone was behind her and kept stealing arrows from Artemis' leather quiver for fun.
At first he used one to poke at Jeff while he was resting his head on the table to annoy him, then used two to drum on lined up glasses and finally he took more and suggested to play Mikado.
"Gossard, I tell you once more, I won't tell you again: stop messing with my fuckin' arrows!"
"I know, I'm sorry, you're Dazed and Confused and I took advantage of your stuff, I'm a horrible person" Stone whined.
"You'll look more horrible after I punched your face"
"Come on, my Goddess, I'm only curious about the ancient weapons!" the guy replied, trying to put on an innocent face but only resulting in a drunk pout.
"Oh, really? If you're so curious just stay still, here, I'll go over there and shoot one of your beloved arrows at you. Don't worry, I won't aim at vital points" she smirked.
"Sara!" Layla glanced a scolding look at her friend, but laughed at the same time.
"Hey guys, calm down... I'm feeling too many negative vibrations at this table, and Jeff's not even awake!" Mike added, making everybody laugh, except for the bass player, who just groaned something unintelligible "I know how to bring back the sunshine though"
"How?" Eddie asked.
"You'll see" McCready answered and caught the attention of a waitress, ordering another round of beer for everybody.
"Oh no, Mike, please! If I drink anything more I'm gonna puke!" Layla complained.
"Don't worry, Dorothy, Jake Blues will be glad to hold your head in the meantime" Stone joked.
"Shut up!" Eddie took an arrow from the table and playfully threw it at the guitarist.
The drinks arrived and Mike clumsily stood up with his beer in his hand.
"I wanna make a toast!" he exclaimed, trying not to stumble back on the seat.
"Yeah!" Stone replied, lifting his glass up.
"..." the other guitarist didn't say anything.
"So?" Layla asked, looking at Eddie and Sara with a perplexed smile.
"A toast to what, Voodoo Child?" the other girl questioned him.
"..." Mike didn't speak a word and just sat back on his chair, still holding his glass up, burping and staring at an indefinite spot on the opposite side of the club.
"Jesus, he's completely wasted" Jeff mumbled, giggling.
"You're the one to talk, Mr. I-Can't-Hold-My-Booze!" Sara snapped.
"Oh, fuck, that's him!" Stone yelled and started laughing alone.
"That's who?"
"Can't you see it? Can't you notice the resemblance? Wait" he said and then started picking up Sara's arrows and pinning them into his band mate's Hendrix wig.
"What the hell are you doin', Jimmy?" she asked laughing.
Stone pinned a bunch of arrows around Mike's wig, which circled his head like a crown. That, plus the glass held up like a torch and the cardboard guitar under his arm, let everybody figure out what Stone was thinking.
"Oh my god, we've got our personal Rock'n'roll Statue of Liberty!" Layla laughed.
"I'll enlighten the world through this Purple Haze" Mike finally spoke.
"You two are experienced assholes" Sara stated but burst into laughing like the others.
"We have to capture this moment!" Layla suddenly stood up and asked "Anybody has a camera?"
"I hope not!" her flatmate replied.
"Come on, a rare moment of peace between us, we need a picture! Ok, I'm gonna go and find my mate, she has a Polaroid" Layla said, before leaving to search for her college friend in the club.

"Wrong costume, huh?" Stone spoke into Ed's ear.
"What?"
"I bet you'd rather have dressed as The Scarecrow... for Dorothy" the guitarist added with a wink.
"Or why not the Cowardly Lion? The Tin Man is already taken by you, as I heard..." the singer sarcastically asked.
"Nah, the Tin Man is innocuous and the Lion is clearly gay. I've always thought Dorothy and the Scarecrow had a thing, I mean, it's so evident!" Stone laughed at a now amused Eddie, who couldn't answer because Layla was already back with her friend and the camera in her hands.
"Ok, strike a pose!" Layla shouted before taking a picture, who was promptly given to Sara.
"And now another one with you!" Eddie called for Layla to join them at the table and her friend took a picture of them all together.
<Uhm, at least I could use this to blackmail the jerk> Sara thought as the first polaroid was slowly drying and revealing the image, among others, of a comatose Jeff.
A little smile appeared on her face, she used it for the second picture.