[Without] You - Open

["lacey mae star]

A brunette smiled as she successfully got into the bar. It hadn't been that hard. It never was. She'd learned the tricks of the trade by now. She got a Strawberry Daiquiri - virgin this time- from the bar. She turned then, leaning back against the bar and watching people with only mildly interested brown eyes. She'd pretty much come here to get away. She took a sip of her drink. Lacey was studiously avoiding her boyfriend. She'd lost interest...and he was too clingy anyway. She took another sip of her drink, looking at her finger nails on her other hand. They needed to be redone. She made a mental note to get a manicure tomorrow. Or today. It was only one or two in the afternoon. She opened her phone when it vibrated. Since it wasn't her boyfriend, she replied, smiling as she did so. She then shut it once more and took another sip of her drink.

Lacey was dressed in typical fashion - and certainly looked the part of an elite girl. She was dressed in a long-sleeved, buttoned white blouse. It was tucked into her black skirt, which cut off an inch or two above her knees. Her tights were solid red. Her black flats had a buckle on the top, front. Her hair was left naturally wave, but held back from her face by a white headband. A black, sheer scarf finished the look, tied almost like a tie around her neck. Light make-up enhanced her naturally pretty features, always done to perfection so it wasn't too noticeable. She looked at the dainty silver watch on her left wrist. There were so many better things that she could be doing. But she just didn't feel like it. So instead she left her drink at the bar and accepted a dance with a complete and total stranger. A good looking stranger though...

She got back to the bar fifteen minutes later, waving at the guy over her shoulder. She picked up her drink and finished it. She shook her head at the offer for another one, and paid. Then she picked up her purse and put it over her shoulder. Lacey flipped her hair back over her shoulder and started to make her way towards the exit. She'd go do something with someone that would cheer her up. She took her phone out and texted her closest friends. She was almost to the door. She flipped her phone shut and put it away in her purse. She had her hand on the door when someone stopped her. She looked up, raising an eyebrow questioningly. For her, getting stopped by people was normal. Friends and strangers alike. She was desirable. Popular, pretty, and even rich. "What?" she asked the figure. She wasn't worried about her safety - whoever this was, there were a million witnesses if they chose to try anything.

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[Erik Van Devereux]

Erik drove into the city, without much trouble. He’d been driving for over a year, and the road was as natural an environment to him as the hallways or sidewalks were. Erik always was a bit of a reckless driver though. While he’d never totaled a car, he’d come close on several occasions. One of which, he put quite the nasty dent in the front of the car he was driving. However, his uncle’s insurance paid for it, and it was as if nothing had happened. Since then, Erik had gotten a new car, trading in the safe and reliable truck in for a shiny, fast Corvette. Erik didn’t kid himself into thinking that he knew anything more than a basic level of engineering, but from what he did know, his car was fast.

And so, after arriving in the city, Erik quickly found his way to the club that he’d heard so much about. Although he didn’t go there often, he knew that many of the other elites did, and therefore the club deserved a bit of his attention every once in a while. Even if the attention that he intended on giving happened to be in the middle of the day, where there wasn’t much of a chance that an interesting person be in the club. While this put a damper on Erik’s potential social interaction, it didn’t mean that it was completely hopeless. So, after parking half a block away, Erik walked to the front of the club, slipping the bouncer a pair of twenty dollar bills, and made his way into the club.

After entering the club, Erik’s eyes scanned the dance floor for any interesting or familiar looking people. When no one caught his eye, he instinctively moved towards the bar. On the way, he saw a girl who he recognized to go by the name of Lacey. She was looking down at her phone, most likely returning or sending a text to somebody, while walking in the direction of the door. Smiling, he made a b-line in the direction of her path, stopping a few feet in front of her, seeing a shadow be cast in front of him. He assumed that a light was behind him, which he imagined would make it difficult for her to make out his face.

After he heard her question Erik smirked, and took a step to the side. “What what?” he asked, in a bit of an ironic tone. Chances are, she couldn’t make out his face, but Erik decided to play the situation as though she had either pretended not to recognize him, or genuinely had forgotten who they were. The chance of the latter happening was not high, considering that the two belonged to the same clique, but it still had the potential for being very amusing. “I always knew you were a bit stuck up, but this seems pretty excessive.” Erik said, adding a mock-pout to his voice, as he turned to walk towards the bar, “I suppose I’ll just have to drink away this ego-shattering moment.”

[Dakota Gairden]

It was Saturday night, another night where Dakota couldn't find sleep and had the worst writers block. He sat on his bed, Vincent laying against the back of his neck and the laptop in his lap. He looked over at the sleeping form of his room mate and sighed. He was slightly envious of Kee when it came to sleep. Dakota was lucky to get five hours. Tonight though he wasn't so lucky. He'd gotten two hours so far and he just couldn't fall back asleep. So when he tried to write until he got tired he found his hands just resting on the keys at the last sentence he had written. His eyes stared at the screen until they began to hurt and he rubbed them. This part of the book was difficult because he had never really been clubbing and here he was trying to write something on it. He had to get out, to really see some action. Getting up slowly and placing his kitten on Kee's bed with the other kittens, Styx and Soto, he got dressed quietly. He wore black faded jeans, the original converse high tops, and a designer black shirt with designs of roses and skulls over the front and back. It was long sleeved, but he grabbed one of his leather jackets and his red and black scarf. Wrapping it around his neck he packed up his laptop and left the dorm.

Dakota didn't have a vehicle, after wrecking five he hadn't set foot in one for a few months now. Dakota walked everywhere, no matter where it was. He would get a lot of work outs doing so and it's not like he didn't like it. Dakota was a natural runner, and signing up for the track team made him feel much better about himself. It was the first year he'd be doing it and he was slowly wearing less and less clothes to show his tattered body. Though he had the scars of a tortured slave, his actual physic was very lean, built and imitating. His body period looked imitating with the scars. The only person that had really seen his torso was Kee but he felt safe around the other teen because he was a scot like him. It was nice to have another person around that was from the same country.

He made his way to the club and thanked himself when he got his fake id. It was easy for him though, since he looked the part and acted the age as he flashed his card and made his way in. The music took over his ears as he moved among the groups and actually found a vacant spot. He didn't order anything to drink, he wasn't thirsty at all. He took out his laptop and started it up, pulling his book up and then closing the laptop. He watched the scenes around him, playing the book now in his thoughts. He wanted it to be perfect but he need to find the right 'characters' to bring and pull out. What caught his eye were two other students. He knew them by their faces. 'Hershey Bliss'. That's what they were. He kept watching them, seeing their lips move but unsure of what was passing through. He felt the writers block leaving, just watching them as the music still pounded in his ears. He opened it up and began to type. It was unfolding so quickly.

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["lacey mae star]

Lacey blinked. She knew that voice. She narrowed her eyes slightly and tilted her head up to look at the other person. Boy. And a teen. She rolled her eyes. She knew who it was. "Erik." Her lips pulled up in a half smile, not enough to part them. "Shoulda known it was you the whole time. Who else would I find at a bar in the middle of the day?" Her eyebrows lifted on the last part, her tone indicating the question was technically rhetorical. She shifted her position, taking a step to the side, so that the shadow wasn't falling on her anymore and she could actually see the other teen's face. Erik was in the elites, so of course she knew him. She couldn't say she approved of all his ways...but he wasn't too bad of a guy.

She ran a hand through her brown hair, careful not to knock her headband out of place. Lacey lifted her gaze to Erik's face once more, brown eyes calm and calculating as ever. "Oh please," she protested with a wave of her hand in dismissal of his words. "You're in my clique. I don't forget people in my clique." One eyebrow was lifted higher than the other, but it dropped at his next sentence. Her expression became annoyed. "Don't you dare," she threatened. She gaze flickered elsewhere. "Looks like we have an audience," she said in a in a gentle lilt, nodding minutely to another boy, and then sliding her gaze back to Erik. "Should we have some fun? I don't know him. You?" She kept her tone disinterested, but sly smile was on her lips.

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[Erik Van Devereux]

Erik smirked when Lacey revealed that she had finally remembered his name. Whether it be a lapse in memory, or just the poor lighting, but for some reason his name had resided somewhere in her mind. When she asked who else she would find in a bar in the middle of the day, the corners of Erik’s lips pulled up in a smirk, his eyes darting around the club briefly. “Apparently not your boyfriend.” He said, his gaze returning to Lacey’s eyes. “Where is Mister Star?” He asked, smiling as he used a ‘lovey dovey’ tone while giving her boyfriend her last name. Erik, along with everyone else in their clique, sensed a gap growing between the couple. Although no one, or at least Erik didn’t, expect the relationship to last very long, they all knew that a break up wouldn’t be good for the group. Both were rich, both were popular, and both were likable people when you got to know them. A break up like this often lead to a conflict much bigger than if, say, an artist broke up with a nerd.

“Your clique?” Erik questioned. “Is that supposed to be implying some sort of hierarchy that I should be following here?” He asked, finding the irony too tempting to pass up. “I can’t believe that us elites are buying into this idealism that some are better than others.” He said, keeping a straight face, before he started to chuckle. When she asked him if he knew the guy watching him, Erik looked the opposite way for a moment, raised a hand to scratch at his neck, and looked towards the guy as though he was simply breaking eye contact with Lacey. His eyes immediately found the boy, who stuck out like a sore thumb. He had no drink in front of him, and had his laptop out, and was (in Erik’s opinion, rather transparently) watching Erik and Lacey talk. Looking back to Lacey, he smirked. “I don’t know him, but I’ve seen him around campus before. I think we might as well.” Erik decided, raising his shoulders, in a yawn. “Follow my lead?” Erik asked, and was moving towards the bar, and towards their spectator, before Lacey, or anyone else could stop him.

Upon reaching the bar, Erik put his hands down on the cool material of the counter, and hoisted himself up, spinning on his hand so that he was facing towards the club, sitting ontop of the bar, resting his feet on the chair in front of him. Leaning backwards slightly, Erik grabbed the first bottle that his hand could reach, which turned out to be a vodka bottle. Not to shabby… When the bartender saw what was happening, Erik pulled a handful more twenties out of his pocket, and set them down on the bar behind the boy on his laptop. Acting as though he’d just realized the teen’s presence, Erik leaned towards him, resting his head awkwardly on his shoulder. “Whatcha typing?” He asked, smirking at what he read. It wasn’t much, but it was amusing all the same. Opening the vodka bottle, Erik took a swig, allowing the liquid to reside in his mouth for a moment, before sliding down his gullet. As though he’d just remembered his manors, he held the bottle out in front of the other teen, allowing the condensation to drip onto his laptop. “Want some?” He asked, making his voice sound overly-slurred.

[Dakota Gairden]

Surprise didn't overcome his face when he noticed they looked his way. He looked down and away from them, typing even more on the laptop as he could feel the eyes on him. True, he did stick out sorely but not only that he could blend in. It was when he looked back up and saw them approaching that he looked back down and seemed to get flustered. As the male sat next to him he stopped typing completely. He had frozen in mid sentence, feeling the head of the male on his shoulder. First then he could smell was the vodka, especially when he took a swig of it. Second was, his cologne? It had to be. It smelled nice, or maybe it was his aftershave, or soap he used. Whatever it was Dakota could smell it. And sad to say he got slightly turned on by it. He heard his proposal and debated on answering. If he did his accent would surely catch their attention.

The night was seeming to be quiet as Roland had decided to get out of his house, away from his drunken father's state. But what he found was another club, it's line well around the corner. He wondered what drove him to the night club as he would only find drunks and maybe a few hookers there. But he went anyways, gaining entrance and hearing the music hit his ears upon the doors opening. He didn't know what to do or where to start. He took it upon himself to take a seat at a table, though none seemed vacant. He finally found one, in a corner of the place as he ordered his drink, a black Russian to get him started. As he sat there watching the crowd, a man caught his eye, no, it was the woman. So beautiful as she stood before the bar with her head turned, away from his seeing eyes. The male on the other hand, his face was readable. There was a smile, moving of the lips, a frown. It was too loud to hear over the music but something was happening. They looked his way. He didn't

That was how far he had gotten, and hearing the two questions "Whatcha typing" and "Want some" made Dakota wonder why he hadn't had just stayed at home and did research there. His eyes stayed glued on the screen, swallowing a bit hard as he licked his dried lips. ..It's a book...and no thank you. I don't drink. He regretted it the moment the words came out of his mouth. His accent was heavy and his voice was shaky. Dakota could take care of himself, that was already known to a select few that had challenged him out of school. Otherwise he was one to avoid confrontations. Now, the only thing he wish he had done was just stay in his bed and watch Kee sleep. It seemed that method sounded less likely to start a fight.

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["lacey mae star]

Lacey inclined her head, jaw set in a stubborn manner. Her boyfriend. Right. Obviously she was here to avoid him, so why did Erik find it pertinent to bring him up? She glared at the taller teen with distrustful brown eyes. She wasn't sure whether word of this outing would get back to her boyfriend via Erik or not. "I don't know, I don't care and I don't want to talk about him," she snapped. She sighed, soothing her temper with more tranquil thoughts. She wasn't concerned about telling the other elite boy whom she'd been dating that it was over...but at the same time, she wasn't sure she wanted to get into that whole mess. School was just starting again. She'd wait until later, when she was bored, to stir up drama.

Lacey flashed a smile. "I didn't mean to imply that. But if that's how you want to think of it, I have no reason to protest," she countered. She narrowed her eyes, waiting to see how serious he was being. She relaxed once more when he chuckled. Clearly he wasn't too serious. She casually looked over at the boy who'd been observing them with a strong degree of indifference. He was nothing to her. But that didn't mean they couldn't make a good time out of him. "Right behind you," she agreed with a sly smile. Lacey let Erik get a few paces ahead of her before she followed, her gaze shifting. First to the bar, then to the people around, then to her side, then to the bar again. Her expression was perfectly smooth, in its normal slightly smug expression.

Lacey stopped, one hand on her hip, face a mask of disapproval, when Erik took the Vodka bottle. She rolled her eyes with a 'not again' way and headed towards him at a faster clip. She got there in time to here him address their former audience. She put a hand on the bottle of vodka and gave a tug, giving Erik a reproachful look as she did so. She didn't have a lot of hope in him relinquishing the alcohol to her, but she figured she'd try. "Stop it," she hissed, indicating the alcohol, and only the alcohol. She then turned her disapproving gaze on the other boy. "Oh goodie, story time," she said with mock-excitement, and fake smile on her lips. She let the smile fall. Lacey's gaze flickered to Erik, then returned to the other boy.

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[Erik Van Devereux]

Erik lifted his eyes lazily towards computer screen, reading exactly what had been typed. While it wasn’t poor writing grammar wise, it definitely did little to hold Erik’s attention. However, it did imply that the boy next to him was in some way infatuated with Lacey here. At least, he called her beautiful. Call it cheesy writing ,or a Freudistic slip of the tongue, but there was definitely potential for taunting. Of course, with Erik’s luck, he didn’t have the opportunity to do much before Lacey yanked the bottle out of his hand, giving him a brief glare in response to his attempt at pretending to be drunk. Or perhaps it was the fact that he’d actually taken a swig that had offended Little Miss Bliss. Smirking, he shrugged her off. After all, he had no intention of getting drunk. In all truth, he rarely did get drunk, and when he did, it was at a party, or he had some real excuse for it. His main motive for taking the bottle, was to offend the boy next to him. And yeah, it was also to bug Lacey a little bit. But since neither had really worked, Erik was fine with the loss of his beverage. So, allowing Lacey to take it from his hands, he shrugged, as he finished reading what was on the screen. “Lacey, I do believe we’re this author’s latest characters…And he sure does have some feelings about you…” Erik said, already amusing himself.

Erik gave Lacey a grin, facing away from the boy so as not to completely reveal his soberness. The boy seemed smart, and Erik figured that he guessed that the two bored elites were just messing around with him, but all the same, the theatrics to something like this was the most important part. Erik briefly wondered exactly why he was acting the way he was. It was such a snobbish sort of action. And yet, he was getting so much enjoyment out of it. Erik suspected that there was a more deeply-rooted cause to it, possibly relating to the fact that he felt as though he was screwed over before, and therefore all other people he ever encounters should share that fate. If he happened to be the karmatic force that delivered said ‘screwing over’, so be it. It was nothing personal about this boy. He was really just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. And so, Erik decided that, before the teen decided that he should just leave the two elites to their devices, he should push the ‘joke’ a LITTLE too far.

With this new mentality, Erik stood atop the bar, receiving an immediate glare from the bartender. However, he was on the other side of the bar, in the middle of serving a drink, and so Erik knew he had at least a dozen seconds before he would be pulled down and off. Feet planted, Erik leaned forward, picking the laptop out of the other boy’s lap, and pulled it up so that he could read exactly what it said. “Lacey, care to know what our new friend has been saying about us?” Erik asked, pacing the bar, whilst reading aloud what was in the laptop. He noticed a few people’s eyes from nearby drift in his direction, amused or pissed off by Erik’s actions. Regardless, Erik kept reading, slowey making his way further away from the bartender. Erik paid particular attention to the certain part of the story where the narrator called the Lacey-Allegory ‘beautiful’. By the time the large man reached him, Erik had gotten to the last unfinished sentence. Hopping off the bar, Erik put the computer back onto the bar, and slid it back towards the boy. “Great read, don’t you think Lace?” He asked, leaning against the bar. Erik wondered if the bartender would call security on him. This early, the chances were not likely. All the same, he kept himself alert, nonchalantly keeping his eyes towards the large bouncers by the door.

[Dakota Gairden]

Dakota wasn't being flushed on account of Lacey being there, it was Erik's presence there. He cursed himself in his thoughts on not finishing the sentence but then again he was happy he didn't. He rather have them think all his attention was on the 'Lacey' based character when in fact it was on Erik's. Hearing Lacey's comment about story time made his nose flare, his body tense at the shoulders. He didn't really tense up when Erik proceeded to 'bash' his current writing. He always sent his work to his guardian to proof read and fix. But now, he was about to just get rid of the whole thing.

It was when the screen moved away from his eyes and the elite grabbed his laptop out of his lap. That set him off. His whole face went pale, nose flared, hands clenched to where his knuckles where becoming white. When he began to read it he slowly, very slowly stood. His eyes were glued on the bar before him. But when Erik slid his laptop, that made him blow. He moved so quickly, grabbed Erik's throat

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["lacey mae star]

Lacey quirked an eyebrow at Erik's words. Feelings for her? She was used to that in ways. But it bugged her sometimes...especially when there was someone else she liked. Then she just wished all the guys could leaver her alone. She turned her brown-eyed gaze on the other boy, trying to gauge his expression. Sure, he was blushing, but...she shrugged it off. It just hadn't seemed much like it was due to her. It didn't matter though, since she didn't care enough to figure it out. Lacey rolled her eyes in response to Erik's grin, but then smiled enough to part her lips. Lace's expression became surprised though, and she took an involuntary step back, when Erik proceeded to get up on the bar. She was going to give him a reproving look, but then decided to just go with it. She had agreed to follow his lead after all. If this was what that meant, then so be it. Lacey may not be the nicest person, but she didn't back down on her word. Most of the time. Only if it was a flat out lie.

Her pretty eyes tracked Erik as he walked along the bar with the laptop. Her attention shifted to the other boy once, but then refocused on Erik, more concerned with what was going to happen to him due to his actions. She smiled wickedly when Erik addressed her. "I suppose. Though I think I missed half of it. I might've fallen asleep standing," she mused, expression the perfect picture of confusion. She'd seen his reaction to her little 'story time' comment, and she was just pushing him a little. She was never one to use physical force, but she didn't have much of a problem with bugging people. Annoying them, goading them, whatever you wanted to call it. She watched the laptop slide back to their new acquaintance, and smiled a cocky smile. What Lacey hadn't anticipated was the boy's reaction. She took a step towards Erik, then backed up again. She'd seen fights before. It wasn't all that uncommon. And she wasn't about to get in the middle of this one.

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[Erik Van Devereux]

Erik suddenly felt a pressure on his neck, as he was still mid-laugh. Feeling the airway of his throat suddenly close, caused Erik to attempt to cough and salivate in the mouth, only adding to the dilemma of not having an immediate source of air. One hand instinctively went to the other boy’s wrist, where he gripped hard on the tip of the Ulna. Erik knew enough about human anatomy, that if he kept his hand gripped where it was, the pulse going in and out of his hand would stay inert, and which could lead to SERIOUS problems for the now-violent boy.

Realizing that Erik wouldn’t last long enough to see any damage down to the other boys hand if he stayed in this position for much longer, Erik pulled his other hand back, leaning towards the boy, while throwing a fist towards his face. Because of the stern limb that held him an arms-length away, all of the momentum he’d prepared while leaning forward, was transferred directly to the wrist.

((Short...sorry))

[Dakota Gairden]

Dakota could see Erik's facial expression but found that he didn't care. The music began to drown out as he focused on his victum. He couldn't hear anything but the breathing, the gasping of Erik. But something else was there, screaming. It wasn't until he looked in Erik's face and saw his own. There were times his father would choke him like he was doing now. It didn't let him focus on what he needed to do. It was when he felt the slam against his face when Erik's fist made contact with his nose.

He heard the crack but his grip didn't faulter. It loosened slightly to allow breathing but his face had only turned. He could feel the blood leaking through the back down his throat and out his nostrils. He shook his head in a state of stun and blinked several times to get the water out of his eyes that produced after the hit. His ips curls and he growled in respond, recoiling with one of his own. He brough his hand back and let it go. He wasn't going to continue to hold him though, not when the bouncers were moving fast to get to the boys. The barkeep was already grabbing a bucket of ice to dump on them.

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