Mary Jane's Sanctum

[Slam]

((Dave Russell continued from Rationally Early))

Far from the condition of the school's toilets, the hotel staff had done their part in making the prom's bathroom spick and span from roof to floor. Whether it would stay that way after a hundred or so young men made their way through it, god knows how many stoners included, remained to be seen.

Dave Russell was currently making good use of the facilities by avoiding his date and freaking out over his ex.

His fingers darted across the number pad of his $20 phone as he sat inside a toilet stall, the bathroom otherwise deserted.  It was just as well, as Dave was pretty much on the horizon of making a huge ass of himself.

"Hey Lana at prom cant wait for u to get here "

Oh god, was the smiley face too much? He was just saying hi, but after that whole thing at Starbucks what if that came out wrong? Oh god, was the whole text idea just really stupid? What if she was back out there right now and she got it and it looked like he was a moron who didn't even know if someone was already there?

And yet a jerk of his finger had hit 'send' when he wasn't even looking.

"Oh, damn it!"

[ViolentMedic]

((Joe Carrasco continued from Tuxedo Magic.))

Hiding in a bathroom on prom night. The epitome of 'sad nerdy guy who's afraid of all sociable things.' Well, Joe couldn't argue against that being what he was, but didn't mean he had to like it.

He shoved open the bathroom door with a little more force than what was necessary. Why'd he get so nervous? It wasn't as if he was normally... well... that bad around Marcus. He had the guy's flipping number, they'd talked on the phone before and Joe had said much stupider things than commenting on the decorations and Marcus had never shown annoyance about it (at least not enough so that Joe could tell over the phone.) That was one of the reasons Joe liked him. He listened and didn't tell him he was being an idiot. But maybe it was just that being face-to-face while wearing formal wear threw him off. A lot.

Stupid magic suits.

He didn't really have to use the bathroom. So he just  awkwardly lingered for a few moments, before heading to the sink and washing his hands anyway. Bathrooms always had germs, it couldn't hurt to be safe.

Okay. Okay. Go back out. You can do this. Go on.

Joe headed back for the door, but midway turned around and headed right back to the sink.

I really didn't wash my hands enough. Should do that again. ...Okay. Go back out... now.

Once again, when he tried he just turned around halfway and went back to the sink.

I can totally do this.

He was so not doing this.

Wuss.

Joe kicked the wall viciously. Which, by his standards, meant he nudged it gloomily with his foot.

[Delroy†]

((Travis Webster continued from True Friends Are Jerks... ))

"Gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta peeeeee...."

Travis Webster had just arrived at prom, and he couldn't be happier. He'd spent the day playing video games and relaxing. The best part of being done with most of his courses was that he didn't have to study or do homework, which allowed him to game freely.

.... Not that he would've done said homework anyway. But it did mean he didn't get that nagging feeling at the back of his head whenever he was slacking off, which was always nice. Fuck school, anyway.

But best of all, he now had a beautiful date with him, one of whom he was almost assuredly going to score with later that evening. Stace had practically said that outright. Not only that, but he'd had a (little) bit to drink before going to pick her up, and he was enjoying the slight buzz that was now slowly fading away as time progressed.

Travis, however, wasn't planning on staying sober for long. Prom was nice and all, but it wasn't really a party without at least some intoxication! The pot brownies hidden in his pockets would most likely be more than enough.

Granted, he would've preferred a joint, but the smoke, smell and general stigma associated with finding a joint in a student's pocket was... well, not worth the risk. He didn't really care about suspension, or even being expelled. He didn't have any plans for college. At the moment, he was sufficiently making money by dealing weed to his friends, and his parents would probably let him stay for a couple of more years before he'd be forced to move out. So in the end, most of the retalitory actions of the school didn't scare him, but if they honestly thought he was missing out on the grad trip, they were 100% WRONG.

Ah, just the thought of it made him all giddy! He had so many ideas in his mind for the trip. Most of them were, as Travis Webster's thoughts tended to be, focused on not working, getting high and sleeping with girls. Maybe try to influence a few of the more straight-edge kids to smoke for the first time. It was always fun to see them react. Still, no plans that Travis could come up with made him grin more than the thought of smoking weed with Joe in some foreign location, maybe having a second go with Stacey... Perhaps even hunt for some other girls he hadn't managed to get to yet?

All things considered, most of his classmates would be heading to their separate colleges soon, all across the country, so this would be the last chance to score with some of them. And there were yet so many he hadn't been with! Naomi, the OTHER Stace, Summer, Jaqui... Mmmmh, maybe he'd try and go for Emily? Sure, Miles had already taken her to prom and all that, but on the other hand, Travis had already considered doing Miles own cousin a few seconds before this realization, so it wasn't like he would win any bonus points in morality for backing off from Em. Meh, it would all figure itself out in due time.

Right now, however, all he needed was a urinal.

Travis burst through the toilet door, subtle as always, barely registering his surroundings as he went straight for the urinal!

Oh, that was perfect. Ooooh, that was just what he needed.

He looked up and peeked around the room, still urinating. In his rush towards this relieving sensation he was now feeling, he'd totally missed his best friend standing right there in the room.

"Oh, hey Joe. Didn't know you were already here!", he chuckled.

He looked back at the wall infront of him.

"Must've missed you earlier! What's up, bro?"

[Slam]

Dave was gripping his head in his hands by the time Travis had entered in search of a urinal. With no reply from Lana in the few minutes since he'd texted her, the fear that she was ignoring him was growing like a malignant tumour. In truth, his phone just didn't have any signal inside the bathroom, but he was in no state to pay attention to that. Right now, all he could think about was how his ex was going to stay his ex forever.

How had it even gotten to that point? They'd broken up on mutual terms, even though it was mostly his fault for always being too busy for her, and they'd been friends ever since. Just because she had a date to the prom by the last minute, suddenly he was in love with her again? Had he ever really stopped being in love with her? At that point, he could probably cry if something pushed him the right way. Something, in this instance, could have been a light breeze.

He couldn't hide in the bathroom forever though, as much as he wanted to shut himself off from the rest of the world until Lana texted back and told him to leave her alone forever. He'd come with Sophie and even if it was just a friend's date and she'd made him use his cab fare on food, he had an obligation to not leave her hanging dry. He had to get back out there.

"Hey guys!" he said, his flushed face trembling as he left his stall and met the two who were having the conversation of their own. "Great prom, huh?" he asked, the cracking voice betraying the insincerity as he said it. He could see just how scrunched up his face was in the mirror as he washed his hands in spite of never using the facilities, but he had to keep himself forcing a smile. He had to pretend that everything was fine so that he wouldn't have a break down in front of Sophie and the other guys there. It wasn't about pride, it was practically never about pride with Dave; he just didn't want to turn his problem into a problem for everyone else.

[ViolentMedic]

Joe stared at the wall gloomily for a bit before the bathroom door practically exploded off the hinges. Joe didn't even have to turn around or hear the greeting to know that was Travis, given his inability to enter any room quietly.

"Uh... yeah, hey. I've been here for a little while."

Joe stayed facing the wall, partly because he found talking to guys who were whizzing incredibly awkward, but mostly because he was trying not to give away any signs of gloom. Because being gloomy on prom night was for losers, and all it did was make him a buzzkill. He didn't want to kill anyone's buzz.

""Yeah, I was just... uh, just... you know." Joe still felt jittery, although it had nothing to do with Travis, and his words were having trouble forming, though not as bad as when faced with a stranger. "Guess I'm just... nervous or something. It's fine, just going to... to stay here for a--"

Then one of the cubicle doors opened and Joe immediately clammed up. Still facing the wall and all, he couldn't actually see who had emerged, but he didn't feel the need to turn around and face the guy who was declaring prom to be great in a very unconvincing voice. Sounded like he was having his own little flipout.

Joe replied with an eloquent 'yuh' sound.

[Delroy†]

Joe being nervous at prom didn't surprise Travis even a little. He zipped up and went to wash his hands. His friend had never really been one for social gatherings, after all. However, Travis had the perfect remedy for the problem, in the form of a group of very strong pot brownies currently crammed into his jacket's inner pocket.

The boy from the stall seemed just about as comfortable and happy as....
.... Well, alright... He couldn't really think of any good analogies, but the basic gist of things was that Travis seemed like the only boy in this bathroom who was having a good time at prom!

He looked at the other boy over his shoulder, then at Joe, still washing his hands and checking his nails. For once, he had skipped out on the black nailpolish, spending countless hours cleaning his nails. All that was left to reveal the fact that he didn't usually wear suits (because he was looking damn good in one, in his own humble opinion) were his many rings, and of course, his long black mane of hair, carefully styled extra spiky and aggressive, which was a stark contrast to his finer clothing. He wasn't usually one to care too much about what he wore, usually just pulling on a shirt from his closet - or floor - and a pair of jeans. Now, however, he wanted to impress Stacey, and when he actually put his mind to something, he had no problem working hard for it. Then, abruptly, he made up his mind. He was sure there would be enough for everyone!

He turned around with a huge grin on his face, and leaned against the sink.

"Heh... Nervous, hmm?"

He gave Joe a mischievous look, and continued.

"Well, I've personally been enjoying the evening so far. Pretty girl, a little bit of a buzz, but you know..."

He looked over at the other boy from the stall. He wasn't so sure anymore. This kid could be a total rat, and as Travis had decided earlier, there was no way he was missing grad trip.
Well, as long as they don't actually catch me with stuff ON my person, it shouldn't be any problem. Even if they do a drug test, it won't arrive before the trip, and they can't really deny me access to the trip without proof. Travis wasn't a total idiot. He had read enough articles on the internet to know that those CSI shows were total bullshit. Lab results could take weeks, sometimes even months. And the lab geeks could make a thousand errors. There was no way he'd be caught....

Bah, fuck it. Worst case scenario: I eat it all before the teachers catch me.

"... These kind of get-togethers do tend to get a little bit boring after a while. SO...."

Theatrical as always, he suddenly bowed down to the boys infront of him, rapidly moving his hand into the inside of his jacket as if he was putting his hand over his heart, and straightened up again while pulling out his bag of crumpled up brownies, all in one fluid motion.

With a huge smile on his lips, he made eyecontact with the two boys again.


".... Why don't we make this a bit more exciting?"

[Slam]

Dave could only stand there awkwardly and do his best to keep his forced smile from cracking as Travis began his pot performance. The fact that the chocolate confections were laced with narcotics was, of course, totally unknown to Dave, so their real purpose for that evening as the entertainment flew clear over his head.

"Brownies are exciting?" he asked without a thought, all his efforts put into pretending that nothing was wrong as his heart kept churning itself apart. "I mean, yeah I'll have one, I guess. If you're offering."

Travis' confident grin certainly stood to throw Dave, but the fact remained that Dave was in the middle of a broken heart, and the number one cure for a broken heart is chocolate. He was mostly accepting the offer to be polite, still refusing to put his own feelings before anyone else even when he wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die, Lana laughing at him with Mike asshole Whaley by her side in a not-a-hand-me-down suit, pulling up in their limo that his parents probably paid for themselves, but hey, brownies.

[ViolentMedic]

Joe was stunned by just how dumb Travis was being right now.

He'd turned around the moment Travis got that tone in his voice. The one that usually preceded suggestions like 'we should totally find some chicks' or 'we could totally make it snow in the library.' After the latter, Joe had learned that whenever Travis got that confident tone like he was trying to sell something... well, it never meant anything good.

And finding out that Travis had brought drugs--drugs smuggled in brownies, yes, but still drugs--to a supervised, crowded area... well, that exceeded Joe's expectations in the 'what the hell are you doing' department.

Joe protested via a strangled grunting noise and flailing his arms around like a drunken chicken. In his panic, he largely forgot that someone else was there.

"Ffffffghh! Are you insane?! Bringing that to... you... what the... are you trying to... gahhh!" Joe flailed his arms around a bit more before covering his face and just turning around and wandering into a bathroom stall. It seemed the best way to distance himself from Travis' shenanigans was to just hide in a cubicle.

And he really did need to distance himself from it, because not only was getting high at prom the dumbest idea ever... but he also couldn't help but think 'I really could use some pot right now.' He could at least usually talk while he was high.

[Delroy†]

"Well, THESE brownies sure are, friend! Here you go, a large bite for a gentleman such as yourself!", he answered, with a huge grin. Travis kept going with the theatricals. He was acting like some sort of odd auctioneer, but hey. he was having a good time, and the boy had accepted his gift. He'd quickly learned that was how you made new customers with high school kids. Talk to them about trying pot, see how interested they are, let them try it for free once, and if they liked it, become their connection. Maybe this boy in front of him was a future customer! As such, he handed the boy one of the largest pieces of brownie he had.

Should be enough weed in that to bring down a rhinoceros, he thought to himself with a smirk. The boy would be having a good time tonight, he was sure of it.

However, someone who was clearly not having a good time was Joe, sputtering and flailing like a madman. The usual Joe-stuff, such as freaking out, telling him it was a bad idea, or that he was crazy for thinking it. But, like most of the other times, he was sure he could convince Joe to join him. He'd been his accomplise in several pranks and misdeeds, and he was Travs go-to-guy if he ever had a problem.

"Joe, calm down, Jooooeeeee...."

Joe simply walked into one of the cubicles.

"Joe, come back, man. I mean, it's not that bad, worst case scenario? I'll eat it before anyone sees! Come on, dude!"

He knocked on the door. He had a mischievous, albeit faux exasperated tone when he began talking again.

"Come on, dude! If you don't have some, I'll have to go around like this all by myself!"

He peered over at the boy over by the sinks with a huge grin. Well, not all by himself.

"I'd much rather share this with you so we can both have an awesome night! C'mon, man. What do y'say?"

[Slam]

Dave hadn't really listened to Travis as he started pleading with Joe to do pot with him. If he had, he might've picked up on the true nature of the brownies before he had already eaten his way through the one that the unfamiliar guy in the bathroom had given him. On the plus side, it had been a pretty tasty brownie.

Dave washed the chocolate off his hands as he silently questioned what the big deal had been about a bunch of cakes. It was almost annoying, the way Travis had acted like they would make all his problems with Lana go away, only for them to do nothing but leave a sugary aftertaste in his mouth. It almost made him ready to cry again, the urge building in his eyes, but he couldn't start letting out the waterworks in front of two people he barely knew, even as the sensation of borderline tears kept building. He rubbed at them, trying to stifle them back, but the feeling persisted.

Strangely enough, a similar feeling was starting to go through his hands, like they'd fallen asleep in the last few seconds after getting so tired of hearing him whine about a girl who was too good for him. Even whilst his hands felt tingly, however, he couldn't stop himself from wanting to rub his eyes.  It wasn't a feeling of wanting to cry, this wasn't like that, this felt much more warm than it did uncomfortable, but it was a feeling that wasn't going away and he had no idea what it was. Given the delicate state that Dave had been in before consuming the hash brownies, these unfamiliar feelings were beginning to worry him.

"I don't feel right." He said to the others without looking, still staring at his reflection in the mirror, rubbing his eyes with his tingly hand.

[ViolentMedic]

Hiding in a bathroom cubicle was not working. Joe wasn't sure why he had expected it to, or why his default reaction to panic tended to be 'hide in bathroom cubicles.' Then again, most people left him alone when he retreated to cubicles. Not in this case. Dammit, Travis.

Joe leaned against the wall of the cubicle, listening to Travis. Really, his argument wasn't very good. It never was. The worst-case scenario was certainly not 'eat a few extra brownies.' It was closer to 'have our parents, teachers and the law know that we are potheads and likely be hit with some form of drug charges, damaging college and job possibilities.'

There was still a large part of him that wanted to take Travis up on the offer anyway. Just because he wouldn't have to worry about anything if he was too out of it to... well, do any worrying.

Gah, why couldn't being a reckless moron be easy?

Joe stayed quiet, pondering what the actual odds of getting caught were, when he heard the other guy (didn't know his name) say that he didn't feel right. Maybe the brownies were too strong for him, or it was his first time ingesting cannabis, or both.

Had Travis actually mentioned they were pot brownies? Joe tried to remember if Travis had used the words pot, marijuana, has, wacky tobacky or any other euphemisms for cannabis. ...He hadn't.

...Shit.

Joe opened the door a crack. The other guy wasn't doing anything insane yet, but...

"Travis. Please tell me he knew what he was taking," Joe said quietly. He sounded calmer than he felt. (Meanwhile, there was a tiny version of himself shrieking and running around like a headless chicken in his mind, screaming about how he didn't want to go to jail.)

[Delroy†]

Travis understood what Joe was getting at, and silently looked at him for a few moments. Then he burst out laughing, a stark contrast to his now very serious friend.

Finally regaining some composure, Travis straightened up again and glanced over at the boy. Could the kid really be so stupid as to not understand that when he, Travis Webster - pothead extraordinaire, handed you a brownie "to make the night become even better" it meant getting high as a damn kite?

Travis was aware that if this kid was some straight edge loser who decided to go to the police, he could face serious jail time. Marijuana posession was one thing, but drugging people? That was a whole different matter. Unless he calmed the kid down and made him feel happy about his current predicament, Travis could be in some deep shit. Yet there he stood, sporting a huge smile on his lips. Not much he could do about it now, was it?

"Eheheh... I sure as fuck hope so!", he said with a shrug. "Why don't we ask him?"

Looking over his shoulder in a nonchalant manner, Travis let out a sharp-sounding question.

"Hey, kid! You did know that there was pot in that brownie you ate... right?"

[Slam]

Dave was still going at his eyes with his pins and needles hands whilst Travis and Joe had their little chat about his predicament. He wasn't paying close attention, considering the fact that he was getting very worried over the alien feeling surging through his body, spreading a warmth that would've been potentially comforting had he any idea what had caused it, instead, its mysterious origin only serving to dredge up more anxiety. On the plus side, the growing fears and concerns were managing to take his mind off of Lana.

Travis' calling out to him did not go unheard, however. The confession that the brownies were in fact laced with weed drew his mind even further away from his ex-girlfriend and straight into his blossoming state of panic.

"Pot? As in weed? As in- oh my god, there were drugs in those?!" He looked down at his hands that continued to tingle, his heart beginning to race as the panic truly began to sit in. Despite his parents' smoking pot behind his back for the better part of a decade when he was younger, before it had gotten too expensive to keep up, Dave's experiences with marijuana were non-existent. He had quite a reasonable amount of exposure to people who'd been affected by drugs, however, but they were mostly former addicts who were now patrons to the soup kitchen he volunteered at every other Friday.

In short, his beliefs about the effects of drug were limited to hard drug victims and the PSA's he'd witnessed on television throughout his life and in school. His fear of doing drugs would make any moral guardian proud.

Unfortunately, being afraid of drugs wasn't going to remove it from Dave's stomach, from where it was quickly spreading throughout his bloodstream.

"Oh my god, I ate pot?! Why didn't anyone- I mean why, why didn't you say any- oh my god!" Dave stammered, his voice rising with every word, eyes darting between Travis, Joe, and everything else. At the tender age of seventeen, he was just now getting to enjoy his very first drug induced freak-out.

[ViolentMedic]

Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. They'd just drugged someone without them knowing. Okay, Travis had done it. But Joe knew there were drugs in those brownies! He was an accessory to a crime! Aaaaaaaaaah!

And oh no, the other guy was freaking out. Joe knew that drug freakouts could get bad. The last time he'd had one had been at Sears, and then he'd spent the next couple of hours hyperventilating in a bathroom.

Joe quickly cycled through the current solutions. Telling someone that there was a guy freaking out would get them all in trouble. Especially him and Travis. Drugging someone when they didn't know about it was a pretty intense felony—dammit, Trav, what were you even thinking? Were you thinking at all, you idiot?!

Leaving the other guy alone and denying any involvement was... well, on one hand it wouldn't do much. It would just make them look even more guilty if caught. It was also a real dirtbag thing to do.

The only option left would be to stick with the guy and keep him calm until the drugs wore off. Joe could probably do that, if he didn't have to talk too much.

Joe pushed the cubicle door further open, walked past Travis and approached the other guy carefully.

"Um, ah... guh... guh..." Joe paused for a moment, before shutting his eyes. Closing his eyes tended to help, if he couldn't see the problem it wouldn't feel as intense. "Guh... guy. I need... I need you to... to listen, okay?"

He reached out in what was meant to be an attempt to pat the guy on the shoulder, but Joe froze halfway and his arm just kind of awkwardly hovered.

"I... I need to know if... if you hah... hah... have done, um... marijuaaah--" Joe had to stop for a few moments and rub his forehead. He could feel a stress headache already building. Normally they only occurred while studying, but this was already building to be a giant mess. "If... weed, if you have duh... duh... done weed before."

Joe opened his eyes and noticed that Travis was still holding those damn brownies. What had he been thinking, honestly? Without a second thought, Joe snatched them from Travis and tossed them into the bin for paper towels.

Evidence was eliminated, now to keep... what's his face... calm. This situation relied on Joe keeping him calm, as well as staying calm himself.

They were all doomed.

[Laurels]

((Sophie McDowell continued from Rationally Early))

Sophie made her way over to the restroom Dave was presumably in. She had never gone inside a bathroom for men before. She was sure she might have gone in when she was a little girl and her dad was trying to get her to a bathroom, but that was probably it. There was no way she was going inside the restroom, so she figured she should call out to him from outside.

She got close to the entrance of the bathroom. As she opened the door, she could hear Dave inside shouting. All she heard was "Oh my god!"

What's going on in there?"

Sophie leaned closer to the entrance, ensuring that she wasn't stepping into the bathroom at all.

"Dave? It's Sophie. Is everything okay?"