forum You're my Imaginary Friend (O/O Closed)

Started May 08, 2022 by @Bunty group

tune

Roddy groaned but smiled a little. "You get what I mean though. It's a bad habit and I don't like what it does to you." More accurately, he didn't like what it did to himself. With Dan's grip on reality loosened, Roddy's became shaky. He became stressed, panicked, felt like his world was caving in. And in reality, if Dan truly wanted to get rid of him, he could use tobacco or alcohol until his reality was so warped that Roddy couldn't exist. No guarantees he wouldn't come back when his mind returned but he could disappear for a while.

(Right? It really shows a new light how a person's actions can affect the people around them)

"M'kay," Dan said softly with a shrug, "I'll keep that in mind, Roddy." He would keep it in mind- the very far back of his mind when he would buy another next time Johnny was feeling lenient. Dan's head was already messed up enough as it was, it was so very clear as he was talking to nothing, so what more would a bit of drugs do? Especially when he already worked hard enough at school, and he didn't have many things to pass the time in the big empty house he had to call home.

(Ooo, we should do that sometime. Just have Dan just get 12 kinds of screwed up at a party or something and then realize that Roddy's gone and panic)

Roddy fell quiet, just sighing with a shake of his head. He readjusted his brown jacket, wrapping it tighter around himself. "Is it just me or is it kinda cold in here?" He shivered, rubbing his arms and trying to get some warmth back into them.

(I may or may not have something along those lines planned 😂)

"It’s just you," Dan said softly, humor twinkling lightly back into his voice, and turned the car heat on low nonetheless. Despite how he wouldn't really listen to his imaginary friend about drugs, he couldn't stop the soft part of his heart that cared about the string of his imagination sitting beside him in the car.

(Oh I love when evil thoughts come together)

Roddy hummed in appreciation with a smile, settling back in his seat and letting the warmth hit him. He was always cold, as figments of the imagination have no body temperature to keep consistent. He was basically cold blooded, it's why he was always dressed in so many layers.

Dan pulled into the driveway of his parents' house. They had a fountain of a small angel, more like a cupid rather than a realistic angel, with its hands held out as if to receive some grace from God. The water pump for it broke years ago and his parents never bothered to fix it. The house was huge, putting the family's wealth on full display. White siding with deep black trim, windows galore, and two large wooden doors that looked more out of a fairytale rather than a modern house. "Home sweet hell," Daniel muttered before turning off the car, grabbing his bags of snacks and his backpack, and made his way for the house.

Roddy rolled his eyes and followed Dan up to the house, fixing his glasses as he did. "Oh come on, don't be like that. It can't be that bad when you've got me, right?" He chuckled, flashing a bright smile. "Besides, now you can ask Anna more about the party. And get that reading done but I've got a feeling I'm going to be doing it more than you."

The bright smile… Dan replied to it with a shrug, even if it did nudge him away from the foul mood that crept up on him. "I suppose," Daniel said with a sigh, shaking his head as a smile snuck onto his own face and he unlocked the front door. He made his way into the home absent of sentimental value and went straight to his room. There was a couple of scuffs and breaks on the drywall, one suspiciously punch-sized shape whole in the wall just outside his room. Dan shouldered his door open and chucked his things onto his bed.

The room was fairly barren, the most notable items being a couple of faded posters of small artists and bands on the walls, a binder full of pokemon cards collecting dust on his desk, and a TV hung on the wall. Daniel plopped himself down on his bed, grabbed an energy drink and pulled out his phone. As expected, there was a text from Anna with her address, time of the party, and a bring your own beer message. Dan tossed a glance to Roddy, "Should I respond to this or just go to the party Saturday?"

Roddy hopped up onto Dan's desk, resting his feet on the rolling chair in front of it like he usually did. "Answer it! Start a conversation! Do you know how awkward it is to show up to a party expecting to flirt with a girl that you've never spoken to before in a friendly way beforehand? Don't be that guy, nobody likes that guy."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Flirt? How the heck am I supposed to flirt?" Heck, Dan wasn't even sure he knew what flirting was. Not that he wanted to flirt with Anna, she was nice, but Dan could not go from zero to a hundred that fast. He could hardly go from zero to twenty-five. The only person he ever actually felt comfortable talking to -not just a 'hi, let's get this group project done' type of conversation- was Roddy. Every other conversation was stiff and awkward, Daniel was much more of a listener than a talker, and it felt like everyone expected him to fill in the uncomfortable silences.

Roddy groaned, his head falling back as he did. "Dan come on. You cannot possibly be this helpless when it comes to talking to girls. How are you ever supposed to get a girlfriend when I'm the only one you ever talk to." He raised an eyebrow at Daniel with a dead stare.

"I don't know," Dan said, flopping back onto his bed. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to say to this," he lifted his phone, "Thanks for the invite? I can't wait? How is she supposed to respond to that, what if I just kill the conversation?" Daniel's eyes flickered to Roddy. He was helpless when it came to social situations, that much was very clear.

"Just ask what kind of beer everyone else is bringing. Don't want there to be doubles, right? So ask a question that actually needs answers and strike up a conversation from there."

Dan hummed in thought and agreement of the suggestion before typing out his response and hitting send. "Roddy…" Dan murmured, his eyes finding his imaginary friend. Dan wasn't sure how the party would go, and with Roddy there… He closed his eyes, shaking his head. He could deal with that later. "I don't know what I do without being able to talk with you."

"You'd be very lonely and much more socially inept." Roddy laughed, jumping down from his spot on the desk to sit backwards in the chair instead. "Besides, you enjoy my company, don't you?"

"I do. Most of the time," Dan told him with a small laugh, but his eyes went back to his phone when his felt the small buzz notification. The text from Anna. We just got a bunch of cheap crap, anything strong would be good.

Dan didn't hesitate for long before responding. Drugs too or just alcohol?

Only a few seconds before the next response from Anna. Bring whatever you got. My parents are gone so we can go wild.

Awesome, can't wait. Will there be music too, or games?

Anna once again responded quickly. Yeah, all the good stuff. I know there's already some people planning college pool and beer pong. You'll have to join me for a game of strip poker ;)

Dan paused at that texted, unsure of how he felt by that and unsure how to respond. "Roddy? I don't know how to respond again," Dan said softly, chewing on his lower lip before grabbing a bag of chips to focus on instead.

He leaned over to read the message and threw his head back with a groan. "Danny, come on. You can't possibly be this useless. She's trying to flirt! Just play along! Something like, I don't know, don't threaten me with a good time. Something like that!"

Dan's face, usually so serious and unexpressive, turned a shade of red as he flushed. Rather than open his mouth an get tongue tied, he quickly responded as instructed. Just after he hit send, he paused once again. "But- what if she actually wants to play strip poker with me?" He asked, as if that possibility hadn't been real until now, as he grabbed a handful of chips and stuffing them in his face.

With a case of his dad's good beer, and bag of assorted drugs, and a casual but cool outfit on, Daniel pulled up to the address Anna gave him. There were plenty of cars parked on the lawn and the sides of the street, and it was clear the party had already started as Dan turned the car off. Lights and music vibrated the huge house, it was a good thing it was located in the middle of nowhere. "Okay, how do I look?" Daniel asked Roddy, taking a deep breath as he clenched and unclenched his hands.

"For the last time, you look great. I've only told you every five minutes for the past two hours." Roddy sighed with a chuckle. "Now get in there and live life! Have fun! Talk to a girl for God's sake!" He flashed a bright smile with two thumbs up. "I believe in you!"

Dan made himself nod and put on a confident smile. Okay. This was going to be great. He slipped out of the car and made his way to the entrance of the house. Only one moment of hesitation before he tried the handle and walked inside, making a point for himself to not look at Roddy again.

Lights of a variety of colors flashed. To his left was the dance floor, where there was a mob of people grinding on each other. To his right was another group of people playing college pool. He opted to go the college pool route, wandering in slowly and trying to take in all the new sights. The place reeked of smoke and alcohol, which he supposed wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Danny! You made it!" Anna shouted across the room, and Dan went to her like a moth to a flame. She immediately grabbed his arm. "C'mon, me and the girls were just about to start a game- oh, you got good stuff." Then she was tugging him to a different room, one that was slightly quieter, with five other girls from their class.

Roddy just followed like he always did, nervous around the big group of people but just stayed quiet and went along with things. When Anna called Dan over, he was weirdly relieved. He could handle Anna and a small group. This big party was making him uncomfortable. So when they were gathered in the smaller room with the girls, Roddy just chose a corner and stood back. He was more than content to let Dan have fun and he just watch.

Anna grabbed Daniel's beers and the bag of drugs, and the girls started dishing it out amongst themselves, leaving Daniel to stand awkwardly to the side. "So, Anna, uh, I didn't know you were into this kind of stuff," Dan said softly, tucking his hands into his pockets. He felt uncomfortable. There was something off about the room, maybe it was of the vapors in the air or the fact he was the only guy, but he was unsettled. Maybe he could just take something for that.

"Oh yeah, only when the parents aren't around. Good girls are girls that haven't got caught yet, right?" She offered with a bubbly grin, and a couple of her friends hummed in agreement. A couple of them were clearly out of their heads. Anna cracked open a can of beer and put it in Daniel's hand, and he took that for invitation to drink. Yeah, that would calm him down, get him more comfortable. "We're playing our version of two truths and a lie. We ask you three questions, and you have to tell the truth for two and lie for one. If we can correctly guess the lie, you gotta take a shot, snort this," Anna held up a baggie of some white powder, "or take two of these," She then held up a bowl of assorted pills. "As you can see, since I'm still pretty damn sober, I'm a good liar. Elise, on the other hand, is really bad at lying," She pointed out, gesturing to a girl who looked like she was on another planet.

"Oh," was all Dan could say, but he quickly added, "It is safe though?" Even if Dan wasn't exactly a stranger to a couple low risk drugs, this kind of stuff seemed a bit… well, it couldn't be that bad if Anna was doing it, right?

"Of course, Danny," Anna immediately answered, swatting at his arm playfully. Her bubbly smile turned into a playful mischievous one, "and since we've been playing for a while, I think you should have to start with a couple of turns to even the playing field."

"Dan, I don't know about this." Roddy softly piped up from his corner. "This seems really dangerous. Someone could get hurt." He was scared for his friend, mostly about what those mystery pills could do. Especially mixed with alcohol and the other drugs.

((I'm gonna dump a whole bunch of conversation here at once, so that way you don't have to keep writing that Roddy is just vibing in the corner haha and waiting for me to respond with more info. You can write what Roddy is doing during this, and just assume Daniel is completely ignoring him cause Dan is being a bit of a moron right now))

Dan avoided the urge to glance back towards Roddy. No, this would be fine. Besides, if it got too far, surely someone could help them drink some water and rest. "Fair enough," Dan said in agreement to the extra turns, ignoring Roddy, and took a seat on the floor. Anna was right beside him a moment later, her knee touching his.

"Okay, so let's start you off with an easy one," Anna said, a little smirk on her lips. "Let's see… What's your favorite color?"
"You got any pets?" Another girl offered.
The bad liar, Elise, chimed in lazily, "Do you have blu- grey eyes? Eyeballs? Seeing holes?"

Dan paused for a moment, then answered, "Uh, okay. Green is my favorite color, I have a dog, and my eyes are actually brown."

Anna grinned and immediately pointed out, "You don't have a dog, that's your lie."

"You got me," Dan admitted, then said, "Start me out with a shot." Anna grinned even more and poured the shot for him. He took it, and tried to keep a stern face, but it went down like a raging fire.

"Next round of questions," Anna started, her hand falling to rest on his forearm.
"What kind of jobs does your parents have?"
"Have you ever been out of the state?"
"What's the scariest moment in your life?"

Dan didn't have to think long to know what question he would lie to. "My parents own a company together. Once, I went to Colorado. I got into a car accident a couple months ago and rolled a couple times."

One of the other girls spoke this time, "You're lying about the Colorado one?" Dan shook his head, a small smile of victory creeping onto his face. Some of the girls pouted at the loss.

"Okay, so- ladies, we forgot to tell him about the lying more than once rule!" Anna started, swatting at the air as if she was on a silly little television show. "If you lie more than once, and we catch you… you gotta take all three- shot, snort, and pills. Okay, girls, questions?" As if they had already planned this part, the girls fluidly listed off the three questions:

"Have you ever had a girlfriend before?"
"What's the worst injury you've gotten?"
"Do you like Anna?"

Dan went bright red. He couldn't form words for a moment. How was he supposed to answer that? The grin on the girls' faces just confirmed that they caught him in a pinch. "Uhh, um… I…" He couldn't just leave. But he couldn't answer all those questions honestly. "I, um, I've- I've had a girlfriend before. And the worst injury I've gotten-" Daniel touched the scar on his lip, "it was just a bad fishing accident. And- and-" He looked to Anna. Even from afar, it was clear Dan looked like a fish on land. He was socially suffocating. "I- of course you're nice, I like you, you're a great friend-"

"Do you want to bang her, bozo?" One of the girls chimed in, and Daniel turned into a bright red mess. One of the other girls thankfully added to save him, "She means, do you like her romantically?"

"Th-those two questions are very different; I don't want to 'bang' anybody- I respect you too much to- I-" Dan swallowed and downed the rest of his beer quite quickly, hoping it would help put him at ease. "I- I don't like you like that, I swear, you're just a friend to me," Daniel lied. He chickened out. With all of Anna's friends there, and Anna right there, watching him like a cat watching a mouse, he couldn't say it like that.

There was silence for a moment. And then Anna had a feral grin on her face. "All of that was a lie. Your tell is your eyes, they falter when you lie," Anna told him, and he went even more red. She poured him a shot, grabbed two mystery pills from the bowl, and the baggie of white powder. He ashamedly reached for the shot, down it again like the first. Gosh, his throat burned. She handed him the pills mystery pills, their shapes a bit odd for normal pills, and swallowed them. It felt like a slime covered his throat and crawled up to his tongue. It felt off. Finally, the baggie… Anna had spread out a line from her knee to her mid-thigh.

"A-Anna," Daniel's voice wavered. He was clearly uncomfortable with this. With the whole situation that was unfolding. "I don't want to do that," He said softly, shrinking as if he could hide. Anna reached out a hand and brushed her delicate fingers on the side of his neck and dragged them to his collarbone.

"Oh hon, I don't mind at all. I think you're kinda cute too. But it's your turn, and you know the rules. You gotta snort," She commanded, and slipped her hand behind his head. She buried her fingers in his curly hair as she tugged his head down. He stiffened, not wanting to move any closer to her. "Come on Danny. Don't you want me to like you? I'll let you treat me to a date if you do this. Plus, this stuff is good. You'll be feeling it by the time we get back to you after we go around the circle again with questions. You gotta do it, Danny." She tugged him closer, and he finally obeyed, as uncomfortable as he was, and snorted the powder. He'd never snorted anything before, and he immediately hated the feeling. He launched into a small coughing fit, as if that would fix the oily feeling coating his throat and the now horrible feeling in his lungs. "Good job," She praised and scooted closer to him, "Now we can go around the circle and continue our entire group game." Dan was still reeling from what just happened. His body felt off, he felt uncomfortable, and wanted to go home. He couldn't though, not with Anna still here. She would be so disappointed with him if he left, and this was his one chance with a girl who noticed him.

"Daniel please! Let's go, this is a stupid idea! You're gonna get hurt!" Roddy felt weak, his voice scared and panicked. He was worried about his friend, realizing this group of girls was really bad news. "She's not worth it! Let's just go home!" He wanted Dan to listen but he knew he probably wouldn't. His world was starting to spin, his stomach all tied up in knots. He felt sick, just wanting to leave and for this feeling to stop.

The girls asked each other questions, but Daniel barely listened. Anna was doodling circles on his forearm with her finger as they went around the circle. Slowly, everything around him started feeling weird. His body felt so light, and he had to focus a little harder to get a clear view of everyone. All the colors seemed to go more vibrant, yet more… moving? What was moving? Daniel blinked, trying to shake himself out of the confusion. A beer can was lifted to his lips and tipped up, and he drank as Anna poured the expensive liquid down his throat. He hadn't seen her open it, nor had he seen the three pills she slipped in the drink beforehand.

"Back to Danny! How you feeling?" Anna asked, and Daniel blinked at her for a moment.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm great," He murmured, and a lazily grin came up to his face. Someone said something else, but all he caught were three questions that came out of someone's lips.

"How did you get the scar on your face?"
"Why do you talk to yourself all the time?"
"Who dealt you your beer?"

Daniel fumbled for words for a moment. "Just a fishing trip accident. Got a hook stuck in my face," He mumbled, a small frown coming to his lips, "and I don't talk to myself. I got my beer from my dad's basement, it was easy."

Anna playfully swatting his shoulder. "Danny, we've been over this, you can only lie once. Guess you just want another shot, snort, and pills, huh?"

Daniel immediately frowned, "I didn't lie more than once. I lied about the scar."

Anna raised her eyebrows at him, "We all know you talk to yourself, you can't lie about something like that, it's quite obvious Danny."

Daniel just frowned more. "I don't talk to myself, I talk to my best friend-" He was cut off by Anna poured a burning shot down his throat. He coughed, but Anna plopped two pills into his mouth not a moment later. Another weird feeling settled in him, but now it was brushed off by the wave of whatever was working its way in his brain. Anna guided his head down to another powder trail, this one on her stomach, not that Daniel registered where it was this time. Everything felt fuzzy. He couldn't focus on the other girls answering questions.