I'm glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter! I had so much fun writing a drunken Tessa. I'm sure that won't be the last you see of her. Special thanks to Kayla for letting me bounce ideas off of her! By the way, the sequel, Everlasting Scars, will start with season four.

There was a heavy pounding and Tessa found herself wincing when she realized the pounding was coming from inside her head. What the hell had happened last night? She remembered going out with Sam but that was about it. She frowned when she tried to think about last night. Had she seen Ian?

She sighed and went to sit up but quickly realized that she wasn't wearing any clothes. Her eyes went wide and it was then that she realized that she wasn't alone in her bed. "Oh fuck," she muttered under her breath. Had Sam actually gotten her to hook up with some random stranger?

She carefully turned to see the person next to her and she felt her stomach drop. Not a stranger; worse. It was Lip lying, equally naked, on his back. Luckily he was still asleep and she hoped that she could sneak out of her room without waking him.

Tessa removed herself from bed as slowly and carefully as she could. Once she had completed that task she quickly found some clothes to wear and snatched her phone before running out into the hallway.

She looked through her texts but didn't see anything that might explain how she had ended up with Lip in her bed. She saw that she had texted Ian asking for him to come hang out at the bar, but that was it. She checked her phone calls and saw that she had called Ian as well.

Dialing his number, Tessa went into the kitchen and sat on the floor with her back against a cabinet.

"How's it going, sleeping boozy?" Ian answered.

She huffed. "Not good. What the hell happened last night?"

He laughed. "Well for starters, I did not take you as a giggly drunk. It's adorable."

"Ian, shut the fuck up and tell me what happened." Tessa was really not in the mood.

"Fine," he said with a sigh. "You called me to come hang out with you and your 'new friends' so I went down and Lip came with me. You seemed fine with him being there and even insisted on him bringing you home after he dropped me off. Is he still there or something?" Ian asked.

Tessa closed her eyes and bit the inside of her cheek. "Oh yeah. I'd…I'd definitely say he's still here."

There was a pause, telling Tessa that Ian was waiting for her to elaborate.

"Because he's naked in my fucking bed."

"Oh shit!" He exclaimed.

"Why the hell did you think letting him take me home, alone, was a good idea?" Tessa whined.

"I don't know! You wanted him to! You said that you wanted to talk to him. He was actually…really quiet the whole car ride home. Did you two have a conversation in the car while I went back inside to get your phone?" Ian asked.

"If I knew then I wouldn't be calling you asking what happened, would I?" She snapped.

"Shit, I'm sorry Tessa," Ian sighed. "I guess I wasn't thinking. You just seemed so sure and so…happy."

"Yeah well, don't feel too bad. I plan on giving Sam a ton of shit for abandoning me out there."

"Do you want me to come over to make sure he leaves?" He asked.

She sighed. "No. I have to deal with this."

"Okay," he said. "Call me if you need anything."

"A time machine to re-do last night," she mumbled which caused Ian to laugh.

"Bye Tessa."

"Bye Ian," she said. She hung up her phone and held it against her chin while she thought. This was why she didn't go drinking with Sam. She always ended up doing something stupid, and sleeping with Lip was definitely stupid.

Sighing, Tessa stood from her spot on the floor and walked out of the kitchen and into her bathroom. She washed her face and brushed her teeth. She contemplated taking a shower but didn't want to risk Lip waking up and joining her. Tessa ran a hand through her dark hair and left the bathroom.

On her way out she ran into Lip's naked chest. Looking up at him, she could see that he was still sleepy, but fairly aware of his surroundings. Perhaps he had been unnerved when he had realized Tessa wasn't in bed with him.

"Uh…hi," Tessa said awkwardly, backing up and pressing her back against the bathroom door. "Do you need to use the bathroom?"

He shook his head. "I was looking for you," he answered.

"Oh," she said while making an 'O' shape with her mouth and keeping it that way for a moment.

There was an awkward silence between the two. Tessa could feel Lip just looking at her and she was avoiding returning his gaze. "So I'm not really sure what happened last night…"

"You're not?" Lip asked with a smirk. "Judging from how you woke up, I'm pretty sure you can take an educated guess."

She frowned. "Lip," she began. "I don't remember last night at all. So if we got back together or something, I'm sorry but we can't."

Now it was Lip's turn to frown. They hadn't exactly gotten back together but sleeping together had definitely been Tessa's idea. He had just wanted to make sure she got into bed alright (even though she had been the one to insist he bring her home), but Tessa had been the one to go off on how much she missed him and missed being with him.

"This was all your idea, Tessa," Lip said slowly.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She really wished she remembered last night.

Sighing, Lip took her hand and dragged her back into the bedroom. He sat down on the bed and waited for her to sit down next to him. Once she was sure that he just wanted to talk, she sat down next to him to see what he might say.

"What's the last thing you remember?" he asked.

Tessa bit her lip. "Going to the bar with Sam. But I remember seeing Ian at the bar, so I called him and he explained some of it to me. He told me about you two showing up and bringing me home, and how I had wanted you to bring me home." She still couldn't believe that she had insisted on Lip bringing her home.

He nodded his head. "You don't remember any conversations we had?" Lip asked. He wished she remembered the conversation they had in the car while Ian had ran back into the bar.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Why? What did we talk about?"

Lip contemplated telling her but decided against it. Tessa wasn't handling the fact that they had slept together well; he couldn't imagine how she would take the news that she had practically told him she loved him. "Uh, nothing important," he said.

"You're lying," Tessa mumbled.

Lip didn't refute her claim, but he didn't say anything either. After a moment of silence he opened his mouth to begin his story. "I helped you up to your apartment. I was just going to make sure you got into bed okay and then I was going to leave. As much as I wanted to finish our conversation from this morning, I knew it wasn't going to happen while you were wasted."

Flashback

Lip kept his arm around Tessa's waist as he tried to walk her down the hall to her bedroom. She had lost her heels in the car but that hadn't made going up the stairs any easier. He deposited her onto her bed and told her that he would be right back.

He walked into the kitchen to grab her some water and some advil since she would likely have a killer hangover in the morning. However, when Lip returned to Tessa's room he almost dropped the glass of water. Tessa had just finished taking her dress off. He almost forgot how much he loved looking at her body.

Clearly his throat, Lip placed the water and pills on her dresser. "Uh here. Make sure to take these." He turned to leave but Tessa was quick to grab his wrist.

"Where are you going?" She asked with a frown.

"Home," Lip responded. Although, he lack of clothing wasn't making it easy on him.

"I want you to stay," Tessa said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer.

He should have told her he couldn't stay. He should have told her that she was drunk and had no idea what she was actually doing. But Lip was a little selfish and he was basking in the moment of finally having Tessa back in his arms.

Lip sighed and leaned his forehead against her own. He closed his eyes as he tried to muster up the courage to walk away from this. It was the right thing to do.

"I miss you, Lip."

The sound of her saying his name like that made his eyes open and he found her biting her lip. "Damnit, Tessa," he mumbled.

"You've been trying to get me back and now's your chance," she said as she began to pepper kisses along his jawline.

Lip caved and took off the remaining pieces of clothing standing between him and Tessa.

End Flashback

Tessa stared at the blank space in front of her with her eyes wide. She could not believe she had said all those things to Lip. She didn't remember any of it!

"Tessa?" Lip's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

She kept staring with wide eyes but she made a humming noise to let him know she had heard him.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't go home last night like I should have, but I don't regret what we did. All those things you said to me were exactly what I wanted to hear. How could I not cave?" Lip asked. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"I know," she muttered. She pulled a knee up to her chest and hugged it close. "I obviously still care about you, even though I've tried to stop those feelings, but I just can't do this again, Lip. You still have Mandy hanging around and even though you told Karen to back off, I doubt that she will. I just can't always be wondering what you're doing when we're not together."

"I'm getting rid of Mandy too, I swear," Lip said. "I just told Karen and hadn't gotten that far. Mandy's a little more…volatile."

Tessa bit the inside of her cheek. She thought both girls could be volatile, but apparently Mandy Milkovich was to be feared more than Karen Jackson.

"You're going to college," Tessa pointed out.

"I think I'm staying close to home. Everyone needs me here," Lip said.

She finally looked at him and shook her head. "You have to go to M.I.T., Lip. The school is amazing and you can accomplish so much there."

He shrugged. "But I'm needed here."

"I think they can manage," Tessa pointed out.

"I can't just abandon my family. It's not that easy."

She sighed and rested her chin on her knee. "I don't know Lip. I need to think about everything. Regardless of where you go to college, there will be a lot of girls there and I know you'll be tempted." She shrugged. "I can't handle that anxiety."

Lip didn't say anything because he knew she was right. As much as he cared about Tessa, he knew that not having her around but seeing tons of college girls wearing revealing clothes would make him fall into his old ways.

At least he wasn't trying to lie to her. Tessa took that as him trying to change. She didn't want to change him as a person; she just wanted him to be faithful. It wasn't like she was asking for the world.

"Maybe you should just go," Tessa mumbled. "I'm not feeling very well." It wasn't a complete lie. She did have a hangover but it wasn't unbearable. She just was feeling a little sick thinking about having to deal with her feelings for Lip and what last night had meant.

Lip huffed in frustration and got up from the bed. He grabbed his clothes off the floor and went to leave. Before he disappeared through the door he turned to Tessa one more time. "You know, I still care about you and I'm going to keep trying to get your trust back."

She clenched her jaw but didn't say anything. What could she say? Lip left and she fell backwards onto the bed. "I'm never drinking again," she mumbled.

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Tessa lay on the couch after taking a shower. Her hair was wet and it was seeping into the fabric of the couch as well. She was flicking through the channels until she saw someone she thought she recognized.

She went back to the news channel and watched as Frank talked on the television. Was Frank pretending to be gay? Clearly this was one of his new schemes and Tessa rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe him.

Grabbing her phone, she searched for Fiona's number and dialed it.

"Hey!" Fiona greeted her. "I just got out of work. What's up?"

"Oh the temp job," Tessa said. "How'd it go?"

"Great. I actually liked it there. It's a really nice place and the boss is cool. I'm hoping to turn it into a permanent position but we'll see."

Tessa nodded her head. "That's awesome. You deserve a stable job like that."

Fiona laughed. "Did you need something?"

"Oh!" Tessa exclaimed. She chuckled. "Uh Frank is on my television right now talking about gay rights and how he deserves the same rights as everyone else. Fi, I think he's claiming to be gay in order to get money or something."

Tessa couldn't see Fiona but she bet that her mouth was hanging open in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" She asked.

Tessa chuckled. "I wish. I didn't believe it at first when I was flicking through the channels but he's there. Nice and loud, per usual."

"Fuckin' Frank," Fiona swore.

"Uh, I actually have something else to tell you," Tessa said.

"Uh oh," Fiona said. "I'm not really liking your news today."

Sighing, Tessa went on and told Fiona everything that had happened last night with Lip and Ian showing up at the bar and then Lip bringing her home and them sleeping together. She summarized their conversation and let out a big breath when she was done with her speech. "I'm screwed," Tessa swore.

"Jesus," Fiona mumbled. She had no idea what to make of the whole fiasco. She was horrified at what Lip had done to Tessa, but she had loved the two of them together. She still thought Tessa was good for Lip. But she wasn't going to tell one of her best friends to give her brother another chance when she knew there was a chance Lip would sleep around at college.

"Tell me about it," Tessa huffed. "I'm an awful drunk."

Fiona laughed. "Okay I really want to see you drunk though. You sound adorable."

"Hey!" Tessa snapped. "First of all, I'm always adorable. Second, you should be freaking out with me." She sighed and ran a hand through her wet hair. "Or you know, I could just avoid him until he goes off for college. That could work."

"Right," Fiona scoffed. "For three whole months? I highly doubt you could do that. You couldn't even avoid him for a few weeks!"

She felt defeated when she realized that Fiona was right. "Well then maybe I should just move to California!" She declared.

"Don't be so dramatic," Fiona said.

"I'm not!" Tessa exclaimed. "How the hell am I supposed to get over someone when I see them all the damn time?"

Fiona sighed. "I have no idea," she said. "Sorry I'm not much help. I'm sorta distracted right now. Debs skipped school and stayed at Sheila's today for a code pink."

Tessa raised a brow. "Code pink?" she asked.

"Oh," Fiona said, forgetting that Tessa had no idea what their code pink meant. "We used it when Monica would have her down days."

"I see," Tessa said, pursing her lips. "Well I'll let you go make sure everything is okay there. Text me when you figure everything out?"

Fiona agreed and the two hung up the phone. Tessa tossed her phone onto the table and glanced at the clock. She had a fairly early shift tomorrow at the diner. Her face was healed for the most part but she still had to have Meg "clear" her so that she could work at the club. Maybe she would just bury herself in work at the club and the diner so she wouldn't have time to deal with Lip? Yeah…that could work.

Once this story is finished, would anyone be interested in any outtakes? I don't have any written but I have gotten a few PMs of people wanting to see the fight Tessa got in after learning about Lip cheating on her, or even the conversation between Tessa and Ian. Anyway, tell me what you guys thought! Reviews get faster updates.