and i thought i had family problems :: axel, spenser

But it did matter. Poppy wanted to say something, wanted to press the matter, and if she'd still had the buzz she'd had at the beginning of their meeting, she definitely would have. Now that the alcohol had worn off, though, she could appreciate that Axel didn't want to talk about it right now.

"I need to tell Mal, but would you mind? Walking me back?" She wasn't sure she could go back into the bar and pretend like nothing had happened, but she felt bad that Axel's night was being cut short because of his creepy asshole brother.

"'Course I don't mind," Axel said. So Poppy ran back in to tell her friend she was leaving. Axel, not exactly in a social mood anymore, waited outside. He kind of just wanted to go back to Aunt Pia's, get fucking wasted by himself, and go to sleep. But he didn't mind walking Poppy home first, she had to've been pretty freaked out by everything that had just happened.

"To campus, right?" he asked as Poppy reappeared. Of course he knew that as an unsettled student she lived on campus, but he didn't know what else to say in the moment.

Poppy nodded when he asked if she lived on campus, and the two started walking down the road that connected Downtown to Redfern. Sansa, as a snowy owl, flew overhead, keeping an eye out around them.

"So, the good news is that I won't be waking up with a hang over tomorrow," Poppy said, trying to bring a little light to the situation as they walked away from the bars.

"Not me. I'm gonna go home and drown my sorrows," Axel said. He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. Blue climbed up out of his shirt and joined Poppy's daemon in the sky. He watched them fly around for a second before looking back down at Poppy. "Sorry. I guess both our night's got kinda ruined." Kinda?

"It's not your fault that jerk-face showed up. He seems like a real tool. I'm sorry you have to put up with him," Poppy told Axel.

"And drinking alone is no fun," she added. "Are you still staying with your aunt?" she asked, remembering what he'd told her this morning.

Popalop wrote:"It's not your fault that jerk-face showed up. He seems like a real tool. I'm sorry you have to put up with him."

Oh, you have no fucking idea.

Popalopper wrote:"And drinking alone is no fun. Are you still staying with your aunt?"

"It's not so bad. Better than being sober alone," Axel replied half-seriously. After what had just happened, he needed a fucking drink, alone or not. "And yeah, I am."

Poppy smiled and gave a short laugh. "You know, I--"

She was cut off by a giggling group of clio that came out of the dark. Definitely drunk, definitely heading out to the bars. "Hiiiii!" one girl said, waving at Poppy and Axel as they approached. "I love that skirt!" she told Poppy. "And you--you're pretty cute too," she added flirtatiously to Axel as she walked past.

Poppy smiled and held back a laugh. She turned around and walked backward for a second to call out, "Thank you!" The group never stopped walking, so she couldn't be sure if the girl had heard her or not, but Poppy was glad to have something to laugh about. Drunk girls were always so nice.

"Look at you," Poppy told Axel, playfully bumping into his shoulder as they kept walking, "You're just picking up all the ladies, aren't you?"

If Axel hadn't been in such a bad mood he probably would have said something flirtatious back at the cute drunk girl who complimented him, but instead he just gave her a small-yet-amused smile and turned and watched as she walked away with her group. Damn, maybe he should have stayed at Redfern after all.

He turned his attention back to Poppy when she playfully nudged him. "The ladies do seem to love me," he agreed. He had to admit, despite the disaster that this night had been, and the dumpster fire that the rest of the weekend promised to be now that Spenser and Asshole Dad were here, he was at least glad that in this moment, Poppy was keeping up a lighthearted mood and not pressing him about his family or anything. It made it easier to pretend things were normal for a little while.

"We should do something. Instead of going home," she told Axel. The group of drunk clio heading toward the bars had made her miss the drunk feeling she'd had at the start of the night.

She looked over and up at him. "I mean, if you'd prefer drinking alone, that's cool too." She shrugged nonchalantly like it was totally up to him whether he wanted to or not. "I wouldn't judge you or anything." She gave him a mischievous grin.

"It's not that, I'm just not really in the mood to be out here anymore," Axel said, giving Poppy an apologetic look. He didn't wanna risk running into Spenser again, or gods forbid his dad, plus the little surprise reunion had completely ruined his mood. It wasn't that he didn't want to hang out with Poppy, and in fact he felt a little bad because he had told her he would come out with her.

"I mean, if you really wanna be my drinking buddy, we can both go to my aunt's. You can have the guest bed and I'll crash on the floor," he added, to make it clear this wasn't some assholeish ploy to get her back to his place overnight. "Or I guess we could go to your dorm."

"Oh, you don't want to drink at my dorm. Little rooms." Poppy told him. "And when my roommate gets back there will probably be vomiting," she added honestly. "Plus, I don't think I've ever been to, like, the townie side of Flint Village."

She wondered if it would be weird, visiting the home of one of her past teachers. And, you know, getting drunk there with her nephew. Not weird, Poppy decided. Awesome.

And so the two changed course and headed for Aunt Pia's house. She lived in a little three-bedroom cottage close to the beach. The first thing Axel noticed when they quietly sneaked inside was that the house was nearly empty. Both guest rooms and the couch were unoccupied, and only Aunt Pia's bedroom door was closed.

They went into the kitchen where Axel found a bottle of white wine. He could buy a new one to replace it tomorrow, he decided, and started pouring for the two of them. "One for you," he said, sliding a glass over to her. He poured himself double the amount he had given her. "And two for me."

"Cheers," he said, clinking his glass on hers before taking a drink.

With an amused smile and a raised eyebrow, Poppy watched as Axel filled his wineglass near to the rim of the cup. She took her own glass in hand and swirled it a little. "I don't think I've ever used an actual wineglass," she told him. "Or tasted wine this good," she added after taking a sip. It was definitely unlike anything she'd drank at parties or at the bars.

"Us teeny-boppers usually get drunk on cheap booze and loud music." She looked around the small beach cottage, loving the feel of the quiet atmosphere. "But I dig this too," she added.

"Oh, I'm a cheap drunk too. This is my aunt's," Axel said, taking another exceptionally long sip. "Don't worry, I'm not a complete dick, I'll pay her back."

The two continued to drink and chat for a while, pouring themselves more wine until the bottle was nearly empty. By then he wasn't feeling as bad about what had transpired earlier, or at the very least he was tipsy enough to not think about it as hard.

"Y'know, Popalop," he said, finishing the last of the wine by drinking it straight out of the bottle. "It's a good thing my mom and your uncle aren't here. That would've been weird, right?"

Poppy laughed at the sight of Axel drinking the remainder of the wine straight from the bottle. "Popalop, huh?" she said, still laughing. "I don't think I've heard that one before."

Axel wrote:It's a good thing my mom and your uncle aren't here. That would've been weird, right?

"Wait," she said, holding up one finger. "What do you mean by that?" It almost sounded like Axel was insinuating something was going on between Uncle Henri and Axel's mom.

"Just...just think of how it would look. I walk in in the middle of the night, bringing some girl home with me, and it's his niece," Axel explained slowly. "I mean we know nothing is going on, but they don't. Awkward, right?" Plus the fact that said niece apparently wasn't supposed to know Henri was even here for some reason. "Good thing they're out on a date or whatever."

Poppy was about to laugh, knowing she'd misunderstood and agreeing that it would be funny to see Uncle Henri's face, but then

Axel wrote:Good thing they're out on a date or whatever.

"No, no," Poppy said through a short laugh. "They can't be on like, a date-date. My uncle is married."

"What?" Axel laughed too, thinking Poppy was joking. "No he's not."

Then he remembered something through his alcohol-induced haze. Something weird Elias had said about his mom. About Henri not being able to save her? It had been really strange and Axel hadn't asked about it, but he realized now he actually didn't know what had happened to her. Was she dead? She obviously wasn't around.

"Wait, is he?" he asked Poppy, hoping she could clear this up.

"You're serious, then?" she asked, re-positioning herself better on the couch so that she could see Axel more clearly. "Uncle Henri is on a date with your mother?" She looked over at the clock that told her it was nearing 2 in the morning.

If Poppy had been completely sober she probably would have been more mindful of the fact that Axel knew Elias and that because of that it wasn't exactly Poppy's place to give a tell-all, but as it was, she wasn't completely sober and she was just talking about her own aunt and uncle...

She shook her head. "I mean, he's married yeah, but it's like, this whole thing." Wow. Uncle Henri on a date. Poppy looked back up at Axel. "This is weird, but my Aunt, like, disappeared a few years ago. Uncle Henri just--it never seemed like he would move on, you know?" Wow.

"Oh. Oh fuck, I'm sorry," Axel said, shaking his head. He guessed he had just assumed she was dead, which was...well, not better...but not worse either? From his aunt and grandma he knew how much someone just straight up disappearing without a trace could fuck up your life.

"Well...I mean..." Axel struggled. Now it was weird. Because he knew something romantic was going on between Henri and his mom, and the fact that they were still out together at this time meant--well, he knew what it meant but he didn't wanna think about it. And it didn't bother him, because Henri was a nice dude and it wasn't like he just had this wife back at home that he was cheating on or anything. But it might seem that way to Poppy, who had actually known the wife. Her aunt. "Fuck. What a fucked up thing."

"Fucked up is putting it mildly," Poppy said, wishing they hadn't finished the wine. She usually tried not to think of Aunt Estela because it always made her feel panicked on the inside, which Poppy did not like. It opened up a lot of emotions that Poppy didn't care to deal with--especially not when drunk with a guy she'd been having (mostly) fun with.

She bit the inside of her cheek to try to sort through, with a fuzzy mind, what this meant. Uncle Henri had given up on Aunt Estela. Elias had never forgiven Uncle Henri for not doing more, but Poppy had known her uncle (and her parents) had done a lot. As much as they could. It was how she could live with the disappearance--how she'd been able to keep going. But for some reason, maybe due to the alcohol or the suddenness of the new knowledge, Poppy felt a twinge of anger at Uncle Henri for the first time, herself.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to process this," she told him, still trying to work through her emotions without actually getting emotional.

Well, fuck. Now Axel felt like he had fucked everything up all over again. First his psychotic estranged family had to show up on the island, and how he had gone and brought up what was clearly a super painful topic for Poppy, not to mention he had probably accidentally made the next few Selway family gatherings super awkward by spilling secrets.

"I shouldn't've said anything," he said quietly to Poppy. "Maybe we should just talk about something else. And not bring this up to anyone else." This was obviously a lot more complicated of a situation than he'd known, but at the same time, he wanted things to work out for his mom, and Henri was the first decent guy she'd brought around pretty much ever.

"It's fine," Poppy told him. She rested her neck on the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling. "Does Elias know all this?" she asked, still looking up. "Does he know they're, like, together or whatever?"

Elias had stopped talking to her years ago, and overtime Poppy had become angry with him, but she still loved him. With how hard he'd taken the last four years, she couldn't imagine this latest advancement would be easy on him.

"Well, yeah," Axel said with a shrug, as apparently Poppy didn't want to change the subject. She also didn't agree not to bring it up with the rest of her family so...there was that. Great. He got up to go search the kitchen for more alcohol. "Henri even introduced us all. That's how I met Elias in the first place."

No luck. Aunt Pia wasn't a big drinker. Sigh.

After awhile Poppy stopped studying the pattern on the ceiling and sat up. "Maybe this is a good thing," she said, more to herself than to Axel. "It's a step toward healing, or something."

Don't forget Uncle Henri's date is Axel's mom, Sansa reminded. Don't talk about her like some object.

"Sorry, I know this is probably weird to talk about, or something," Poppy apologized. "Family drama seems to be in over supply this evening." She laughed and shook her head.