smudged make-up and lipstick stains [OPEN]

[amy]

Two in the morning. Any responsible young woman would be home, sleeping away her exhaustion so that she would be cheery and energetic at work the next morning. Amy Kensingtion and responsible were never meant to be connected to one another in a sentence though. At age twenty-two, all she wanted to do was waste away her life at parties and clubs. She wanted to make the minutes and seconds all go to waste, almost like how she helped make youth wasted among the impressionable socially elite. Life had never treated her fairly, and this was her way of getting back at whatever sort of superior being was out in the universe, pulling the strings of fate and the like. London wrecked any good that had originally been in her heart, and she was returning the favor by corrupting whoever was foolish to have a good heart while still wanting to hang around her.

At the moment, Ames wasn’t quite sure what was going on. It shouldn’t have been hard to figure out though. She was simply going through the motions of her typical routine, drinking until the scent of beer drifted from her like perfume from high class debutants, popping random pills, and making out with whomever appealed to her within the club. Sometimes she wondered if she would wind up like her mother, dying from an overdose even though she lost the desire to sincerely live for anything years ago. No one really knew her, and no one would ever really care if she was gone. She would just be the redhead that people offered a fleeting glance towards, shaking their heads as they turned away, acting as if they were disappointed that someone so young lost everything because she didn’t know how to control herself. It was ironic though because she wasn’t spiraling out of control. She knew what she was doing. She didn’t want to be pitied.

The young woman tried to focus on what was going on, crinkling her nose at the effort. Only fragmented sentences could make their way into her mind. She wondered how terrible she must’ve looked on the outside if she was already this drowsy and confused. Amy could just imagine it now. Her long, dark red locks would be knotted and flowing, loose from the curls she’d put them in because she let a guy run his fingers through her hair a few too many times. Her make-up was probably smudged, and her clothes were probably wrinkled, too. She wondered if she had hooked up with anyone yet. Usually by now, she would have a guy who was almost as wasted as her connected to her hips, hands roaming, lips searching, and empty words going through one ear and out the other. It wasn’t as if she were one of the desperate girls that needed sex to make her feel special. She just liked it.

Snuggling up to her cold bottle of beer, Amy rested her head on her arms, staring hollowly ahead at the bodies on the dance floor. It all looked like on big blur, and it aided the alcohol’s tiring effects, tempting her to fall asleep right at the bar. It wouldn’t be the first time she fell asleep in a public place, and she wouldn’t be the only one. There were other partiers who were just as likely to fall asleep, and it wasn’t as if she had anything of value for anyone to steal. The only problem was that she had to wake up in time in the morning to get to her job. Being a stylist for Go. No. Stop! really too difficult of an occupation, but working just wasn’t her thing. It wasn’t as if she had much of a choice though. Her dwindling inheritance wouldn’t keep her set for life, marrying a guy who would take care of her was a distant nightmare, and that only left the option of getting herself a job. With a groan to express her discontentment, she took another swig of the her beer and rested her head in her arms again.

WORDS 685
TAGS open
NOTES meh. I’m tired.

[VENOM DIMINUENDO,]

Venom pushed through the crowd of people, finding it difficult to actually move through the crammed space. Sweaty bodies moved from all directions, and every girl he walked passed seemed to have a guy attached to her hips, grinding against them. He doubted that any of them even knew each others' names. But that was why most people went to clubs, wasn't it? That was also why Venom didn't go to clubs. He had Lucky, and that was all he needed. But sometimes he just wanted a break, and to remember what his old life was like. He had no intentions of grabbing random people and feeling them up - that didn't appeal to him at all anymore. He just wanted to get lost in the music, and probably get wasted.

He continued to shove people out of the way to make his way through the crowd. It wasn't hard, since he was taller than most of them, but he was also probably weaker than most of them. After taking a slight detour, only being able to move around the edge of the dance floor, he finally made it over to the bar. He shouted his order above the blare of the music, and downed the shot before ordering another.

He looked to his right, and saw Amy sitting there, looking slightly flustered, her make up smudged. Despite her rough appearance, she still looked beautiful to Venom. He'd always loved her red hair. He missed being able to run his fingers through it as he kissed her. She hadn't noticed him yet, so Venom just sat and stared at her for a while, taking the shot as it was pushed towards him, but not taking his eyes off her.

He thought about getting up and leaving, because he knew Lucky wouldn't be happy about it, but he really didn't want to leave. If he did leave, she'd only go and join the crowd and make out with some random guy, and that thought made Venom really jealous. So he reached out and tapped on her shoulder, moving one seat across so that he was sat right next to her. Somebody had obviously had the same idea as Venom, as a guy walked towards the seat and tried grab onto her, but Venom shoved him out of the way and glared at him.

"Hey Ames," he said, moving close to her ear so that she could hear him. Her hair brushed across his face as he did so, and he got the strong smell of beer coming off her, and frowned. He'd seen too many people fuck their lives up with alcohol and drugs, he really hoped that she didn't go in the same way as her mother. He really didn't know what he'd do if Amy died, or even if she left. He'd hated leaving her before, but felt as though he'd had to do it. He didn't want to go through that again.

"Uhh, having fun?" he asked, sounding more than a little awkward and uncomfortable. "It's kinda hot in here," he continued, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, and frowning as his black war paint rubbed off onto it. He felt self-conscious now that he looked stupid, and tried to flick his bangs down to cover his forehead, but thinking about it, most of the paint was probably running already, and trying to cover it wouldn't do much good at all.

Words: 605
Outfit: Click
Muse: Average
Notes: -

[amy]

For a moment, Amy had entertained the prospect of staggering onto the dance floor. The clubbers looked as if they were having fun, and she wanted a piece of that. Nonetheless, she couldn’t summon up the motivation to get on her feet. Besides, with all the alcohol buzzing through her system, she doubted she would have had the ability to stumble over the few paces without tripping and mopping the floor with her face. Not even the temptation of fighting with a girl over who got to sleep with a guy neither of them truly wanted was enough to rouse her from her mood. She briefly wondered if perhaps America had softened her up from what she used to be, but she quickly shrugged off the possibility as unlikely and preposterous. The young woman could still feel the desire to wreak havoc pumping strongly through her veins, but there wasn’t anyone who looked innocent enough to need corrupting. How disappointing.

Tilting her head back, Ames finished the last few drops of her bottle of beer and scowled, tossing it aside. It hit the table surrounding the bar area with a loud clank before rolling off and shattering into fragmented bits on the floor. Oddly enough, she found that the sight was beautiful. Fairly content, she groggily waggled a finger and mumbled that she wanted something stronger than just beer to drink. She doubted the bartender understood the jumble of sounds that were meant to be words, but apparently he did when a cup of a questionable type of alcohol was placed in front of her.

Amy was a bit startled when she felt a tap on her shoulder and sharply turned her head, sending her red locks flying over her shoulder, though she relaxed quite a bit when she realized who it was vying for her attention. In all honesty, she was even a bit disappointed. She had gone to a night club in hopes of finding sex with no strings attached, and while she knew she could probably seduce Venom into sleeping with her, she also knew that there would be hell to pay afterward.

What she felt toward him was far from hate, but Amy couldn’t necessary claim to love him either. She didn’t know what she felt. If she loved him, she would’ve remembered everything that happened while she had been allowed to call him her boyfriend and be right about it. Typical girls remembered the good, old times when they really like a guy. It would have been harder to get used to calling him Venom because she had gotten so used to his old name. But she hadn’t thought of him. Not even once. Perhaps she’d spared a thought or two when she heard that he left, but that was about all.

The only thing Ames could really give him any sort of credit for was being her longest relationship, and probably her only real one, even if she had been rather useless in terms of making things last. In fact, all she did was turn and run when he had confessed to loving her. it was all she really knew to do, and it had been quite a blow to her pride because she liked claiming to be a confrontational type. She could never tell him any of that though. Because then he would be upset. She liked to claim that she lacked a heart, but she felt the stirrings of guilt whenever he showed her that hurt expression. She didn’t want to be anything other than cold.

With a soft sigh, she offered a halfhearted wave and mumbled, “Hey, Venom.” She watched as he made an attempt at conversation, seeming quite uncomfortable around her as he smudged his war paint, and decided to take a bit of pity by actually contributing to the exchange of words. With a hint of a lopsided smile, she commented, “Sort of disappointed tonight. I’m usually a combination of drunk and high while attracting a guy who wants to get in my pants, but tonight I’m just drunk. It’s not much fun. How about you?”

WORDS 687
TAGS Venom
NOTES -----

[VENOM DIMINUENDO,]

Venom downed whatever drink was in front of him, screwing up his nose at the vile taste. He had tasted a lot of shit in his time, but whatever he'd just ordered definitely came close to top on the list. He didn't really care about the taste of alcohol, but when it not only burned his throat but made him want to gag, it was taking the word 'disgusting' a little too far. As if to spite the terrible drink, he chucked the glass on the floor, and it shattered, landing on top of another glass that had previously been smashed. He kicked his feet through it, pushing some of the shards onto the dance floor, chuckling as it hit somebody's leg and they cried out in pain. Oh, how he loved to watch people he didn't know suffer.

He reached across the table and took Amy's glass from in front of her, and drank the last of it, though there was little more than the dregs left. He coughed a few times, and slapped his hand down hard on the counter, something digging into his palm which he tried his best to ignore, and yelled at the bartender to get him something a little better tasting, and ordered the drink which he recalled being Ames' favourite.

The drinks were slid towards him, and he pushed one towards Amy as she spoke to him. "Enjoy," he muttered, a soft smile spreading across his features which surprised him a little.

“Sort of disappointed tonight. I’m usually a combination of drunk and high while attracting a guy who wants to get in my pants, but tonight I’m just drunk. It’s not much fun. How about you?”

A pang of jealousy shot through him once again at the idea of her with another male, which he quickly forced away by smirking slightly, though it was a little strained, and most likely didn't look at all genuine. "Well, at least part of that's true.." He looked down, then quickly shook himself and hoped she didn't take any notice of what he'd said. "I mean, yeah I'm okay. Came here with the intentions of having fun and escaping for a moment. But this place is shit. Why the fuck I thought it'd be a good idea, I don't know.."

He twiddles his fingers a little, still gazing intently at her. It was sort of nice having feelings like this for a girl. With Lucky, Venom always looked hot, but he also always looked the same. Hardly anything ever changed, and he never really put any effort into anything. But Amy seemed to look beautiful on a whole new level every time Venom saw her. She had her hair differently, wore different shoes, different make up, and different clothes. All of that kept Venom interested, and he loved it. He decided not to tell her she looked beautiful, as that sounded a little too kind, and unlike him. "You look really hot by the way," he uttered, hoping she'd brush off this comment, as he did with many. She'd probably been told that thousands of time that evening already anyway.

He shuffled a little uncomfortably in his seat, just wanting to get drunk at this point. Conversations like this always went wrong for Venom, and everything he just said sounded uncomfortable, as social situations like this were not his high point when he had a boyfriend and so many worries. If they went away, maybe he'd be his old self for once, and the stress would go away a little.

There was a discarded drink on the table beside him, and he grabbed it, not really caring what was in it or who it had belonged to, and just downing it. Another unidentifiable drink, though Venom was never good at identifying drinks if he didn't already know what they were. It had a bitter after taste, but wasn't bad at all compared to what he'd just had. Taste was becoming less and less important to him now.

Words: 740
Outfit: Click
Muse: Average
Notes: -

[amy]

The conversation was a little slow and dragged out, but it was to be expected. It wasn’t often that ex’s just waltzed back into Amy’s life, though it wasn’t as if she could say that she had many boyfriends in the first place. She had quite a few flings though, but she tended not to run into those men either. Or perhaps she just never looked for the men and missed them when they passed by? The main point, however, was that there never seemed to be any men who were a constant in her life. They came and went. All except for Venom. There probably should have been some special meaning behind it, and to a certain extent, it did mean something significant to her, but more than anything, it left her uneasy and nearly shaken up.

Amy had gone through all the years of her life simply drifting along, and no one ever meant anything. Father was just another word in the dictionary, her mother was merely a woman who got food on the table, and every other person was just a bump in the road. She didn’t know how to care for other people, and letting Venom actually mean something was hard to comprehend. She couldn’t even shed a single tear when her very own mother overdosed and died.

Tilting her head slightly, Ames allowed her gaze to drift over to Venom. He made a face at whatever he drank and tossed the glass aside, kicking the shards and sending it flying. Just watching the glass shatter had made her smile, but the fact that one of the idiots on the dance floor got hurt by it left her laughing lightly. She wasn’t necessarily a sadist, but it was one of those things where when someone got hurt, the first reaction was to crack up. It was similar to when someone tripped and then everyone around the poor klutz roared with laughter. She wasn’t nice enough to inquire if people were okay.

She had been reading to down her drink, but before she could, Venom took it and drank it himself. She nearly pouted at the loss of her beloved alcohol, but the expression wasn’t one she wore often, she stuck with frowning slightly, briefly wondering if maybe he had been left coughing because she requested for whatever she was given to be strong. Nonetheless, it was easily made up for when he ordered her another drink, though she was surprised when it registered in her mind that he had ordered her favourite type of alcohol. Amy had a habit of drinking whisky often when they had dated, though she never thought he would’ve noticed that she liked it. Since beggars couldn’t be choosers, she was less picky with what she drank and simply took whatever she got, but the fact that he knew and remembered still left her feeling a bit surprised, but also something akin to touched.

“Enjoy.”

It was a bit uncharacteristic of her, but Amy flashed him a sincere smile, even if it was gone in seconds. “Thanks,” she murmured softly before picking up the drink and throwing her head back, quickly finishing the whisky. It left a burning hot trail as it went down her throat, leaving her content and refreshed.

She nodded slowly when he replied to her previous question to let him know that she was listening. Amy pursed her lips for a moment before agreeing, “Yeah, London sucked, but at least the clubs there were pretty fun. It was fun to fuck up all the people there, even if I got in trouble for it sometimes.”

Amy was a little surprised at his sudden compliment on her looks, though she was pleased nonetheless. She reached over to ruffle his hair for a second before pulling away to sit back down, replying, “Thanks. You’re actually the first one to tell me that tonight. I was beginning to think maybe I looked like shit, which was why guys were avoiding me, but I guess not. You look hot, too. You usually do though.” That much was true though.

What attracted Amy to him when they first met was his physical appearance, and that was typically the only factor she took into account when she approached men. She couldn’t quite recall how they began dating, nor did she know how and if she actually managed to stay faithful to only Venom throughout their relationship, but there were a lot of things she didn’t remember anymore. Maybe all the things she experimented with were finally taking a toll on her memory. Maybe she could never be bothered to remember in the first place. Maybe she was just burying everything she did in the back of her mind so that she never had to look back to regret anything. She didn’t know anymore, and maybe she never did. It didn’t make the slightest difference to her.

WORDS 822
TAGS Venom
NOTES -----