Author: Kat
Title: Gathering Rosebuds
Story: Shine Like It Does
Colors: Paprika 19 (Gotta slow it down, baby, gotta have some fun.)
Supplies and Materials: Canvas (Jack's about sixteen), glitter (this picture), novelty beads (this picture), fingerpainting (attempt at omniscient).
Word Count: 778
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jack and his friends and a midnight drive.
Warnings: Marijuana use.
Notes: Memefill for SWL, The Gays Are Happy Meme, Jack/Everyone who piled into the back of his car tonight: midnight snack. Got unexpectedly bittersweet at the end.


Jack's a little high. Okay, more than a little high. But so's everyone in his car and it's like one in the morning, and he's driving really slow so that's okay, right?

Egg is squished in the front seat with Carmen, their heads together over a map. Carmen angles her open cell phone to cast a light over the map, looking for the nearest drugstore because they're fucking hungry. Spence and Arnie are falling all over each other in the back, and poor Mariposa, squished up against the window, clutching her journal to her chest and rolling her eyes every time Spence gets a little overenthusiastic and forgets where his elbows are going.

"Toma!" she shouts, when Spence manages to kick her in the ankle, and whaps him upside the head. "What the hell, white boy, there are other people in this car!"

"Sorry," Spence says, then sticks his tongue back down Arnie's throat. Mariposa calls them several more creative names, then settles down, grumbling.

Egg pushes his glasses up his nose and cranes his neck around the seat. "You okay?"

She's tilted her journal to catch the light of the streetlights, and only rolls her eyes in answer. "My revenge will be terrible."

Egg leans back, overbalances as Jack takes a turn, and slumps into Carmen.

"She'll be fine," he informs her, solemnly.

Carmen giggles, plants a kiss on his nose, and adjusts his glasses. "Egg, you are precious. What the hell's the holdup, Jackson?"

"Next corner!" he calls, though he really has no idea, and swerves around the corner to see—hallelujah!—a gas station. Not what they wanted but it's open twenty-four hours and it's got food, so nobody can complain.

Which doesn't stop them. Mariposa refuses to leave the car. Spence and Arnie separate long enough to bitch about the quality of the hotdogs. Even Carmen complains about the available Hostess products, though at least she cusses out the indifferent counter clerk and not Jack. Only Egg is polite, selecting with unusual concentration a chocolate ice cream bar and a Slurpee bigger than him. He's going to ping-pong off the wall for the rest of the night—at least, until the sugar wears off, then he's going to sleep for fifteen hours.

But that's okay. Tomorrow's Saturday.

Jack pays for a chocolate bar and breezes back to his car, sliding into the back seat. Mariposa looks up, tosses her journal on the floor. "Hey, you."

"Hey, you." He leans over and kisses her, not fast, not slow, just the way he likes to kiss people.

She smiles at him when he backs off, then snatches the chocolate bar. "Give me that."

"Bought it for you, princess." He leans back, kicks his feet up onto the headrest of the driver's seat. "Spence and Arnie seriously bothering you? 'Cause I can lock 'em in the basement again."

She waves it off. "Nah, I'm good, I'll just get them to make out in front of me some more. Hey, when we get back, can we watch Doctor Who and make out?"

When she says we, she means all of them—Spence and Arnie and Jack and Egg and Carmen and Mariposa in one big comfy pile, kissing and cuddling and paying no attention to whatever's on the TV. It's usually something random. But Mariposa likes Doctor Who, so Doctor Who it will be.

"Sure," Jack says, and grins. "Can't guarantee Spence and Arnie won't sneak off to fuck, though."

She waves an expansive hand. "That's okay. I'll just kiss Egg all over his adorable little face."

"What about my adorable face?" Egg asks, poking his head into the car.

"It's gonna get kissed," Jack says, and demonstrates.

"Okay," Egg says, when he's done, and readjusts his glasses serenely. "Anybody got a joint?"

Mariposa digs one out of her journal and silently hands it over. Spence and Arnie (who, now that Jack thinks about it, should really be referred to as a unit, SpenceandArnie) squish into the front seat, and Carmen just crawls over the three of them in the back seat, all fuzzy and warm, and Jack starts to wonder if they have to go home at all.

"You know," Carmen says, sleepily, "my parents won't mind if we stay out all night."

So Jack climbs over them and into the driver's seat, drives them down onto the beach and they don't watch Doctor Who. They do curl up on the sand in little stoned puppy piles and wait for the sunrise, because they're young, and they're high, and they're all a little bit in love with each other, and it's never gonna feel this good again.