"For you, yeah. You mean the medicinal stuff or the fun stuff?" He kind of hopes the latter - there isn't much of the former left, and they need it to either trade or use. Not that he'll turn Toby down if he's in pain or something; the scars are still pretty wince-inducing to look at even now. Maybe he should feel weird about hoping he gets to help a younger student get shitfaced, but whatever. 

“Fun stuff. Please.”

Yeah, he can't say he blames the kid. 

"Okay, sure. You know what? You don't have to trade for it if you and me can share. How's that sound?" Toby's not the only one who's had a long couple of days.

For a second, he's torn between the from-outside instinct to be polite and say "are you sure? you don't have to" and and the scholomance instinct to never look a gift horse in the mouth.

"It's a deal."

They stop off at Alex's room first to collect one of the vials, but they'll actually drink the stuff in Toby's, since it's safer. Alex sits on the footboard of the bed and offers Toby the little bottle of gunk.

"Here, first dibs since you're giving me an excuse to get high on a weekday."

“Aw, I’m honored.” He doesn’t cough or gag, but it does take some effort. “Wow, this stuff is vile. I mean, totally worth it, but.”

"Yeah, I kind of forgot how bad it was, haha." He's not gonna wince or shudder in front of Toby. He's not going to do it. "I've been trying to like, hoard it, you know? Just in case."

“Makes sense, makes sense. That’s probably a good idea. I guess— I was mostly hoarding things for Tommy, so now it’s like, why not, right? But you’ve actually got, like, a chance.” He fidgets with a bit of scrap metal, tossing it in the air and catching it. 

Alex does something that probably counts as a laugh. "I guess so, yeah." He can feel the potion just starting to hit; his mouth feels sticky. "I'm just glad I've still got another year, man. Things with Tampa are, are...I dunno. I've gotta keep my options open if I want an alliance spot."

Toby matches that with a not-really-laugh of his own. "Yeah, it's... Yeah." Toby puts the scrap metal away and lays back onto the floor, so if he gets dizzy it won't show too obviously. "Wow, Schlatt really lucked out with his affinity, huh."

Alex snorts. "Yeah, why do you think we bothered keeping that dickhead around?" He slides down off the footboard to sit next to Toby on the floor, mostly deliberately; he hasn't lost coordination yet but he'll get there. He feels...less like he's been feeling, recently, so that's probably good. "How're you holding up, man?"

"I'm, I'd say I'm alright. Better now that I'm high, for sure. I mean, wow.

...I'm gonna keep it real with you, Alex, I don't know if I should be apologizing for, uh, causing problems with Tampa, or for... not that. I mean. I, I reckon I did my best, but I know you had--whatever you have with them--"

Underneath his high, Alex feels a vague stab of nervousness at how blissed out Toby is already. At least they only have the one vial.

"Oh," he says, once his brain catches back up. "That's um...it wasn't you causing the problems. What happened, uh, with Tommy, that's...whatever, but with me and Tampa..." He can't tell whether his giggle sounds so off because he's wasted, or if it was actually that bad. "I mean, I said I had to keep my options open." 

"Oh. Okay." He... Did not realize there were factors other than Tommy, which sounds a bit self-centered now that he's thinking it in words like that. Oops. "Makes sense, makes sense."

"It's uh," - his chest still feels empty when he thinks about it - "it's not gonna cause problems for you or anything, don't worry. Just. Personal shit."

He was seated, but he's drifting towards lying down, and his eyes are drifting towards shut. The room spins in big, slow circles. Lazily, he lifts the hand holding the vial over his face and cracks an eye open to squint at it. "We should...probably finish this up."

"Don't have to tell me twice." He doesn't have great coordination but he is definitely moving to take the vial.

They do manage a successful handoff, and Alex even manages to get it back before Toby drains it; he doesn't think Toby needs to be that much more high than he already is.

Alex probably doesn't need to be much more high either, and is starting to regret finishing the stuff. He doesn't...love this, feeling floaty and absent and unlike himself. But it's kind of relaxing, he thinks? At least they've got the relaxing kind, not the makes-you-an-asshole-for-no-reason kind. Though probably being an asshole has more to do with the person taking it. It's fine.

But he still catches himself thinking about leadership, about being the person who gets to say who goes where. About the election and Wilbur chased away from the group he'd founded. About the meeting Toby convened and his small, cold voice telling them all to stay away from Tommy.

By now Alex is lying flat on the floor, and he rolls his head to the side so he can look Toby in (approximately) the eye. "Hey, Tommy's, like...fine, right? I know you can't really talk but you guys have classes together and stuff..."

Personally, Toby loves feeling floaty and absent and unlike himself. Especially when Alex asks questions like that. “Ohhhhhh God.” Very unhappy laugh. “I mean— he, he’s pretty resilient? But, um. I really do not like his chances. Kind of why I wanted to get plastered, if I’m being honest with you. Wow, the floor is wiggling.”

"Haha, yeah, it kind of is. I wish I'd had some of this shit before the scholomance, man, I could've, I could've bought myself a fucking Mercedes." He flops his arm over his eyes. "I, uh...maybe I'll check on Tommy, actually. Not now, but in, in a while, right? If Clay is being less of a fucking weirdo." If things are still okay with Nick, and once he starts making inroads on another alliance. Still can't count on being in Tampa's good graces forever. 

Man, his head kinda hurts.

"Seems like a good idea if you can, I think. Clay's friends with Nick, right? So you can ask him.

I didn't want to--I don't know. I mean, overall, it happened because it needed to. I think I made the right choice. But I didn't want any of it. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, I get you." The floor is tilting under him. Shutting his eyes doesn't really help. "I, I just wish you'd...you'd told me, before you kicked Tommy out. I, we could've..." No, they couldn't have; he knows why Toby made the choice he did. "...I'm not even sure, but I wanted...I would want to help, I care about what happens to the study group, y'know, like when we did the election I had plans, and no one ever fucking listened to me-"

Alex realizes how loud his voice is getting and cuts himself off, biting his lip. "...sorry. I just. I wish you told me. It sucks, man. It just really fucking sucks."

He cuts himself off before saying sorry sir, makes a vague mm noise of agreement instead. "From now on, I'll tell you before I do things like this. Well, I mean, hopefully nothing like this happens again. But, you know."

"Yeah, here's fucking hoping. We have to, we should work together, man. We don't have a shot otherwise. Otherwise we just get fucked with." They'll get fucked with no matter what, actually, but Alex guesses he's so high that he's just saying things. The conversation gets increasingly inane from then on. He's not sure later whether he or Toby passes out first, but they're both dozing on the floor within the hour.

Alex wakes up to a splitting headache and the realization that they missed dinner. He makes sure Toby's okay, leaves with a passing group of sophomores coming back from dinner, and manages to make it all the way to his room before being extravagantly sick into the void wall. As far as he's concerned, Schlatt's stash can stay fucking stashed from now on.