"Beca, come on, let's go." Chloe whined, bursting into the bathroom and crossing her arms impatiently. She had been waiting for a good 15 minutes for the smaller girl to finish getting ready and that was quite enough for her.
"Wow, chill. I was just finishing my make-up." Beca looked away from the mirror and squinted at her girlfriend skeptically. The redhead had been insanely energetic all night, more so than usual, and she seemed a little too excited over some stupid party.
"Well you look as hot and edgy as ever so let's go." Chloe grinned, grabbing her by the arm and whisking her out of the bathroom. The smaller girl frowned in confusion, but went along with it and slipped into her heels at the door. The two of them hurried down the empty dorm hallway and out onto campus.
"Where are we going?" Beca asked as they made their way across an open plot of grass.
"Freshman Fling." The redhead replied simply. Beca did a double take and frowned in confusion.
"What the hell? Why?" Chloe turned towards her and squeezed her hand with a nervous smile.
"I figured your sister would be there and I think we should drop in. Alcohol lowers everyone's inhibitions." Beca froze in her tracks and pulled her hand out of Chloe's. She had known something was going on from the second she and Chloe had started getting ready and the older girl had started acting so peculiar.
"Chloe, enough. Stop trying to fix this shit show." Beca demanded, crossing her arms defensively in front of herself and planting her feet firmly in the grass.
"I just want you two to have a second chance." She replied quietly, blue eyes glistening with guilt. Beca's defensive behavior softened slightly and she sighed.
"It's just not going to help. I appreciate you trying and everything but I fucked things up with her and there's just…it's not going to work, babe." Beca explained, closing the small gap between them and intertwining her fingers with Chloe's again. The taller girl frowned, obviously not content with Beca's refusal to try any further.
"Maybe we should still go for a little bit. Just to make sure she's doing okay and everything. I mean, I remember my first weekend freshmen year." Chloe kept her tone optional, hoping that at least the idea of things getting too out of hand would convince Beca to at least check in on her younger sibling. To her relief, she watched an air of concern wash over the tiny girl's expression and she pursed her lips.
"Okay. But I don't want her to see us." Beca relented. Her girlfriend managed to hide a small triumphant smile as they began towards the freshmen dorms.
"Holy shit." Beca's eyes widened as they stepped into a far too crowded hallway. The smell of weed, booze, and sweat hit the two young women like a truck and Chloe coughed lightly.
"This is disgusting. Let's just find her, make sure she's alright, and get out of here." Beca groaned, shoving past a guy approximately two times her size and pulling Chloe along with her. The two of them squeezed their way through the packed dorm, scanning the unfamiliar faces for Jaiden's.
"Hands off bud; not after dick." Beca warned as she felt a pair of large hands slip around her waist. Whatever meathead had gotten the idea to hit on her removed his hands with a mumbled "fuck" and stumbled off.
"You're just so charming." Chloe giggled, wrapping her free arm around Beca's waist. The shorter girl rolled her eyes when she saw the cup in her other hand.
"Where the hell did you even pick that up from?" Chloe shrugged and took a sip.
"Freshmen boys are very generous." She clarified. Beca nodded and snagged a plastic cup off of a potato chip covered table. After one quick sniff, she deemed it drinkable and downed about half of it.
"I don't think we're going to find her." The brunette sighed. Chloe glanced around the party and chewed on her bottom lip.
"Well, let's just finish up here and then we can bail if you really want to." Beca locked her jaw and whipped around to look at the redhead.
"Don't."
"Don't what?" Chloe tilted her head to the side and took another drink.
"Don't make me feel bad for wanting to-"
"Beca, shut up," Chloe interrupted and forced the smaller girl to turn back around. "Over there, on the couch." Beca squinted in the direction that her girlfriend was pointing and saw what Chloe had spotted.
"Is that her? Is she even conscious?" Chloe stood on her tiptoes to get a better look and strained to identify the figure sprawled out on the couch.
"I don't know. I mean, I think that's her but I can't tell if she's passed out or not." Beca responded. She was having an even harder time seeing. Just then, two boys started over towards the couch and as they hauled the girl to her feet, it was clear that she was Jaidan and she was, in fact, very unconscious.
"Fuck no." Beca released Chloe's hand and shoved her way through the remaining crowd of people. "Put her down, right now." The small brunette demanded. Chloe hurried to join her and glared at the two boys in disgust. The smirks that had been plastered across their intoxicated faces quickly disappeared and they both exchanged glances, knowing that they had been busted.
"Whatever." The taller of the two mumbled. They released their grip on Jaiden and she collapsed back onto the couch as the both of them staggered away.
"We should call campus police. That was-" Chloe started, but was quickly cut off by her girlfriend.
"Not right now. We need to get her out of here and make sure she doesn't have alcohol poisoning or something. Help me get her up." The two girls abandoned their cups and drug Beca's younger sister to her feet. Each of them took one arm over their shoulders and wrapped one of their own around her waist before starting towards the door.
"Jaiden? Hey, can you hear me?" Chloe attempted to speak into the younger girl's ear as they pulled her towards the doorway.
"Hey, out of the way! She's about to puke." Beca shouted at the seemingly immovable partiers in their way. The faux warning seemed to do the trick as a pathway opened up and they were able to haul Jaiden's body out of the party and into the less crowded hallway.
"Beca, she's really out. Maybe we need to take her to a hospital." Chloe suggested worriedly. Jaiden's head lolled to the side weakly Beca turned debated their options.
"No..no hospital." The two older girls turned their heads in surprise as Jaiden slurred the few words.
"Okay, well at least she's talking. Let's just get her to our room and make sure she's alright for tonight." Beca decided, tightening her grip on her sister before she started slipping. The girl's head rose slowly and her eyes fluttered open. It took her vision a second or two to adjust before it registered that Beca was one of the ones holding her up. The severely impaired 18 year old pulled clumsily away from her, only to be caught by Chloe and held up.
"Jaiden, come on, we're just trying to help you. Did someone give you something to take?" Chloe's voice captured her attention and she fixed her gaze on the redhead. She attempted something that resembled a shrug and took in a shaky breath.
"I think I'm…I'm gonna be sick." Jaiden stammered out. Chloe released the arm around her shoulder and hurried to hold the girl's hair back just before she threw up on the floor in front of them. "I only had two…two drinks." Beca and Chloe exchanged a glance before steering Jaiden around the vomit and continuing down the hall.
"Yeah, well, your first weekend at college and someone already tried to drug you." Beca muttered. The three of them made the rest of their journey in silence. Jaiden's chin rested on her neck as she slipped back into unconsciousness and her feet drug behind her.
"Oh, thank God." Chloe finally managed to unlock their door and she and Beca hurried to set Jaiden down on the bed. The two of them shook out their aching arms and caught their breath. Dragging the other girl across the campus had been no small task and with the convenient lack of campus officials, there was absolutely no help.
"Is she out again? Oh my God, what if her breathing stopped?" Beca's voice rose in both pitch and panic as she stared at the still form on the bed. The tiny brunette hurried to hold her hand in front of Jaiden's face and relaxed slightly as she felt a bit of air against her palm.
"Why don't you go get her a glass of water and I'll try to wake her up?" Chloe advised, hoping to give her girlfriend a task before she could freak herself out again. Little did Beca know, Chloe had gone through nearly the same thing her freshmen year, apart from the fact that her roommates hadn't been intelligent enough to keep her hydrated. The following morning result was not pleasant. Beca nodded in compliance and hurried off towards their small kitchen.
"Okay Jaiden, time to sit up. Come on," Chloe coaxed, kneeling on the bed and rolling Jaiden completely onto her back. The younger girl whimpered something incoherent and made no attempt to move. Chloe sighed, slid her arms under Jaiden's, and pulled her up so she could lean back against the headboard. The freshmen almost immediately slumped over and Chloe slid over next to her so that she could hold her up. Beca returned less than a minute later with a glass of water.
"Sit on her other side and help her drink at least that entire glass before she passes out again." The redhead instructed. Beca looked at her younger sister uncertainly before sitting down next to her and holding the glass in front of her face. Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes before taking the glass from her girlfriend.
"You're lucky you have me." Beca looked away, embarrassed at her own lack of competence and fear of upsetting her younger sister. Chloe lifted Jaiden's chin and held the glass to her lips. The younger girl seemed to rouse from her unconsciousness and started to sip at the water weakly. Chloe waited patiently for her to finish the majority of it before setting the glass down on the nightstand.
"Now you can sleep. Just nudge one of us if you think you're going to be sick again." Chloe said softly. She got no response, other than Jaiden's chin reaching her chest again. The redhead turned her attention to Beca again and took in the smaller girl's uncomfortable state.
"Hey. Don't." She warned gently. Beca looked up at her and her eyes flickered towards Jaiden for a moment before landing back on her girlfriend.
"I'm sorry. She's just…she's going to wake back up in the morning and hate me. And this is the closest we've been in years." Beca's voice thickened and she stared up towards the ceiling, biting her lip. Chloe watched as the defensive girl struggled to hold herself together, afraid that if she did something, she might set her off.
"I'm sorry, baby. I love you." Chloe offered quietly. Beca broke her watering eyes away from the ceiling and nodded before forcing herself to look at the older girl.
"I love you too."