"Jaiden?" The 18 year old groaned in annoyance as she felt a gentle hand shake her shoulder. She moved to roll over, only find herself face to face with her sleeping sister. Beca's eyes fluttered open at the contact and she yawned, sleepy confusion painting her face momentarily.
"Hmm?" The smaller brunette grunted sleepily and looked up beyond her sister at the redhead that stood at the side of the bed.
"You won't be able to sleep tonight if you nap any longer." Chloe informed them wisely. The two sisters slowly managed to sit up in bed, each of them coming to their senses and stretching their stiff limbs. Jaiden yawned and then grimaced in pain as the left side of her face flared up on pain. The small reaction did not go unnoticed by Beca, who bit the inside of her cheek as she caught sight of the bruising that had developed in the past few hours. She raised her hand to inspect the mark softly, ignoring Jaiden's small wince, and then let it fall slowly.
"Let's go get some more ice on that," Beca suggested. She got to her feet and then pulled Jaiden up with her, despite the younger girl's obvious unwillingness. The three girls left the bedroom and went out to the kitchen, where Beca began rummaging through the cabinets, looking for something.
"Babe, where'd you put the Ziplocs?" Her voice sounded from inside of a cupboard and she lifted her head briefly, only to smack it on the top. "Shit."
"Below the sink; left hand side." Chloe replied with a bemused smile. Beca closed the cupboard she had been halfway into and moved down two to the left. Withdrawing one single plastic bag, the brunette stood up and crossed to their fridge. She held it to the ice machine and let it fill with cubes before finally handing it to Jaiden, who had taken her place at the bar. She held it to her face with a small hiss and then relaxed.
"So what do you two do for fun, other than anything regarding acapella?" Jaiden asked, hoping to lighten the tension a bit. She knew that the two older girls were worried about what kind of state she was in and wanted nothing more than to avoid the subject entirely.
"Um...Netflix, eating, listening to music. That's like…it. What do you want to do?" Chloe answered. Jaiden rolled her eyes at the options and shot Beca a desperate look. The older Mitchell knew her sister wasn't going to be able to sit idle around the apartment all night and debated her options quietly.
"Well, I for one would like to get drunk." Jaiden volunteered after a few seconds of silence.
"Okay, no." Chloe replied immediately. Jaiden shot her sister a desperate look and the brunette turned to her girlfriend seriously.
"I don't know, I wouldn't mind." Beca ventured. Chloe's brown furrowed and she shook her head.
"Absolutely not. That's not the way to deal with things."
"That is exactly the way to deal with things. I mean, Ted didn't teach me a lot but…" Jaiden let her voice trail off and she arched an eyebrow at the redhead, daring her to argue. Beca looked in between the two of them nervously.
"Is that really the type of lifestyle you aspire to?" She questioned.
"You literally gave yourself alcohol poisoning over a fight with Beca. So, I don't really think you're in the position to be lecturing me." Chloe opened her mouth to reply, but for once found herself without a good argument, and instead huffed irritably. She threw a hard look at Beca and the brunette threw her hands up in defense.
"We are in college," Chloe whirled around at the weak excuse and stalked off towards their bedroom. The two Mitchell siblings stayed silent for a few seconds before Beca moved for the cabinet above the fridge. Jaiden watched the tiny girl hoist herself onto the counter in order to reach it and then withdraw a nearly full bottle of Jack Daniels.
"Don't tell her, and I'm going to go kiss ass so she cools down." Beca told the 18 year old quietly. "I'll knock on your door in like 15, 20 minutes tops."
"Have fun." Jaiden smirked before turning around and walking towards her room. Beca braced herself and turned towards her own, knowing she had a lot of making up to do. She quietly opened the closed door and found Chloe sitting on the edge of their bed; obviously waiting for her.
"Chlo, I know you don't agree with this. But," Beca paused, practically expecting her to interrupt. When the redhead didn't interject, she continued: "I can't control her. And I figured that with the way today went, she was going to sneak out if we didn't let her drink here. It just seemed safer not to argue with her." Chloe bit her bottom lip at the reasoning and sighed tiredly.
"Whatever, Beca. She's your sister. Just make the right decision." The redhead muttered. Beca took one step back towards the door, uncertain of whether or not she should go. It was obvious Chloe was still upset about the situation, but then again, so was everyone. And it didn't necessarily seem right to keep Jaiden from something that would help her relax, conserving she had taken the brunt of things that day. Tearing her seemingly frozen feet from their places on the floor, she turned around and slipped back outside with a quiet "goodnight".
Jaiden took her second swig of whiskey just as a quiet knock sounded at her door. The 18 year old shot Beca a surprised look as the older girl let herself in and plopped down on the bed. She handed her sister the bottle of booze without a word, reading her expression and knowing that things were definitely not all patched up with Chloe.
"Sorry for pissing her off." Jaiden offered as her sister took a drink. The smaller girl shrugged and handed it back to her, grunting a bit as the alcohol burnt the back of her throat.
"Nah, I do it all the time, so, you know, nothing out of the ordinary." Beca laughed dryly and handed the bottle back to her sister. Jaiden accepted it gratefully and took a third drink. She took a deep breath and relaxed as she finally felt the warmth starting to spread into her limbs. After being on edge for so long, the whiskey was exactly what she needed.
"Thanks for going back for that stuff. He didn't…like there wasn't any trouble, right?" Jaiden asked cautiously. Beca shook her head, not wanting the younger girl to have to worry about anything else.
"No, no trouble. I went in with a softball bat," Beca admitted. Jaiden scoffed and took another drink before looking over at Beca approvingly.
"Granted, we should have with that initially, but nice choice."
"Yeah. We didn't really have a solid plan there, did we?" Beca shook her head and drank again. Her sister shifted the melting icepack on her face and then accepted the Jack Daniels back. She slid back on the mattress against the headboard and realized upon what was possibly her fourth or fifth drink that the whiskey didn't have quite as much of a bite to it. "How's that face feeling?" Beca asked as she scooted back next to her.
"Oh, it's fine. Fuck," The younger girl swore suddenly. "I'm supposed to meet Stacie in the morning for coffee. How the hell am I supposed to explain this?" She pulled out her phone and inspected the every darkening bruise in the front camera.
"Are you two dating now?" Beca asked curiously. Jaiden's face burned red and she quickly took another sip before shrugging.
"Well, we went on a date, obviously. But I don't know. I kind of dig her and all but Stacie's a bit of, you know, a lone wolf or whatever."
"Lone wolf-that was well put. Chloe's awesome with make-up, so I'm sure she can fix you up in the morning." Beca suggested.
"If she's not still boiling with rage by then." Jaiden chuckled. By then; her head was swimming comfortably and she felt warm and tired. The make-shift icepack had numbed her face enough for the throbbing to go down and she handed the whiskey to her sister one final time.
"You going to bed?" Jaiden nodded at the question and clumsily fumbled until she was under her comforter. Beca sat the Jack Daniels on the nightstand, along with the bag of ice that the younger girl had discarded, and went to get up. "I'll let you sleep then," she said.
"No, you can stay." Jaiden murmured, throwing a hand up blindly and catching Beca by the arm. The smaller brunette paused, a bit caught off guard, but settled back down on the bed. She turned off the bedside lamp, plunging the bedroom into darkness, and settled in beside her younger sister. The alcohol in her system was taking its toll as well and she didn't fight the exhaustion tugging at her eyelids. Beca felt a whole new rush of heat to her face as she felt Jaiden roll over and burrow into her side; a painfully familiar position for the two girls. It only took that small action to remind her of the nights they spent curled up like that, trying to ignore the sound of their parents shouting downstairs. Fighting became a nightly ritual for the Mitchell's before their divorce and Beca had always done her best to shield Jaiden from it, though that much quarrelling was impossible to cover.
"I've missed you, Becs." Jaiden's words were slightly slurred, but not at all enough to be insincere. Beca turned enough so that she could wrap one of her arms around the 18 year old and squeezed her in a half hug.
"You know I have too." She assured her. Jaiden finally felt the last of her anxiety from the day melt away and her eyes fluttered shut lazily. The Jack Daniels took over from there and the two siblings drifted off to sleep, each with minor hangovers awaiting them in the morning.
Let me know what you guys think! Thank you so much for reading and I'd love to hear suggestions or input!