Who: Sam and Tess What: Drinking and bitching about men Where: Tess' place When: Recently Warnings/Rating: Language
Tess was drunk, though not quite a blissful as she wanted to be. It was stupid, to be drinking, at least like this. There wasn’t much of a reason to. Her ex-husband had apologized. That should be something to celebrate. She should be out, having a good time and living it up.
Instead Tess was mixing quick and dirty cocktails in her kitchen, trying to find the numbness as fast as she could. There was so many conflicting things running through her, none of them happy, and every time she found her thoughts drifting toward them she felt tears rolling down her face. By the time she heard Sam opening the door – and she hoped it was Sam, the only other person with a key to her apartment – her eyes were just puffy and red enough to not be able to hide her feelings.
“Hey,” Tess called out, standing in the kitchen in an old shirt and her sleeping shorts. “Want anything?” Her voice was thick and throat dry from hefty doses of crying and drinking as she gestured to the few bottles of booze she had on the counter.
No need to panic, it was definitely Sam at the door. Dressed in a pair of Neil's never-used running shorts and a red hoodie, she was balancing a bag of clinking bottles over her shoulder, as she closed the door with her hip. "Baby, I'm fucking Santa Claus. Ho, ho, ho," she informed her sister, walking into the kitchen and setting the bag of crazy fucking expensive booze down on the counter. "This shit won't give you a hangover. Switch," she said, pushing Tess' bottles aside and hopping onto the counter.
Settled, Sam gave Tess a look, which resulted in her leaning forward and cupping her sister's cheeks in her calloused hands. "What the fuck happened?" she asked worriedly, brushing hair off Tess' temples with her thumbs. She wasn't used to seeing her older sister like this. She was usually the one drunk off her ass and with her eyes puffing from crying. Right then, Sam was hungover, but pretty fucking clean, all things considered; it was one hell of a role reversal.
“I happened,” Tess replied despondently, wan smile between her sister’s hands. Then she was shaking her head to slip from the grasp, though sticking close as sisters did. “Ran into Kevin. He apologized. Apparently I didn’t want it. Feeling sorry for myself. Now, booze.” She clapped her hands together to punctuate her punch list before peeking over at the bottles Sam brought. Expensive indeed.
“I don’t know. I mean, I do. It’s just dumb, Sam. Just fucking dumb.” Tess frowned and trailed off with a sigh as she opened up the bottles and started pouring them straight into her glass. “Whatever. It’s over. Over over.” As if five years and signed divorce papers hadn’t been it. “He said his peace and wiped his hands clean and go his own way and it’s done and I should be fucking glad but I’m not which, by the way, is the fucking worst of it. So I’ve declared it feel sorry for myself night. And vodka night. It can be both.” And with that she turned her glass to Sam, lifted it up in a mock toast, and took a hearty, burning, gulp.
Sam complied, because fuck if she was going to deny anyone booze. She reached for a tall glass from the sink, and she filled it with some smooth, top of the line single-malt, and then she held it out to her sister. "Why didn't you want his apology?" she asked, taking the cocktails Tess had poured after that burning gulp, and claiming them for herself, even though she didn't actually drink any. "That's smoother," she said, putting the single-malt in Tess' hand. "Wait. Did he fucking ditch your ass now? Because I will so break his fucking nose. Let's see how far he gets without that pretty face leading the fucking way for him." Because Sam would be pissed off in her sister's defense, no matter who was in the wrong. Fuck Kevin and all he stood for, the cheating asshole.
Tess smiled widely, albeit sadly. She could always count on Sam to beat the shit out of someone in her name, even if this time it wasn’t his fault. She’d be lying if she said it didn’t warm her heart just a little. “Yeah but not—I’m saying it wrong. He apologized for all that shit and now we’re supposed to be… I dunno. Good. Or maybe not good but it’s over now. You know? Like it was over between us before but now that he’s apologized the case is completely closed and that…” She gave a deep sigh at that, her lips curling into a pout before she started to drink from the glass she had been handed. A moment later she leaned back on the counter as she stared into the drink.
“I dunno. I just. When I imagined that moment I always figured—hoped, I guess, that he’d come crawling back. Not that I’d take him. I don’t even know if I would have. But just… Just that I was missed all that time. That what we had was worth at least trying to get back, you know? You can say it in conversation but those are just words.” She shook her head as she downed another gulp. “But it wasn’t. Not for him. When it happened and I left he just signed the papers. That was it. And now with the apology that’s it. There’s… nothing for him there anymore. Maybe there really wasn’t ever. He didn’t fight for it, or me then so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he wouldn’t five years later. But apparently my brain isn’t that fucking smart because I’m still here crying over shit I thought was done.” She sniffled hard, finally realizing that her eyes were watery and spilling over and she wiped them with the back of her hand as she laughed. “It’s fine. It’s dumb. Let’s be real, I didn’t do much fighting either. I get that. So I’ll get over it soon. Just not… Not today, you know? Just sorta want to be miserable and drunk and sit in my pajamas forever.”
Ok, now Sam got it. And it just made her want to break Kevin's nose more. She'd at least give him shit for it eventually, but not now. Now was about making sure Tess got through the fact that her ex was an utter dickhead in one piece. Right. She hopped off the counter, and she tucked two bottles beneath her arm. That done, she took her sister's hand and pulled her out of the kitchen and into the living room, where she rounded the couch before dropping down onto it. The bottles were set on the coffee table a moment later, and Tess was yanked down securely beside her.
"He's a cheating swine," Sam said, all anger, though she knew that wasn't going to make Tessy feel better. Right. Right. New tactic. "You're allowed to be upset and pissed. He should have groveled and fought to get you back. He's the one that screwed up, baby, not you. You didn't need to fight for anything. It was all on him. And if he's cool with just apologizing and walking away, then he's a bigger fucking idiot than I thought he was. He'll look back and regret this shit so hard one day." She cupped her sister's cheeks, and then she pushed messy blonde off cry-red cheeks. "Baby, you'll be with someone else by the time he buys a clue. You'll be so fucking happy, and he'll wonder how he ever could have been such a complete fucking tool." She believed that, and the conviction in her voice was 100% real. Kevin was a fucking moron. Period. "In the meantime-" She reached for the bottles, and she held one out to Tess, and then took one for herself. She took a large swig, and she smiled. "Tell me the ten things that you hated the most about his fucking ass. I'll do the same with Neil. It'll be cathartic. Go."
“He is,” Tess agreed, the momentum of being pulled down beside her sister making her lean on Sam’s arm. But nonetheless he was her cheating swine, or had been at once, and sometimes when you didn’t have much you clung tightly to everything you did have, no matter what it was. She was listening to everything that Sam was saying and agreeing with it mostly wholeheartedly, but it hadn’t quite pierced her mind enough to shake her from her stupor, and she could only offer quiet smiles to Sam, growing wider in the face of such conviction.
With a new bottle in her hand Tess knocked back the drink in time with her sister, sputtering only when she realized what the other had said. “Oh shit, Neil.” Her face darkened and crumbled slightly as she recalled the last time the two of them talked. She and Neil had been having issues and shit didn’t Tess feel like an ass for bringing up her own problems. Problems which shouldn’t be problems no less. “Forget fucking Kevin. I don’t—I can’t think of anything I hate right now.” Well, not ten things, and she kept talking herself quietly out of her issues with him, which wasn’t helpful. Not with Sam, at least. “Tell me all the shit you hate about Neil. I already cried. Now it’s your turn. To bitch. Not cry. I cried enough for both of us.”
Sam knew there was no conviction in that he is. She knew, because she was the kind to say a million nasty things about people who hurt her, and she never meant a fucking one. She sighed, and she tugged Tess against her side, and she smoothed down her sister's blonde hair in a repetitive, soothing motion, something their mom used to do back when shit was good. "Baby, you'll believe it eventually," she promised, because fuck if she had anything more than that. And the offer to forget Kevin and talk about Neil was summarily ignored, a shake of her head and a swig of the bottle that had now found a permanent resting place between her knees. "Nope. You have to talk. This is about you, Tessy. My shit with Neil hasn't changed, and it's not going to. You can't make a man give a fuck when he doesn't know how to give a fuck." But that wasn't true, a little doubting voice in the back of her mind said. Hadn't Neil loved that smart girl in college? But fuck smart girls. "I met a girl from my new door. She parties fucking hard. You'd like her."
You can't make a man give a fuck when he doesn't know how to give a fuck. “Ain’t that the fucking truth,” Tess agreed with a long sigh, pushing the bottle to her lips as she took another swig. She was pissed that Neil didn’t care about her Sam, probably just as Sam was pissed off at Kevin. But both knew there wasn’t much to be done with that. Well, besides drinking. And distractions. Like new friends. “Really? Who is she? Tell me about your new door. No more fucking psychos?” She vaguely recalled their last conversation about the door and Tess expression furrowed into a frown. “You’ve got a virgin again, right? Ha, ha.” Tess couldn’t help the tease. Granted, hers was practically an ice queen with a chastity belt but at least it wasn’t a virgin.
"Her name is MK Robinson. She's a fucking supermodel or something," Sam explained, because she wasn't actually sure about that. Supermodels had never been a thing in her life, without time for shit like fantasizing about the lives of others. She has MJ Watson, Spider-Man's girlfriend. Can you believe that shit? It's Lou's door, so I'm counting on Loki to keep my ass in once piece, so Lou doesn't turn against him or something." As for whether or not Gwen was a virgin, she shrugged, and she took another swig of beer. "Does getting laid at that party count as losing her virginity?" she asked. "She's the queen of the nerds or something, and some psychopath is supposed to toss her off a bridge and kill her, which is why no one knows about her and everyone knows about MJ. She's bitter," Sam added without a lot of fucking sympathy. "How is your ice queen doing? Any ice kings around to thaw her out?"
Supermodels. Fuck. Tess rolled her eyes at that. Not that there was anything wrong with being a supermodel but when feeling sorry for yourself it’s not the best plan to acquire new too-gorgeous-to-be-real friends. But beggars can’t be choosers. “Congrats to your nerd princess for losing her v-card at the party. Though bitter is no good. Those people through the door should be happier than us. They don’t have to deal with real life.” Granted, their “fake” lives were filled with almost and almost certain death all the time but hey, it still wasn’t real. In a way. As for her ice queen, Tess just snorted. “Please. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to thaw out anytime soon. She does work when I let her in there.” Tess shook her head and took another swig of her beer. “Think I can trade her in for someone more exciting? She’s got princes and huntsman and I’m pretty sure she could roll with a stable boy if she wanted to but she’d rather work. Can’t blame her though. Men fucking suck. Eugh.” She another pull before leaning hard against her sister’s arm. “Why do we suck at this, Sam?” Men. Life. The works. “And if it's not us, then why do they suck?” Men. Life. The works.
"My nerd princess thinks sex sucks now, and that she's doing it wrong," Sam explained with a laugh, and an eye roll followed about how their door bitches didn't have to deal with real life. "The kids in my door are scrambling around to try to find ways to keep those of us drinking and drugging in Las Vegas on good fucking behavior. Seriously, it's like teenage fucking intervention. At least yours doesn't seem like she meddles." The description of what Snow did through the door was met with a scoff, but some part of Sam yearned for that shit. Calm, quiet, purpose. She might get tired of it in like five minutes, but she could fucking deal with some every so fucking often.
When Tess asked why they sucked at this, Sam just rested her head on Tess' shoulder, and she reached over and wrapped her arms around Tess' shoulders, in a very childlike hug, feet on the couch cushion and very much like two little girls hugging away the fucking big, bad world. "We can blame mom and fucking dad, baby. Everyone blames their parents for shit. So can we." She lifted her head long enough to kiss Tess' cheek, and then she settled into using her sister as a pillow again. "Can I scream at Kevin? It'll make me feel better."
The idea of Snow meddling in her affairs was laughable for, “what fucking meddling could she do?” Tess shook her head as she held the bottle against her leg. She used to be interesting. Used to do things that might have required an intervention and though she had no desire to do more than drink and a few drugs, she pouted at the idea that she had grown up and become boring. Ugh. But Sam was there hugging her tightly and she returned the embrace as best she could, her temple resting atop her sister’s head. “You’re not overdoing it though, are you?” Drugs. Drinks. Sex. Everything in moderation, as she liked to think. Far be it for her to tell Sam what to do with her time but she could wear the worried sister hat for a quick moment. “If it’ll make you feel better you can scream at him until you’re fucking blue in the face.” Now that was a responsible decree, if she ever heard one. “I’m going to keep blaming mom and dad. Maybe if they weren’t such fucking shitheads we wouldn’t be in this mess.” It didn’t matter what mess they were in, the sentiment still rang though. “You yell. I’ll keep drinking.”
"I always overdo everything, baby," Sam said with an honest laugh, because what the fuck was the point in pretending otherwise? Here, in the safety of this living room, there wasn't any real point in lying about shit. "But I've got it under control," she promised her sister, and she reached for the remote and turned on the television, where she flipped channels until she found SpongeBob, of all fucking things. "Yelling later. Booze and SpongeBob now," she said, acting her age for once, and not pretending to be a decade older with her language and the way she carried herself. "You still remind me of Patrick," she teased, grinning a gap-toothed grin at her sister. She needed to come over here more fucking often. It made her feel better about everyfuckingthing.