It was incredible how [i]right[/i] this felt. The fire danced over his fingers as Nadine withdrew hers and while she kept whispering her formulae, she didn't do it without pause anymore. When she went quiet or spoke to him directly, he felt like this entity was his, a subject to his will. He thought about having the tendrils curl up in his hand and they did. He moved one of his fingers out and into the air and the flame followed. Gabriel wondered if it could fly up into the air and-

She pushed him back. His legs bumped against the toilet and before he knew it, he was sitting, Nadine straddled on his lap. For a long, a very long moment, all he felt where her legs against his, all he saw were the curves of her breasts inches from his face. He felt the heat in his hand before her reminder but it still took him some effort to pull away his eyes. Had he believed in god, then this would have been the ultimate proof that he was a dick. How else could you explain discovering magic, [i]actual fucking magic[/i], that required full concentration and focus [b]AND[/b], at the same time, being this physically close to a woman you had a crush on? Was it the alcohol, the time apart or raging hormones that made him so easily distractable?

[i]Focus on the damn flame[/i], he told himself and despite a tightness in his trousers, he willed his mind away from sex and Nadine. Only the fire in his hand mattered. He barely registered what she said, although ignoring her moving back and forth in his lap did not escape his attention. And then, she sucked it up - the snakes lifted their head and followed her call. The fluorescent light transformed the thick smoke into a veil that almost hid Nadine's face. Only her eyes were clearly visible, reflecting the glow of the smoldering roll. She looked more mysterious, more removed, more overpowering than ever, and yet here she was, right there with him, not only sharing this experience but also the blunt with him.

Gabriel accepted the offered gift and let a long drag fill his lungs and his head with smoke. The door crashed open and broke the magic reverie, filling him with a sense of anger and regret, but between the alcohol, the pot, the girl and the incredible events of the past few minutes, he couldn't be bothered to actually express any of it. He joined his friend in collecting their items and followed her away from the crime scene. 
Mike would be royally pissed when he saw this. Well, not Mike himself - from what he remembered, he and Cassie were really getting to know each other when Nadine pulled him into that bathroom and were probably occupying an empty room themselves by now - but his parents would be going apeshit when they came back from Vermont and found the bathroom door torn down on top of the million other blemishes to the house their son would have to explain.

But none of that was their concern. Nadine's proposal sounded about right, so he nodded and played snowplow for her on their way to the kitchen. They were lucky, too: The kitchen looked like a warzone, every single surface was sticky, broken glass and puddles of spilled liquids covered the floor and, most terrifyingly, virtually every bottle, pitcher, can and glass in the room were empty. The only ray of light was a bottle of Tequila with about two big shot's worth of content left in it.

He gave her a cocky grin as he presented his bounty.
"Share the bottle?"