On the night that no one understood, Franky was on the stairs. She was also on shrooms, and even though she hadn't taken very many, she was already regretting them. The carpet made beautiful swirling designs and everything felt like a marvelous dream, but what Franky didn't like was how her mouth seemed to talk without her permission.

"Franky?" Grace was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Franky, are you alright?"

Lovely Grace. Franky smiled at her, noting how Grace's signature red lipstick had been kissed off. "I'm fine," she said. "Just took some shrooms with Matty and Liv... Matty and Liv."

Grace's mouth made the perfect shape of an 'o' at this. "Mushrooms," she exclaimed. "Well, I heard the best thing for those is to just get up and dance and enjoy the high. If you don't, they'll make you curl in on yourself like origami." She paused. "Have you seen Mini?"

The design on the carpet twirled into the shapes of arrows, gliding across the floor. Franky followed them, and they disappeared around the corner into the crammed hallway. "Mini's snogging Alo," she said, the words only hitting her after they left her mouth. She snapped her eyes up, "I mean, she's -"

"Alo?" Grace looked around, as if expecting Mini and Alo to show up, making out against the wall right there. "Mini and Alo. I wouldn't have guessed it."

Franky sighed, scratching her head. "Well, I sort of told Mini to... go join Alo on the couch. She might not have listened to me though, I mean, it is Mini."

Grace's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she nodded her head to herself. It only took a moment before her wide-eyed, innocent expression was back on her face, and she said simply, "I think we should find Mini."

The two girls made their way through the Levan house. Dubstep was playing over the speakers, and with a sinking feeling, Grace realized that Alo wasn't with Mini anymore. He would be dancing on the floor, flailing his long arms everywhere in beat of his favorite techno. As they rounded a corner, Grace's guess was proven correct by the sight of an empty couch.

"They were here," Franky said cluelessly. She reached down to pick up her bottle of whiskey, glad to have found something. "I kissed him too," she found herself telling Grace, "I was kissing Alo before Mini showed up."

"Of course you were," Grace said with a little sigh. Her smile never faltered, which confused Franky even more. "Well, I'm going to go look..."

Grace's words were lost as she hurried out of the hallway, her swishing dress the last thing Franky saw of her before realizing she had gone. Swearing to herself, Franky took a small sip from her bottle as she sauntered into the kitchen. She leaned against the counter, staring at her shoes. They were white, clean and crisp looking, all except for a scuff mark on her left toe. Nick's peppy, booming voice announce his arrival in the kitchen, but Franky didn't look up. She was too distracted by the tiny imperfection. It was all she saw.

But then she heard him, and that made her look up.

Of course it did.

She had little control of herself around him. That was her imperfection. S he could feel her power of restraint being weakened even more from the drugs. Perfect.

"Are they working?" Matty asked her. "The shrooms, do you feel them?"

Franky definitely felt something... When she didn't answer though, Matty placed his hands on her waist. She sucked in her breath, and it was like everything had slowed down. His hands were on her waist and their eyes were locked for hours.

But time doesn't ever slow down, does it? No matter how much we want it to stop.

Matty's hands were on her waist, and he picked her up to place her on the counter. She was so skinny that he did it with complete ease, as if she were a little child. As if she were a little boy. And then he stopped touching her, placing his hands on either side of her legs as she sat on the counter, bringing his face closer to hers as he looked into her eyes with his intense stare. Matty wasn't looking at Franky though, he was just looking at her eyes; looking for something.

"Dilated pupils," he grinned. "They're hitting you harder then I thought they would."

Something was hitting her. Driving her. Crushing her. It's all the same, isn't it?

Franky was about to take another sip of her whiskey, but Matty brought his hand up to the bottle to stop her. "Look, I'm not going to tell you you've had enough," he told her, "but before you continue with your whiskey, I should let you know that Alo's told me something pretty interesting."

Franky rolled her eyes, silently swearing as she tried to remember what exactly she had told that ginger farm boy. Seeing the slight horror cross her face, Matty laughed, "He said you two got busy on some couch."

"Is that all he said?" She just had to make sure, her face serious.

"Well, he wasn't getting into detail about whatever you two did."

And at that, Franky sighed because she felt safe again. Her love for Matty and crush for Liv and fondness for everyone else, male or female, was still a secret.

Matty continued though. "Don't worry, I wouldn't have let him get into great detail. Can't trust that wanking boy, you know? He'd probably exaggerate everything." Franky wanted to stop Matty and tell him that all she and Alo had done was kiss, but then Matty had to go and lick his lips, whether he meant to or not, and all she could stare at was that triangle of pink for the second it appeared.

"But," Matty lowered his voice, "if you wanted to tell me about it, I'd listen. It'd be better coming from you, Franky. I'd listen if you were telling me about it."

Franky felt her cheeks redden, because whatever Matty was referring to was not the truth: a snog session with Alo. Then, for whatever reason, Franky felt her eyes begin to well up and she wanted to just disappear, so she asked, "Where's Liv?"

And then she really, really wanted to disappear because when she spoke her voice had cracked. Cracked like some crying child, or some boy going through puberty. Dropping her head, Franky pushed herself off the counter and muttered something about having to pee. It's not that she had to, but she just had to get away from Matty - from everyone, before they saw her burst into tears that she wouldn't be able to explain properly.

She ran to the front of the Levan house and then scampered up the stairs with her trusty bottle of whiskey. Reaching the washroom, she burst through the door and onto Mini, who was applying a new coat of pink lipstick.

"Fuck," Franky muttered, the weight of her body closing the bathroom door as she slid down onto the floor. There was silence as Franky waited for herself to start crying, but then, after all that pushing through drunk teenagers and tripping up the stairs, all that emerged was a single tear. It rolled down her cheek and under her chin.

One, single, fucking tear. That was it? Franky couldn't believe it. It made her grit her teeth.

"Sorry for intruding," she muttered, too miserable and drunk and high to even brush her tear away.

The click of Mini's heeled shoe was the first response. The second was Mini, as she slowly took a seat next to Franky. "It's not a problem," the blonde said quietly. "A new coat of lipstick was required after that whole Alo thing..." And then, Mini lied, "I don't know why I kissed him. I don't know what came over me ."

She lied right to Franky's face, and Franky had no idea. Not yet, anyways.

After a pause, Mini spoke up again, "Look Franks, I'm sitting my ass on some dirty washroom floor for you, so I'm expecting you to tell me what's wrong." Beat. "I just want to make sure you're okay." Heartbeat.

Franky hiccuped. "It's Matty," she said after turning to look at Mini. The fact that she could say his name so easily while looking into Mini's eyes made the blonde's face fall slightly.

Then Franky hiccuped again.

"Here, let me take this from you for starters," Mini said as she reached over Franky to grab the whiskey. "Don't worry, I'll give it back in a little bit."

"Help yourself," Franky told her.

Mini just smiled, keeping the bottle firmly in her grip. "I've seen the way you look at Matty," she told Franky softly, "I know what you think about him, Franks. Although I can't say I understand why."

The small redhead shrugged. "I just do. He was the first one in Bristol who showed me friendship. Real friendship, in his weird way." Mini's grip tightened on the whiskey. "What the hell am I supposed to do, Mini?"

Mini look straight ahead. Her hands untwisted the lid to the bottle, and she brought up to her lips. One gulp, two gulps, three gulps... For other people, their throat would be burning and eyes tearing up, but all Mini felt were numbers. One hundred calories, two hundred calories, three hundred calories entering her system. On her fourth gulp she had to stop, certain she was going to throw up right there. As she brought the bottle down though, her arm touched Franky's.

And - would you believe it? - Mini forgot all about those numbers. Everything felt okay.

"Strong whiskey," she said quietly.

Footsteps could be heard outside the bathroom door, and someone tried to push the door open. "Excuse me, but I'm fucking already in here," Mini snapped at them. There was a desperate protest from the other side of the door, but Mini reached up over her head to lock the door. "Not my problem," she called loudly. "Piss on the carpet for all I care."

Franky smiled at this, and then she laughed, looking at Mini and shaking her head in disbelief. They shared a look, grinning and giggling at each other. A determined look then set over Mini's face, and narrowing her eyes she said, "You asked me what you should do about Matty. Well, I think you need to forget about him. Just find someone else."

"Easy for you to say," Franky rolled her eyes. "You're beautiful and everyone else thinks you're beautiful. People want you. They don't think that when they see me."

"But what about..." Mini spoke slowly, looking downwards. "What about when I saw you with Alo?"

"What about it?"

For a second, Mini imagined what the two of them must have looked like: Two drunk girls propped up against some door, sitting on a greasy bathroom floor with a bottle of liquor, more than half finished. It wasn't where she normally ended up at parties, but then again, this party had proven to be anything but normal, staring with Alo; starting with Franky. And so Mini decided to just say it.

"I did end up kissing Alo."

Franky smiled, "Thought you might of."

"I only made out with him though because you told me to."

And then, Franky saw where this was going. It made her stomach churn - good or bad, she wasn't sure. "Wait, Mini -"

"I did it because you were kissing him."

"Mini, don't -"

"And because I just wanted to kiss you."

Even though Franky could see it coming, it still surprised her to hear it out loud. She decided that the churning in her stomach was the good kind of churning, which in itself may have been bad. Franky opened her mouth, only to realize that she had nothing to say. What was she supposed to say? She was an androgynous, awkwardly skinny girl who had just learned the beautiful queen Mini wanted to kiss her. The thought made her smile.

Maybe Mini thought that was some sort of cue, because she pushed her face towards Franky's. Then she positioned herself so she was on her knees, leaning into Franky as she aggressively kissed her.

That's where Franky decided there was nothing stranger than kissing. Everyone loves to be kissed, but how can you continue to kiss someone back when you know they want you, but you want someone else? That's what Franky did. She kissed back with as much passion and fury as Mini - as someone who actually meant it.

Perhaps that was why it was so violent, because only half of it was real and both of them knew it. Their faces pushed against each other as if seeing who was stronger; mashing lips and tangled tongues. Franky brought a hand behind Mini's head, lacing her fingers with hair. It made Mini shiver, but she didn't want to be the one who was being controlled. She had to make sure Franky knew it was her, and not someone else.

Not Matty.

Mini leaned in more, bringing a hand up to Franky's neck and running it down to her shoulder. She began to push her back, working Franky down until she was almost flat on the floor. Franky's head was still propped up against one of the bathroom walls, being dug into the plaster until it started to hurt. But it was a violent kiss, so Franky accepted it. And they kissed and they kissed and they kissed, and Mini was working. She wanted Franky flat, she wanted their legs tangled, she wanted it her way. Most importantly, she wanted Franky to believe it.

That could never happen though, because no matter how hard Franky's head was being pressed into the wall, it couldn't distract her enough from the feeling of Mini's hand sneaking under her shirt, and sliding its way up to her breast. It couldn't distract her enough from how wrong it all felt.

She turned her head to the side. "Mini..."

The blonde didn't stop. She pretended not to hear as she roughly kissed the side of Franky's neck.

"Mini."

With one hand, she gripped Franky's breast. With the other, she reached down to touch Franky's inner thigh. She tried to kiss those lips again, but Franky had curled them in, squeezing her eyes shut as she squirmed.

"Mini, stop!"

Finally, she listened, because the side of a face can't kiss you back and you can only try for so long. Mini froze, noticing she was out of breath. This startled her, and she scrambled up to her feet. Expecting herself to throw up, she lunged for the sink, gripping both sides of its rim as she hung her head over the bowl.

But then she felt Franky - fucking Franky! She slipped Mini's hair between her fingers and held it out of the sink, patting her shoulder with one hand. Once again, Mini didn't feel like she was going to be sick. Her breathing became steady.

"Are you okay?" Franky asked her, "Did it pass?"

Mini couldn't answer. She didn't know what to say.

"Mini," Franky said quietly. Letting go of the blonde hair, she leaned her forehead into Mini's back, and they both closed their eyes. "Mini, I'm sorry. I don't know why... I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have lead you on."

"It's fine," she responded sharply. Their eyes opened and they pulled away from each other. After a pause, Mini said, "And you didn't lead me on, by the way. It didn't mean anything, to either of us. We're drunk, Franky, and it's a party. We're drunk, and shit happens." She felt her lower lip begin to tremble and she had to stop talking.

Franky was leaning against the wall, staring down at her shoes. Mini was still facing the sink, but she watched Franky through the mirror.

"I don't know why I like him, Mini. I just do and I'm sorry."

Mini couldn't believe just a reflection of Franky could make her that hungry. "Yeah." Beat. "Me too."

Heartbeat.

A/N - Not sure if this should be rated M, or if it's fine as T... Thoughts?