Chapter 2
"What the hell are you doing?" Jason barked rounding the wall by the pool table to find Elizabeth slumped against the wall; a bottle of Patron nestled in her lap.
She was barefoot and still wearing the black cocktail dress from dinner, having discarded the matching five inch stilettos by the door. Her hair was pulled into a loose bun at the nape of her neck, leaving several loose curls to lay delicately against her face.
"It's empty," she whined, holding the bottle up without looking at him. She was still seething from dinner, and she refused to let her best friend get off so easily.
"I know," he replied, taking the bottle, and replacing it with a paper bag.
"Aw, Jas," she murmured, slipping the fresh bottle of Patron, and two neon orange, plastic shot glasses from the bag. "You shouldn't have."
"I went to your apartment," he said, stepping over her legs, and sitting down beside her.
"Is he still giving these away for free?" she asked, handing him one of the glasses that their favorite liquor store kept behind the counter.
"Fifty cents, but I know you like them," he replied, setting his down beside him. "You didn't drive, did you?"
"Cab," she muttered, fussing with the tequila. "Oh, fuck. Open this, will ya?...And don't laugh at me, Morgan. You're on my shit list."
Shaking his head, Jason easily plucked the cork from the glass, and handed the bottle back to Elizabeth.
"You pour," she said, slumping back against the wall, and sliding down so that she was half laying on the hardwood floor.
She would have enjoyed the sight of the overpriced, but such good quality tequila, being dispensed into her neon orange shot glass, except her heart hurt too much.
Turning her body so that she could see him, she flicked the rim of his glass. "Friends don't let friends drink alone, Morgan," she reminded him, waiting patiently for him to pour a drink for himself.
"Cheers to Paris," she slurred, clicking her plastic rim against his, only to slosh liquor onto the floor.
She shivered when the liquor caused a warm burst to go throughout her body and immediately reached for a refill. "You went to my apartment?" she asked, and he nodded. "I'm not there."
"Obviously," he replied, the hint of a smile tugging at his lips.
"Did you drive?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.
"No, I called my driver," he replied, taking the bottle from him when he noticed how unsteady her hand was. "Let me."
"Please," she said, sighing heavily, and closing her eyes. Tequila was supposed to make her feel better, not worse. "How in the fuck could you not tell me about her, Jason?"
"Jason?" Her eyes flashed open to find his cerulean orbs that were staring back at her. "How could you-"
"Elizabeth, I didn't know," he cut in, frowning as he tossed back another shot.
"You didn't know?" she pressed, slamming her glass down onto the floor without taking it. "Johnny's your business partner…You two talk five times a day…How could you not know he was planning on getting engaged to some Paris smitten tramp?"
She was too drunk to speak eloquently, though she imagined she wouldn't have come up with better names sober. Lulu Spencer, the love-of-her-life thief, wasn't worth the energy.
"You know how he is," Jason groaned, wiping at the puddle of liquor on the floor with his fingertips. "He's always talking about women…And if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure he called her Lola the first time he mentioned her.
Elizabeth grunted, rocking her head and shoulders from side to side. "She was a showgirl…Her name was Lola," was all she got out before bursting into a fit of laughter. "Can you imagine what she thinks about showgirls?"
"Whores?" he offered, raising his eyebrows at her, his familiar, comfortable smile spreading over his face.
"Oh, the worst possible kind," she replied, leaning over and nudging him with her elbow. "You really didn't know?"
"If I would have known, I wouldn't have let you prepare yourself for such a declaration," he murmured, drying his hand off on his jeans.
"The declaration of a lifetime," she reminded him, cradling her face in her hands. "God, what was I thinking?"
"That Johnny wouldn't come back with her," he replied, popping the cork off the bottle and taking a long sip out of it.
"Tastes better that way, doesn't it?" Elizabeth teased, holding her hand out for a sip. She coughed, rubbing her hand against her chest, when she drank more than she should have.
"Take it easy," Jason said, placing a hand gently on her back.
Tequila was supposed to do wonders. Erase the bad, and bring out the good. It sure as hell wasn't supposed to leave her feeling completely lonely and heartbroken.
"I don't think this is going to work," she murmured, setting the bottle down beside her and moving to crawl towards the pool table. She gripped the edge with her hands, slowly pulling herself to a standing position. Her knees buckled slightly, but then Jason was beside her to hold her up.
"I think you're drunk," he muttered.
"I think my love affair is over," she whispered, somehow managing to hoist herself onto the edge of the pool table, because there was no way in hell she was going to try and walk to the couch.
"Something tells me you're not talking about tequila," he said, planting a hand on either side of her legs, and looking her in the face.
She shook her head. "Tequila is the greatest love of my life," she replied, tipping her head back and grinning.
Raising a hand to his face, she smoothed the loose strands of blonde hair from his forehead. It was longer than he normally let it get it, but she liked it. Especially when it fell into his eyes and the pools of blue peeked through, almost like they were some kind of secret.
"Don't cut your hair," she ordered, tapping her thumb against his temple.
"Promise?" she asked when he nodded.
"Promise," he replied, with a heavy sigh. "But only if you promise not to let this consume you."
"No guarantees there," she said, dropping her hand back into her lap. "When he left, I thought when he came back…"
"It would be for you," Jason finished, clearing his throat.
"For me," she repeated, staring down at her lap.
Her friendship, if you could call it that, with O'Brien had always been complicated from the first day they met. Though, the same could be said for Jason.
She was seven years old and crying on the playground because Lucky Spencer smashed her paper Mache globe. Johnny O'Brien was two years older, and taunted her by calling her a cry baby, which only made things worse. Out of the nowhere, Jason Quartermaine appeared and started to help her collect the pieces, and for some reason, Johnny apologized. She learned soon after that Jason was the leader, Johnny the follower, and her role would fall somewhere in between.
During her teenage years, her mother called it inappropriate, scolding her for running around with two of the most rambunctious boys in town. Elizabeth had no close girlfriends, finding solace only in her boys, and the three of them promised to always brave the world together. They'd survived numerous heartaches, declarations of independence, and the most difficult of all, the accident that left Jason in a coma, only for him to wake up and not remember that he was Jason Quartermaine. So together, Elizabeth and Johnny stood by Jason Morgan, when his family pushed him away, in turn creating a family of their own.
Johnny was loud and bossy, always teasing her about every little thing. He was rough and rude with nearly everyone, but then so tender and careful when it came to her. And somewhere in between it all, she realized she liked that about him. Though, the same could also be said for Jason.
It was difficult to take on the load that was Jason Morgan, when she had grown up with any entirely different boy. The Quartermaine Jason was the most gorgeous and most desired boy at school. He was the golden child, heir to a family fortune, and girls swooned every time he looked at them with those baby blue eyes.
Elizabeth always felt special because he spent more time with her than any other girl. Granted, it wasn't at all romantic, at least not to him, but she had always harbored a secret crush on him during her teen years. Maybe even from the moment he complimented her on the paper Mache globe. Her teenager years were spent scribbling names on notebooks, playing Mash, and having secret pop songs that she considered theirs. It all sounded so ridiculous when she looked back on it.
And then his accident changed everything.
AJ Quartermaine, the family drunk, drove Jason into a tree two weeks after high school graduation, and it was as though the world literally stopped. Specialists were flown in from all over the country, but the majority of those that loved him gave up hope. It was only Elizabeth and Johnny who sat by his bed every single day, reading books, rehashing old times, and reminding him of the promises they had made together.
Elizabeth was a mess for the three month period, and she knew had Johnny not been there, she would have never survived it. Jason Quartermaine had always been her rock, her safe place whenever the world failed her, and the constant reminder that she would be okay.
She was just as close to Johnny, but he was different. He was the boy that never stopped teasing her from that moment on the playground, but he was also the boy who could make her laugh like no one else. He knew the dirtiest jokes, drank the best booze, and never let anyone fuck with Elizabeth Webber.
As mean as it sounds, she never really took him seriously because his attitude was so carefree. Elizabeth knew early on, he was going to follow Jason through life, free loading and partying on someone else's wallet. Johnny was like a real life Peter Pan, destined to be a boy for life, until he lost the lifeline that connected him to his childhood.
The possibility of Jason never waking up haunted the two of them, and it was that fear that pushed Johnny O'Brien into becoming a full fledged man. He took care of Elizabeth so well during those months, that it rivaled anything Jason Quartermaine had ever done for her. And soon enough, Johnny was her safe place, and she found herself relying on him more than she ever had Jason.
Especially after their friend woke up.
Understandably, Jason was so frustrated and angry with everyone around him. They wanted Jason Quartermaine; the golden boy and future CEO of ELQ. He acted erratically and harshly, oftentimes purposely hurting those around him, opting to retreat inside himself than to deal with everyone.
At first, it broke Elizabeth's heart to lose this boy who was so much a part of her, but with time and a lot of patience, she and Johnny managed to get through to Jason Morgan. They had to force him to see they weren't holding on to who he was, but simply wanted to be there for who he became.
To Johnny and Elizabeth, he was the best possible friend, warm and caring, but others saw him as stone faced and hard. He was playful when it was appropriate, and it was a side he often shared only with her and Johnny. He trusted wholeheartedly, expecting the same in return, and would shut someone out the first time they fell short. He never said things he didn't mean, and he always told the truth, even when it hurt.
Smiling, she tipped her head back and looked him in the face, scolding herself for ever thinking he would lie to her about Lulu.
Lulu.
That God damn thieving tramp.
Okay, so she didn't know she was stealing the love of Elizabeth's life, but still.
"This is his entire fault," she murmured, at first not realizing she was speaking aloud.
Jason nodded, and Elizabeth knew he was falling into that awkward place of being stuck between them, as he had been for years.
She wasn't sure when she fell in love with Johnny O'Brien. It may have been that day in the hospital when he pulled her sobbing form into his arms, rocking her until she stopped. Or it may have been the night he punched Lucky Spencer in the face for being rude to her at Jake's.
Then again, she was almost positive it was the night before he left town, nearly a year ago.
His father had died six years ago, leaving his only son the coffee bean fortune, and he and Jason had been partners ever since. There were a few investors interested overseas, and he told her he was leaving, seeing as Jason wasn't really the business venture type. He preferred the manual side; working in the warehouse, going over invoices, and fighting for space on the docks. And they both agreed Johnny was far better at bullshitting and taking people's money.
Elizabeth had confessed that she didn't want him to leave, saying that she had never been without him. He'd laughed, telling her she would still have Jason, and that it wouldn't be for long. He walked her home, taking her hand in his somewhere along the way, and then kissed her goodbye in the hallway of her studio. Seconds later, Elizabeth had pulled him inside, and they were making out and groping like teenagers, only to have Johnny stop things before they went too far.
"Leave me something to come back for, Webber," he whispered, curling up beside her and kissing her chastely.
"Stupid, son of a bitch," she hissed, rubbing her palms against her face. She caught Jason's frown and pointed a finger at him. "Don't look at me like that, Morgan…Go eat a roll or something."
He laughed, grabbing her hands, and pulling her off the table. "Come on, Webber," he murmured, tugging one of her arms over his shoulder, and lifting her into his arms. "Let's get your sorry, drunk ass to bed."
"I resent that," she replied, burying her face into his chest, and breathing him in. He always smelled like soap and leather, and she found something comforting about that.
"You should," he said, carrying her up the steps and down the hallway to the guest bedroom, which might as well have been her's.
She hated living alone. Being alone. Eating alone. And constantly nagged Jason to do all of those things with her once Johnny was gone.
It was funny when she thought about how close they'd grown in the last year. Despite their friendship, he had remained relatively private about a lot of things, but Elizabeth had forced him out of his shell.
Sometimes she couldn't get over how different Morgan was from Quartermaine, and others she found herself relatively pleased that he had changed. Jason Morgan loved her art enough to spend hours having her explain the colors and concepts, seeing as his accident had left him somewhat impaired in that department. And he taught her everything there was to know about Italy, her favorite city that she had never visited.
"It's so weird," she said, when her back hit the mattress, and Jason tugged the crisp sheets over her body.
"What?" he asked, crossing the room to the dresser, and pulling out a t-shirt.
He laid it on the nightstand, and Elizabeth knew that he knew she was too drunk to change. It was the gesture that mattered anyway.
She rolled onto her stomach, pressing her face into the pillow. "How things change."