"Do you even know what we are talking about?" Claire smirked.
Her group quietened down, seeing that finally Claire was the one dealing with me, and they didn’t need to worry about appeasing me.
Though, I had no issues in dealing with Claire at all.
Hell, she made me feel more comfortable than the others.
"Of course? You are talking about tea, no?" I smiled back.
"Indeed, and if it’s just about the tea, then you don’t need to risk your health with Eva’s toxic tea, love." Claire grinned, "I had ordered you that expensive packet of tea leaves that you saw on a video. You can just use that one. It’s in the kitchen."
I paused, not expecting the tea codeword to come swinging back at me like this.
Well played, well played indeed.
Dropping all pretenses, I harrumphed, "Do you think I am so dumb that I cannot understand your stupid codeword? For your information, you still called a pot earlier. Even a kid can understand."
Eva, Jaq, Lia and Katie, all of them coughed on the side, turning around or fishing out their phones as they pretended that they weren’t listening or involved in this.
Claire’s smile twitched, clearing her throat calmly, "Of course we knew that you will understand, Aaron. No one doubted you at all."
Her friends chimed affirmatively on the side, but focusing back on their phones when I looked at them.
"Is that so? Then am I the sixth?"
"Uhh..." Eva mumbled something underneath her breath, but it wasn’t quite audible as my full focus was still on Claire.
"You sure?" Claire questioned with a raised eyebrow, "If you don’t know it yet, it’s a magic infused drug. Marijuana, it’s called. It hits you harder the lower your magic is.
Though of course, it’s not all bad as it excites your mana pathways and makes the flow better. The drawback is, of course, that you get high." After a brief explanation, she smirked.
Of course, I knew what she was thinking.
During sex, I already told her that my magic was at 100 stat, something that even she hasn’t reached yet.
Thus, she wasn’t actually worried about me, and simply didn’t want me to find out about drugs and bad things. Or so I had judged from her personality, at least.
"Are you crazy? He is a man! He will go mad!" Jaq berated Claire angrily, "Don’t you know what happened to that bartender that wanted to impress Lia?"
"I am shocked to say this, but I actually think Jaq is right on this one." Lia added.
"Men have less magic, they can’t handle the mana-weed like us." Katie nodded.
While for Eva, she was simply staring at me with a squinted eye.
She then switched her gaze to Claire’s. They both exchanged a single eye blink and easily, Eva gave up on convincing me.
"Jaq, you’re rolling this time. And I guess we don’t even need to go to the roof, since Aaron is joining us."
Saying that, Eva took out a small pouch of crushed greens, tossing it at Jaq carelessly.
"Are you guys serious?" Jaq caught it complaining, "Claire? Eva? What’s gotten into you two?"
Katie narrowed her eyes at me dangerously, "Claire, is it about magic?"
She didn’t say much, but her intent was plain to see. She was asking if allowing me was related to my abnormality in magic.
After all, most of them had already noticed it by now. Or had at least a small doubt about it.
And Katie being quite closely related to this abnormality, was more sensitive to this detail.
I couldn’t blame her. Her boyfriend did turn into a zombie and was killed by me after all, while nothing happened to me.
But I had nothing to say to her, nor did I need to.
In the hospital, Claire told me to not tell anyone about my 10x magic stats, and she would handle it.
Now was the time to cash that out.
"Indeed. It is." Claire nodded, "I actually invested quite a bit on Aaron recently and made his magic stat boost up. It’s in the leagues that he could survive the 40th floor’s mana pressure."
"Then why did you not tell that to me earlier, Clay?" Katie switched her gaze, calmly looking into Claire’s eyes.
She didn’t curse or complain, but her seriousness felt even more stifling and uncomfortable.
"Because I had to talk with Aaron first." Claire returned the gaze confidently, "I am sorry, but I didn’t know something like mana frenzy can occur on the mere 2nd floor Kate. But Aaron’s stats or my help, both has nothing to do with those."
Katie gritted her teeth, pain flashing in her eyes before she sighed deeply, "I know."
"I am really sorry for what happened there." Claire said again.
"I am also sorry, Katie." I added onto Claire’s words, "I didn’t mean to actually do it... Everything happened too fast, it was me or him. I am sorry."
Katie blinked in surprise, shaking her head furiously, "No no no, I don’t blame you. Or you–" She looked at Claire, "I am just mad at myself that I skipped such a detail."
"Don’t depress yourself over it babey," Jaq grinned while her hands moved on the paper masterfully, rolling a joint as if it was her daily job.
Her accent was exaggerated, but it suited her funky personality, "I can push everyone down and give you the first puff instead. Want? Want?"
"I’m good at 4th. Though, 3 puffs pass, right?" Katie scoffed, rubbing her eyes and fixing her mood a little.
"Obviously." Eva nodded, followed by Claire, Lia and me.
Thus, the joint was lit by yours truly... Jaqueline.
She started it with 3 long drags, before passing it over to Eva.
Then it went to Claire, Katie, Lia and once Lia’s 3 puffs were done, all eyes shifted onto me.
There was nothing new in this for me, but I could only sweat with performance pressure as all the 5 girls were looking at me with their keen eyes.
All of them had their own outlook at my attempt, but one thing was the same, they all were curious.
And when I finally took the first puff–
"Cough!"