One Wild Night
Chapter 4
The Great Escapes
She was getting sick in the bathroom again, he knew it. He hadn't seen her go into the bathroom, couldn't hear her in there because she was half way across the mansion, but somehow he knew. It was like he could feel where she was.
Maybe I am working out a little too much. Scott thought, remembering Kurt's teasing from the team's last Danger Room session. He shrugged it off, telling himself he would stop at dinner time, and continued sparring alone on the mat in the gym.
Scott lost himself in his movements, the fluidity of his fighting like a song. Every punch, kick and jump were deadly accurate and precise. He was concentrating so hard that he could almost see his imaged opponents in front of him. Sometimes they were ninjas other time they were Cylons from Battlestar Galatica.
He was concentrating so hard that when Jean walked in the room and said his name in the middle of a flying kick, he landed flat on his ass.
"Hey, Jean." He said with a slightly embarrassed smile from his spot on the floor.
"Nice moves." She said, offering a hand to help him up.
"Thanks." He said, taking her proffered hand and standing up. A charged silence followed in which Jean looked at the ground and Scott's eyes casually roved over her. Ever since she had started dating Duncan things had gotten weird between them. It was like they had broken up but they had never even dated. It hurt him every time he saw them together because Scott knew that if he had just opened his mouth, he would be the one with the girl. But he had played it safe--like always--and now here he was kicking his own ass in the gym after school like the pathetic boy-scout he was.
"So, what brings you down here?" Scott asked before he got too depressed.
"I heard you in here, thought I'd see what you were up to." Jean said, looking around the gym. "Fighting invisible ninjas again?"
"Yup." Scott said, grabbing his towel where he had thrown it on the floor and draping it around his neck.
Jean took a second to notice Scott's finely naked chest, noticing the little bead of sweat that was wending its way down the center of his stomach. She blinked hard and forced her eyes up onto Scott's face. "So, uh, Ducan's having that party tonight."
"Yeah." Scott said, tousling his hair a bit with his towel. "That has 'catastrophe' written all over it in bright orange letters."
"You know, I was kinda thinking the same thing too." Jean said, seeing her opportunity and seizing it. "It's been kinda tense between us and the rest of the school lately and it might be a good idea to have a couple of people from the Institute there. A safety in numbers kinda thing."
The real reason was that if she finally got up the nerve to tell Duncan what her possible state was and he went berserk, Jean wanted someone there who could protect her. While she loved Kitty to death and trusted her with her life in battle and in the Danger room, the Illinois girl just couldn't take on the star high school quarterback. Especially when he was drunk.
Scott looked as if he was about to call her out on her bullshit, but then he cracked a smile. "Nice to see those Danger Room sessions are sinking in for some people. Sure, I'll tag along."
It always comes back to that damn Room, doesn't it? "Great!" Jean said, putting on her most false and saccharin of smiles. "Meet you in the garage at 8?"
"It's a date."
The smoke filled her lungs as they expanded, her dark rimmed eyes closing as they did so. Rogue held the smoke in for a few seconds before releasing it all in a rush. The following sensation could only be described as feeling herself expand, like she was now not just existing only in her body, but in the air around it too. She smiled crookedly as a familiar and comfortable numbness filled her and she knew no matter what she did now, she wouldn't feel a thing. It was quiet. Really quiet, deathly quiet. Not even the low ringing in her ears that came from listening to her music for too long and too loud could be heard. Not even the psyches were talking. It was like a vacuum.
The bathroom was a vacuum, the bathroom was a spaceship.
This caused Rogue to giggle uncontrollably, falling off the edge of the bathtub and onto her side on the floor. Her whole body shook with suppressed giggles as she held her stomach, the muscles there aching and burning with her jocularity. She was gasping for air she was laughing so hard, but she didn't care because she was floating on a cloud. She was on a cloud high, high, high above the earth, far, far away from all her problems and issues.
She couldn't breathe.
She was gonna die.
People can't breathe in outer space! Her mind cried out to her.
Rogue suddenly sat up, eyes wide and taking in great lungfuls of air. Her bloodshot eyes looked around the room wildly; making sure the walls weren't closing in on her. After a few moments, she calmed down and picked up the now spent joint that sat smoldering on the counter above her.
"Damn it." She cursed, taking the little nub that was left of the joint, useless now, and flushing it down the toilet. That spaceship ride took longer than she thought. Getting up, Rogue flicked on the ventilation system, the fan sucking the air out of the bathroom and sending it down into one of the sub-basements. Rogue also sprayed some air freshener for good measure and exited the bathroom. Now that she had a clearer head about things, she could decide what to wear to Dork-can's party. That was what had prompted that little escape in the bathroom. She had been stuck between what to wear (a black vinyl corset or a dark green and revealingly lacy peasant top) and the psyches in her head had begun to argue. Kitty had wanted to wear the peasant top, but with something underneath it too and Wanda wanted to wear the corset, but Scott said she shouldn't be going out at all. But then Remy had said that she shouldn't wear anything at all which Scott took offense to, which made everyone else start taking sides and arguing back and forth about who was right or cooler or whatever. Just thinking about it made her head want to start hurting again.
Rogue closed the door to her room, leaning on it and letting out a short breath. She crossed over to her bed where the two shirts had been abandoned before she left. In the end, after much deliberation, she decided to wear a black skirt with a leather halter top. She covered her legs with some garter stockings she found in a ball in the back of her closet. There was space between where the stockings began and her skirt ended, which revealed a sexy slice of her mid thigh. She covered her upper body with a black variation on her regular green sheer top. Throwing on some boots and some smoky looking make-up, Rogue finished dressing and checked the clock. She had about a half hour to get to the Seven-Eleven that she was going to meet Remy at.
Rogue did some quick thinking. Usually at this time, Storm was almost done cleaning up the dishes from dinner, but she still had some to do, which would probably ensure Rogue from being seen by her. The Professor was in his study, hopefully, and Beast was in the lab, as always. Now if none of the newbies, or some particularly goodie-two-shoes type people, like Scott or Jean or Kitty or, hell all of them, saw her she would be fine.
"Oh my God Rogue, I like totally. . ." Kitty stopped mid-barging into the room and stared at Rogue's attire. "Wow, what's with the total Goth-out?"
God damn it.
"Thanks." Rogue said, straining to put on a smile.
"What's the occasion?" The valley girl asked.
"Nothin'," Rogue shrugged. "Can't a gal dress up if she feels lahke it?"
Kitty narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Rogue. "You wouldn't be going to that party at Duncan's house, would you?"
"Are you?" Rogue sarcastically countered, falling back to lazily stretch out on her bed.
"Yeah, but I'm like, allowed to go. Unlike some people who were caught smoking in the bathroom, for the fifth time."
"Ya point?" Rogue drawled.
"My point is if you're going out, I'm not covering for you again. I'm tired of doing it."
"Ah never asked ya ta cover for me, ya took it upon yourself." Rogue said. "Ah don't care one way or another."
"You should." Kitty said, folding her arms across her chest. "This isn't like some halfway house for you to crash at between fixes. It's a place--"
"Oh God, now ya sound like Scott!" Rogue complained, theatrically rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, well, he's like, got a point, ya know!" Kitty cried over Rogue's complaints. "And not just about all that stuff about this place either. He's right about all that stuff about us bein' family and stuff."
Rogue looked at her watch and with a much put-upon sigh, got up from her bed. "Look, ya got a point here? Ah got people Ah gotta meet."
"Alright, fine." Kitty said and went over to her bed, which she sat on the edge of, picking at the end of the sleeve of her pink sweater. "I'm tired of putting up with your stuff Rogue. I'm tired of having to make up excuses about where you are and what you're doing. I'm sick of it and I'm not going to do it any more."
There was a long pause before Rogue said: "Is that all?"
Kitty looked up at her friend and blinked. "Um, yeah, I guess."
"'Kay." Rogue said with a shrug. "See ya later." She turned around and went to the balcony where she promptly dropped out of sight.
Kitty was left sitting on her bed with a slightly stunned look to her features. That wasn't at all what she was expecting. She expected Rogue to sit down and feel bad and promise that she wouldn't go out any more and that she would stop doing drugs and maybe even get some help. She expected Rogue to be a friend and open up and, at the very least, Kitty expected Rogue to be just a little bit considerate. What did she get instead? A shrug and a 'see ya later'.
Why do I do this to myself? Kitty thought, digging the heels of her palms into her eyes so she wouldn't cry in frustration. She wasn't going to cry over this. If Rogue didn't care, then . . . then neither did she. If Rogue didn't care if she got herself kicked out or shot or stabbed or killed, then Kitty Pryde didn't care either.
With a sigh and a furtive glance at the opened balcony doors, Kitty got up from her bed and went to her side of the closet, pursing her lips together in thought. She took a few things out, looked at them and then put them back. She did this for quite a while, probably longer than she should have. Just as she decided that it probably wasn't a good idea to wear her baby blue top with her khaki pants (they made her butt look enormous), Kitty glanced at her alarm clock on the nightstand and saw that she only had ten minutes to finish getting ready and get down to the garage.
Great, how am I gonna pull this one off! She thought, now going through her closet at a frantic pace. She honestly didn't know how guys managed to get ready in ten minutes. Finally, Kitty decided on a dark purple blouse and black pants. Then Kitty hurriedly put on some mascara and blush and then combed her hair out of its usual ponytail. She grabbed her purse and cast one last look at the open balcony door, a sinking feeling making itself known in her stomach before closing the door.
Kurt looked at his watch, his tail swishing in agitation. Why did girls take so long to get ready? Throw on a clean shirt, some new deodorant, run a comb through your hair and you were done. Ten minutes, tops, if you took your time. Though, now that Kurt thought about it, maybe he should have taken a little more time in getting ready. He wanted to make a good impression on Kitty and if she was spending so much time getting ready to the point of making them late, what did that say about how he looked? Kurt looked at his reflection in the mirror then, cursing his baggy khaki pants and dark blue shirt. Ach, I should have at least showered or put some gel in my hair. He scolded himself as someone thudded down the steps quickly. He looked away from the mirror and saw Kitty standing next to him in a very nice top and pants. His eyes raked her up and down for a second or two before saying,
"You look nice Katzchen."
"Ugh, this stuff?" Kitty responded with a sound of disgust and a roll of her eyes. "Please, you're, like, just being nice."
"Nein, really, you look sehr gut."
"You really think so?" Kitty asked, examining her backside in the hall mirror that Kurt had just been using.
"Ja, I really do." Kurt nodded.
Kitty smiled and maybe blushed a little bit before wrapping her arm around Kurt's in a friendly manner and starting off down the hall. "C'mon, let's go before Scott leaves without us."
Scott sighed impatiently and checked his watch for the fifth time. Somehow they all managed to be late this time. Did anything he ever said about being on time for stuff or anything else of that kind of importance sink into their heads? Probably not. If he was honest with himself, he couldn't blame them. Most times he made those speeches at an ungodly hour in the morning and if they were so tired that they couldn't listen then he was so tired that most times he couldn't remember what he said. Upon hearing the door from the house to the garage open, Scott looked up and saw Jean standing in the door way. For a moment she looked like an angel standing there, with the light from behind her making her look as if she was glowing. But then she moved and the vision was gone.
"I thought you would have worn a dress." Scott said by way of greeting.
"You look nice too." Jean said with a small smile. "It's a party, not a date."
Scott opened the car door for her, taking the opportunity to stealthily look down the generous scoop cut of her green shirt. He used the walk around the car to the driver's side to fight the smirk off of his face and sat in the driver's seat. He hit the garage door opener and from then on it was pure quiet, broken only by Scott drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Just as Scott was about to open his mouth to say something, Kurt and Kitty bounded into the room, Kitty already chattering on about clothes and Scott promptly shut his mouth.
"Ready to go?" Scott asked the duo as they clamored into the back seat. A "ja" and a "yeah" were his responses before he started the car and pulled out of the garage. None of them knew that when they came back, everything will have changed.
A/n: Geez, over two months it has been, has it not? College is crazy; as I'm sure some of you know. I know this is gonna seem kinda old, but my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Bit of good news that I have heard: There will be a Mardi Gras in February! So that's a good sign, I guess. But enough bad stuff, onto reviews! (I'm thinking of putting them back at the top again, what do you all think?)
Reviews:
IvyZoe: Nope, Logan's not at Xavier's, he still like a drifter I guess. Just a guy who likes to drink, fight in bars and spend some time with some lovely ladies. Kinda like Remy, only not as man-whore-ish as Remy can be sometimes. Party shall be coming up soon, if not next chapter, so stay tuned to find out what happens!
Ishy: Sorry about the lack of Romy in this chapter too! But definitely starting out with them next chapter and then the sequel to this will be Romy-centric too, so hopefully that makes up for it. Your feeling is right and definitely some interesting stuff is going to go down.
Starrydreamz: thanks for the love, sorry for the delay!
MidniteAngelGoth: Thanks for the love! And you know how to spell effing too! Yay!
Go Eagles
Shockgoddess