DINNER & DIATRIBES. . . JACKSON AVERY!

chapter twelve: perfect little accident

"You're not gonna, like, fuck up my hair as payback, are you?" Lexie asks her, sounding nervous, and Briar just sighs.

"Babe, think about that for a sec. No. If I wanted payback, I'd be much less obvious about it. But I don't: we're adults, we're going to talk out our feelings. Now strip and get in the shower." Briar orders her, moving around the bathroom to get everything ready for after she's out of the shower.

"I showered this morning." Lexie whines, making Briar laugh.

"Congrats, babe, you're doing it again. We need your hair conditioned because we're going to be drying it out. Do you want it to be super damaged so I have to cut it all? No. Good." Briar whips the hand towel in her hands at her friend, making her yelp and jump into the shower, throwing her bra over the top a moment later. Briar ducks out of its path, stifling a laugh as it lands right in the toilet. Oh, Lexie's gonna love that.

"I'm sorry!" She hears come from the shower, and just shakes her head in amusement.

"I know, honey. Me too. But we'll talk in a minute, just shampoo and condition your damn hair!" She tells her with a laugh, leaving the room to grab her iPod and portable speaker. She starts blasting Prince, grinning at the singing coming from the shower. Lexie honestly has a nice voice.

"Drink champagne from a glass with chocolate handles," Briar sings along with one of her favorite songs "3121." She spins around, using a brush as a microphone, and grabs a towel for Lexie when the water shuts off. "Don't you wanna come? 3121! Gonna be so much fun! 3121!"

"You can come if you want to, but you can never leave!" Briar and Lexie sing together. Briar smiles, that line is her absolute favorite.

"It's kinda like this place." Briar tells Lexie with a snort, thinking of how her stay was supposed to be short term during her intern year.

"Oh, my God, it is." Lexie agrees with a loud laugh, starting to dry her hair before Briar shakes her head and shoves her onto the covered toilet seat. Although, not before telling her to lift it up and laughing when Lexie shrieks at the sight of her ruined bra.

"That was my favorite one." Lexie admits with a pout, sitting still so that Briar can brush through her hair from the bottom to the top. Briar turns the music almost all the way down, still wanting it as background sound.

"Work on your aim, Lex." Briar tells her with a shrug, before tilting her head. "You wear your favorite bra to the hospital? That's just asking for it to get destroyed."

Lexie turns bright red, attracting Briar's attention, who watches with interest as Lexie starts stumbling through an explanation. "It's just, uh, well, I've been having sex with Alex."

"Well, duh." Briar says, a little disappointed that there isn't something else going on. "Everyone knows that. But really, you wore your favorite bra for him?" She tuts at her, grinning to herself when she makes Lexie blush even harder. She is so easy to get worked up.

"Shut up." She mumbles. Briar puts her hands up in defense even though she kind of wants to keep poking the bear.

"Alright, alright, enough Alex talk. Although, actually: please tell me you don't have feelings for him, because he's just using you to get his dick wet."

"Okay, ew, but I know that. I. . . I still like Mark." She admits. Briar nods, not surprised by that. She'd be more surprised if Lexie moved on from Mark so quickly, what with how much Lexie likes him. "I'm sorry, by the way. Like, really, really sorry. I shouldn't have said any of that today–or, or any of the stuff I said yesterday, and the stuff I've been saying in my head about you, which, like, you don't know but I feel the need to tell y–!"