In the morning, Vincenzo laid in his bed with his arms over the blankets, and his eyes open. He wanted to rest, but earlier, he woke up and his body knew there would be no going back to sleep. He wasn’t going to dream anything anyway, he seldom did.
It was frustrating, inconvenient. The bags under his eyes were dark, and if you ran your fingers along them, you’d realize they were deep, too, small pits symbolic of the events of last night.
He felt fine for the most part, deciding to sit up, but as soon as he did his head throbbed like getting up had rattled his brain inside his skull. He was so close to not drinking last night, only having a few champagne glasses before running off with Amani, but he just had to take off and finish his flask to free himself. Expected.
For a minute, he thought back to Amani. Was that interaction real? After months of not speaking, he thought they might argue, maybe have a small, bitter interaction because they could not avoid each other around school; but they had been doing fine. Near the end of the last school year, they managed to not speak in class at all. Sometimes they both raised their hands for the same questions, but as soon as one noticed the other, they both looked away just as fast. During that time, he knew they were in the same group; he knew they would eventually have to confront each other once more, so he expected their argument, and honestly, she said everything he thought she would. It was his own actions that he had not predicted. That part had felt so good, but he tuned it out. None of it could happen again.
Perturbed by his thoughts, he threw the covers off from himself, and got up to make himself a coffee.
In the kitchen, the man opened one of the top cabinets to retrieve his “trusty mug” according to Renlin, which matched his. What the mug said was not important, but he took it and set up the coffee machine where the water began to brew his drink, dark brown liquid dripping swiftly into the white ceramic. As soon as it stopped, Vincenzo removed the mug from the coffee machine, and let it cool down for a few seconds before taking a sip. Hopefully this would give him energy to get through the first day.
To no surprise, the coffee was not helping. Vincenzo walked through the school hallway looking a bit better than he did in the morning, but he felt just the same, so when he walked, he bumped into someone, causing him to slow a bit and notice a familiar freckled face nearby. Looking away, he rolled his eyes. These esther-like coincidences had to stop.
Off the balcony of the Umbra suite, Vincenzo cupped his hand around the atmosphere of his cigarette as he lit it, courtesy to his raven-haired friend standing beside him. A small flame ignited, then quickly fell away, and he put the good side to his lips, taking a drag, and dropping his head back as the smoke billowed into the air. A wave of nicotine flooded through his brain, and physically, he felt the stress in his shoulders seem to dissipate. He needed the smoke after that long first school day, he could not believe it was already seven, but looking at the setting sun, it may have been even later.
When he recovered from the nicotine wave, his friend whispered something, and Vincenzo nodded, letting him leave before taking in the view.
On the horizon, its light reflected over the water surrounding the academy, the water wavering as freshwater fish swam beneath it. The surface of it looked dark, darker than it usually did when he saw it during passing periods, almost black. Under the orange of the sky, and in the yellow of the sun, it colored like an eclipse, overlapping the sun and moon to create an eternal night; the Umbra Coven.
He thought of them at once. Soon, he would be going to their annual welcome party (that was a nice way of saying they were going to have a hazing sleepover.) He still wasn’t dressed for it, though. He was still clad in his school clothes; he wore a button up shirt and a loosely done tie, with jeans and an unofficially classic Wyndham jacket. It was his impression of them; how he felt compared to the rest.
When his rest had felt long enough, Vincenzo turned around, walking back into the Umbra suite where he saw all of the guys in their usual chaos; some guys on the couches, others on the floor. Some in pajamas, some in daytime clothing, socks on the carpet, and some beer bottles from the prior night. He tried to block it out of his mind, but maybe he could remember his conversation with Esther; that one wasn’t as bad.
He shook his head thinking about it, and then recovered in all in that same instant he had walked through the door. Without bothering to go to his room, he picked up his feet to take his shoes off and tossed them at his sides. “Alright, fuckers,” he said in the most tumblr way possible, “who hasn’t done this before?”
A few guys raised their hands, all freshmen, he would say all innocent, but in the nightshade brotherhood, that wasn’t likely. Vincenzo scanned through the room, until he saw an unfamiliar face at the end, with his hand down. He was about Vincenzo’s own height, and had dark brown features on fair skin. He dressed like a scholar, which made Vincenzo laugh as he looked him up and down, but instinctively, there was something about him that Enzo trusted.
“And you?” He told the man. “I haven’t seen you before either.”
From a distance, he heard the voice of Renlin, one of Vincenzo’s best friends, if not the inherent favorite. Enzo turned around briefly, saw the guy discouraging him from his seat, and chuckled. It was sweet of him to try and discourage Enzo, but it obviously was not going to work. He liked to think of himself as a good student, and good students value school rules. This was tradition, so, he couldn’t abandon the ritual.
He turned back to face the guy. “You look like an upperclassman, so let me guess, you transferred?” Effortlessly, Vincenzo always seemed to ask his questions with utmost confidence. In his demeanor, you could probably tell that he thought very highly of himself, but it was more than that. There were reasons for his arrogance, and one of them dealt with how easily it was for him to do things like this.
At his signal, two of the other guys from the group that he liked to hang around came to where the both of them stood, one on either side of Vincenzo, surrounding the man with the brown hair.
@idiot.exe Dominic
mentioned:
@Madilfill Rennie!!
@Kristi Amani
@Jass Lyra 
@Mouschi Esther
︎.𖥔 ݁ ˖
. . . is typing ~
but she would today! So she was happy.
