Chapter 4: superfreak

Walking through the front door, April was trying to pretend she wasn't a little tipsy after their night at the bar. The turn the conversation had taken had forced her into drinking a little more than she normally did.

"You still up for bathroom patrol tonight?"

It took her half a second longer to figure out what Jackson was talking about.

"Oh—right, yeah. I'll be there in a minute." The upstairs bathroom she shared with most of Meredith's frat house always needed cleaning. Alex tidied up and cleaned drains on Mondays, Lexie washed towels and bathmats on Wednesdays, and she and Jackson scrubbed everything clean on Fridays. Usually working with Jackson made it little less of a chore. On this particular evening, she would've paid fifty bucks for Jackson to do it alone, if she wouldn't have had to give a reason.

She blinked hard, trying to clear her fuzzy head, and ducked into the kitchen for a glass of water and a couple of ibuprofen, in advance. April was a lightweight. It didn't take much to make her feel miserable.

"You're a virgin and a drunk?" Alex mumbled and he brushed past her into the kitchen.

She glared. "I had two drinks. I'm not a drunk."

"You look like a drunk."

That got him a slap on the arm.

I don't like today. April gulped down her water and the pills. First I make Meredith mad, just when she's starting to be my friend, then everyone finds out I'm a virgin, then I yell at everyone at the bar. And now I have to clean the freaking bathroom.

After a deep breath, April climbed the stairs.

"Get in here, April!" Jackson called, cheery like he hadn't had twice as much to drink as she had. "I'm cleaning the tub without you."

"Wouldn't want to miss that," she told him as she passed by. "Be right there, promise." She needed pajamas first. This night definitely needed pajamas.

When she entered the bathroom, he was still scrubbing at the bathtub with a sponge that they definitely should've replaced months ago. He glanced back at her. "Do you want to do the sink?"

"Sure." April liked sink duty anyway. Cleaning up toothpaste and stray hairs and throwing away forgotten floss was satisfying, taking care of a bunch of tiny problems in succession. "How's the tub coming?"

"I don't know how we possibly get it this dirty in a week."

April leaned over to get a look. "I think it's gotten worse since you started. It's that nasty sponge."

"I think you're right," Jackson muttered as the realization sank in. "Hand me a washcloth?"

Tossing one to him, April added, "One more thing for Lexie to wash next week."

"She'll make it."

They were quiet for a few minutes. April made sure the sink perfectly clean, then moved on to the toilet. "Isn't it funny how we have a special brush just for cleaning toilets? And it even has its own special home, that closes perfectly around it, just so we don't have to think about it."

"Think we can get one for Alex?"

April giggled. "He's not that bad."

Jackson stopped to look up at her. "Oh, and all the mocking your virginity today? You were perfectly fine with that? You looked uncomfortable."

She turned back towards the toilet. "Well, I saw you laughing too."

"It was kind of funny." He smiled, a bit apologetically. "And I mean, I kind of already knew."

"What?"

"I don't know, you just have a vibe. I don't know if I would've guessed you were a virgin, but I definitely thought…" He was smart enough to cut off his thought there, but April was already annoyed enough.

She scrubbed the toilet seat much more aggressively than was necessary. "Whatever. I gave my reasons."

"You're right, though," Jackson said, giving the tub a final rinse down. "We shouldn't have kept talking about it. We've all got problems."

April took a moment to formulate her response, filling the little bucket with soapy water. "I don't necessarily think about it as a problem."

"You don't?"

She passed the bucket to Jackson, along with the mop he'd brought up from the kitchen. Once a month they mopped, and this just so happened to be that Friday. April was really dreading ever making the house a cleaning schedule. Maybe a chore wheel, instead. Though it was hard enough to get Lexie to agree to do some laundry once a week.

"No. I don't."

Last step: mirrors. April was more than eager to just go to bed. She swept up the bathmats and sat on them on top of the sink, so Jackson could clean the floor below.

"Not to sound like I'm judging you, but why not? Do you not want to ever have sex?"

She took a moment to close her eyes and breathe. This complicated conversation was just what the day needed. "Someday." She saw no reason to get into the details earlier, and no reason to get into the details now.

"Oh." He didn't have much of a response to that.

The truth was that she didn't want everyone else to know about her faith. Lots of doctors wouldn't respect a Christian colleague, one who prayed and believed in miracles. They didn't understand that her beliefs and her knowledge of science were perfectly compatible. Jackson may have been her friend, but even he would tease her, and it wouldn't be long before everyone knew. Including Cristina, and then the torture would never end.

She cleaned the mirror. He mopped the floor. When they were done he convinced her to watch a few episodes of The Office and eat some cold pizza. He didn't come out and say "this will help distract you from being a lightweight virgin that people make fun of," and she appreciated that.