Chapter Three
"So then I told that bastard exactly where he can put his-"
"Okay, seems like someone's had enough." Jasper laughed, interrupting Peridot's story about the mailman and her shipment of tiny fezzes, the one that she told only after imbibing one whiskey to impress Jasper, and then three martinis after realizing no one cared, and then something called a "Slam Drunk" that had a little basketball inside of it, because at that point in her life, Peridot didn't think she'd ever seen something funnier.
"You know what?" Peridot slurred out angrily, turning and placing a hand on Jasper's lower sternum. "You're probably right." She slumped in the comfortable booth cushions and giggled vaguely. She far more sloshed than the other two at the bar, despite having drunk about the same amount, and was having difficulty keeping up with their sports talk. Her eyes struggled to focus to on the clock, and she realized they'd been at the bar for several hours. People had joined and left the group, mostly Jasper or Ruby's friends, but for a while it had just been the three of them, hanging out. Ruby and Jasper shared a lot of stories about growing up around here, and Peridot learned that Jasper had moved here from Russia when she was 13, after her mother died. They didn't talk about her brothers. Ruby had lived in the area all her life, and planned to move out to the city as soon as possible. Peridot tried to conceal how privileged her childhood had been, though she still received some raised eyebrows when she told them where she'd grown up. Still, the three seemed to slot together easily as friends, and when Jasper put her arms to rest on the top of Peridot's chair, Peridot was drunk enough to place her head on it coyly. Jasper did not comment.
Eventually, the bartender kicked them out, though not without receiving a mini basketball to the head (or a close to the head as Peridot could manage), and the three departed. Ruby gave Peridot a noogie and punched Jasper on the shoulder, wandering off to in the direction of her dorm. Peridot and Jasper, clinging drunkenly to each other, set off to find where their beds where. They arrived at the building and Peridot swiped her key card, only to find that it didn't work.
"Oh crap." She said, staring at it stupidly. "How do we get in?"
"I could punch the window open."
"Yeah right."
"What, you think I couldn't? I could bust us in there with one hand."
"Oh yeah? Prove it." Peridot stuck her tongue out playfully.
Jasper scoffed and wound her hand back to bash open the large glass window next to the door, her nose scrunching up with the effort. Peridot's eyes widened
"Crap! Jasper stop!" Peridot lunged to pull back Jasper's arm, taking an elbow directly to the face. She immediately crumpled to the floor, blood spurting from her nose.
"Jesus, oh Jesus," Jasper began to curse, sobering up a bit, kneeling down to help Peridot sit up and staunch the flow. She took off her shirt and gave it to Peridot to hold against her nose, who was in so much pain she only stared at Jasper's bared abdomen a little bit. She tilted her head back and checked to see if everything was still in place, which it was, just a little sore.
"I'm so sorry, Peri. Christ, are you okay?" Jasper was crouched over her, one arm around her back, the other stroking her knee comfortingly.
"Yeah, yeah, no broken bones." She said, waving Jasper away unenthusiastically, leaning into her arm slightly.
"It's not even our dorm," she sighed, pointing to the number painted on the side of the building.
"You're kidding," growled Jasper, turning to stare at the wall. She was silent a few seconds, until Peridot felt a chuckle pass through her. She stared at her, her own laugh bubbling under her mouth. Jasper returned the gaze, her smile spreading and a thick guffaw coming from her mouth.
"We're such idiots," panted Peridot, her laughter only making the nosebleed grosser. Jasper only laughed harder at Peridot's mess, lying down on the concrete floor as her sides split.
"Jesus," she snorted, peering up at the girl sitting next to her. Peridot placed her hand over Jasper's without looking at her, knowing she could pass it off as an accident if she needed to. Jasper picked Peridot's palm up and played with the fingers absentmindedly, tracing the lines along her hand. Peri shivered at her touch, and Jasper's brow furrowed in concern.
"If you're cold we should find the dorm," she said, getting up. Peridot cursed herself for responding so much to a simple touch, not one even that intimate, and allowed herself to be hoisted up. They stumbled around campus until the found a building that would let them in with their key cards. Slumped around Jasper's shoulder, Peridot didn't bother to move to her own bed when Jasper collided with the mattress, simply curling up against Jasper's warmth, too tipsy and tired to care.
She was awoken by Jasper moving around, managing to sit up, bleary eyed as the much larger girl rattled around the small room. Looking at the alarm, she was infuriated to see that it was 5.00 am, just before the hangover hit her and she had to hide under the blankets to stop the light from burning her retina to a crisp.
"Lightweight," teased Jasper, ruffling the back of her head and earning a murderous glare from her roommate.
"Sod off," she replied wittily, muffled by the layers of pillow her face was under. Jasper paused by the doorway, feeling responsible. She was torn between her roommate and her morning exercise routine.
"I swear if I lose any muscle mass because I'm caring for your weak ass, they'll be hell to pay." She yelled from the doorway, leaving for supplies. A few minutes later she came back with a jar of pickles, a lemon, coffee, sugar and several industrial sized water bottles. She threw one of these at the quilted lump that was Peridot, who squealed as it hit her head but crawled out nonetheless.
"Drink!" instructed Jasper, busying herself with the other items. Peridot complied groggily, spilling some on herself and swearing loudly.
"Potty mouth," reprimanded Jasper, bringing a slice of lemon to Peridot's mouth, "this will clean that up." Peridot wrinkled her nose at the offending fruit slice, which was covered in sugar and coffee.
"Come on…" encouraged Jasper, nudging it at her lips. Peridot spluttered and opened up in surrender.
"You're supposed to suck it." Jasper told her with a smirk, making Peridot cough and spray coffee mix over the bed.
"That's fucking gross," complained Jasper, waggling a pickle at Peridot disapprovingly before biting into it.
"You're fucking gross," retorted Peridot around the lemon. It tasted horrible, but Peridot was feeling a bit better. Jasper winked and sucked on her dill seductively, making Peridot bury her head in her pillow as her entire face turned red.
"You're so easy to wind up," chortled Jasper, chucking Peridot's shoulder, making her flop onto the bed. She heard a ding of the kettle come from down the hallway and the creak of bedsprings as Jasper got off the bed. Peridot allowed herself to drift back into sleep, placing the dry lemon on the bedside table.
An hour later, when she woke up sans-hangover, she stumbled into the kitchen to find a note scrawled in orange pen under a lukewarm mug of coffee. It was a phone number. Peridot mulled over it as she sipped her coffee. Certainly, it was practical that two roommates should know each other's phone numbers. And people usually ended a message with a little heart. It wasn't an indication of anything. Peridot grimaced, hating that she wanted so badly to interpret it as a sign of affection, her heart thrumming a beat of she-loves-me, she-loves-me-not.