Arizona put her left hand out to attempt to steady herself but before she could go to sit back down, everything went black.
"Arizona. Arizona can you hear me? Arizona!"
The words slowly invaded Arizona's subconscious as she regained her senses bit by bit and became aware of her surroundings.
"Wh-what? Teddy? What are you doing here? How did I get here? Where exactly is here? Where's Callie?"
Arizona vision gradually became less blurred and she shifted from her horizontal position so that her elbows were now propping her up. She looked around and was surprised to see that she was no longer in the tattoo parlour with Callie, instead, she seemed to be in her bed in her flat, looking up at a concerned Teddy hovering over her.
"Wow, you ask more questions than my Mom did when she met my first boyfriend. We're in our flat, Callie said she half carried you here after you woke up in the tattoo place; you were pretty out of it so I'm not surprised you don't remember. And Callie had to go to class. She was gonna blow it off but I told her you'd be fine with me. How do you feel?"
"Um, disoriented. I feel very disoriented. I think I remember getting in a cab with her. It's slowly coming back to me."
Arizona became aware of a pain in her nose and her hand instinctively reached up to touch it, her fingers finding a small stud. The new sensation was strange, but not entirely unpleasant.
"Don't play with it Arizona, Callie said not to touch it."
"Doesn't sound like her usual dirty talk," Arizona said with a cheeky grin on her face.
Teddy scoffed, "like you would know. I know you don't have the balls to tell her all that you've wanted to do for the past five months is, well, her."
Arizona groaned melodramatically. "I've avoided being drunk around her since the start of the semester for that very reason. I really don't know if…" Arizona paused mid-sentence as her senses were assaulted with a flashback from a few hours earlier. She sat bolt upright and clasped her hands over her mouth in alarm. Her face turned a ghastly shade of white, similar to the shade it was in the piercing place.
"If? If what?" Teddy sat down on the side of the bed and leaned in closer, intrigued.
"Teddy! Oh my god. Oh my god oh my god oh my god."
Arizona continued to repeat the three words over and over again until Teddy put her hands on her shoulders and gently shook her once.
"Arizona! Use your words."
Arizona was too horrified by the situation to even chastise Teddy for being patronising. She slowly brought her hands away from her mouth and her face was the very image of distress.
"Teddy! I kissed Callie!"
Teddy's mouth slowly spread into a grin at the news. Meanwhile, Arizona continued to ramble on to the effect of "what am I going to do?" and "oh god, I've ruined my life," until Teddy figured it was time for her to step into the role of 'rational best friend' and stop Arizona's hysterics before she spontaneously combusted. She grasped Arizona's wrists tightly.
"Arizona! Stop! You're acting like a fifteen year old girl who's just… dropped her books in front of the hottest guy in school or something."
Arizona just looked at her.
"Girl, guy, whatever. My point is that you are twenty-three years old. You kiss girls all the time! And you actually like this one. Why is this a bad thing?"
Arizona raked her hands through her hair haphazardly. "It's because I actually like this one. I mean I kissed her in the back room of a dirty tattoo place and then passed out on her. It doesn't exactly scream classy."
"And since when had you any qualms about the fact that you weren't classy Arizona? Callie knows you're not exactly pure and she's still friends with you."
Arizona narrowed her eyes and looked at Teddy again with an expression that said 'do you seriously hear what you are saying?'
"Z, you know what I mean, I didn't mean for it to come out so insensitively."
Arizona, still slightly affronted, decided to let Teddy's slip of the tongue slide. "I know, but that's exactly the point, Callie and I are 'just friends.' You said it yourself, we're friends, nothing more."
"Yes, but you could be more." Teddy looked at Arizona sympathetically, "think about it. I have to go I have to meet Addison, you'll be okay, right?"
"You know it. Bring home alcohol."
Teddy grinned, "There's the Arizona we know and love."
A slight smile graced Arizona's face as she watched Teddy walk out of her room and heard the front door slam a few seconds later, a smile which quickly disappeared when Arizona remembered the predicament that she had got herself into. She groaned in frustration, grabbed the pillow next to her and threw it to the other side of her room, not even caring when she heard five little aftershocks as various objects followed it to the floor.
"I'm worried about Arizona,' Teddy announced as she plonked herself down next to Addison in the college café.
"Why? That girl can handle herself," Addison replied, placing a baby carrot into her mouth and crunching down on it.
"She is completely enamoured by Callie. I mean her crush level is 'obsessed teenage girl meets One Direction.'"
Addison sat up straight in her chair and stopped chewing, a serious expression on her face.
"Oh that is bad. But how, I mean, she always manages to stay coherent around her. Are you sure she likes her that much? Arizona's a flirty person; maybe you're just reading it wrong."
Teddy placed a hand on Addison's arm. "Addie I'm going to stop you right there, she had a complete adolescent freak-out when she remembered that she kissed Callie."
Addison's reaction to this new information was almost identical to Teddy's. A slow grin spread over her face and she laughed gleefully.
"Oh, this is excellent. Can we meddle?" She saw the wicked look on Teddy's face and her grin spread even wider, "we're going to meddle," she stated.
"You read my mind oh Ruler of All That Is Evil."
Addison let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark, "I can't believe that nickname stuck. Anyway, party at yours? Or mine? The only way anything interesting is going to happen is if everyone is drunk."
Teddy nodded in agreement, "I was thinking have it at mine. I'll tell Arizona we're throwing a house party to help her forget about Callie."
"And I'll casually let it slip to Callie that Arizona has other plans, so you've decided to host a party because she's gone," Addison finished.
They both looked to each other with matching evil grins on their faces. Teddy was the first to speak, "if anyone has just overheard this conversation, there is no way they'd believe we're both twenty-four years old and in medical school."
Addison laughed, "Oh Teddy, this is gonna be good."
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this Altman."
"Hey, don't last-name me, Robbins, it'll be good for you." Teddy said, turning away so Arizona couldn't see her sly smile.
Arizona growled and Teddy turned back around. "Teddy, help me get this damn necklace on!"
"Alright, alright, keep your panties on," Teddy grinned as she went over to face Arizona and brought her hands behind her head to fasten the intricate piece of jewellery.
"Oh Teddy I had no idea you felt this way about me," Arizona teased, when their faces almost touched as Teddy tried to do up the clasp of her necklace, her spirits seeming to have quickly lifted.
"Shut up," Teddy rolled her eyes and pulled Arizona closer, "how in the heck do I fasten this damn thing?"
"It's really difficult, right!"
"Oh-ho, ladies, am I interrupting something?" A male voice bellowed from the doorway of Arizona's bedroom, seeing the two girls locked in what appeared to be a very intimate embrace.
Teddy and Arizona both whipped their heads around to face the intruder and unintentionally reprimanded him in unison, "get out Mark!"
"If you insist," he bowed his way out of the room, still grinning, and closed the door behind him. The second it had closed, the two blondes heard the same voice roar around the living room, "I called it! They're scissoring!"
Teddy and Arizona turned back to each other and simultaneously burst out laughing, they found the situation so funny that it wasn't long before the tears started rolling down their faces. Arizona brought her fingers to her eyes and wiped away any mascara that might have smudged during their outburst as their laughter slowly died down. Teddy fumbled with the clasp on Arizona's necklace for a few more seconds before screaming "YES!" in victory and Arizona immediately doubled up laughing again, leaving a very confused Teddy.
"Teddy," she wheezed, slightly out of breath, "you do realise that every single person in our living room thinks we're having sex, and you just screamed 'yes' at the top of your lungs."
Teddy's perplexed look turned to one of horror and she immediately vacated Arizona's room and loudly announced to anyone who would listen: "Can I have your attention please. Despite popular opinion, I am not, I repeat not, having sex with Arizona Robbins." Arizona giggled to herself and went back to fixing her make-up as Teddy tried to regain her composure.
True to character, Cristina chose this moment to weigh in, "well of course you're not NOW, we all just heard you finish," she said, smirking, and the room erupted with laughter.
Arizona had finished fixing her make-up just in time to go and rescue Teddy from the vultures. She exited her room only to be met with a series of whoops and cat-calls. Arizona smirked and put her right arm around Teddy.
"Wh-what, what are you doing?" Teddy said, nonplussed.
"Just go with it," Arizona whispered in her ear.
Arizona cleared her throat and the whistling quieted down, "Teddy and I would like to take this opportunity…" Arizona paused and looked at Teddy for effect, who still looked absolutely baffled. She continued, still grinning "…to announce to you all our unfailing and eternal platonic love for each other." The room erupted in a theatrical 'awww,' no-one really having believed Mark in the first place.
"I'm afraid Sloan is just projecting his own fantasies. Now, where's the alcohol?"
Two hours later the party was in full swing, the booze was flowing, the music was to everyone's taste and the atmosphere was electric. Arizona heard a knock at the door and practically fell over the couch yelling, 'I'll get it!" She hastily swung the door open and almost fell again, only to be caught by the new presence in the hallway.
Arizona looked up at the newcomer, whose arms she was still in, and brushed some of her blonde hair out of her eyes. She addressed the new arrival breathlessly, their faces inches apart again.
"Callie."