Alice approached the loud house nervously, doubt playing at the back of her mind. When the girls in her homeroom had invited her out to a little "kickback" that morning, this definitely hadn't been what she had expected. This was a full blown party by Seattle's standards. Nevertheless, she had promised herself she was going to branch out this weekend and this was her chance. Taking a deep breath, Alice opened the door and stepped into the commotion.
"Hey, the new girl made it!" Alice was started by the sudden outcry at her presence, and turned her head towards a shaggy-haired boy who reminded her far too much of Chip. Forcing a smile, she waved shyly and suddenly found herself being escorted by the girl who had invited her into the crowded kitchen.
"Glad you came! Here's a drink; hope you like SoCo." She giggled, handing Alice a red plastic cup filled with a mixture of alcohol and cola. The teenager hardly had time to think before bringing the cup to her lips and downing about half of it. At that moment, she realized that she wasn't going to be in control that night. And after fighting to stay in control for so long, Alice was okay with letting go.
A considerable amount of alcohol later, Alice was sitting in a circle of teenagers, passing around a nearly killed joint. The brunette was, for the first time in months, relaxed. Her vision swam and the faces and sounds around her were slowed and blurred. She found herself laughing after almost every comment, uncaring about the fact she was in short sleeves, or that her scars were showing, or that she knew they caught someone's eye every now and then.
"Alright. Who's ready for some real shit?" The Chip look-a-like grabbed everyone's attention, standing up and centering himself in the circle of teenagers. A proud grin plastered across his face, the senior pulled out a baggie from his hoodie pocket and shook it. Bright orange pills, a lot of bright orange pills, tumbled around inside. Alice felt her eyes widen and a tiny voice in her head told her that now was the time to stop. Now was the time to back out, leave, and call Amelia to come and get her before she could fuck herself over completely. But instead of doing any of these intelligent decisions, she stayed there. She stayed and watched some of the other teens chicken out and hurry back out to the kitchen while the Oxycontin supplier began crushing the pills up on a broken clipboard.
"New girl, us Californians are all about hospitality. So you go first." He offered, holding up the makeshift tray. Five straight lines were arranged, perfectly spaced out in front of her. Alice smiled, perhaps a little ruefully, before leaning down and snorting the first one.
The next half an hour, Alice barely knew what she was doing, other than the fact that every time she leaned down and breathed in, she felt a little less. Suddenly, she was helplessly inebriated. The unfamiliar setting and people around her suddenly were of no comfort to her and she could only focus on how little control she held over herself. Hands clumsy, Alice managed to withdraw her phone from her pocket and unlock it. Clicking on the first person in her recents, she held the phone up to her ear and waited for someone to pick up.
"Hello? Alice? It's, like, 2 am?" Elle's voice pulled Alice out of the stupor she was falling deeper and deeper into and she blinked in surprise. It took a few seconds to find her voice.
"Yeah. Yeah, I know. Sorry. Are you busy?" Alice asked, her words slurring together.
"No, I'm not. Like I said, it's 2 am. You sound a little messed up. Did you end up going to Chelsea's party?" The black haired girl on the other end of the line questioned. Alice sighed, vaguely recalling that she had mentioned it during biology.
"Uh-huh. Can you come get me? I really don't know how to get home."
"Yeah. Just stay where you are and I'll be over in a few minutes." Elle responded quickly before hanging up the line. Alice let her phone tumble from her hand and leaned back against the wall behind her in relief. Barely able to hold her eyes open, the teenager let herself start to drift off into the darkness that threatened her vision.
"Alice! Come on, get up. I'm not carrying you out of here." Alice jolted back into consciousness at the sound of Elle's voice and found herself face to face with her. The senior tugged lightly on her arm and Alice struggled to get to her feet. She was feeling the few combined effects of the booze, pot, and pills and staying awake was enough of a fight. Alice slung an arm around Elle's shoulders, clinging to the leather jacket she was wearing, and stumbled alongside her, through the crowded house. Her eyelids were drooping heavily and she barely managed to drag her feet enough to simulate walking. The cool night air hit her as Elle helped her out the front door and precariously down the three front porch steps.
"My God, you're fucked up. What did you do?" Elle asked breathlessly, leaning Alice against the car until she could unlock the door. The younger of the two swayed on her feet, attempting to stay upright.
"I drank, smoked a..a lil bit. Someone had Oxy an' I snorted some." Silence followed Alice's admission and had she been more sober, she would have been concerned. Instead, the intoxicated girl allowed herself to be sat in the passenger's seat and leaned back.
"Please don't puke in here." Elle sighed as she rolled down the window on Alice's side.
"Are you mad?" The dark haired girl mumbled, resting her head near the open window so that she could breathe in the fresh air. Elle rolled her eyes, turned on the radio, and pulled out onto the street. Thankfully, she had walked Alice home after a Starbucks run earlier in the week and remembered the younger girl's street. Getting her address out of her would have been a pain in the ass.
"Of course I'm not mad. What are lab partner's for?" Her red lips upturned in a smirk as she pulled off of Chelsea's street and rounded the corner. It wasn't going to take long to get Alice home, and she wanted to keep her talking so she wouldn't have to carry her in.
"Thanks. You're...you're great. My, uh, guardians are going to be pissed if they catch me."
"Your guardians? Who are you staying with again?" Elle asked curiously. The 18 year old barely braked at a stop sign, knowing that Alice's house was just at the end of the next street. Quickly veering onto it, she held her right arm out to keep Alice from flying sideways in her seat.
"Family friends. Doctors actually." Alice replied, her voice barely audible. Elle blinked in surprise and sped her car up, eyes trained on the beach house at the end of the street. The windows were aglow with light, and she chewed her bottom lip, knowing that someone was awake. The black haired girl stopped her car, killed the engine, and took a deep breath before getting out. She hurried around to the other side, opened the door, and wrapped her arms around Alice. The second she pulled the other girl up, the front door to the house opened and two figures came racing out of it.
"Who the hell are you and where has she been?" A redheaded woman whose expression was a mixture of anger and worry was the first one to reach the car and Elle couldn't help but be slightly intimidated. Alice, on the other hand, clumsily waved a hand; the most effort she could muster at the moment.
"Are you one of the doctors she told me about? I'm Elle; her lab partner. Can we just get her inside and I'll explain. She's not as light as she looks." Elle chuckled tiredly. The woman in front of her didn't so much as crack a smile, but stepped forward and supported Alice's other side. The two of them drug Alice's stilling form into the beach house, where a dark haired woman waited by the door. Elle let out a deep sigh of relief as Alice was set down on the couch in the tastefully decorated home.
"Alice? Wake up, come on. What did you take?" The redheaded women gently shook Alice's shoulder, eliciting no response from the teenager. She reared around and set her sights on the other teen in the room, who her companion was already eyeing up and down.
"You better start explaining yourself because we were just 10 seconds away from calling the police." Elle's eyes widened and she quickly put her hands up in mock surrender.
"Look, I wasn't even at the party. Alice called me and she sounded pretty bad, so I picked her up. She told me in the car she drank, smoked some pot, and snorted Oxy. That's all I know; I promise." She blurted out honestly. A few seconds of silence rested in between the three conscious ones in the room and finally the two adults seemed to let their guard down.
"I see. I'm sorry for the inconvenience; thank you for going to get her. I'm Addison and this is Amelia." Addison apologized. Elle nodded respectfully and started towards the door.
"Tell her to let me know how she's doing in the morning. If you guys let her keep her phone, that is." The black haired girl smirked before exiting the beach house. Addison and Amelia exchanged exasperated glances and then turned around towards Alice.
"Upstairs?" Amelia suggested. Addison nodded in agreement, walking over to the couch.
"You should get ahold of Charlotte and Violet; let them know that she's back safely. I'll get that up the stairs." Addison instructed, rolling her eyes in frustration over the whole situation. Amelia headed for the kitchen, already dialing the first number.
"C'mon you, let's get upstairs." The redhead coaxed, jostling Alice lightly until she snapped back into consciousness.
"Mmmno, here's good," the teen mumbled.
"Oh no it's not, come on now." Addison persisted, all but pulling the girl to her feet. Alice finally obliged and stumbled the short distance to the staircase with the older woman's support. She glanced up at the flight of stairs, which at the moment posed a monumental challenge. She smiled to herself in amusement, drunkenly humming the chorus of Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" under her breath. Somehow, the pair made it up the steps and Addison guided Alice into her room.
"That dress has got to go. You smell like... college." The surgeon winced at the aroma of alcohol and weed that was much more obvious now that they were in a smaller space.
"Rude," Alice protested weakly, to which Addison just ignored.
"Can you keep yourself upright while I get the zipper?" She asked, doubt echoing her voice. She loosened her hold on the teen, and instantly she wobbled like a newborn animal trying to get to its feet.
"I'm gonna go with no on that one." Amelia answered, her figure appearing in the door.
"I'll hold, you zip." Amelia instructed, crossing the room and placing a firm grip on the teen's shoulders. The pair of surgeons managed to maneuver the wasted teen out of her dress and into an oversized t-shirt. Finally, they got her over to the bed, but kept her sitting upright. Alice frowned drunkenly; keeping herself upright and awake was far too exhausting.
"Drink this, all of it. Then you can sleep it off." Amelia ordered, handing a large cup of water over to the teen but not actually letting her grip to for fear that it would all end up on the floor. Alice let out a loud, hassled sigh but obliged, raising the cup to face level. For a few seconds, her lips searched fruitlessly for the straw, and Amelia couldn't help but snicker at the sight. Addison shot her a glare that clearly said 'don't encourage her like that', but she too was having trouble holding back a grin of her own.
Alice finished the glass and flopped back, lying at an awkward diagonal with her legs still partially off the side of the bed. Amelia sighed and straightened the teen out, looking up at Addison.
"I can stay with her, get her up every few hours and see that she's alright." The older of the two offered. Although Amelia would be the last to admit it, seeing Alice like this was a difficult experience, if not triggering. The neurosurgeon smiled gratefully.
"Lexie deserves to know. Not right this second obviously, but we should call her first thing in the morning." The words looked as if they physically pained the younger surgeon to say; she felt a personal responsibility to the teenager and being conned like this made Amelia feel as though she had failed and let everyone down. Alice stirred at the mention of Lexie's name, surprising the two adults in the room who had assumed she was out cold. The teen struggled for a moment before sitting up, staring blearily in their direction.
"No… don't," she forced herself to sound coherent, "this will ruin her. 'nnnd if she has t'know, it needs to be from me." The surgeons exchanged glances. "Promise," Alice insisted.
"Alright, nothing happens until you know about it." Addison relented, which seemed to bring the teen a bit of relief. Satisfied, she let herself fall back onto the mattress.
"I'm sssorry." She slurred, before finally going silent.
"Wow. This is going to be a long night." Addison sighed, staring at the now still teenager. Amelia shot her a sympathetic-and grateful-look before exiting the bedroom. The redhead turned her attention back to Alice, whose eyes were half open, and then frowned when she watched her lurch upwards a bit. A look of recognition crossed her face and just like that, the neonatal surgeon was racing into the guest bathroom. She returned seconds later with the trashcan and held it in place just in time to catch Alice's vomit. The teenager coughed weakly, spitting into the garbage can before collapsing back onto the bed.
"I'll get you some more water; just stay here and if you throw up again please aim for the can." Addison instructed. The woman grabbed the empty glass off of the night stand and quickly refilled it in the sink in the adjacent room. Fortunately, when she returned, Alice hadn't thrown up again and was instead sitting up shakily. The teenager's eyes were blood red and focused on Addison vaguely.
"I want Lexie." Alice whined. Addison faltered in her tracks for a moment before sitting down next to her and handing her the water.
"Do you want me to call her?" The redhead offered uncertainly. Alice seemed to be getting worse and worse by the second and she lurched to her feet before Addison could stop her.
"No. I...I wanna go home. I want Lexie." Her words ran together almost incoherently and she fumbled for the doorknob in front of her. Addison rose and reached out to grasp Alice's shoulder, yet missed by inches as the younger girl managed to open the door and stumbled out into the hallway. One loud thump followed seconds later and Addison ran out of the bedroom to find Alice sprawled out on the hardwood floor.
"Alice, come on, you're going to hurt yourself." She sighed, kneeling down and attempting to help the teen back onto her feet. However, Alice seemed quite content to stay on the floor and made no effort to stand.
"What the hell is going on out here?" Amelia walked out of her bedroom and stared at the two on the floor in confusion.
"I need to go home." Alice whimpered, getting on her hands and knees and beginning to crawl unsteadily. Amelia's confused expression softened and she got down on her hands and knees beside the other two.
"You're not having a good high right now, are you?" The dark haired surgeon asked softly. Alice turned towards her, finally seeming to respond to one of them, and shook her head. Tears were welling in her already red eyes, and she stopped crawling. The teenager sat back down in a crumpled heap and drew her knees up to her chest.
"Addie? Can you go and get her the comforter off of the bed? And the water?" Amelia turned her eyes briefly towards her coworker and Addison nodded immediately. Standing up, she hurried back down the hall, into Alice's room, and returned in a few seconds. Amelia nodded her thanks before taking the large blanket and edging towards Alice. The teenager allowed Amelia to wrap the comforter around her, but started to protest when Amelia pulled her closer.
"Hey, I know you're not a snuggler. But right now you need to just shut up and let Addison and I take care of you because you messed up tonight. And now we're all going to deal with it and we're going to sit here with you until it's safe to let you sleep. Can you let us do that?" Alice was still for a few seconds before relaxing and letting Amelia help her to rest against her. The two surgeons exchanged a glance and Amelia gestured with her head to Alice's other side. Understanding at once, the redhead moved to sit on Alice's left side and all three of them leaned back on the wall behind them.
"Someone's gonna' tell Jo." Alice murmured, barely lifting her head off of Amelia's shoulder. The dark haired woman nodded in honest agreement and turned her head to look at her.
"You're right. Do you think that maybe you should be the one who does?" Alice's breath hitched in her throat and she nodded. Seconds later, a string of intoxicated sobs escaped the inebriated girl's lips and Amelia bit her bottom lip. Addison raised a hand tentatively and placed it on Alice's back, and when she wasn't pushed away, started to rub in small circles.
The blonde doctor shook her head at the apology and gave the teen a smile. "Why don't ya pack up your stuff and set up in my office instead?" She suggested kindly. Alice gave her a startled glance. "Um, I don't want to inconvenience you or anything, I'll be alright."
"I… c-cant phone her… like this," Alice forced out in between sobs. The admission seemed to make her even more upset and her sobs turned hysterical, her breath coming out in uneven gasps.
"No, it's alright, it's ok," Addison intervened quickly. "You don't want to make yourself sick with your hysterics.
"She's right. We'll call Jo in a few hours when you're feeling a bit better." Amelia added, trying desperately to placate the increasingly upset teenager.
"Just focus on slowing your breathing, and keep it steady. In and out, in and out," The neonatal surgeon coached. Alice initially ignored her, but after a few moments she focused her attention on the redhead doctor. Amelia sighed in relief as the hysterics started to subside. Eventually, she felt Alice's petite frame still in her arms as the girl's sobs went quiet.
"There you go. You made a mistake, had a slip, but we're going to get you through this, ok?" Amelia assured her, hoping that things would settle down now that the meltdown was seemingly coming to an end. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Alice pulled back and stared at her with an expression of both anger and devastation.
"It's not just a slip, don't you get that?" She snapped, shaking her head. She struggled futilely to get up, but both surgeons held her in place with ease, recognizing the danger that she was to herself if she got up as wasted as she still was.
"I'm turning into a monster; I can't cope with myself or my life so I turn to drinking and drugs. Just like my father." A look of disgust fell over her features as soon as she said the words. "Of course, those words don't mean much to either of you, not really anyways. You don't know the half of what happened," Alice rambled drunkenly. She was still clearly worked up but she no longer fought to get out of either surgeon's grasp. "He hit me. No… it was more than that. He was incessantly abusive for years, and it only escalated the more he drank. He attacked me, twice- badly enough to land me in the hospital both times. The first time was with a knife. That's why I have the scars here, and here, and here and here and…" she rambled, pointing out the different spots as she spoke. "That's how I ended up with Lexie. The second time… my mother tricked me, and I really thought that they were going to kill me that night. I think they planned on it too, and chickened out. She never did anything but enable him, my mom that is." The teen clarified tipsily. The alcohol and drugs couldn't mask the weight of the admissions that Alice had just made, thoughts that she had barely been able to acknowledge herself let alone to anyone else. Not even Violet or Lexie had heard her fears about taking after her father, or about the intentions of her parents on that second night. As her brain lagged to process what she had actually said, she felt the tears build up anew and this time she did nothing to stop them.
"I can't end up like that," Alice choked out as she started to sob, harder than even before. She leaned fully into Amelia's arms, too drained to keep herself upright and too distraught to fight the instinctual need to be comforted. Addison and Amelia exchanged glances of mutual horror at what they had just been told. The redhead woman moved in closer, and the pair of surgeons spent the next hour trying to console the teen.
Not long after she had quieted down again did Amelia feel Alice go tense and sit herself upright.
"Mmmmy heart. It's going at like a million beats per minute and-oh my God what the hell is wrong with me, this has never happened before, what if I'm dying-" The two doctors watched her for a moment, and recognition shone in Amelia's eyes.
"Alice, it's not actually doing that, I promise. You're riding out a really bad high and I know that it's scary but it's not real." Amelia comforted the teen, who shook her head in disbelief.
"You're wrong, there is no way that this isn't happening," Alice insisted, the panic in her voice obvious. Addison repositioned herself so that she was seated directly in front of the increasingly frightened girl.
"We're both doctors and we have both dealt with addiction before. Don't you trust our judgment?" Addison reasoned.
"Yes, but-" Alice started, but the redhead cut her off.
"I'm going to check your pulse, and so is Amelia just to be sure. I swear to you, if there is anything wrong we will notice it and we will get you to the hospital, but if everything is normal then you're going to have to trust us when we say that this is just your imagination, alright?"
Alice nodded her head, and hesitantly stretched her arm out in front of Addison. The doctor pulled her phone out of her pocket to watch the clock, before expertly finding the slender girl's pulse with her fingers. Her face remained impassive, but this was the first time that Alice had allowed Addison- or Amelia for that matter- to get a detailed look at her scars from self-harm and the extent of their presence was devastating to see. The three fell silent as Addison studied her arm intently. After ten seconds, Addison pulled her hand back and gave the teen a comforting smile.
"Nothing to worry about." Amelia traded places with the women whom she considered to be her sister, and she too found the pulse instantly. The brunette didn't bother to hide the shock and sadness she experienced as she got a close look at Alice's major scarring. It wasn't as if she was incapable of remaining impassive, she certainly was, but she thought that it was important to show Alice that vulnerabilities didn't mean that she would be rejected; but rather quite the contrary- they could help to bring people closer together.
"All is right with that ticker of yours." She announced, moving her hand to gently tip up Alice's chin; the teen had turned away earlier in shame. "The struggles of your story are nothing to hide, or be ashamed of, ok? Especially not from those who care about you." She said firmly, waiting until Alice acknowledged her with a small nod.
"Alright, I think we're in the clear. C'mon sweetie, let's get you back to bed." Addison suggested, standing up. Amelia did the same, and together they helped the still unsteady teen to her feet and back into her room where she promptly curled up into a ball on her mattress. The two surgeons got the teen settled, before finally leaving the room, albeit with the door wide open, to allow her to sleep off the effects of her night.
Hey guys, so every time I update I see more and more of you favorite and follow this story, yet no reviews. Please let us know what you think of it so far and if you'd like to see anything else! Thank you for reading