by Tina
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"...gonna make a mistake, gonna do it on purpose, gonna waste my time..."
Rachel was lying on her bed that afternoon. She had planned on spending as much time as she could with Ross that holliday break, but... after the little 'I love you' incident it seemed like ignoring his existence seemed like a good way to avoid conflicts. The thoughts in her head were too conflicting as it was.
"...I'm gonna fuck it up again,
I'm gonna do another detour,
Unpave my path..."
The phone rang and Rachel very much feared it was Ross. She had run out of excuses...
"Hello?"
"Rach?"
"Hey Melissa" Rachel almost sighed with relief.
"So, what are you doing tonight?"
"Nothing, I think"
"Not going out with your boyfriend?"
"I don't know, why?"
"Just wondering. There's a party down at the Sigma Pi and all the Kappa Kappa Deltas have been invited. Are you coming?"
"Sure"
"Ok, you just need to call Adam and give him your boyfriend's name to put it on the list. It's gonna be a bit of a VIP party, you know how the SPs can be...!"
"Actually, I don't think Ross is gonna come. It's not really his thing"
"Well, okay then!" there was a weird enthusiam in Melissa's voice, which Rachel decided to ignore. Melissa did not belong to Rachel's group of friends who judged Ross. "Can you come and pick me up?"
"Sure"
"Ok, I'll see you at nine, then?"
"Sure thing, see ya"
Rachel hung up and sighed. A nice sorority party would be a good way to clear her head a bit.
The phone rang again.
"Hello" Rachel picked it up instantly.
"Hey"
Rachel didn't know what to say, for some reason she had forgotten it could be him.
"Hey Ross, what's up?"
"Nothing, really..." Rachel looked down at the soothing sound of his voice. "What are you doing today?"
"Actually... I just got a call from a friend and as it turns out I had promised her I'd go to this thing wih her, so..."
"Oh, okay"
Slight silence.
"Sorry"
"That's okay, if you promised.." he assured her.
She looked down.
"Ok, so I'll talk to you later"
"Yeah, okay. Bye"
She took a while to answer. Before she could, he hung up. She looked down and hung up aswell.
"...I've acquired quite a taste For a wellmade mistake I wanna mistake, why can't I make a mistake?"
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Rachel and Melissa entered the party. Melissa didn't waste much time before she reached the first waiter and grabbed two glasses of wine. She handed one to Rachel, who accepted it without giving it much thought. Her eyes were too busy scanning the room. Everybody was dressed up nice. The Sigma Pi parties were usually fancy and more quiet. They were known for their matchmaking purpose. Many long therm relationships had started on those.
The light was dimmed, everybody was nicely dressed. They all just drank wine, never overdoing themselves. The purpose was merely to loosen themselves. And look classier.
Before she noticed her glass was already empty, Melissa handed her a new one. Rachel smiled back, silently thanking her. Melissa smiled wider.
"So... who's coming?"
"Well, I don't know, really.." Melissa looked around. "I know Adam's around and he's bringing Janet. Can you believe they've been dating for 7 months already?"
"Right..."
"Alyssa said she was coming with David and she had him bring a friend of his and they're double dating with Heather, who finally agreed to that setting up Lyssa's been trying to force on her." Melissa sipped the rest of her glass' content. "Guess she's been sick of being lonely"
Rachel sighed.
"There they are"
Two couples could be spotted sitting around, in pairs.
"Hey, girls"
Rachel startled.
"Jesus, Nick, you scared me!"
He shrugged.
"Sorry"
Melissa shot him a look.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing, Jeez! Refill?" he offered them a bottle.
"Sure" Rachel outstretched her glass.
"So, what's up with you girls?"
"Not just, we just got here." Melissa replied. "Just couples here I suppose?"
"Seems like it" he answered. "Guess I'm just gonna drink my frustration away"
Rachel smiled.
"I'll join ya!"
"What happened to your boyfriend? Troubles in paradise?"
She had to chuckle at the way he questioned her.
"Something like that"
"Alright, then welcome!"
She emptied her glass with quick and heavy swallows and lifted her glass up to him again.
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Rachel closed the door to the bathroom with reasonable difficulty. She held on to the mable sink and walked over to the wall supporting herself. Everything was spinning.
She'd been much drunker before, but this time... There was something different about it. She closed her eyes and sighed.
With her legs widely open apart, she found enough balance to splash her face gently, careful not to mess up with her make up, and left.
Melissa was nowhere to be seen. But Rachel chuckled outloud when she spotted Nick pathetically sitting on a couch by himself. He had a goofy grin on his face, as if something very amusing was happening. But there was no one around.
'Damn it, he's worse than me' Rachel thought.
"Hey!" Rachel sat down next to him.
"Hi!" he turned to her with the same expression. Rachel laughed.
"What's so amusing?"
He giggled.
"I'm drunk"
Rachel giggled with him.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah"
"Me too!"
They laughed. There was something so hillarious about that...!
"Ahhh.." Rachel leaned back on the couch and relaxed, closing her eyes. This was nice. Nothing to worry about...
"You know, Rach..."
"What?"
She opened her eyes and looked at Nick.
"I've always found you very atractive"
She smiled.
"Really?"
"Yeah..." he sighed, smiling at her. "But I've always, you know, thought you were way out of my league"
He tenderly touched a trend of her hair.
"You're so cute.." she cooed.
"Am I?" he chuckled.
She nodded, adoringly.
"Hmhum"
"Yeah, ok, Rachel Green thinks I'm cute"
Rachel laughed.
Nick carefully put a hand on her waist, still grinning like a 5 years old boy.
"Okay, so I think you're atractive and you think I'm cute... I guess we could work with that as a beginning" he whispered into her ear, keeping himself very close to her.
She just kept on laughing.
He planted a kiss on her neck and she rested a hand on his own waist.
"I don't know..." she smiled at him. "Maybe"
He smiled back and leaned to kiss her, but she turned away, giggling. Instead, he kissed her neck again. Both laughed.
But then she put her hands on his chest and pushed him away a bit. She couldn't tell just why, she was too ditzy to think. It just seemed like the thing to do. She smiled at him and shook her head.
"Sorry, Nick... I..." she trailled off. "Sorry"
He sighed.
"That's fine"
They leaned back on the couch and he drank more of his wine that had been momentarily cast away. Rachel looked around and saw Melissa looking at them. The look on her face showed she had witnessed the whole thing. Rachel smiled embarassed and motioned for Melissa to join them.
"Hey Rach?"
"Yeah?"
"Could I talk to you in private, for a moment?"
"Sure... Just... Help me up here, will ya?" Melissa helped Rachel getting up. "We'll be right back" she informed Nick.
They left to a balcony.
"So, what's up?" Rachel cooly asked.
Melissa kept staring at her for a while. Before Rachel could repeat her question, Melissa walked over her and kissed her lips.
'Oh my God!' Rachel thought. She pulled away.
"What are you doing??"
Rachel's cellphone started ringing. Through Melissa's reply, Rachel brownsed her purse to find it. She was much too drunk and confused to suceed either task.
Eventually, she found her cell and saw Ross' name flashing on the screen. It was, now, relieving for some reason and she picked it up disregarding the fact Melissa was still talking. In fact, she was pouring out her heart, confessing her atraction to her friend.
"Hello?"
"Rach?"
Rachel froze. His voice sounded way too depressing.
"What happened, sweetie?"
"Could you come over?"
"What's wrong?"
"It's- it's my parents"
"What about them?"
"I think they're splitting up"
A wave of emotions washed over Rachel. Left her livid.
"What?!"
"Can you come?"
"I'll be right over, see you in a sec"
"Thank you"
"Bye" she whispered.
She flipped her cell shut and looked at Melissa, who had stopped babbling. Rachel stood there, silent, for a few seconds.
"I gotta go"
Rachel ran inside. Melissa followed her.
"What, wait, what happened?"
"I gotta get to Ross'"
"Now??"
"Yeah"
Rachel retrieved her purse.
"But you can't drive, Rachel, you're too drunk"
"I don't have a choice, I gotta go"
"No, Rachel!!"
Rachel ran to the front door, but Melissa didn't give up.
"I won't let you go and hurt yourself"
"What, will you drive me there?"
"Well, I don't have a lisence..!"
"Then see ya!"
"Wait, we'll call you a cab!"
"It'll take too long to get here, I gotta go NOW!"
"Then someone else will take you!"
"Goddamn it, Melissa, who??"
"Me"
They turned to look.
"Mindy?"
Mindy innocently smiled and waved.
"Hey... I can drive you there, if you want"
Rachel's mind raced.
"Ok"
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Hm, I should be posting a new chapter tomorrow and then I'll spend a few days out of town ;) Yeah, baby, going to this beach for a while. Meanwhile... hope you all have had good Xmas and New Years! Wish you all the best in 2005.
Please, post reviews...!!! :D
Oh, and I've been trying not to use cell phones and stuff in the fic to make it seem like it could have happened in the 80's, but... I couldn't help it. And that pretty much flew out the window after Ross sang Coldplay and Rachel Alanis :P
AND music from the beginning's called "A Mistake", by Fiona Apple. Love her.