Chapter Five: Hair Cut
Stephanie Valentine has been sitting outside for about an hour now. She decides to go in and find Brooke so they can leave. Enough has happened for tonight. She heads back into the house and checks the room where the game was played but can't find Brooke or Cole inside. She sights Chris talking to Jason but quickly leaves before he notices her.
She then tries the living room and then the kitchen. And there they are, Cole and Brooke, both drunk. They're sitting at the kitchen island still having more drinks. Stephanie walks over and grabs both drinks from their hands.
"Hey," Brooke yells.
"Haven't you guys had enough already?" She asks them.
"You look like Spongebob," Brooke tells her reaching out to touch her face. Stephanie swats her hand away. She looks at Cole and finds him staring at Brooke with a stupid smile on his face.
"I like you," he tells her.
"I like you too," Brooke replies with that same type of smile on her face.
Stephanie face-palms.
They both won't probably remember this tomorrow. They need to leave now but she doesn't want to leave Cole alone and drunk. Albeit people are everywhere, no one will exactly pay attention to him.
So she decides to find Luke - Cole's best friend. She doesn't want to but she has to.
"Hey, guys. I'll be back in a minute," she says to the pair and goes in search of Luke.
Please don't be with Poison Ivy.
Please don't be drunk.
Please don't be with Poison Ivy.
And please don't be drunk.
Stephanie finds herself reciting that in her head as if it's a spell.
She sights him in the living room on a couch and guess who is sitting beside him - of course it's Poison Ivy.
Would she even give the guy space?
Stephanie groans but makes her way to them.
"Hi," she yells a little when she gets to them because the music is a little bit louder here.
They face her with a look of confusion on their faces before Poison Ivy looks changes to the one that can kill.
"Who are you?" Ivy rages with her eyes scrutinizing Stephanie.
"I'm nobody. Forget about me," Stephanie replies in a perpetually tired voice. Then she regards Luke.
"Can you come with me? Your friend, Cole is drunk and I don't want to leave him alone," she tells him.
Thankfully, Luke doesn't look drunk.
"Oh. Cole, eh?"
Luke gets up and tells Ivy that he'll be back then he follows Stephanie to the kitchen.
"Dude!" Luke shakes his head disapprovingly when he sees Cole. He and Brooke are holding hands.
"You're wasted," Luke tells him.
"I am?" Cole asks.
Brooke giggles for no reason at all.
Alcohol at work!
Stephanie separates their hands and makes Brooke get off her seat.
"Let's head home B," she tells her.
Brooke giggles in response.
She holds Brooke's left wrist with her right hand and begins to walk them both out of the kitchen.
"Thanks," Luke yells.
She leads Brooke out of the front door and into the cool night.
They head towards Brooke's car, away from Jason's party. They reach where Brooke's car is parked and Stephanie checks the pockets of Brooke's jeans, trying to find the key.
"I'm driving. You can't drive like this," she mumbles to Brooke.
Brooke giggles yet again.
She gets the keys and Brooke into the passenger's seat then buckles her seatbelt.
She shuts the door, goes to the other side of the car, and enters the driver's seat. She then begins to drive them to her house. And throughout the ride, Brooke kept saying gibberish things.
***
Stephanie pulls into her driveway and turns off the engine. She hops out and then helps Brooke out of her car. She holds her by the waist and leads her to the front door. She gets the keys from under one of the flower pots outside. She always leaves it there. She never takes the keys with her. She opens the door and leads Brooke inside.
A few minutes and some struggles later, Brooke is sprawled on one side of Stephanie's queen-sized bed.
Stephanie gets out of Brooke's dress and gets into a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. She lies on the other side of the bed and checks her phone on the nightstand.
1:00 am.
She smiles.
For the first time in her life, she stayed out that late. She switches off the lamp and stares at the ceiling.
Everything that happened tonight replays in her head.
She smiles when she remembers the kiss. She'll always remember that kiss but she guesses Christopher has already forgotten about it.
He's a player after all.
He must have had better kisses.
And again, it was a game.
She hopes things remain the same after tonight.
She's pretty sure most people have never seen her before. They'd probably think she doesn't go to any of their schools.
Thoughts keep running through her mind until she falls asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's 9:00 am on Saturday and Stephanie and Brooke are still asleep in Steph's room.
Brooke turns slightly and her eyes flutter open. She looks around and realizes she isn't in her room.
She sits up and immediately regrets it.
"Ouch," she yells unable to suppress her groan as her hands find her head. Stephanie wakes up beside her and sits up. She yawns before finally glancing at Brooke's way.
"My head," Brooke groans again.
"You got drunk. What did you expect?" Stephanie huffs as she gets off the bed. She walks into the bathroom and watches Brooke who has her head in her hands with her knees propping her elbows.
She walks to the sink and stares at herself in the mirror. She lowers her gaze to her lips and remembers how Christopher's lips felt on them.
She shakes her head trying to drive away the thought. She picks up her toothbrush, applies toothpaste, and begins to brush her teeth. After brushing, she cleans her face and hands. She dries her hand before running a hand through her hair to make it more presentable.
She exits the bathroom and finds Brooke in the same position.
"B?"
"Uh?"
"I think I should get a haircut," she tells Brooke touching her long hair.
Brooke slowly lifts her head, "Why?"
Stephanie shrugs, "I don't know. I guess I'm tired of it being this long."
"How short do you want it to be?" Brooke asks.
"Shoulder length?" She replies more as a question than a statement.
Brooke doesn't say anything. She gets back to her old position. Stephanie rolls her eyes before heading to the kitchen to get her Aspirin and water.
"Here," she says standing in front of Brooke with a glass of water and Aspirin in hand.
Brooke lifts her head and takes both from her hands looking gratefully at her.
She swallows the pill with water and gulps down the whole cup.
"Thank you," she tells Stephanie handing the glass cup back to her.
"We could go to a hairstylist or a salon later for your haircut," Brooke says.
"You don't have to come, B."
"I want to and besides, I have nothing to do today," Brooke replies.
"Thanks."
"So you kissed Chris at the party, huh?" Brooke beams.
Stephanie turns slowly to face her. Here she is, trying hard not to think about it and Brooke just had to bring it up.
When Brooke sees the look on her face, she stops smiling and touches her chin.
"Or did I imagine that?"
"No, you didn't," Stephanie answers.
She sighs and sits at the edge of the bed.
"It was the best kiss I've ever had. That's all it was," she says truthfully then faces Brooke.
"You know, it wouldn't have happened if you didn't threaten me and make me go to that party," she adds blaming Brooke.
Brooke huffs, "You said it was your best kiss so don't talk like it was a bad thing."
"I've been avoiding Christopher since 9th grade so YES, it's a bad thing," she says gruffly.
Brooke smirks, "I think I spoke to him last night. He came to meet me."
"Really?"
"Nope," Brooke shakes her head. "I'm not sure. I was drunk. I can't remember much."
"Hmmm."
"What if he starts asking around for you? Or even asks you to be his girlfriend?" Brooke raises her eyebrows suggestively.
"What? That's preposterous B. That cannot happen. He's a PLAYER," Stephanie sniggers.
"Players CHANGE you know," Brooke says.
"I'd love to see CHANGE happen to him and besides, I DO NOT like him or anything," Stephanie scoffs.
"Enough of this bullshit. Go take a shower, will you? Let me fix something for breakfast," Stephanie says softly and leaves the room to make them breakfast.