lilymatthews

[lilymatthews]

"Sorry, sorry," Lily laughs, putting her hands up and looking down at the complex board before her. You kind of had to hand it to even the shitty DJs -- doing this all night couldn't have been easy, and learning how to do it had to have been even harder. "I'll be gentle, I promise."

She glances over her shoulder at him, grins, and looks away again, out over the crowd. "I'll make sure not to stop it then. You gotta think pretty fast up here, huh? Like, you're kinda just doing remixes on the spot, right?"

"It's popping in an Instgramable way for bored white girls, I feel you," Peter laughs, adjusting his headphones around his neck while he takes a cursory look around the crowd below.

It was clear from the body language of half the crowd that they'd never done anything wilder than the typical Friday night at Oasis -- but the other half clearly knew what they were doing and were more than happy to make up for it.

"Ay, careful, cowboy -- she's a sensitive lady," he playfully scolds as she sidles between him and the board, leaning over her so he can guide her hands to the turntables.

"If you stop the music they're gonna run you right outta town as fast as you came in, and wouldn't that be a shame?"

[lilymatthews]

#same

[lilymatthews]

Lily laughs, and then raises her eyebrows at him when she realizes he's not joking. "Dude, are you serious? I appreciate it but I'm not trying to let my boss see me chilling on the other side of the bar with a guest."

"I can definitely keep the margs coming though. Bad day or what?"

Closed: Befriending the waitress. @lilymatthews

"I know it's been only fifteen minutes, but I think I already love you," he smirked at the sight of the margarita. Taking it from her hand, he immediately took a large swig of the drink as if this was his first time he'd ever had an alcoholic drink. People had been raving about these specialty drinks and the MacVeagh was excited to be having one for himself. "Surely you can join me," he says, gesturing towards the empty seat across from him at the high top. It didn't seem to busy with the lunch flow ending. He sure Happy Hour would kick-off well soon, but why not treat the hard working woman to a meal if not a drink. "Put an order in for yourself. It's on me."

[lilymatthews]

"That's the one," Lily agrees, pointing at her. "I can't believe you remember that. Actually..." She laughs, gesturing to the themed booth. "Yes I can. I didn't realize it was such a popular game, I always thought it was just some weird niche shit my mom picked up at an estate sale or something. So who was your favorite character then?"

Amira couldn't help but give a small giggle at her words. She put in this kind of work because she enjoyed the satisfaction that came when she was finished, but getting compliments like this certainly didn't hurt. "Oh, you mean Gloppy? That's so funny."

[lilymatthews]

"I know, I know," Lily groans, checking them one more time and then forcing herself to forget about it. "I didn't wanna deal with the glue later. Whatever! I don't care."

After a series of poses and pictures that goes on slightly longer than Edie's session had, Lily points over the crowd towards the bar.

"You wanna do drinks first?" she asks. "Or should we scout out some molly? I feel like, this is a rich beach town, right? There's gotta be some good drugs."

Edie had never been one to particularly enjoy being in pictures, but she was telling herself so constantly that she needed to have fun that she couldn't find it in herself to object -- instead sticking out her tongue and throwing up peace signs in various poses for Lily's camera.

Trading places, she lines up the camera and checks the image on the screen in comparison to the person standing before her.

"I told you, you coulda glued them in," she wrly teased.

[lilymatthews]

location: Rocky's office at Tejas Cantina for: @rockyramirez

"I'm so sorry," Lily says, wiping defiantly at a couple tears with a tissue Rocky had handed her. She's not a crier and she can't stand that she's sitting here opposite her boss looking like the world's weakest bitch over some asshole patron who'd called her stupid for accidentally giving him decaf instead of regular. "I swear, stuff like this never gets to me, I think I've just been overdoing it lately and it's starting to catch up to me. I'll be fine," she adds quickly, and then lets out a breath and a short laugh. "You ever try to prove something to yourself and go way overboard with it?"

[lilymatthews]

Lily snorts. "Would he really? What a dramatic king, that's kind of relatable. I don't think miss Norma could handle a whole ass hiking trail either, like she loves her walks but sometimes if she's suddenly over it she'll just sit down and refuse to keep going. At least I can carry her easily," she laughs. "Why do we both have the most stubborn dogs."

"You and I should go hiking though, I haven't really gone into the mountains yet around here and I'm dying to. I kinda wanna go, like, out into the desert and see what's up, would you ever be down for that?" @joey-madani

CLOSED STARTER for @lilymatthews

"We got to keep an eye on him— Bowie will steal her toy right out from under her nose." The little rascal, plucking whatever he wants from the ground and claiming it his. Joey turns her head where she sits to give Lily a smile. Bella is sat at her feet between her and Lily, leaned into her legs and unwilling to participate in any sort of puppy play with Bowie or Norma Jean.

It's a nice distraction to be out here after having run into Scott of all people during the festivities. Having some sort of mental prep for that would have been nice, but there had been no way for her to really know. This does mean her mind's been running circles in the worst way since. "They both enjoyed the Summer Bash."

"I always wanted to take them out to the hiking trails, but I know he'd pitch a fit halfway up, and, God, I cannot carry him up and down."

[lilymatthews]

It's the same self-deprecating, dry sense of humor Lily had liked when she'd met him the week before, and for some reason he's especially cute with the dumb outfit and under the club's strobing lights.

"It is hilarious," Lily grins. "I mean, it got my friends' attention." She gestures over her shoulder with her thumb, but she doesn't take her eyes off of Lucky. "I was supposed to give you a line about changing the number on the back. Thankfully I didn't."

"I would love a drink," she says, and her cheeks are starting to hurt because she's smiling too hard and she likes the way he's looking at her. "Mojito for me. Let me guess, you're a...whiskey sour dude." @luckylewis

With his garish sunglasses on his face indoors, Lucky knew there was no way that the bar staff couldn't see him standing there trying to capture someone's attention long enough to order a drink. Another forty five seconds and he was going to remove his bucket hat and start shaking it in the exact same manner as the gif he had tried to explain to his therapist that perfectly encapsulated how it felt to him to ask his friends to hang out and why he simply didn't instead.

He's beyond glad that he hadn't when it clicks for him who was standing directly beside him.

"Hey, it's me." Stupid thing to say he thinks to himself immediately even in his tipsy haze but he glides passed it as he reaches up to remove his sunglasses to pocket them so he looked a degree less ridiculous as they spoke.

"This?" He pulls on the front of it, a long story that he tries his best to condense even though it seemed like he had nothing but time during his eternal wait for a drink. "My buddy back in London got it for me for my twenty first. This isn't even my team, it's his. He thought the back was hilarious."

So did Lucky, but he wouldn't acknowledge that around Adam.

"I think I feel under-dressed now I'm looking around." That was mostly just an excuse to look at her and her outfit of choice, which was doing everything for her.

"Do you want a drink?"

[lilymatthews]

daffodil ⇢ do you have siblings? if yes, in what ways do you think you’re similar to or different from them?

"Just one, and I think we've got more differences than similarities," Lily says wryly. "He's, like...a huge personality, you know? He's one of those people who changes the vibe when he's around. Not in a bad way, like he doesn't suck the air out of the room or anything, it's just that people gravitate to him or something, and I'm not like that at all."

"That being said, I suffer from the same mental illness that makes him think he's always the smartest person in the room. I'm definitely better at humbling myself than he is, though. Sorry to him. Also I've never been canceled." @xaviermattthews

[lilymatthews]

"Well if you're gonna twist my arm," Lily jokes, more than happily going over and taking the piece of fudge. "I have to tell you, this whole setup is so cool, my inner child is kind of freaking out, I'm not gonna lie. I used to play Candy Land all the time, I was obsessed with that weird little molasses man, do you know who I mean? There were literally those cute little princesses and I was obsessing over the creepy goblin. Go figure."

Open Starter: (@aurorabaystarter) Event Location: Aurora's Candy Parlor booth

Amira finished setting up her Candy-Land-inspired booth, knowing that the child version of her would be thrilled by the way it turned out. There was a reason she didn't have any of her employees come to man the booth until after she was set up and settled in. She just couldn't count on anyone to make what she saw in her head come to life the way she could. "Would you like to try some fudge? This one tastes like Butterbeer," she asked, with a playful tone as she made eye contact with someone looking at her booth.

[lilymatthews]

'That sucks' is the understatement of the year but Lily just smiles and shrugs. "Yeah, it is what it is. I would love some help," she grins. "Are you good at this stuff? That would be so huge for me."

"No." Sterling laughed because, while she still got baby fever at times and often wished time would slow down so Sunny wouldn't grow up so fast, she was happy that Sunny was older now. Life was still crazy, but it was easier to get babysitters and sleep... sometimes.

"Oh noooo..." Sterling sympathized with the girl, considering she had a dog of her own. She remembered having to deal with things being totally destroyed by him. "That sucks. Maybe we can help each other?"

@lilymatthews

[lilymatthews]

"Oh, I've always wanted to go to an LA rave," Lily says brightly. "The scene isn't terrible in Houston or anything but I can't even imagine how much crazier it is in LA. I mean, this is fun," she smirks, "I'm so glad there's a rave happening at all, but I'm sure you know even better than me it's not, like, popping the way it could be popping."

It's tame, is what she's trying to say, but that's sort of expected in a touristy beach town. Some days she can't figure out why the hell her brother's still living here.

At his teasing, she gives him a grin and an eye roll and invades his space in front of the board even though she has no idea what she's doing.

"I can handle it," she assures him. "As long as I don't accidentally stop the music, if I do that you can kill me on the spot."

Peter laughs at her awe -- feeling a little bit validated that he could manage to impress someone, even if it's a beach town rave and half of the people in the crowd has never step foot into one in their lives.

"I should bring you to one in LA sometimes -- that shit gets insane. They go for days on end."

He adjusts the levels in his headphones, slyly smiling as he notices her looks to the board.

"I don't know, kid, do you think you can handle the pressure from the crowd?" he teases.

[lilymatthews]

"I keep forgetting you've never been to a rave," Lily laughs, delighted by Cricket's unending enthusiasm and excitement. She makes a mental note that she needs to do more stuff with her; the energy is infectious. "I also didn't realize you'd be so hyped about crowdsurfing. I've only done it a couple times, I'm kind of icked out by having a bunch of randos grabbing you from every angle."

Looking around, she stands on her toes to try and spot someone especially tall. "Best way to do it is just find someone who'll let you get on their shoulders and go from there. You feel like chatting up some tall men?"

for: @lilymatthews

where: oasis, end of summer rave

"Lily." Cricket gasped, blindly reaching for her friend's arm (and smacking a few stranger's in theirs on accident, oops). "I didn't know that crowdsurfing was, like, actually a thing people did!" She couldn't tear her gaze away from the body being passed overhead, eyes blown wide in awe.

Or maybe that was just the molly...

"Why didn't you tell me?" Like it was some big rave secret that'd been purposefully kept from her. Cricket turned briefly to face the woman, checking to make sure that she was in fact witnessing this, before turning back to the show. "You know that would be the ultimate main character moment! We gotta do it."

[lilymatthews]

location: end of summer rave for: @edietello

"Stand right...here," Lily instructs, tugging Edie in front of a wall that's been absolutely splattered with neon paint. Having only just recently arrived, they themselves are still freshly painted with Lily's own supply she'd brought with her when she moved. Just in case.

Pulling out her phone, she snaps a few pictures of Edie and then goes to trade places. "Are all my hair ties still in place? I'm bugging about them getting messed up," she laughs.

[lilymatthews]

Lily could almost cry, she's having such a good time tonight. Four months she's been in Aurora Bay now, and it's no coincidence that the first time she's really gone clubbing properly is the first time she's felt fully like she's finally settled in. Even in the bathroom she can feel the pulse of the bass making her bones shiver.

Looking up as she comes out of a stall, she gives the girl who'd complimented her a bright smile and a cheerful, if slightly intoxicated-sounding, "Thank you!" She laughs. "I lugged my entire rave wardrobe all the way from Texas and I'm feeling like it was the right choice. You look amazing too. The gloves are to die for." If a little out of place at a rave, but Lily kind of likes the irony of it.

who: @lilymatthews where: oasis bathroom, end of summer rave

A rave was unexpected. Sasika had pegged this town as a place that didn't get much rowdier than a Sunday farmers market, but she'd been wrong. People had lined up to get into this rave and she'd managed to scam her way in. She didn't know anyone and thank god for that. She'd managed to steal someone's purse from an unattended table and gotten some cash from it before promptly discarding it on the floor nearby. The crowd was thick enough that people hadn't noticed. In the graffitied mirror of Oasis, she spotted a woman in the reflection, who's outfit was practically radiating.

"Wow, I love your outfit." Sasika complimented, her tone sincere. Her own outfit was quite understated, she hadn't gotten the neon memo in time.

[lilymatthews]

"I can't believe how cool this is," Lily says enthusiastically, leaning over to look down at the mass of bodies beneath them. It's just a stupid DJ booth but it feels like being in some kind of VIP section nevertheless, like she's important tonight.

Maybe the drugs are enhancing that feeling, though. Regardless, she loves it.

"So," she smirks, glancing at the setup with all its buttons and knobs, "you said I could try, right?"

starter for: @lilymatthews location: oasis rave - dj booth

"Pretty killer view from up here, huh? Got a perfect angle of all the mess down below."

[lilymatthews]

location: oasis rave for: @luckylewis

Only because everything is maximum interesting right now and she's feeling like she could pretty much do anything in the world, Lily accepts a dare from the friends she's with to go up and talk to the doofus in the stupid jersey and the bucket hat at the bar.

There was something specific she'd been meant to say, a deliberately cringey line about changing the number on the back of his shirt to '1', but she's already forgotten the wording by the time she sidles up to him, and she surely would have said something completely mortifyingly incoherent (and maybe not even cared right now) had she not at the last moment recognized him.

"Oh my god," she says, straightening up and grinning. "Hey, no way! It's you! What's with the weird ass jersey?"