"You sure you can get back okay?" Stacie frowned as she watched Jaiden's zig-zagged path down the sidewalk. After their own little private party in the supply closet had ended, the two girls had snuck out, unnoticed, and maneuvered their way outside.
"I'm good. I'm all good." Jaiden waived her hand in the vague direction of Stacie and continued stumbling down the path to her dorms. The older girl chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before hurrying after her and wrapping an arm around her waist.
"No you're not. So, you get to take me home tonight." Stacie steered them in the opposite direction. Jaiden stared up at her in confusion, but relented and leaned against her as they walked.
"Stacie, dude, I'm not going to lie. I kinda like you." Jaiden admitted, resting her head on Stacie's shoulder as they walked. Her eyelids were drooping from the combination of pot, alcohol, and sex and she struggled to keep them open.
"Uh oh. That's not good." Stacie chuckled. "You don't want to like someone like me."
"What? Why not? You're like, the best." Jaiden scoffed.
"Honey, haven't you noticed that I get around?"
"Well yeah, a little. But you get around to me, so it's all good." Stacie couldn't help but laugh at the wasted girl she was escorting. "But," Jaiden spoke up again. "I wanna take you on a date. Like that's totally reversing the whole 'dinner then sex' thing, but whatever."
"You want to take me on a date?" Stacie arched an eyebrow and looked down at the girl who was practically attached to her hip and shook her head. "It's been a while since I heard that one."
"Like Chloe says; I have manners." Jaiden grinned.
"You're going to wake up tomorrow and not even remember this conversation."
"Not true. I have an excellent drunk memory. I, Jaiden Mitchell, would like to take you, Stacie-" Jaiden's voice broke off and she looked up at the older girls expectedly.
"Conrad."
"You, Stacie Conrad, on a date tomorrow night at 7 at Starbucks, where you can have the drink of your choice." Jaiden finished, her words running together as she gestured with her free hand grandly.
"Fine. I'll go. But I'm not reminding you tomorrow and if you don't show up, you don't get any of this," Stacie ran a hand down her torso. "Ever again."
"Is that a threat or a promise?" Jaiden asked, a bit taken back.
"Both." Jaiden fell silent at Stacie's reply and she struggled against the weights in her eyelids desperately. The last thing she wanted was for Stacie to have to drag her up a flight of stairs. That would be vastly unmannered and very unsexy of her. So instead, she settled for letting her head loll back onto the taller brunette's shoulder and kept her eyes locked on the pair of lighted doors in front of them. Stacie looked down at her every few steps, just to be sure that the younger girl was still awake, until they finally made it into the dorm lobby. Both of them froze as they saw Chloe standing at the bottom of the steps.
"Hey boss." Stacie smiled nervously at the redhead. Jaiden straightened up beside her, though still holding onto her waist, and offered Chloe her best sober impression.
"Hey Stace. Cynthia kept me updated on who she left with, so I can take it from here." Chloe flashed a smile that was far too radiant for 3 in the morning and waved her cellphone at the two brunettes. Stacie and Jaiden shared defeated glances and the older of the two reluctantly released her hold on her appearance.
"Come on. Oh my God, you literally smell like freshman year." Chloe wrapped an arm around Jaiden and pulled her towards the stairs, leaving Stacie to stand in the empty lobby uncomfortably. She didn't want to head up just yet because quite frankly, Chloe scared the shit out of her. There was something about the way she smiled when she was angry or sad or freaking out that made Stacie lean towards a diagnosis of mild insanity. So the brunette settled for waiting five minutes before heading up to her own dorm.
"You're not going to throw up in my bed, are you?" Chloe asked, watching Jaiden hike her way up the stairs unsteadily. The younger girl had insisted that she was fine enough to walk after they had gotten into the stairwell.
"Nope. Not a puker unless there's drugs involved. Real drugs. Not plants." Jaiden glanced backwards just to make sure that she got a glare for that one, and finally made it to the top of the landing. "Is Beca up?"
"No, she passed out on the couch. I know you're probably really tired, but can you and I talk for a second?" Chloe pulled out her keys as they walked down the hallway together and unlocked the door to her dorm. Jaiden nodded, a little concerned but too disoriented to worry about whatever Chloe wanted. She followed the redhead past the couch quietly and into the bedroom. Chloe shut the door behind them and watched Jaiden collapse into her sister's desk chair.
"What's up?" She asked, clasping her hands together in front of her and staring up at Chloe expectedly.
"I don't want you thinking that you can just go out and party and drink whenever something happens. That's not a solution, Jaiden." Chloe said worriedly. She sat down on the edge of the bed, right across from Jaiden, and her blue eyes shown with anxiety.
"I know that."
"I'm just really concerned that you might not have a really good coping system-"
"Woah, Chloe," Jaiden interrupted. "The hospital set me up with a shrink that I went to for two years. I know every coping mechanism in the book. I went through my shit with partying all the time and I'm fully aware it doesn't fix anything. Distractions do though, and that was my best one for tonight. I love Beca, and you know that, but hanging around her was making it worse tonight. She reminds me a lot of home, especially because I was never around her after things got better again. She reminds me of the shitty stuff. I know what's good for me and what isn't." Chloe blinked a few times in surprise. The drunken girl had made a lot of sense, for the most part.
"Wow. Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, um, offend you or anything. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I've seen some people go down this road where they don't know how to handle it and…and it's just not something I want for you." Jaiden looked up from her hands to see Chloe desperately trying to wipe at a few tears.
"Dude, are you crying? Shit," Jaiden stood up from her chair unsteadily and plopped down on the bed beside her. "I swear I'm not making a move right now, but I really have no idea what to do when people cry." Jaiden put her arm around the older girl cautiously and patted her awkwardly.
"I'm sorry." Chloe apologized, sniffing sadly. It occurred to Jaiden how upset the other girl one and she sobered up significantly.
"Alright. Who was it and what happened?" Jaiden waited patiently for Chloe to collect herself enough to explain herself.
"My parents are really, really strict Christians. And my older brother Kyle…he came out of the closet in 9th grade, when I was in 7th. They hated him for it. Absolutely hated him. And he couldn't handle that, so he started doing drugs; hanging with the wrong crowd. I came out my sophomore year but by that time he had," Chloe paused for a moment and bit her bottom lip, no doubt swallowing a sob. "He overdosed on heroin in his own bedroom. I found him." Jaiden's stomach twisted at the older girl's story and she found herself unable to figure out what to do with herself.
"I'm so sorry that happened. I'm sure if he was anything like you, he was a great guy." She offered finally. Chloe shook her head and looked up at the ceiling with teary eyes.
"He was better. After I came out, they were nicer to me about it, probably scared I would go down the same road. But that didn't…"
"It didn't make up for it." Jaiden finished the statement for her and Chloe nodded.
"Well, we can all be a part of the Bad Parents Club together," Jaiden offered with a wry smile. "Now since Beca has taken up the couch, I'm entirely willing to sleep in this bed with you. Or," Jaiden paused for a moment. "You could let me go down to Stacie's and have it all to yourself." Chloe sighed and wiped away at her running mascara.
"Fine. Fine. I'm not condoning this. But text your sister once you're down there because you old her you would." Chloe relented tiredly. The redhead scooted back in her own bed as she watched her girlfriend's younger sister exit the room as quietly as she could.
Jaiden snuck past her lightly snoring sister as silently as she could and locked the door behind her. Her vision still swam lightly and she took her time going down the stairs. The last thing she needed was to wake up in a hospital giving Chloe another excuse to look after her. Eventually, she made it down to Stacie's room and rapped on the door lightly. Fortunately, it opened after only a few seconds. The brunette looked down at her surprise guest with a smirk.
"So you escaped?" She questioned lightly, opening the door wider so that the younger girl could step in.
"After a forced heart to heart, yes." Jaiden replied. Stacie hit the lights switch beside the door, sending the dorm into darkness, and opened one of her dresser drawers. She pulled out a t-shirt and threw it at Jaiden, who failed miserably at catching it.
"You own t-shirts? I never would have guessed." Jaiden noted as she stripped out of her top and skinny jeans. Soon after, a bra hit the floor and she shrugged into the shirt. Stacie crawled into bed and patted the space beside her impatiently.
"It's a lot of effort to look hot all the time." Stacie sighed, throwing her blankets over them both and wrapping her arm around Jaiden's waist. The younger girl glanced over her shoulder and for the first time it registered in her drunken mind that Stacie had answered the door naked.
"Trust me; you look hot all the time." She confirmed. Stacie rolled her eyes and then dropped her head onto the pillow.
"We're still going on a date tomorrow." Jaiden added a few moments later.
"Go to bed, Baby Mitchell." Stacie sighed in amusement.
"Not cute."
So what do we think about Staiden? And judging by your feedback, yall are cool with smut, so look out for that in the next update! Thank you for the reviews and let me know what you think of this chapter.