It was almost midnight, and they party was in more than full swing, and Jamie was the life of the party. Davis and Sarah had long since passed out and had been put to bed, and Jamie had thoughtfully put "occupied by kids" on the guest room door where they were sleeping. Sawyer and Lydia were around the party somewhere, Jamie didn't really know where and at that point in the evening, he didn't really care.
Beth had shown up around 10, and since then she'd been all over Jamie. And he wasn't complaining about that. A few drinks in for both of them, and she'd gotten a little hands-y, so now he was pretty occupied.
Jamie was busy trying to keep the people from doing anything dumb or breaking anything and trying to keep the little ones asleep and untouched and keep an eye on Sawyer and Lyd, AND keep Beth interested. Eventually something fell by the wayside.
Finally, Jamie relegated everything to Chuck, long after he'd lost Lydia and Sawyer to the crowd. Chuck hadn't drank very much, and kid-Nathan had already passed out naked on the deck with a guitar and everyone was pretty much leaving him alone. Beth had been trying for half an hour to drag him upstairs to his bedroom, and finally he let her once Chuck had promised to keep everything under control downstairs. Jamie wasn't too worried because a lot of the party had thinned out and most everyone had already paired up or fallen into smaller groups and things had gotten quieter.
Jamie disappearedinto his room with Beth, where she was already about to rip off his button down. She'd gotten his shirt undone and off in the time it had taken him to undo her buttons. It was fast and furious, and Jamie was too drunk to even try to keep up with it. He just went with the flow. Everything was a blur, and he barely noticed what was happening, but he knew he wasn't about to stop it.
Jamie woke up God-knows how many hours later. Thankfully, in his own bed, but with Beth beside him. He had no idea why he'd awoken with a start, but soon figured it out. The garage door was closing. Mom and Dad were home. Jamie panicked because he had NO idea what the first floor of the house looked like.
Jamie raced downstairs, hoping that Chuck had cleaned up or something. 'Wait a minute' Jamie thought to himself. 'This is Chuck. Of course he didn't." When he turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs "at least he's consistent" popped into his head. The living room was a disaster area filled with cans, cups, and passed out bodies.
"God I'm so fucked" Jamie said under his breath as he heard the garage door shut. All he could do was freeze. He was screwed either way, might as well fess up to it immediately. He just hoped that Lucas, Peyton, Clay, and Quinn weren't with them anymore. He really didn't want to get the talking to from both of them.
He knew exactly what would happen too. His mom would give him a "Jamie, really?!" exasperated look, Dad would give him a sheepish "I can't help you on this one buddy" smile. If it was everyone, Uncle Lucas would just chuckle and look sorry for him. Aunt Peyton would try to hold it in and then just laugh with Uncle Lucas. Aunt Quinn would be shocked and speechless, as if no one ever threw wild and out of control parties ever, and Uncle Clay would just open and shut his mouth repeatedly. Jamie really didn't want to deal with all of them. 2 parents were enough to deal with, he didn't need all 6 of them on him.
Just as they were coming through the door, something caught Jamie's eye to his right, lying on the couch.
"I'm literally dead" he muttered as he saw it. Lydia, passed out under Sawyer on the couch. Lydia had a cup in her hand, and Sawyer had marker all over her arms, drawn on by drunken high school boys all last night. "Shit" Jamie thought. "When the hell did they get down here?! I thought Chuck was on that?! And they PROMISED me they wouldn't be drinking! Little rats."
Jamie was so shocked by the girls on the couch surrounded by couples and singles in various states of undress, he had completely forgotten about the attractive, nearly naked girl upstairs in his bed. Luckily, he had thought to pull a pair of sweatpants on before walking downstairs, so he wasn't totally indecent for when the parents walked in. He still had no idea what time it was, but judging by the light outside, it was pretty early.
"Hey Jimmy Jam, we're home early. Quinn wasn't feeling so good so we decided to drive through the ni…WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN HERE?!" Jamie heard is mother bellow from the door to the garage from where he was hiding in the kitchen.
"JAMES. LUCAS. SCOTT. GET YOUR ASS IN HERE IN THE NEXT THREE SECONDS OR YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT APPLYING TO COLLEGES ANYMORE."
Mom had found the living room.
Nathan walked into the kitchen looking for Jamie, and when he found him he just grabbed a bottle from the fridge and sat down on a stool.
"Better get out there. She's pretty pissed. Can't say I didn't do worse, but we thought more of you. You're lucky nothing happened to the girls or the little ones or you'd be dead right now." He was met with only a blank stare. "What're you staring at me for, GO"
"Are…is…everyone here?" Jamie asked sheepishly, telegraphing which answer he hoped would come out of his dad's mouth.
"It's just us. We told everyone we'd drop their kids off when they woke up. Uncle Lucas'll probably be having the same talk with Sawyer that I'm having with you, you know."
"I know, I know. I'm going. Just promise when Mom kills me, you'll bring me back to life?"
"Promise. Oh and Jame? If it happens again, I'll kill you myself. That's also a promise."
As Jamie walked slowly toward the living room, he thought about what his father had said. Through all the stories he'd heard about his life, he'd always admired his father and his parents' high school relationship. To be honest, he was more scared of Nathan than he was of Haley. His dad was quiet, understanding, and always had related to Jamie more. Both of them were truly Scotts, and his father got that. But when his father had said he'd do something, he knew he'd do it. He was terrifying that way, and Jamie knew if he did ever do it again, he would be a dead man.
"Hey Mama…" Jamie muttered as he walked in, head hung low and his metaphorical tail between his legs. He looked around and everyone was awake and gone except for the girls, who were sitting sheepishly on the couch.
"Sit" was all Haley said to Jamie, and he knew he should. He took a seat immediately on the couch next to Lydia and Sawyer.
"Nathan! Get in here and drive your niece home! Be sure to tell your brother what happened last night. Sawyer's not getting off this one easy. Not if I know Luke and Peyton." Haley seemed to be addressing Nathan, but the whole time she had her eyes locked on the girls, and they knew she was actually speaking to them.
Jamie didn't have time to worry about Sawyer at the moment, he had bigger fish to fry. Like how the party got started, and how dead his mom was going to make him. And, as he just remembered, how Beth was still upstairs asleep in his bed.
"Shit" Jamie thought as he remembered the girl in his bed, "how the hell am I gonna cover for that? I gotta get her out of here. Shit, my phone's upstairs, I can't text her to sneak out. Maybe I can get a message through Lyd? Nah…she'll do anything to sell me out right now, that won't work. Maybe I'll…"
Just as Jamie was starting to panic, his mom gave him a way out.
"Jamie, go upstairs and wake up Sarah and Davis and get them ready to go home. Your dad should be back soon, I'll have him take them home. I'm going to have a little talk with your sister" Haley spoke calmly and evenly and Jamie knew shit was about to hit the fan.
Haley called after him "And don't think that you're off the hook, mister! You're up next!" Jamie just hung his head lower and shuffled up the stairs as fast as he could.
Before he went into the guest room, he stopped in his room to wake Beth up.
"Hey Beth, you gotta wake up. My parents are home and their mad as hell, you gotta leave or they're going to kill you too." Beth was coming too, looking super hung over and not really sure which way was up.
"Did we…I mean..last night?" Beth stammered as her eyes tried to adjust to Jamie's face and the unfamiliar surroundings.
"I don't think so. We weren't that drunk. We would remember, right? I don't think we did." Jamie tried his best to calm her as quickly as he could. "I..I promise I'll call you when I'm done being dead, okay? But…you really have to leave now or we're both going to be dead. They're cool…but they're not that cool."
"Oh…okay. Do you have any aspirin or something? I just have to get my pants and my bra and I'll be ready to go. Is there a back door?"
"Uh…no… Do..you mind going out the window? There's a tree that'll take you right down. I…um…do it all the time… And Beth? I promise I'll call you tomorrow, I really had fun last night. We should…go out some time…if you want?"
"Hey. Jamie. Stop stammering, I like you too and I had fun too. I would love to go out some time." Jamie couldn't help but smile, even though he was dead meat. "Plus, you owe me for making me go out the window" Beth added with a grin and a wink.
Jamie opened the window for her and she kissed him on the cheek as she went out. He watched her get down, and then scrambled over to get the little ones up and dressed before his dad got back and his mom got even madder.
When he walked in, they were already awake and watching TV in their beds.
"Hey guys, ready to go home? And thanks for being so good last night, I really appreciate it. And I'm sorry we were so loud, it won't happen again. You guys really are awesome. But see… Aunt Haley isn't so cool about it and she's ready to hand me my a…um my butt on a platter for it. So would you guys do me a favor and get ready to go home? Uncle Nathan's gonna take you guys, and he'll be here any minute. It would really help me out a lot." Jamie finished up with the Scott grin, hoping that they would be convinced by the charm to do what he was asking.
Thankfully, they jumped out of bed and started getting dressed. They were moving slowly, obviously the party had kept them up, and he really hoped they wouldn't say anything about it to Nathan. The one thing he had going for him right now was that the party didn't affect the littlest ones and their sleeping.
He helped the kids get their bags together and followed them downstairs where Haley was waiting for them and watching Lydia get started on cleaning up the living room.
"Uncle Nathan's waiting outside, go on out and he'll take you home. Did you guys sleep okay" Haley sounded innocent, but Jamie knew that she was quizzing them on how big the party had been.
"We slept great, Aunt Haley!" Davis was chipper enough to pass as having a full night's sleep. Sarah wasn't as chipper, but she never was, so that didn't matter. Haley gave them a look as if she didn't really believe them, but was finally convinced by the smile on Davis's little face and let them leave.
As soon as they were out the door, Haley told Lydia to go work on the kitchen for a little while. One thing Jamie loved about his mom was that she rarely ever yelled at one of them in front of the other, unless they both did the exact same thing. This time, they hadn't, and Jamie was thankful for her splitting them up.
Jamie sat down on the newly cleaned couch and waited for Lydia to clear out and for the verbal beating to start. If there was anything Haley was good at, it was lecturing her kids. Must have come from her teacher's training. He was ready for it, but there was never any bracing for Haley's lectures, and this was going to be no different.
