if it's the same for you, i'll just hang

It wasn't the first time that Carly had made a quick escape from someone at school. Normally, though, she was somewhere near one of her usual hiding spots, or she could latch onto Persy and feel a little safer. Persy's attitude could clear a room quicker than a dungbomb; it was the best protection she could get short of casting a shield charm in the middle of the school. As it was, neither a convenient cubby or her friend was in sight, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted a staircase up ahead. It was a little extreme, but she just needed to duck under for a second and pull herself together, get her wits about her.

The smoke hit her first. She stumbled back a step and coughed, covering her mouth politely, before she noticed the boy. She didn't recognize him and that sent her back another step or two until her back was pressed to the underside of the staircase. "Oh," she said aloud, voice reedy with nerves and surprise.

Abe had been looking for a place to take some time away from all the stress of the crazy Ravenclaws crowding the Ravenclaw common room. Some sort of major paper was due or something, because everyone from his year was in a tizzy. Abe didn't really see the need to fuss, and all the shouting and panicking was almost even stressing HIM out. So, he decided to make a break for it, going to his favorite smoking spot under the stairs by the Charms classroom with a small baggie of pot and his favorite pipe tucked away into his cloak.

He ducked under the stairs and slumped back against the wall, taking his time filling the bowl of the pipe before lighting up and taking a hit. He breathed the smoke out evenly, already starting to feel his body relax. A few hits later, and the Ravenclaws in the common room were completely forgotten.

Abe was struggling with the idea of sneaking down to the kitchen to get food (which he really should have remembered to begin with, since he always ended up with the munchies) when he heard a nervous, "Oh." He looked up and saw ginger with bit eyes and a slight frown on her face.

"You okay?" Abe asked, his voice even and unworried. "You're welcome in the pot den."

It took a moment for the words being directed at Carly to make any sense. She eased up a little where her back was pressing into the stairs behind her, digging into her through her robes. The smell was recognizable now that the boy had identified it (and really? pot den? it's a nook under the stairs) and she coughed again, wrinkling her nose a little. "I'm alright," she replied as neutrally as she could. There was a good chance that the Hufflepuff she'd tried to smile obliviously at would pass by any minute, and the stoner crowd usually seemed too content with their high to bother anyone too much. The small space still made her shift uncomfortably, though, despite the chill vibe the guy occupying it with her was giving off. "Aren't you afraid you're going to get caught?"

The girl looked uncomfortable with the idea of staying with Abe under the stairs, but she kept looking over her shoulder, so Abe dragged his sprawled limbs closer to his body so he took up less space. He didn't really recognize the girl, though that didn't surprise him much; based on her uniform tie, she was a Gryffindor.

When the girl asked if he was worried about getting caught, he laughed, feeling the vibration resonate in his belly. God, he loved being high. He wasn't nearly as aware of the funny things his body did when he wasn't. "Nah," Abe said nonchalantly. "This has been my spot for years, and I've never been caught. Either the profs don't know I'm here or they're to chill to rat me out. Either way, it's all good. This place is safe."

Carly hesitated a while longer, biting at her lip and weighing her options. Jenkins, or whoever, had been with his friends, and might not have gotten the message that she wasn't at all interested. At least here there was only one person to be worried about, and he seemed too stoned to be a real threat. Tired of hunching in the little space, she sat down across from the guy, crossing her legs under her robes. Being on his level gave her another brief moment of jitters, less safe than when she'd had the advantage standing above him, but it was her best bet for the moment. "I won't be here too long," she assured him quickly, still peeking out into the corridor. "Just a little while. I didn't mean to bother you."

"Don't sweat it," Abe said, smiling serenely at her. "It's no skin off my teeth, partly because I don't really have skin on my teeth and partly because it's like... under the stairs, dude. 'S not like it's private space or anything. You can be here as long as you want. The company's nice, sometimes, when I'm a little out of it. I feel a bit weird afterwards when I realize I sat there talking to myself for a while." After a second or two, Abe said, "You can have a hit, if you want it. No pressure or anything, but you seem kinda tense."

"You were here first, though," Carly replied automatically, wincing inwardly at her inability to drop it. She fussed with her tie, making sure it was tucked away as much as possible; she'd had someone grab at it more than once and she kept it out of reach when she could. "I really only need a second. Just didn't want to run into someone."

Carly gave a wary eye to the pipe. Her dad smoked the stuff, she knew, and there was nothing horribly wrong with it in her mind, but that had never really been her thing. "Um, I don't really... I've never." That was nothing to be ashamed of, she knew, but she'd actually never been offered before.

Although he was passingly curious about who the girl was hiding from, he wasn't going to push it. She already told him she was alright and that she wouldn't be in there for long, so it wasn't really any concern of his. Still he felt the need to reassure her. "Then that's cool. You're cool in here as long as you need it, though. Like, even if I'm not here, though, again, it'd be stupid to think you couldn't pop in here if I weren't around, because, yeah, public space. Sharing's caring and all."

That led his brain back to her other comment. "I can help you out, if you want," he offered. "You might cough a bit until you work out how to breathe it in and all, but I can work the pipe and all, if you're curious. You can just try a hit or two, see if you like it."

Working out what Persy would do in this situation didn't really help Carly out the way that it usually would. Her friend wasn't big on impairing her judgment, whether magically or chemically, thanks to that whole hunter's eye. Her father would probably tell her she was better off trying it at home, of course, but the thought of sitting around smoking pot with her dad seemed just weird enough to be off-putting. "Maybe just a...I don't even know your name," she realized, jerking back from the way she'd leaned in slightly. As nice as it would be to have some help relaxing right now, she had to watch herself. "Do you always try and get strangers high?"

"Abelard," he said, sticking his hand out and smiling, "but my name's pretentious and unfortunate, so everyone who isn't an asshole or old calls me Abe. What's your name? And, well, not all strangers. Like, I don't run up to dudes on the street all, 'Yo, you wanna go hide in that closet and get high with me?' or anything. I don't have problems with sharing my pot, though, and you just looked like you could use a breather. It's cool if you don't want any. I definitely won't hold it against you. Just thought it might be nice to relax a bit, since you're all fidgety."

Carly tentatively took his hand, shaking it once and then pulling back. She was polite enough not to make a face at the name, after so many years at Hogwarts around the fantastically (and sometimes unfortunately) named. "I'm Carly," she told him, "except really I'm Scarlett. My dad thought it was funny." She gestured vaguely at her hair and fought against her cheeks pinking up. "Does it really help?"

"Nice to meet you, Carly. Except, really, I already met you, but at least now I know what to call you." There was about a 25% chance Abe would actually remember her name when he was sober, though. He was terrible with names in the first place, and his brain wasn't exactly at its clearest. Still, he wasn't going to sweat it. There was a chance he wouldn't actually run into her again, and if he did, he could totally just go with it. "Yeah, it helps a lot," Abe told her. "At least, it helps me a lot. I hear it doesn't do much for werewolves, but it gets me out of my head."

"Nice to meet you, Abe." There wasn't much else to say to give her time to stall and keep thinking. "I'm not a werewolf," Carly assured him, baffled at the prospect. "I don't even think I know any werewolves. It just doesn't seem to help my dad very much. He's still a worrywort. I guess I could try, though." What's the point in being a Gryffindor if you don't do something rash in a while? Just a little wouldn't kill her, and if she didn't like it she could just hole up in the girls' dorm until it wore off.

"I think I know a werewolf," he commented, "but I'm not 100% sure. I just know he always pops out and misses classes around the full moon." Everyone always said the Lupin kid was a werewolf, at least. "Do you know how to work the pipe, or are you going to need a hand there?" He figured it was her first time, and while she may know her way around a pipe, Abe figured he'd offer a hand. It was the polite thing to do, he figured.

Carly shrugged off the discussion of a werewolf here in school with her; one bizarre situation was enough for the moment. "I have no idea," she admitted. Hanging around while her dad smoked was just as odd in her mind as actually trying it with him. "If it's going to be any trouble, you don't have to worry about it."

"Not any problem at all," Abe reassured her. "Can you grab it, though? I don't want to have to move my limbs all the way over there." He sat up and repositioned himself so he was slightly closer to her, though he didn't invade her space too much. "Just make sure you don't spill it. I don't want to have to go back to get more, since I came down here to get away from my housemates, and the door always scowls at me when I'm talking to it when I'm high."

Carefully taking the pipe from him, Carly tried not to laugh. Some boys got their hackles up when you laughed at them. "So we're both hiding," she pointed out, staring at the object in her hands like she'd never seen anything like it before. Her dad rolled his in papers, she thought, but she was sure she'd seen a guy or two with pipes around town back home. She stayed away from the places they hung around once she'd spotted them, though, so it was her first time seeing on up close. When she looked up, Carly noticed that he was closer to her and squirmed a bit, tilting her body away for a second before she realized that they weren't even touching, really. Maybe she really did need something to calm her down.

"Okay," he said, reaching out to point at the pipe, but being careful not to get too close. She seemed to get fidgety whenever he got close to touching her. "So, that right there is the bowl," he said, "where the pot is. That's the mouthpiece, where your mouth goes, obviously. That little hole right here," he pointed to a little hole on the side, "is the choke. I'm going to light the pot in the bowl, with my finger covering the choke. You breathe in through the mouthpiece and hold it in your lungs as long as you comfortably can. You breathe it all out and I take my finger off the choke to let the smoke clear out. Make sense?"

Carly nodded shakily at each step of Abe's explanation. It seemed simple enough, especially with him doing most of the work. All she had to do was breathe. Sure, she had a little trouble doing that sometimes, but there was no reason to go hyperventilating at the moment. "Sounds easy," she said quietly, letting her eyes flicker up to his. "I'm going to make a fool of myself coughing, aren't I?"

"Probably," Abe said. "If you have asthma or you smoke cigarettes, it should be easier for you. Otherwise, there'll probably be coughing. It's all good, though. I won't laugh; I've been there, you know." Abe gave her a reassuring smile, hoping that would do some good, though he knew it probably just made him look really, really stoned. "If it'd make you feel better, I can go steal water bottles from the house elves down in the kitchen, just in case. They like me down there."

"No, no." Carly shook her head, knowing she'd be likely to back out or run off if Abe went to get anything. "It's okay. If I don't do it now, I never will. I'm the worst Gryffindor." She steadied her hands against her knees and offered a shaky smile in return for Abe's. "Okay. Gonna do this. I'm ready."

"Hey," Abe said reassuringly as he pulled out his lighter, "you wouldn't get put in Gryffindor for no reason. Don't be so down on yourself. Like, people give me shit for being a Ravenclaw all the time because I like to get high and my grades aren't so hot. Doesn't mean I'm not a Ravenclaw, does it? Just because you get nervous doesn't mean you don't belong in Gryffindor."

A surprised, pleased little, "Huh," fell from Carly's lips but she can't pretend she didn't mean it. She'd never had someone put it to her that way. "It's not just nerves, though. I'm kind of a scaredy-cat in general. There's more to Ravenclaw than grades, but Gryffindors are all about courage. I don't even like Gryffindors." Her fingers twitched and she looked back down at them awkwardly; this line of conversation was just making her mor uncomfortable.

"Then you must be a particularly awesome Gryffindor," Abe said. "After all, if everything scares you, but you manage anyway, I'm pretty sure that's the definition of bravery, isn't it?" After pausing a second, Abe said, "Either way, pot time! You all ready?"

Carly shook her head, because she couldn't agree with that, really. But she could be brave for the moment, if trying weed for the first time counted as an act of courage. "Think so," she said with a nervous giggle.