Arlovasquez‌:

arlovasquez‌:

The days crawled by with little to no brightness to them; not in a physical sense but within his mind. Everything to Arlo was bleak and dark. He hadn’t smoked, painted, or done anything productive in days. This was the first day he’d actually gotten the motivation to put on regular clothes and head out for a walk.

And he walked for hours because he knew if he stopped, he wouldn’t want to keep going. But he needed to get something to drink, so he stepped inside a small coffee shop of 34th and ordered a black coffee, setting his stuff on a table near the window and gazing out.

“Fuck.”

It was just by coincidence that he had spotted Arlo. In fact, Ben wouldn’t dare set his feet in a “hipster” coffee shop. He was too good for New York Hipsters. However, he stopped in his tracks when he saw Arlo. Before he could stop himself, he was inside. And approaching the other man. 

“Arlo.” He stated, “You look worse than I do.” He wanted to ask how he was since everything went down. He hadn’t spoken much to anyone since the arrest. Maybe that was because he was also keeping himself in isolation. “How are you?” He finally blurted after the internal struggle his brain was creating inside. “How’s your place since everything went down?” He didn’t remember much about the cops coming in but he figured it would’ve been left a mess from them at least.

bishopkirbcy‌:

“How the fuck is my sister with someone as tedious as you?” The words came out before Bishop could stop them. Drugs had a habit of making him much more unfiltered than he really liked, but at least he was calling a spade a spade. Might as well go all in, “Like, I can understand not wanting to be a part of all,” Bishop gestured with his hand to the pretentious party that was unfolding before them, “this fuckery. Status symbols, the microscope. But, you’re like this hipster construct that has consumed too much kool-aid of what you think is supposed to be ‘relaxed’ and ‘cool’. It literally blows my mind that my sister married such a jerkoff.” Ben wanted to be friends, but Bishop didn’t. He figured if he just kept being his normal asshole self, it would play out like he wanted.

He watched Bishop go on a rant about him. And just like that, he felt his hand squeezing his bottle as his nostrils flared. Fuck Bishop. He knew King was out of his league, which is why he never even tried to pursue her back in the day. But running into her in Italy was no coincidence. “You know what?” He said before he paused as he moved closer towards Bishop, “You don’t have to get it but you need to accept it. I love King. It doesn’t matter what you think, or what your parents think. You can say what you want about me, but don’t say shit when you don’t even know what our relationship is like.” He didn’t care about being friends with Bishop, but he did care about King. He didn’t like anyone bashing their relationship. And if he wasn’t King’s brother, Ben would’ve thrown at least one fist towards his face already. “If I were you, I’d be there for King,” He lectured, “That’s what siblings are supposed to do.” Ben didn’t care if he was overstepping his boundaries, Bishop fucked up calling him a hipster construct.

arlovasquez‌:

“I’d have a hard time not taking a dog home and making my roommates upset by not asking them,” Arlo said with a chuckle. “I’ve never been piss drunk anywhere. I don’t get drunk all that often. High, though? Oh I’ve been stoned out of my mind at the Louvre once. That was a trip.” 

“I would’ve if we didn’t move around a lot, that wouldn’t have been fun for the dog. Trust me, though, it was very tempting,” Ben knew about being stoned all too well. He’s been way more than stoned at a lot of points in his life. “Getting crossfaded is the best. I highly recommend it. Shit, did you see the Mona Lisa high? That’s amazing.”

monty-santos‌:

“It’s just a mass-produced postcard type thing that the post office makes, so it’s nothing fancy,” Monty pointed out with a little shrug, “But I think it depends on what you’re doing there.  I actually lived mostly in France for nine years after high school and I found that if you tried speak the language and learn the customs and don’t just do the tourist thing they weren’t as ugh it’s an American.”

“Well, of course, they liked you. You’re Monty Santos. I can’t imagine anyone not liking you,” He admitted. Who could ever say something bad about Monty? Not him. “It probably didn’t help that I was inebriated most of the time. I wasn’t sober enough to understand their customs. Not to mention I never really paid attention in French. I just know how to tell them that I don’t know. You, on the other hand, you must’ve been very popular there.”

chessieabernathy‌:

“Quinn didn’t hit you so hard you forgot why everyone stayed over last night, right?“ She pointed out the obvious, nodding to the snow piled up on the terrace. Chessie paused for a moment, before grumbling as she sat her mug on the counter with a dramatic thud. “Fine,” Her resolve didn’t last long.The desire to smoke easily outweighed the desire to stay inside. “I’ll go put on pants,” she grumbled as she walked away, leaving him to return to her room and change. It only took a moment – Swapping her robe for a pair of sweats and an old Yale sweatshirt, pack of cigarettes and lighter in hand. Holding them up for him to see, Chessie gave him a smirk. “Happy now?”

Was that anyone that didn’t hear about that? “I know why everyone had to stay over, I remember most of the night,” He knew there were some fuzzy moments but for the most part, he remembered the big details like getting punched in the face. Ben poured himself a cup of coffee as he waited for her to come back out, changed appropriately for the weather. He took a sip before she returned and then greeted her with a nod. “As happy as I’ll ever be,” He teased, before heading towards the door. It was a lot colder than he expected but he figured he’d warm up soon as soon as his cigarette was lit. “So did anything eventful happen last night? Besides Quinn taking a sucker punch at me?” It wasn’t an Upper East Side party without shit happening. 

arlovasquez‌:

“I’ve travelled quite a bit, actually. Did some before I turned twenty-one and it was one of the best decisions of my life.” Arlo paused, looking around the room a moment before bringing his attention back. “I mean I still travel when I get the chance to, but it’s less frequent now.”

“Same. Out of all the places, I have to say Greece was the best out of all the places I’ve visited. It was warm there,” which he was a huge fan of, “I married my wife there, and there were stray dogs everywhere. Do you know how many times I wanted to take home a dog?” He asked rhetorically. “Have you ever been piss drunk in the middle of Venice before? It’s pretty dangerous.”

monty-santos‌:

“Well it depends if you’re planning on paying for me, because if you aren’t there’s no way that I can afford it,” Monty chuckled, despite the fact that he was completely serious about it.  “When I was in France I was working a lot with building houses for the homeless, pretty similar to habitat for humanity.  And then since I’ve gotten back here I’ve been working with one of the local homeless shelters.”

Ben wasn’t generous with his money or time by any means. He used to be pretty careless with his money, he still was. But now he made sure that exclusively applied to him. “Maybe you have to start getting paid for all your work,” Ben knew that he wouldn’t be okay with not getting paid or just volunteering. That wasn’t his forte at all. “Do you know if you’re going to go back?” Most of the time, he ignored homeless people on the streets. It was an unspoken rule for New Yorkers to just ignore them. It didn’t mean it was right by any means but that’s what he was always taught to do. “Is there enough space for all of them when it’s snowing like this?” It was an ignorant question for sure, but Ben had no idea.

monty-santos‌:

“I guess that we’ve got some very different philosophies there because I don’t think that I do anything just to see if I actually can,” Monty chuckled, though that was really a concept that he’d never really been a fan of.  He’d always been the kind of person who never really thought to take more than he needed.  “Just because he did that doesn’t mean that the history isn’t here. And I think everyone would rather not have the tourists here, but it’s just a part of living in New York. You just have to find the best places to hide from them.”

Monty was way too good. A part of him wanted to see if he could corrupt him but another part of him wanted Monty to always remain the same. It was a mystery to him how Monty was raised here and yet he was so freaking good and innocent. Ben could not relate. “I always like to do things that people tell me I can’t do. Reverse psychology works too well on me.” He admitted with a chuckle. “It’s just annoying when they stop in the middle of the street,” Ben said with frustration.“Have you ever been to Dive 75? I bet tourists don’t go there.” 

quinnxarchibald‌:

Quinn shook his head as he continued to pull Ben to the side, into an empty area of the house. “Nope. You’re not getting out of this. Don’t worry. I got the punching out of my system. Sorry about that by the way.” He replied, nodding toward the brunet’s face. Pausing for a moment to recollect his thoughts, Quinn continued, glaring at Ben as he did. “I’m still so fucking pissed at you. I had to hear from Gossip Girl that you were back. Do you know how shitty that is? You didn’t reach out to me once. Not even when you were back in New York. What the fuck?”

It was a shitty thing to do. Ben knew that. “What did you want me to do? Just show up at wherever you’re living and surprise you?” He asked rhetorically. “I came back. And I came back for you, okay?” Ben needed to do this on his own terms. “But seeing you and saying what I want to say and need to say is a lot harder than practicing in the fucking mirror.” He admitted, looking past Quinn. He couldn’t look him in the eyes right now. He wasn’t ready for this.