Chapter Text
“Playboy! Are you ready?”
Roberto, bent over a box unpacking his things, stood straight up from surprise.
“Ay,” he groaned as he rubbed his noggin, which had hit the wood frame of his loft bed. He looked at his roommate, Scott, standing in the door. Well built, athletic, handsome. Roberto wasn’t bad looking himself, but he envied his new friend’s sporty build, and certainly his energetic attitude. “Ready for what, Scott?”
Scott Summers groaned and slapped palm to face, offsetting his opaque red glasses. “The party Dazz is throwing! I told you about it this morning, didn’t I?”
“I wasn’t here this morning! I just moved in a couple hours ago; I’m still unpacking!”
“Well, I texted you, didn’t I?”
Roberto froze and gave a nervous ‘oopsy’ laugh. Another message he had forgotten to check; throw it in the pile.
“Well, either way,” Scott continued. “Dazz is throwing a party, and I told you about it, and it’s gonna be fun and we’re gonna meet people so you should come.”
Roberto gestured weakly to his moving boxes. Scott looked like he would slap him.
“Okay, okay,” Roberto said. “Give me, like, ten minutes.”
Scott smiled and left Roberto with a wave. He looked in the mirror. His attractive swoop of dark hair was alright, but he’d have to do something about the outfit. A t-shirt and sweats worked for planes and cars, but it wouldn’t cut it for a house party, even if the sweats were designer. Maybe a fun overshirt? A cute necklace…?
He checked his phone to see the missed message from Scott:
Party at Dazz’s apartment tonight. Get ready as soon as you get here! There will be girls, I’m told, so look your best, playboy ;)
Roberto laughed and sighed. Ever a slave to his phone, he continued to waste precious moments scrolling up through his texts with Scott, reminiscing. As soon as they got paired together, they started texting, and Roberto was relieved to learn Scott Summers, the big scary second year, was actually a really nice guy.
S: Wait, so are your folks like, really rich?
R: Uhhhh kinda 😅
S: YOOOOO
R: Stfu lol
S: Dude, you have too many girlfriend stories to be rich
R: What does that mean lol
S: You’re like a playboy!
R: STFU
Roberto laughed. Most of his friends called him Bobby, but for Scott, it was ‘playboy’, and he prayed Scott wouldn’t say it in public. Roberto’s phone buzzed.
Bout to go. Where R U???
Roberto nearly dropped his phone. He threw on a change of clothes, passed the mirror, went back, sprayed cologne, fixed his hair, and was out the door.
—
“Welcome to the house party!” Dazz, a tall, gorgeous girl with long blonde hair and a ringing voice welcomed Scott and Roberto into the space. “Or, apartment party, I guess. Aparty?” Roberto laughed.
“Thanks. I’m Roberto, by the way. You can call me Bobby, though.”
“Oh yeah!” The girl smiled and Roberto blushed as her lips sparkled with glitter. “You’re Scott’s roommate, right? I’ve heard so much about you!”
“All good things, I hope,” Roberto said, stepping on Scott’s shoe.
“Oh, definitely good things. Don’t worry, I can tell when Scott is joking. My name’s Alison, but you can call me Dazz.”
“That’s your stage name, right? Sorry, Scott told me a bit about you too.”
“Oh! No, the name I use for singing is Dazzler,” She looked away for a moment, a little embarrassed. “I sing at Claremont's on weekends, sometimes.”
“That’s so cool! My mom sings when she thinks me and my dad are out of the house.”
Dazz laughed, and Roberto heard the tinkling of bells in the air around her.
In a flash, Roberto had his back against a wall. Someone had collided with Scott, who collided with Roberto, and Roberto met a poster of Luna Snow tacked on the wall. ‘I guess Dazz is a K-pop fan,’ he thought. He clambered out of the way to an open space. The young woman who collided with Scott, as he could now see, wore a trendy green outfit and jacket and had a cloud of fire-red hair that gathered around the young man she was hugging. She squeezed, released, and extended her hand to Roberto.
“Hi! You’re Scott’s new roommate, right? I’m–”
“Jean!” Roberto said, then caught his overexcitement. “Sorry. Scott told me all about you. It’s nice to meet you!”
Jean Grey stood with her hands on her hips, smiling at Roberto. Early on, Scott had told him about the girl he was dating when the summer started. Jean Grey, beautiful, intelligent, kind, and beautiful (all Scott’s words), had been shown to Roberto in pictures she and Scott had taken together. Roberto always thought she was very pretty and sounded nice, and standing in front of him now, he decided both things were true.
“Well it’s good to meet you too, Roberto.”
“Bobby! Call me Bobby. Please.”
Scott stood behind Jean, stifling his laughter. After Jean beckoned her boyfriend to come and join the rest of the party, Scott ducked down close to Roberto.
“Don’t worry, I looked like an idiot too when I first met her.”
Roberto punched him in the arm.
The party went on. Dazz had made some cocktails and mocktails for the younger party goers, but Roberto stole away with a couple of the former. He explored the apartment. It was nice, there was music for the party and decorations with lights and glitter. Dazz really liked glitter, it seemed. They played games for a bit, betting candy on games of blackjack where they only sort of followed the rules. Roberto made off like a bandit with a haul of peanut butter and chocolate sweets. He met people who seemed nice, but their names quickly spilled out of his ears and onto the floor, never to be seen again.
Roberto left the kitchen, laughing and waving to Dazz as she poured more cocktails. He snacked on a chocolate egg and surveyed the party. Everyone looked very pretty through his eyes, which at this point were like sheets of glass with one or two or five cocktails poured down their surfaces. His eyes came to rest on a girl standing by the far wall of the living room, plastic cup in hand, eyes wandering. Bored.
Roberto stared at her pixie cut and the long yellow coat draped over her shoulder. A pair of pink sunglasses was propped up on her head, nestled in the brush of her fine hair. Roberto kept staring, chocolate egg frozen in space. He muttered to himself: “She looks so… cool.”
—
A visibly tipsy young man, with brown skin and a dark swoop of hair, approached Jubilee. She noticed, eyed him up and down, and stared briefly at the pile of individually wrapped candy he held in front of him.
“Uhm… hi,” he said.
“Hi,” Jubilee said back to him.
He looked down and picked up a candy from his pile. “Do you want a chocolate egg?”
Jubilee laughed. “Uhm… no thanks, man. Is that what you were eating?” She pointed to a smudge of peanut butter on his cheek.
“Oh! Uhm… no. I mean, yeah I was, sorry.”
She chuckled. “It’s fine dude.”
“Yeah. I’m Roberto. Bobby.”
“I’m Jubilee.”
“Ha! Wait, sorry.”
"…"
“I’m gonna go,” Roberto said, turning to leave with his nest of eggs.
“Yeah,” Jubilee agreed, turning also.
—
Roberto sat on the couch, exhausting his egg supply in misery, and using every bit of nonchalance he had to stalk the girl with his eyes before she eventually left the party. When she did, waving goodbye to Dazz and giving her a hug, Roberto let out a death rattle of a groan, and sank into the couch.
“No luck with the Mädchen, mein Freund?"
Roberto whipped around to see a young man, maybe a year older than him, resting his head on the back of the couch directly behind him. His eyes gleamed like a fox under a spike of blue tinged hair.
“What? What are you talking about?” Roberto asked.
“What is the saying?” The man asked in a heavy German accent. “Like ships, passing in the night?”
Roberto stared at him, baffled, until the mystery man stood and sauntered off.
Roberto shouted: “Who even are you?!”