Chapter Text
Vincent yawned as he slowly woke up, tired from staying up so late the night before. He let himself just lay in his bed for a moment feeling the weight of his blanket and noticing the odd smell of dirty clothes that had been attempted to be covered by a heavy spray of febreze.
“I should probably get up” he though. Vincent sighed heavily before kicking of his blanket and sitting up in his bed. He quickly thanked whoever the hell was up there for giving him the day off from his god awful job at a local coffee shop.
Vincent hated his job
He grabbed his phone to check to see if he had gotten any new notifications while he was asleep. He had one from about an hour ago.
PENDLETON (11:18 A.M) : Hey Vincent! Don't forget about the party tonight. In case you forgot, it's at 6pm at Anthony's house. Don't be late!!!!!
Vincent groaned, he had forgotten about this event. Anthony often held events and parties for no good reason other than to be stupid and get drunk, but apparently he had an actual reason this time. He had finally finished college and got his degree in who knows what. Vincent didn’t care. He didn't understand why it was such a big deal, it's just college. I mean he dropped out and he was doing great!.. He was doing well. doing fine. He was getting by.
Vincent didn't understand other people.
He usually wouldn't go to any of these as he didn't really like any of Anthony's friends, or anyone for that matter, but Pendleton had apparently decided that Vincent needed to get out of his sad little apartment for something other than work for a change. He let out one more sigh before scanning the room. Clothes everywhere, dirty plates and cups, and leftovers from the takeout he'd been eating the past couple nights.
“Ill clean it tomorrow,” he said to himself. The same way he said it yesterday and the day before. He wouldn't clean it. He knew that, but it made him feel better saying it anyway. Like a promise of getting his life on track, even if he completely believed it would be many years before he actually did anything that mattered, if ever.
He grabbed one of the last clean pairs of socks and underwear before grabbing his favorite pants that he wore everyday and a basic dirty white shirt with a band he enjoyed plastered on the front. He put down a mental note to bring his stuff to the laundry mat soon. He searched around a bit for his binder before realizing it was still on and he had accidentally slept with it on.
Shit.
Obviously if this was a one time thing It would have been fine, but this seemed to be a recurring issue. It's not Vincent's fault he keeps forgetting to take it off! Whatever, he’d just wear tape today. He actually preferred tape in the sense that it was more comfortable and easy to breathe in, but he could never quite get his chest as flat as he could with his binder.
He took a quick shower, making sure to avoid looking down while the less then ideal cold poor pressured water hit his head and back. He cleaned his hair and himself with one of those ‘three in one’ men’s shower bottles.
If he was being honest he would have rather had his shampoo, conditioner, and soap all separated, but he was to unmotivated to go through the process of opening each bottle, putting it in his hands, and lathering himself or his hair up three times instead of just one. Not that he could really afford anything more then his three in one anyways.
After he got dressed he went to his small kitchen that was connected to the rest of the room, and opened up his fridge. Assortments of random take out from the past week or so, a half full gallon of milk, butter, some condiments, and a couple eggs lay in there unsorted.
“I should probably swing by the store when I go do my laundry” he said, although it’s not like anyone was around to hear. He grabbed a half eaten sandwich from last night and filled a cup up with milk.
————————————————————-
Vincent was scrolling on his phone watching random videos that he was barely even processing while curled up on his bed. Suddenly he got a call from someone. Vincent picked up.
“Hmm?” A half awake Vincent managed to mumble to the microphone
“Are you almost here? Things started up a while ago” Vincent heard the voice of Pendleton, who was most liking standing outside the house of the party judging by the muted music in the back.
“Yeah” Vincent lied. He hadn’t even left his apartment yet. Whatever, it wasn’t a far bus ride he’d only be a bit late.
“Alright!” Pendleton said sounding pleased with the fact that Vincent hadn’t actually forgotten about the event, well he did but pen didn’t need to know that. “See you soon! Oh by the way Vincent, there’s someone I want you to meet that I think you’d like! He’s very…” vincent put down his phone and got ready to go out while letting pendleton continue to talk about some guy he wanted Vincent to meet. Alison or bumlistor. Some stupid name like that.
After putting on his battered up shoes, brushing his hair a tad, and putting on his favorite jacket he grabbed his phone. Pendleton was still talking.
“Yeah yeah.. that’s great! Hey look I got to go. I’ll see you in a tad Pen” he quickly muttered to the phone before hanging up on his.. friend? Colleague?… before hanging up on Pendleton. quickly he made his way out the door and down to the nearest bus stop heading to Anthony’s neighborhood.
By the time Vincent arrived, a lot of people were already there. He would bet Anthony didn’t even know most of these people. He looked around after walking inside and noticed a couple people he had seen before somewhere. Probably randoms who went to his uni before he left or maybe he had just passed by them. Either way they weren’t very relevant to him.
All of a sudden he felt a sweaty hand hit his back and he jumped up not expecting that. He whipped his head around to see who had the audacity to..
“Jesus Pendleton! Warn a guy. What the hells wrong with you?” It came out a tad ruder then he intended, but pen had scared the shit out of him after dragging him to a party he had no desire to be at.
“Ah sorry vin!” Pendleton said apologeticly. “I’m glad you made it. I was starting to get worried somthing happened, or you just decided you didn’t want to come..”
He didn’t.
“Yeah sorry, bus ran late” he lied. “So what’s up?” He and the boy who had forced him to come talked for a bit about nothing in particular.
“Oh hey, there he is! Alastor over here!” Pendleton interrupted Vincent’s small schpile about a awful shark movie he had seen the other night, going into detail about how inaccurate it was while managing to to talk about every fact he knew about sharks. Vincent turned around to see who Pendleton apparently thought was more important than sharks. He saw a man in fancy clothes that were overly appropriate for this party’s unspoken dress code. Alastor, he had said. Where did he hear that from? Oh was this the guy Pendleton wanted Vincent to meet?
“Ahh greetings Pendleton! It’s nice to see you again!” Alastor said politely.
“Greeting?” Vincent thought to himself. Who says that? He examined the man infront of him. He had light brown skin with very soft looking looking dark hair and matching eyes; he looked very cleaned up and smelled amazing. The man gave off a wise aura that told Vincent he was probably a couple years older then himself, but he looked great nonetheless.
“Are you just going to continue gawking or are you going to respond?” Alastor said in a tone Vincent though rather rude. Who does this guy think he is? He wasn’t gawking, he was just.. looking.
“Uhhh” is all Vincent managed to get out of his mouth.
Alastor let out a sort of laugh sigh. “I said it’s very nice to meet you Vincent. Although you were off in your own world. You know i think my neighbors dog is named Vincent! Ha you kind of remind me of it in a way”
what?
Who says that to someone you JUST met. ‘ oh yeah you remind me of a dog ‘ what does that even mean?
“Uhh yeah.” Vincent said confused and honestly angry at the nerve of this man. “Why are you.. dressed up so much? I mean this isn’t really a special event or anything..”
Alastor looked at him and blinked before responding “looking nice doesn’t just need to be for special events, although I would argue that this IS a special event for dear Anthony. You know you could have at least put in a bit of effort to look nice for your friends celebration..”
Who the fuck does he think he is? ‘Put in for effort to look nice’? He put in plenty effort for this event. I mean it was just a graduation party, no big deal. Alastor probably didn’t even know Anthony personally! I mean not that Vincent and Anthony are best pals or anything, but Vincent is probably closer to him the Alastor is.
Before Vincent could get the chance to respond Alastor turned his head back to Pendleton. “I really must be of Pendleton, but it was truly great to catch up!” He pat pens shoulder before turning his attention to Vincent again “it was a pleasure to meet you Vinny, I hope to see you around. Do invest in new pants, your look a little torn up.”
Vincent looked down at his pants and looked back at Alastor. “Uhh..”
“Tootles!” Alastor said to the two men infront of him before making his way out the door. When he was gone Vincent and Pendleton looked at each other.
“Isn’t he great?”
“He’s so weird”
They stared at each other, clearly not expecting the difference in opinion about Alastor.
“Are you kidding me pen? That guy is just some pretentious asshole! He’s so odd and annoying!” Vincent said to Pendleton in hopes he would agree.
“Ugh Vincent your just mad that he told you to put in more effort for your friend! Which to be honest, you could put in a little more of an effort with people and yourself.” Is Pendleton serious?
“Are you kidding me? He basically insulted my pants and told me to upgrade my closet!” Vincent was so annoyed at this point. First he’s dragged to a stupid party for some dude he’s only really slightly friends with, and then forced to meet some weird prick that had told Vincent that he reminded him of a dog!
“Vin your so negative! He was just trying to help” Pendleton was also getting quite annoyed at Vincent’s attitude towards everything. Vincent just looked at the boy for a minute before deciding it wasn’t worth it.
“Whatever” he said simply before stomping over to the door and leaving, ignoring Pendletons hollers telling him to come back and that they’d talk about it. He would just go home and watch videos by himself untill he fell asleep. He didn’t even get to see Anthony. Before he could get off the property though he bumped into something, no someone. Alastor. He looked up at scoffed before trying to walk off to the bus station.
“Well excuse you” the older of the two men said at Vincent. The fucking nerve of this guy.
“What are you still doing here? I thought you were leaving five minutes ago?” Vincent spat.
“I am leaving, just thought I would say good bye to a few more people to be, you know, polite. But now im walking to my car.” Alastor said in a calm almost humored voice
‘Yeah you’d know all about being polite wouldn’t you’ Vincent thought, but instead said “what? To good for public transport?”
“Afraid I don’t enjoy being cramed into vehicles with random strangers, and sitting on chairs that have been sat on by many unclean others. So to answer your question, yes I am. Would you like a ride or do you enjoy public transportation?” Alastor offered.
What the hell? Does he want a ride from Alastor?! Definitely not. Buttt on the other hand, he gets a free ride home, and he doesn’t have to walk to the bus stop, and wait for the bus and.. “fine. But just because your so desperate to give me a free ride home.” Vincent smirked.
“Well it would be quite rude to not atleast offer. Come I’ll show you to my vehicle.” They walked just down the street and stopped in front of a dark red car. Vincent wasn’t a car except, but it seemed pretty old, or at minimum was designed to look old. The inside looked just as old and the outside, but was very clean and smelled as good as Alastor did. Jesus why is Vincent in this car?
The ride was silent other then the beginning when Vincent gave Alastor his address. When they got to his apartment Vincent opened the door and was about to leave with out a word before Alastor decided they needed a goodbye.
“Have a good night Vincent. I hope my comment on your attire didn’t come across as to harsh, I apologize if it did and I do take it back. I will not be rescinding my comment about your dogness though, you do give off that desperate puppy vibe.
What? Before Vincent could respond Alastor drives off and leaves him standing in slight shock.
That may be the weirdest most aggravating man he has ever met, yet he can’t seem to get him out of his mind.