Chapter 18

Daenerys Targaryen POV

I'm really happy for Sansa that she got into our school, I just don't want her to have to deal with all the Cersei drama again. She got enough of that in high school. I'm not super worried about it, I don't think she'll be intentionally interacting with Cersei very much.

Cersei and I are working today, it's Halloween night and we couldn't get out if it. I know Cersei was really pissed about that, but she talked me into going to a party after work with her anyway. Jon, Bronn, Jorah and Jaime are going to meet us here and we're going to walk to Bronn and Jorah's friend's place.

I look over and see Cersei going behind the bar and up to a certain section of the wall. She takes a shot and then walks back out from behind the bar. "What are you doing?" I ask, walking up to her.

"Just getting ready for the party since we get off in 30 minutes," she says. "The head bartender told me about the blind spot."

I roll my eyes and we start walking back to the hostess station. "Do you want to get fired?" I ask her.

"I mean, I guess not," she says. "But it's not like I care that much if I do."

"Cersei, come on," I say. "Do you have to be so reckless all the time?"

"I'm not being reckless, he told me about a blind spot," she repeats. "Are you going to tell on me or something?"

"No," I say. "I don't want to get dragged into that, trust me."

"Well good," she says. "Then there shouldn't be a problem." She's irritating me, I'm not the one she should be worrying about in this situation.

I see her take at least one more shot before we get off, she's going to get in so much trouble if the manager catches her. I'm not going to be there to cover for her, so she better not expect that.

…

We leave work, and the guys are waiting for us when we walk out the door. "Hey," Jon says, giving me a kiss. "How was work?"

"It was fine," I say. "Busy since it's Halloween, but I knew that would happen."

Cersei gives Bronn a kiss, and Jaime is basically giving him a death stare. Does he not realize he's not concealing his emotions very well? We ignore that and walk to the house where the party is at.

We walk in, and it seems a little sketchy. I'm not surprised, I know Bronn hangs out with some sketchy people. I'll probably just stay close to Jon the whole night, and we probably won't end up staying long.

I grab a drink, Jon and Jorah comes with me and Jorah also gets a beer. "So how's the job?" Jorah asks me. "Bronn said Cersei's liking it better than she expected she would."

"I bet she is," I say. "Especially when the head bartender gives her free shots."

"Woah, he does?" Jon asks.

"Yeah," I say. "She took at least two today, and she knows where the blind spot of the cameras behind the bar is."

"That's so dumb," Jon says. "She's going to get fired if she gets caught."

"Or worse, since she's only 20," I say. "I know we all drink, but not while working."

"Oh, that's right," Jorah says. "I forget you guys aren't 21 yet."

"I'm not going to help her if she does get in trouble," I say. "She's on her own with that one."

"Good," Jon says. "I think that's a good call."

"Do you know where she and Bronn went?" I ask Jorah. "Or Jaime, for that matter."

"No, I have no idea," Jorah says. "I'll go find Jaime soon, but I really don't want to look for Bronn and Cersei and catch them in the middle of something."

Jon starts laughing. "That's probably a good idea," he says. "I wouldn't be able to get that image out of my head."

"She's going to do what she's going to do," I say. "I know her well enough to know we can't stop her." That applies to this party and her taking shots at work.

It may seem harsh, but I'm not letting Cersei get me in trouble or take away my opportunities. I do care about her and I'll always love her, but I think it's time for us to grow up. We both need to start being adults, and she needs to realize her actions have consequences. She's gone too long not experiencing that harsh reality.

Cersei Lannister POV

This Halloween party is actually really fun, I swear Bronn knows the best people. I'm starting to get really drunk, I had a decent amount to drink at work before we even came here.

"Do you want to go outside?" Bronn asks me as we're dancing at the party.

"Sure," I say. "For what?"

"There's a couple of guys out there who want to buy molly from me," he says. "You can have some too, you obviously don't have to pay."

"Hell yeah," I say. "I've actually never done molly."

"Really?" Bronn asks. "You'll absolutely love it."

"Okay," I say. "Then I'm down to try it."

We go outside and walk behind the building. There's three guys out there waiting for Bronn, they see him and waive as we walk over.

"Hey guys," Bronn says. "Can I see the money?"

They show him the cash and he takes the pills out. "Is this your new girlfriend?" One of them asks, gesturing at me.

"Yeah," he says. "This is Cersei."

"Hey," I say. "Nice to meet you."

"She's so hot," another guy says. "You'll have to share her sometime."

"Hey, hey," Bronn says. "Shut up or you don't get anything, I'll leave right now."

The guy stops laughing and gets serious again. "Sorry," he says, turning to me.

"Hey, no worries," I say, laughing. "I'm used to hearing that."

"I bet you are," another guy says. Bronn glares at him. "Sorry, dude. It's just the truth."

"Yeah?" Bronn says. "It's also just the truth that I'll punch you in the face if you don't shut the fuck up."

They do the exchange and then say their goodbyes, the guys walk off. "Should we go inside?" I ask Bronn.

"Do you want to take some first?" He asks me.

"Sure."

"I'm only giving you a little bit so you start off small," he says, handing me some. "Here you go."

It takes a little bit, but once it starts to kick in I feel amazing. I feel really confident, more so than I usually do. I tend to drink when I'm depressed, but the alcohol is wearing off now and this is making me feel great.

We go back inside and start dancing again. I try to walk over to get another drink, but Bronn stops me. "Hey, maybe you shouldn't drink right now," he says. "That may not be a good idea."

"Why not?" I ask.

"You don't know how your system will react with alcohol and the molly," he says. "Especially your first time. Just take it easy."

I feel on top of the world, I can't imagine anything making me feel bad. Especially alcohol, I feel like that'll only improve things. "Come on," I say. "I just want a beer."

"Seriously, don't," Bronn says. "I mean it."

"Okay, fine," I say. "But only because you're so great, and only if you give me more later."

"We'll see," he says. "You seem to be okay for now."

"Whatever," I say. "I'm amazing right now, you have no idea."

"Oh, I think I have some idea."

We dance for a while, and I start grinding on him. As we keep dancing, Dany and Jon walk up to us.

"Ew, get a room," Dany says, laughing. "We're about to head out."

"Come on, already?" I ask as I stop dancing and get closer to her so we can talk better.

"Yeah, we're tired."

"I bet I could convince you to stay," I say. "Bronn gave me this thing, it's fucking awesome and it'll make you want the night to last forever."

"Cersei, come on," Bronn says. "They'd have to pay for that. I'd give them a discount, but they'd still have to pay."

Jon looks scared. Of course he does, he's a baby. I'm honestly not even mad about that.

"Thanks for the offer, but we're good," Dany says. "Have a good night."

"Bye." I give her a hug and waive goodbye. We keep dancing and Jaime walks up to us.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"Dancing, what's your problem?" I ask.

"You're just all over the place," he says. "I can see you from the other side of the house."

"I'm having fun," I say. "It's an amazing night, I thought you'd agree."

Jaime gives me a look. "Did you take something?" He asks. "You're not normally this happy, at a party or ever really."

"I just took something to have a better time," I say. "It's fine."

Jaime turns to Bronn. "What did you give her?" He asks.

"Just some molly," Bronn says. "A tiny bit, relax."

"Dude!" He says. "You know how I feel about you giving Cersei stuff"

"I'm right here!" I yell. "Stop talking to me like I'm not right here."

"Whatever, I can't do this tonight," Jaime says. "I'm going home, see you later."

We party for a couple more hours, and I end up staying at Bronn's even though Jorah's in the next room. I just didn't want to go home to Jaime and have him be yelling at me. I don't even care if he's waiting up and he's worried about me.

I had a lot of fun tonight, I'm glad I can experiment with someone who cares about me and knows how much I can safely take. I'm glad I took it easy so I was able to go to sleep, even though I wanted more. Bronn's actually great, and I'm having a lot of fun with him.

Sansa Stark POV

I'm hanging out with Myrcella and Margaery tonight, it's Halloween and we're going to this party that a friend of Podrick's school is throwing. He knows a guy from class that is renting a place from his parents, and he invited us to come hang out there. We'll be sleeping at my house afterwards tonight.

"You know Gendry might be here tonight, right?" I ask Margaery as we're driving there.

"Yeah, I figured," Margaery says. "It's okay, I'll just avoid him."

"You better stay away from Podrick," Myrcella says, laughing. I can tell she's joking.

"Come on, you know I will," Margaery says. "Plus, even if I wanted to try something, he only has eyes for you."

Myrcella blushes, and we pull up to the house. It seems more chill that I imagined when we walk in, but there are a decent amount of people here. Myrcella finds Podrick and gives him a hug.

"Hey babe," he says. "I'm really glad you guys came, even though it might be a little awkward since you don't know these people."

"We wanted to come," Myrcella says. "We wanted to meet all your cool new college friends."

"Sure," Podrick says. "That's one way to put it."

I laugh at that, Podrick doesn't really seem like much of the partier type. He's always been kind of a mysterious loner, even more so after the incident that made him a legend.

"Do you want to get a drink?" I ask Myrcella. "I'm driving, so I won't be drinking but thought you might want one."

"Go help yourself to the fridge," Pod says. "The guy hosting is cool, he won't care."

"Sure," Myrcella says. "Let's go."

We walk over to the fridge and Myrcella gets a Mike's Hard Lemonade. I'd like one too, but I know it's best if I don't drink anything. I'm not sure where Margaery went, she kind of vanished when we got here.

"Are things still going okay with living with Podrick?" I ask Myrcella as she opens her drink.

"Definitely," she says, taking a swig. "We've had a lot of more mature conversations, but I think it's good for us."

"Mature like how?"

"Just about finances and more related to living together," she says. "It's conversations we haven't really had before, but it's good to get practice with them."

"Yeah, makes sense," I say. "Those are good conversations to have."

I look across the room and see Margaery. She's on a couch, and she's talking to Gendry. I almost go over and start conversation to make things less awkward, but I see they're both actually smiling. It doesn't look like a bad conversation.

…

We're on our way back to my place at around 1 a.m., luckily neither Myrcella nor Margaery got too drunk.

"So Marge," I say. "I saw you talking to Gendry, what was that about?"

"Oh," Margaery says, sounding groggy and tired. I think she fell asleep in the backseat. "We just had a good conversation, it was actually really nice."

"Really?" Myrcella says. "I thought you guys ended things on bad terms."

"We did, but that was a long time ago," Margaery says. "I apologized for going off on him, and he apologized for invalidating my feelings when we were together."

"That's good, I guess," I say. "It's good for you guys to have closure smooth things over."

"He broke up with Arya again," Margaery says. "He mentioned that."

"What did you say?"

"I said I was sorry about that, even though I'm not," she responds. "And he told me he loved her but that she was too young and ending things was for the best since your parents didn't approve."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," I say. "That's the reasoning he gave Arya from what I understand."

"I'm not sure I believe that he truly loved her," Margaery says. "Even though that's what he keeps saying."

"Why not?" Myrcella asks.

"She's young and impressionable," Margaery says. "I think he just liked what she could do for him."

There's a pause of silence, I honestly think that's kind of messed up. Gendry isn't manipulative like that, and I believe he genuinely loved Arya and still does. I saw them together a lot, that boy was so smitten with her. Way more than he ever was with Margaery, but I'd never tell her that.

"I told him to call me," Margaery continues to break the silence. "He said he wanted to."

"Why would he do that?" I ask. I hope that didn't come out wrong, it just seems random.

"I'm not sure," Margaery says. "Maybe we could start things up again."

"You'd want to?" Myrcella asks.

"I'd be willing to try it," Margaery says. "We've both grown so much since we broke up, I think it could be better now that we're more mature."

"Well good luck," Myrcella says. "I hope it goes well since stuff like that can be tough."

"Thanks," Margaery says. "I'll let you guys know how it goes. Just don't tell Arya, Sansa. I don't want to cause more drama."

"Yeah, for sure," I say. "I won't."

I say that, but I actually probably will tell Arya since she'd probably like to know. I can't see it ending well if Margaery and Gendry start talking again, but it's her choice to make. Plus, it definitely won't last long if they do. I know Gendry can do what he wants, I'm just really not looking forward to how much that will hurt and upset Arya when she finds out.