#✦event: morp 2k18 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

montybadun · 6 years ago

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THE HAPPENING → PARTY

TAGGING → Monty Badun & Pari Nasir (@perfectlypari)

TIMELINE → May 19, 2018

SETTING → Walt High Gymnasium

SUMMARY → Monty does his best impersonation of a ‘prince’ to try and give his friend Pari the perfect night at morp.

Pari couldn't believe how well the morp was going. She had said sophomore year was going to be her year, and here she was, starting a whole new tradition in the school and making her mark. It felt pretty great. And it definitely helped that she felt super cute in her outfit and was getting compliments left and right for the decorations. After making her rounds on the dance floor, taking selfies with friends and such, she spotted Monty off to the side, very characteristically standing in a corner with his Freddie Kreuger outfit on. With a smirk, Pari took up some bloody punch in two plastic cups and approached him. "So? Are you like slayed, O M G murdered, O M G hashtag-dying in a good way, or totally hashtag-kill-me in a bad way about this dance? It's okay if it's the latter, I'm open to criticism!"

Monty had been spending so much of this evening avoiding his cousin and any weird prodding about girls he should be dancing with that he’d accidentally ended up avoiding everyone. It wasn’t bad, though; there were few people he really liked talking to anyway, and the less people that got near him, the less likely he was to be called out for having taken off the finger-knife component of his costume. Still, Pari’s excited face was a welcome change from the watcher-on-the-wall act, and he offered her a half-smile, better than anyone else had gotten all night. “Can I create a new hashtag? I don’t want to have to share with Brandon,” Monty grumbled, even though he’d been having his own version of fun. “Hashtag-Pari looks like she’s having an awesome time so Monty’s glad she convinced him to come? Or is that too long?”

Pari couldn't contain the little squeal that rose up in her throat from learning that Monty was having fun. If he was able to enjoy himself, this dance must have really been a success. "Ah, you're having fun!" she exclaimed, clutching him by the bicep out of excitement. "That's great, though, I'm so glad this thing is really coming together." She bit her lip and glanced around the gym, unrecognizable in all its horror-y goodness. "And I'm glad that you're glad you came -- and dressed up. You look really good!" she eyed his Freddie Kreuger getup with a nod of approval, and crossed her arms over her chest.

Monty looked around. He didn't go to a lot of parties, but it seemed like it was a good one. Better than the cheesy Valentine's decorations and how nervous and weird he'd felt when he'd gotten paired with Ember after his dumb secret admirer gifts, at least. "Yeah, the decorations are cool. I hope they give people nightmares, how totally real would that be?" he asked her, wondering if he started to sound too much like Brandon around her. But oh well. She was his friend; she made it easy to get kind of excited and almost care about stuff. "Yeah! Also part of the whole nightmare thing, not just me being mean," he promised, tipping his Freddy hat towards her. "I mean, your costume's like you just walked out of a bucket of blood, the least I could do was wear a sweater and say '1, 2, Freddy's coming for you' when I want people to go away." He stood a little straighter at the compliment, still not used to them even after almost two whole years in Walt. "So did it turn out the way you wanted it to? I mean, it doesn't look like anything's missing, right? Except maybe your Boo-shadow, but I'm sure he'll find you again soon."

Pari laughed at Monty’s idea, knowing better than to be fooled by his costume and think that he was suddenly some social butterfly. He was still telling people to go away, and for some reason she was glad he hadn’t changed. It just meant she could keep trying to get him to come out of his shell, and even if he never did, at least this little game was fun. She shrugged at his question, beaming at the entirety of the dance. “I mean....I dunno! It’s horror and stuff, and it’s a huge success so I’m so grateful, but — and I wasn’t gonna tell anyone — but it’s also my birthday...? So I was kind of hoping for something a little more....magical. No matter how off-Brand and counterintuitive that would make this whole thing.” Pari shook her head, laughing at herself. She was just never satisfied, that was all.

Crap . Monty should have known when her birthday was, but he'd been completely unprepared for that. And he'd proven firsthand how rotten he was at gift-giving, but if he'd remembered he would have at least tried to do something nice for her. Now all he could do was be nice with his words, and that was always awkward for him; nice things didn't just flow out of his mouth without any effort the way they did for other people. "That's cool! So it's like, an unofficial party for you, everytime you see someone having fun you can think that it's in your honor," he tried tentatively, but the words felt clumsy and off-brand coming out of his mouth. Monty cleared his throat and tried again. "That's not dumb. I mean, if you said you wanted like, someone to carry you around while you sat on a throne or something and strangers showered you with presents, that would be dumb. But what, you just... want morp to be more like prom? With like, someone to give you flowers and dance with you and kiss you and tell you look pretty and stuff? Seems normal," Monty shrugged.

Pari scrunched up her nose at the idea of it being like a party for her -- that was so bougie, throwing an entire dance just to feel like people were celebrating her birthday. "I mean, kind of? Not really? I honestly forgot my own birthday when I planned this," she shrugged, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Okay, getting carried around on a throne and showered with presents doesn't sound bad..." she chuckled, "I'm totally joking. But yeah! I was so anti-prom but I guess since the Valentine's Ball went so bad for me, I feel kind of robbed of a magical night or something." She loved it all, but totally wished she could be wearing her pretty red dress and sparkly flats at an event that was so successful, not her bloody everything. Twiddling her thumbs, Pari looked up at Monty and gave a sigh as the song that was playing on the dance floor slowed down to a haunting balld. "Will you dance with me, Monty? I know I like to force you to do things out of your comfort zone but that isn't the reason I'm asking this time. It could be like a birthday present."

Monty scrunched his face up in disgust. "Nope, no way, if you're putting me on a portable throne you better be taking me to an alligator pit, because all the attention will make me want to get ripped apart by a bunch of chomping gators or something," Monty informed her matter of factly. "You're also just a sophomore and not allowed to go to prom anyway, so like... screw the system. But mostly screw the jerk who ditched you on Valentine's Day. Did you ever figure out who it was?" Monty tried to ask the question casually, but if Pari did know... well, Boo probably would have beaten him up already, but for Pari? Monty would definitely go back and beat him up again. Or at least pee in his shoes or something. Monty got distracted by Pari's question instead, though, and he swallowed the lump that instantly formed in his throat. He was a terrible dancer, and Pari would just end up disappointed... but even as he started to shake his head no, his words betrayed him. "You're not going to have fun, Brandon would be way better at this, but uh..." Monty rubbed his gloved hands together, giving Pari a second to change her mind, but when she actually seemed serious, he said, "But yeah, of course I'll dance with you. I got a little practice on Valentine's Day, so at least it was good for like, one thing." Monty extended his arm to her, using his free arm for a one-shouldered shrug. "Most magical dancing I can muster, here we go."

Pari laughed quietly at Monty's joke. "Attention isn't bad!" she smiled, "Except when it is bad. But most of the time, it's fun." That was one thing she'd learned this year -- that attention sucked when everyone was making fun of you, but was great when everyone was wanting to be your friend. "Yeah, screw him I guess -- and no. And I kind of never want to find out, for his own safety," she chuckled. Not that she would do anything, but Valentine's Day proved that she had some very dedicated friends and she didn't put it past Ember or Boo to fight for her honor or something. She shrugged when Monty responded to her request, having expected some kind of resistance from him. "I don't want to dance with Brandon, I want to dance with you," she chuckled, taking his arm and leading him out to the dance floor. "Oh yeah, you and Ember! How'd that go? Your secret admirer thing was super cute -- I hope it paid off," she smirked, putting her arms up on the boy's shoulders.

Monty pretended to gag, even though Pari was right. Monty just wasn't used to attention, at least not in any sort of normal way; and even if he started getting it now, he doubted it would be the good kind like Pari wanted and deserved. It wasn't about him, though; it was about her, and he was totally happy to step up and help her out whenever she needed him. "Hey! If you really didn't want us to hurt him, I'd just send Brandon to annoy him to death, that would probably be worse anyway," Monty grinned, amused by his own terrible ideas. "Okay, if I have to," Monty added, but he was still smiling; Pari would know he didn't mean it. Even if he'd been scowling, he had a feeling she knew he liked her enough that he didn't mean it. "Oh -- uh, she didn't think I was a total creep? She just also didn't like me, which is fine. I like, temporarily lost my mind anyway, I'm not like the secret admirer type," Monty shrugged as he gently put his hands on Pari's waist, hoping he was doing this right. It was what he'd done before, and for some reason, he was just as nervous tonight as he'd been at Valentine's Day, dancing with a pretty girl who was totally way too cool for him but who was like, willing to hang around him anyway. "Besides, if it had gone well, I'd probably be here with her tonight and then I wouldn't be able to be your poser-prince."

Pari stifled a laugh at the boy's jab at his cousin. She loved Brandon, really, she did, so that's why she didn't want to outwardly LOL at Monty's comment, but she also very much understood where Monty was coming from. "That really does sound like a better plan!" she mused, nodding with a giggle. Once they were dancing, Pari settled her arms around his neck and gave a contented sigh. This was nice -- exactly what she'd hoped for out of prom night (er...morp night). "She didn't like you?!" she asked, admittedly a little shocked -- Ember was so cool and so was Monty so like, why not? "That sucks, but at least she didn't think you were a creep. That's good," she chuckled, holding him a bit closer once his hands found her hips. "Yeah, I guess that's true! But I mean, there's nothing bad about being a poser prince. Aladdin posed as a prince and he got his princess and a whole kingdom," Pari shrugged. She'd always loved listening to her dad tell that story of how he helped a street rat woo the princess. "So you could totally be Aladdin in this scenario."

Monty pursed his lips. "Close enough," he admitted. He wasn't sure if Ember had actually said those words directly, but it had felt a lot like an I don't like you to his fragile ears. Enough like one to where he'd managed to put the other girl out of his head almost entirely since Valentine's Day had happened, at least, and just focus on the friends thing. He didn't want to be gross and extra like Brandon was about that Liam boy, anyway; if something ever did work out between Monty and a girl, he had every intention of being more cool and chill about it. Or at least, he thought he did, but hearing Pari talk about how he could be cool like Aladdin gave him a weird surge of confidence. Aladdin was cool, Aladdin got the princess, Aladdin was all kinds of stuff Monty usually was not. But tonight, maybe Monty could be. He seemed to be doing a good job of giving her the fantasy night she wanted, dancing with her and complimenting her and stuff, but didn't prom movies always have kisses? Without overthinking it too much, Monty ducked his head down and pressed his lips to Pari's, like cool guys always seemed to do at the end of the stories she liked so much.

Pari gave a small, sad sigh when Monty admitted to Ember not liking him. That must have really sucked — he went through so much effort just to get kind of rejected, and on Valentine’a Day, no less! And she had been so engrossed in her own drama that night that she didn’t even notice. Planning this morp had really taken a lot out of her — she was so out of the loop from her friends’ lives. Giving him a little ego boost with the Aladdin talk seemed like the best she could do. But then, suddenly, Monty’s Head dipped down and his lips were on hers. Pari’s eyes widened at first, glancing around to be sure this was really happening. She’d never been kissed before, and once she got over the initial shock, it felt...great. She kissed back for just a second before pulling away. “Whoa,” Pari gulped, looking up at Monty’s eyes with a little bit of confusion and fear in her own. She was speechless. Part of her wanted to know what possessed him to do that, and the other part of her didn’t care — she just wanted to kiss him again. But the first side was winning, and she continued to stand there, staring at him, frozen.

Monty hadn't really been reading any logical, decipherable signs to get to deciding he was going to kiss Pari; he'd just sort of lost his mind and let it happen. At least this mind loss was more spontaneous than his weird gifts for Ember, although he'd been scared it was about to have the same results. But then Pari kissed back, and Monty stopped worrying if he was doing it wrong or if his friend totally wanted to slap him or get Boo to murder him instead and just went with it, for as long as she seemed like he wanted to. It felt good, and he almost wished he'd thought of kissing people as like, a thing he could actually do way sooner... Except a part of him sort of thought kissing other girls wouldn't be as good. Pari was his favorite one, even if he'd never thought about just how much better he liked her than the other's before. "Oh, uh -- was that a good prince impersonation, or would I have been a better prince if I'd asked if it was okay first?"

Pari gulped, gazing up at Monty. She was unsure of what was supposed to come next. She'd never kissed anyone, let alone a good friend. Where were they supposed to go from here? In movies, this was where the credits would roll -- but then again, if this were a movie, there would've been some kind of epic narrative that all led up to this. As Pari started recounting what had to have been romantic moments with Monty that she'd somehow missed in their time together as friends, he asked some kind of cute and funny question and her mind went blank. A smile grew on her lips and she stood on her toes to kiss him again before deciding this would be a good time to 'go check things' as the organizer of the dance. But really, she just wanted to leave things on a positive note without them getting too awkward. "No, you were a perfect prince," she nodded, before kissing him firmly one last time. She pulled away and started backing up into the crowd. "I'm gonna go check around. See you at school on Monday!" And with that, Pari ran off into the crowd with the biggest, dopiest smile on her face while she tried to process what could've possibly just happened.

#para #para:pari #para:thehappening #perfectlypari #✦EVENT: MORP 2K18 #pari

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