devotion

one thing

A couple of days later it was time for the party. Nate had come up with two coupons for Maddy's parents to go to a overnight spa which they reluctantly took as a late anniversary present. After living for over a week with Maddy's parents Scarlett had come to the conclusion that they had an agreement type of marriage. There were all different types of marriages that Scarlett had observed over the years. They consisted of love marriages, which were the rarest of their kind. There were the agreement marriages where the marriage itself seemed to be a contract of an old flame that had died out and living together in the same house and sleeping next to each other was a form of habit. There were the toxic ones like the one with her mother and Sammy's father. And there were the in-between marriages that had its ups and downs but was the most typical, there was a love there but it wasn't necessarily being madly in love. Maddy's parents had the agreement type of marriage where her mother worked and kept the house running and did everything that needed to be done while her father sat on their old recliner and drank himself into a comatose state of watching sports games. But Scarlett was in no position to make judgements. Maddy, Cassie and Kat were all sitting on Maddy's bed with the party coming up in a few hours planning on outfits. All the girls had brought over a bag full of choices and Maddy had given Scarlett free reign over her closet. Kat got up to go try on her next outfit and came out in a red mini skirt and a black bra. "Damn bitch!" Maddy shouted. "No! She can't wear that I wanted to wear my red skirt!" Cassie shouted. "Next!" All three of them yelled causing Kat to raise her middle finger and stick her tongue out. The outfit she stepped out in next made the girls start clapping and screaming at Kat. "I swear to god ion know where this new style is coming from but I'm into it bitch!" Maddy screamed laughing. They decided Kat should wear this one. It was a leather black mini dress with a studded belt taking in her waist. Cassie got her way and ended up deciding on her red skirt and a ruffled white top. Maddy decided on a leopard spaghetti dress. All the girls collectively decided that Scarlett would wear Maddy's coral colored two piece knitted skirt and cropped tank set. The girls began their makeup sitting in a circle on Maddy's floor gossiping. "Nate's like the love of my life and shit but I think he's going fuckin bonkers" Maddy said. "Girl after what he did I would've dropped his ass." Kat said in response. Maddy's gasped "Bitch your hoeing out and I support that but you can't be giving out relationship advice if you haven't been in one." Kat just rolled her eyes in response and continued applying her eyeliner. "McKay has been so uptight lately it's driving me crazy. All because his coach won't put him in the game. Like it's all he talks about anymore." Cassie said groaning. "Oh I dated the quarter back at my old school for over a year. I swear if they're on the football team it's all they can think about. Like it makes their brains shrink down to nothing and they forget they aren't dating the football team they're dating you." Scarlett said remember how annoying it could be dating Paxton. "I don't know I heard Connor was talking to some of the guys on the team about you. Maybe he could be the start of your hoe moment." Maddy said. "I had my hoe moment last year and it was fun and all but I'd like to keep my list from doubling in the first 6 months I'm here." Scarlett said causing the girls to gasp and start grilling her about the college boys in her old town.
When it was time for the party to finally come around the girls went down in the kitchen with Nate and all his friends and took a pregame shot together. "Let's play never have I ever!" Cassie yelled making McKay give her a stern look. "Never have I ever hooked up with a college guy!" Maddy yelled causing Cassie, Scarlett and surprisingly Kat to take a shot. "Never have I ever been in love" Kat said causing all the girls to take a shot along with Nate and McKay after looks from their girlfriends. "Never have I ever played football." Scarlett said laughing and watching all the guys take a shot. "Never have I ever watched porn." Everyone took a shot except Maddy who batted her eyes innocently and looked at Nate. Scarlett knew that was a lie because they had been studying a video only two nights before but she let it slide. "Never have I ever had sex with a dude" McKay said causing all the girls to take a shot again. "Never have I ever...." Nate started but all the girls decided to tap out. Scarlett was four shots in and the party hadn't even fully started. As the people from their school started to pile into Scarlett began to feel the drinks kick in. Her and Kat decided to hit the dance floor. Scarlett knew that the way that Kat was dancing was to attract the guys coming into the living room but she didn't mind she was become more and more drunk as the alcohol hit her and she was feeling like she wanted to have a good time. Scarlett's bender had slowed but certainly not stopped and this was when she felt best, it was messed up but it was true. She moved her hips to the beat of the music as Kat danced up against her. She felt a tap on her shoulder and when she turned around she saw Jules standing there. "Biiiiitch!" Scarlett screamed wrapping her up in a hug. "Where's rue rue?" Scarlett asked. "She uh she's coming she just is waiting for a friend." Jules looked hesitant but Scarlett could only hope that it wasn't because Rue had messed up her sobriety again. Rue was doing really well from what Scarlett could tell, she was going to meeting and focusing on getting her life and order which made Scarlett happy and she knew it made Jules overjoyed. "Okay dance with me!" Scarlett yelled over the music. The three girls danced for what seemed like an hour before Cassie pulled Scarlett into the kitchen. "Take a shot with me pleassse. I don't even feel tipsy anymore." Cassie said stumbling to get out the glasses. "Okay but only one." Scarlett said. Cassie poured in response. "Bitch your taking two" Maddy said surprising both of them as she waltzed into the kitchen. She took out the bottle and poured the drinks for the girls. "Okay that it more than a shot." Scarlett said pointing at her cup. "I believe in you!" Maddy responded. The girls took in cringing at the taste. "Next one you're taking with us." Cassie said grabbing another cup and pouring another for each of the girls. "Oh bitch that's more than a shot but okay just don't tell Nate." They counted down to tree before tossing the shot back and dramatically making noises passing around the chaser between the three of them. They spent another hour dancing and mingling before Scarlett decided she was too sweaty and not drunk enough to be participating in the activities of the party anymore. Now Scarlett was somewhat of a lightweight but over the last couple weeks she had began to develop a tolerance to the alcohol which made her lack of drunkness frustrating and based on the dwindling amount of alcohol left at this party she was starting to regret eating such a big lunch and dinner. Scarlett decided to sneak upstairs into the "no trespass zone" to retrieve her own bottle. All she had left was a bottle of margarita mix that they had poured some tequila in from Maddy's dad's alcohol stash in his room. She brought it downstairs and decided to take a seat on the couch in the sunroom. She was sitting on the couch with her back to the arm of it when she looked up to see two people walking in. It was Rue and Fez.
Scarlett decided to book it to the bathroom. It ended up being more of a stumble but she needed to regain her thoughts. She sat on the bathroom counter while people banged on the door to get in sipping as fast as possible on her margarita tequila mix so she could gain some confidence. Eventually the banging got annoying though and Scarlett gave up and went back to the sunroom couch. When she sat down she saw who was also sitting on the couch but she was too drunk to care. Finally, she thought. It's kicking in at the perfect time. She sat with her back to the arm of the chair and her feet under her. "Hey." She said causing Fez to look up at her surprised to see who was sitting next to him. "Are you here for work?" She asked slurring her words a bit. "Kind of. Got most of my shit done at the football game the other day. What you drinking, Scar?" He asked. "It's a margarita mix from the 7/11 and some off brand tequila. Want some?" She said holding the bottle up. "Nah I'm good." He told her. She took a second starring at him. He was wearing one of his signature sweaters with jeans and her favorite vans he had. "Sometimes I miss you Fez." She said randomly causing his eyes to widen. "I miss you too Scar more than you know." She was shocked by his answer. He said she wasn't worth it. He said she was too much work and all he wanted was to sleep with her. "If you want, when your a little less in the party mode, maybe we could talk about things.. those things I said-" he started but she interrupted, like she usually did. He smiled at that, he never minded that she did that, he thought the things she said were more important anyway and he'd always liked that she had no filter around him. "You really did a number on me Fez." She said taking a big swig from the bottle. "I'm sorry. More than you know." She just nodded in response a little too drunk to take in what he was saying. She stretched her legs out in front of her causing her feet to touch his legs. The contact with her was minimal but it was more than Fez had gotten in weeks and he knew he didn't deserve any at all but it comforted him in a strange way. He missed her. "Tell me how Ashtrays doing I miss that asshole." She said causing Fez to laugh at how drunk she was.
Over the next hour they sat on the couch like that talking about things that were meaningless but it was still talking. The party started to die down and there were only about 10 people still lingering in the house. "Do you need a ride? Or a place to stay at?" Fez offered hoping she didn't take it as him being presumptuous since they were somewhat communicating again. "No. I've been crashing at Maddy's this week and a couple of us are sleeping over." She said causing him to nod. She wanted to make it clear though that she wasn't upset by his offer. It surprisingly made her feel good that he had offered. "Thank you though." She said. Scarlett found it hard to stay mad at Fez and was overall just confused about everything that had happened. "Maybe soon we can talk for real Scar. I got a lot i need to talk to you about. You know, whenever you be feeling comfortable enough."Fez told her. She thought about it before nodding. The only time Fez had ever acted badly towards her was the ten minute conversation that ended it all. He had said things that Scarlett found unforgivable but they didn't match up with the guy in front of her who was wanting to talk about things and giving her rides and being protective over her. She didn't want to be the type of girl who just forgives and forgets even when a guy does something aweful but it didn't seem that black and white now that she was in this position. Things didn't match up and everything was confusing. "Bye Fez." She said giving him a small wave as he got up from the couch. "Bye Scar." He said. And with that Scarlett went upstairs and got in on her side of Maddy's bed trying to figure out what had gone wrong and if anything had at all. She just knew through the last couple weeks there was one thing that had never left her mind. One thing that went against everything she had ever told herself. One thing that made her whole world coming crashing down and built it back up again. That one thing was Fez.