#opposite: peter basara

[cricketcampbell]

for: @peterbasara

where: sharky's patio

"You should definitely let me hit that."

It's only after the words tumble from her lips and hit her own ears that Cricket pauses.

"Not that as in--" She gestured vaguely towards his brightly colored pants (which admittedly weren't not doing it for her), before shaking her head. "That. I meant the vape. That that. Except, ew, please tell me it's not menthol flavored."

It was blue razz or bust, as far as she was concerned. Or maybe pear; that way she could at least stay on theme.

[cricketcampbell]

There's a dirty joke to be made somewhere in there, she's sure, but Cricket's either too drunk or not drunk enough to find it, and it doesn't stop her from laughing as if she'd cracked it anyways.

"I'm sorry!" Though the size of her grin said otherwise. "I just didn't want you to forget."

(Not before he played at least three of her song suggestions.)

"And tonight the right vibe is just no Morgan Wallen?" Seemed easy enough to follow. Peering over Peter's shoulder at his song catalogue, Cricket's pleased to see her Love Story request was, in fact, being searched for. "So like...how cute do I have to be for you to actually show me how to do this?"

@peterbasara

"God, I can't give you an inch, you take a mile," Peter scolds as he turns his attention back to the deck -- served him right to pay a woman a genuine compliment, those always blew back into his face.

Especially Cricket -- she was like a dog with a bone. Or a bagel, depending on who you were and what you had done.

He scoffs under his breath at her gestures, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of a laugh considering the stroke he'd already given to her ego.

"Yeah, when I'm doing festival sets and shit. But tonight it's really about staying in the theme and keeping the vibe right. It's fan service, essentially. When it's shit out in the dessert it's all about what I do."

@cricketcampbell

[cricketcampbell]

"Um, no?"

Cricket goes to argue further even without a fully formed (or formed at all) defense, but quickly finds herself deflating the longer she thinks about it.

"Okay, so maybe just a little weird. But still, this is just, like, not okay, Peter! You can't just expect me to go on knowing this. Like I'm sorry, we're going to have to watch it now. What time is it?"

After answering her own question by checking her phone and confirming that they still had time before the costume contest winners were announced, Cricket once again reached for Peter's hand.

"Did you drive here?"

@peterbasara

Peter doesn't put up much of a fight when Cricket comes reaching for his vape, letting it drop into her hands easily with a smirk that shows a type of self-satisfaction.

(Sharing a vape was a gateway to kissing that he surely wouldn't argue with if the opportunity presented itself.)

"Ayy, now, wassup," Peter says in disappointment as she dropped his hand, looking at her in perplexed defensiveness.

"What? Are you telling me it wouldn't be weird if I told you I'd independently watched a show called 'Dance Moms'?"

@cricketcampbell

[cricketcampbell]

"Does he give you a bad wrap because he's a way better DJ than you and when you show up instead of him, people are, like...disappointed and want their money back?" Cricket pouted, one finger running down her cheek in a miming of a tear falling. "Oh my God, is that why you don't have Venmo?"

That smile told her all she needed to know.

"Love that for you, I really do...but follow up question, asking for a friend...is your credit score high enough to be ruined?" She'd put him at a solid 575, based off vibes alone.

Not that she was one to talk--about types or credit scores.

"Peeping Tom?" Cricket nearly choked on her drink, eyes widened at the accusation. "First of all, I said when stuck in traffic. Like, not moving? Second, I've never actually hit anyone, so I think that would literally make me better than a self-driving Tesla." So maybe she only had two points, which didn't feel very strong. "And...not to mention that I literally saved someone's life by paying attention to my surroundings while driving. Stopped an honest to God kidnapping like I was in fucking Taken or something."

At least, she thought she had. Turns out (as she later found out after it'd gone viral on Tik Tok) it'd just been a Disney princess impersonator's wig sticking out of that car trunk...so in attempting to save a life, Cricket had really just ruined a six year old's birthday party by nearly getting Elsa arrested.

Honest to God...well, Cricket wasn't religious, anyways.

"There's a guy in Calabasas named 'DJ Whiz Bong' -- looks a lot like me but he's not nearly as handsome. But the dude gives me a bad wrap, I'm thinking of pursuing legal action -- stolen intellectual property and whatnot," he explains as he snags another chip, deciding that his high standards for salsa quality have been met.

He smiles while chewing at her accusation, shrugging a shoulder.

"Who doesn't love a blonde with a little crazy running through her, huh? But there's a difference between sexy and fun crazy to the kinda crazy that tries to burn down your house and ruin your credit score."

Speaking from experience.

"Traffic? So you're playing peeping Tom when your eyes should be on the road? That makes you no better than a self-driving Tesla."

[cricketcampbell]

Cricket's eyes narrow as she thinks about it.

"I'll allow it." She ultimately decides, brushing her hair off her shoulder. "But like I'd maybe take it slow around any corners. Just in case."

At this point in the night, she'd even take a jump scare herself. At least that would mean Mack was actually there in front of her.

"Do you see him anywhere?"

@peterbasara

starter for: @cricketcampbell location: under the sea prom

"Am I allowed to say you look fucking bankable tonight or is your boyfriend gonna jump scare me?"

[cricketcampbell]

"Oh, I know."

But never did Cricket feel goddamn luckier to be cute than when someone was telling her that she was. Even if that someone was a renowned bagel thief.

(She'd forgiven, but she would never forget.)

No matter how cute she was, part of couldn't believe that'd actually worked, but could tell by the look on Peter's face that he was going to fulfill her request, no matter how much it pained him.

"But you think I'm cute." She reminded him, as if he'd somehow forgotten in the twenty seconds since he'd told her so. She sure hadn't. Curiously, she leans over to examine his set up, eyes roaming the various dials and buttons on the table and nodding like they made any kind of sense to her.

"So do you like...actually do the whole--" Raising one hand to her ear, Cricket mimics spinning a record with the other. "Thing?"

@peterbasara

At Cricket's request, Peter eyes her warily -- exhausted -- as if he can't quite believe the position that he's been cornered into.

"You're goddamn lucky that you're cute -- I hope you know that," he informs her as she moves to go through his catalog to find a version of 'Love Story' that he could at least spin into a club mix.

"If you were ugly I'd be kicking you back down to the back of the bar," Peter adds, sighing as she takes a swig from his bottle of beer.

"I guess you can keep hanging out up here if you want."

@cricketcampbell

[cricketcampbell]

"Really?" Cricket's unable to keep the surprise off her face, eyebrows shooting up as Peter concedes, only to quickly school her features back to a mask of nonchalance. "I mean, yeah, that's what I thought."

She suddenly felt all powerful up there, a whole musical backlog of choice at her fingertips (once every hour and excluding Morgan Wallen). She was unstoppable, but with great power comes great responsibility.

"My first request is..." She pretended to think for only a second, tapping her finger against her lip before perking up. "Love Story by Taylor Swift, please and thank you."

@peterbasara

Peter eyes Cricket warily while he considered her request -- sighing as he looks over the crowd and the amount of girls in the joint that looked like they had missed a turn on the way to the the Era's tour.

Better the devil he could negotiate with than the devils he would meet after two hours of drink specials.

"Fine," he conceeds sharply, pointing a finger at her.

"But no Morgan Wallen -- that's where I'm drawing the fucking line."

@cricketcampbell

[cricketcampbell]

Cricket blinked, glancing over her shoulder to see if it was possible that Peter was talking to anyone but herself, a fellow five-foot-nothing Gen Z-er, whose own request for Love Story quickly died on her tongue.

"Does it look like I have absolutely no loyalty to my generation? My fellow Swifties?" She tossed her hair back behind her shoulder, scoffing at the insinuation, though her arms slowly crossed as she thought about it. "...I make sure she only comes up every thirty minutes, but I get to pick a song every hour, and it jumps to the top of the requests."

Sorry, Mac.

@peterbasara

status: open @aurorabaystarter location: oasis, country night

"Hey, can you help me out? There's this lil Gen Z-er running around requesting Taylor Swift every ten minutes. Red cowboy hat, about five-foot-nothing. Keep her away from the DJ booth at all costs, can you do that for me?"

[cricketcampbell]

"Rightttttttt." Cricket nodded her head, lips slightly pursed as she pretended to think it over. "Must've just been a different DJ Whiz Bang, then."

Whatever. Maybe she could catch the waitress alone and get her drinks added to his bill...or maybe some sopapillas. That felt more fair.

Her eyes roll at the generalization, fingers meeting in his bowl of chips at the same time; but instead of picking one of her own, she uses the proximity to break the one in his pinched fingertips in half.

"You say that like you're not totally into it." The half of the tortilla chip she'd claimed is popped into her mouth.

She doesn't know him well--hardly at all, really--but it wasn't like he was the first DJ she'd ever hooked up with (you'd think she'd have learned, by now), and at least in her experience, they all tended to be the same: complete and total fuckboys. If the blondes he was seeing in this town had a screw loose, he (or someone just like him) was probably at least partially to blame.

"Is this what you do?" Cricket can't help but mock, though there is a begrudgingly amused smile as she nods her head. "Yeah, this is what I do, like, professionally. Mental fanfiction." A whole chip is reached for this time. "It's not snooping...and it isn't always a bar." Her shoulders lift in a shrug. "A diner works. The beach. Sometimes when I'm stuck in traffic."

"Nah, I don't have Venmo. Don't trust it. I only deal in crypto."

It's a lie -- he almost exclusively got paid over Venmo for his DJ gigs, and his one dabble into crypto with the purchase of a Bored Ape meme hadn't exactly been the payout that he'd been hoping for.

Those bagels, on the other hand, had been a worthwhile prize after a one night stand.

"Why does she have to be dumb? Because I can't remember the last time I saw a blonde in this town with her head screwed on right," he explained, reaching into Crickets space to sample the complimentary tortilla chips that came with the drink.

"Is this what you do? You sit at bars and write mental fan fiction you're snooping on?"

[cricketcampbell]

"Oh, you get it?" A relieved grin pulls at her lips, balancing her cheek on her hand as she leans a little further into the space between them. "Did you get my Venmo request?"

She thought fifteen dollars had been more than fair for the bagels he'd stolen on his way out of her apartment after their night together, plus a few extra dollars for the slight emotional damage and confusion of waking up to her roommate having to explain that she'd seen him leaving with the bag of bagels and the cost of the BEC on sesame she'd then had to grab out on her way to work.

(Despite all this, her heart does a stupid flutter at the fact that he remembered her name.)

"Why does she have to be dumb?" Cricket scoffed, shaking the thoughts of his lips pressed to the beer bottle out of her head and sitting up a little straighter. "Maybe that's just, like, her high school weed dealer she hasn't seen in years and now they're catching up and she just has this sort of unwavering sense of loyalty to him even after all this time." She reached for one of his chips, shoulders shrugging. "And not to mention the palpable sexual tension."

Which she hadn't been sure about at first, but she liked her theory better than his.

"Oh, come on Cricks, you don't need a reason to bother me," Peter answers with a smug smirk, reaching for his beer and tipping it back to his lips as he looked over at her.

"You can just say you miss me. I get it."

He glances over his shoulder and snorts before turning his gaze back to the brunette.

"That's definitely a bored and nervous housewife buying weed for the first time. And too dumb to know that it's completely legal here and she could buy that shit in the store."

[cricketcampbell]

"Oh my God, you're so ridiculous." She laughed, reaching for and pushing down one of Peter's defensive hands, the vape plucked out of the other. "I seriously hate you."

Ridiculous as he might be, he at least had a decent taste in nicotine flavors, and the sight of his unfortunately handsome grin means there's one of Cricket's own wrapped around his vape as she takes a quick hit from it.

(Another costume with no pockets to hold hers in; she'd have to work on that next year.)

"Duh." Cricket's eyes rolled as she took a step back, Peter's hand still in hers to give him a better look at her whole costume until his follow up question has her dropping it as if he'd burned her.

"I'm sorry...a show called Dance Moms? Peter. Pe-ter. I know that you're not telling me right now that you've never seen Dance Moms. I'll scream."

@peterbasara

"Hey, I didn't know if you were being some kinda girly version take on Two-Face from Batman or something..." Peter informs her with a lazy grin, holding up defensive hands after taking a long hit from his vape -- the smoke escaping through his nostrils.

At her description, her narrows his eyes as if he's trying his best to concentrate before taking another toke from the vape.

"Wait, is that the bitch with the Chucky voice who can't dance?" he questioned, looking Cricket up and down again (slowly over certain parts).

"Why was she on a show called 'Dance Moms'?"

@cricketcampbell

[cricketcampbell]

"Wait, really?" Cricket's painted black eyebrow raised skeptically under Peter's appraisal, her own Witches Brew cocktail paused halfway to her mouth. "This you can rock with?"

Damn, she was way hotter than she thought--and she already knew she was pretty hot--if it transcended how absolutely crazy she had to look to someone who apparently didn't even know what it was she'd been going for.

"I'm JoJo Siwa." She blinked, waiting for an ounce of recognition. "You know, like Dance Moms? Never met a hair bow she didn't love? Dream guest on my podcast?"

In Peter's defense, she had franksteined two eras of Siwa into one single costume, but Cricket found it hard to believe that he'd somehow survived the summer without even a single request for Karma to be played. She’d already heard it twice just tonight alone.

@peterbasara

starter for: @cricketcampbell location: sharky's monster mash

"Damn, I ain't gonna lie -- I was hoping you'd go with some sexy French maid kinda vibe, but I can learn to rock with this," Peter says as he takes a drink of his vodka soda, looking her over slowly.

"So what are you supposed to be?"

[cricketcampbell]

"Ha, ha, ha. You're just so funny." The answer was actually yes, but Cricket was almost certain he wasn't truly asking. "Did you, like, give up the uncertainty of DJing for the much more stable career of a comedian?"

Despite the exaggerated eye roll, there's no heat to her own words, and event a hint of a smile as her fingers brushed against his for the pen extended her way.

"Acceptable." She conceded, tropical flavored vapor exhaling with it. "You know, the worst part about that whole thing is still, like, just the thought of you raw-dogging a bagel. Like, please tell me you waited until you got home to at least toast it, or found a cream cheese booty-call on your way or something."

Pen raised halfway to her lips for another hit, Cricket scoffed at his guess (even if, in actuality, it wasn't that bad of one). "Wrong princess. I'm Mia Thermopolis, from the Princess Diaries?" Her eyebrows raised, waiting for the recognition to hit. "Iconic Anne Hathaway character? Julie Andrews played my grandmother?"

@peterbasara

"That's a shame. I might have taken you up on that. You've restocked on bagles at your place, right?"

There's a tease in his smile as he takes another pull from his vape and looks over the top of his sunglasses (pointless, it's been dark for hours) at her.

"It's pina colada," he informs her, passing it in her direction as he looks her up and down.

"So who are you? Kate Middleton?"

@cricketcampbell