01/04 Instance : Cleaning Up

[steyn]

after Looney Tunes



Rachel walked down the hall to her room, carrying a glass of water and something to snack on. She didn't really feel like talking to anyone, should they come into the kitchen. Maybe she'd do what Rogue advised and write a note or something since she had some free time.

Tessa sighed, coming down the hall to her room, carrying her shoes and underwear back with her. It was fairly stupid of her to have left them in someone else's room. Especially if that someone happened to room with Sean.

She let out a sigh. She was trying to avoid people, and she still managed to run into them. "Hey, Tess." She'd have to start using her telepathy to avoid.

Tess nodded to Rae and went to open the door, putting down the clothes to sucessfully turn the knob with the hand that wasn't asleep. "Feeling any better?"

"No, not really." She raised an eyebrow at the clothes, "Forget them somewhere?"

Finally opening the door, Tess bent back down to pick the clothes up. "As a matter of fact, yes. I had to go get them because I don't want my underwear run up the flagpole."

"Though I wouldn't put it past the Irish idiot." She added in an undertone.

Irish idiot? She doubted that was Terry, and the only other person was Sean, but Tess wouldn't sleep with...Bastard! Rachel took a breath and tried to shove down the feeling of someone twisting a knife in her chest.

She didn't really want to ask, but...yeah... "You were with...Sean?"

Tess froze for a minute and shuddered, tossing the shoes under her bed and the rest in the clothes hamper. "God no. Why in hell would I be with him?" The realization dawned on her and she bit her tongue.

She took a few deep breaths, letting them out as evenly as she could. Her jaw clenched as she managed to swallow the lump in her throat, "So...it was....?"

"Josh." She ust decided to finish the sentence for Rae and not draw it out. "It was sex, we were drunk. No big deal." Tess turned around and faced the girl, leaning against the footboard of her bed. "Why?"

As she tried to digest this information, Rachel stared at the floor. Like she said, they were drunk, so it wasn't a big deal, right? And it wasn't like her and Josh were going out anymore, but then why did it hurt so much?

She felt tears stinging at her eyes and flinched as the glass in her hand shattered. She leaned heavily against the door frame. Damn teke. "I...It's...Nothing," she choked out.

"Don't. Don't try to fool either of us. I can read your face better than you think I can." Tessa sighed and fetched a hand towel from the bathroom and wet it. "Come inside, Rachel. Let me at least clean up your hands."

"My hand's fine," she replied, coldly. Yeah, so it wasn't okay. It really, really stung, but she could take care of that later. Her other hand was clenched in a fist at her side, knuckles turning white. She cringed again as a vase that'd been set on a stand in the hall shattered as well.

"Fine. It's not nothing, Learning this has just made my fucking day, and it's not like it hurts at all," she snapped.

Getting ridiculous... She drew a deep breath and put on her best impression of her brother's wife. "You'll get over my screwing your ex-boyfriend. I'll certainly get over you being a bitch to me about it. But there's no reason for you to stand there and drip blood on the damn carpet, woman." She tossed the damp towel to her other hand.

"Now you can either come inside where I can take care of your hand and get the glass out of it, or you can stand there and be petulant about something that's already over and done with."

Rachel felt start tears running down her cheeks at ex-boyfriend and her nails dig into the skin of her palm, "I'll get over it about as quickly as I'm getting over him, which hasn't happened so far." Over and done with kinda hurt, too. Her and Josh weren't exactly over and done with, though she doubted that was what Tess meant.

"Pffft...the blood will come out. Not like I haven't bled all over it before." She glanced up from the floor at the scars lining one of her wrists, still not moving.

Tessa merely raised an eyebrow. "And that has what relevance to you not bleeding outside my damn door?" She went to Rae anyway, holding out the wet and reaching for her hand, halfway expecting her to reach out and try to hit at her with one or more appendages.

"Don't fucking touch me," she took a step away, barely containing a blast of teke. "You fuck Josh and expect me to not be upset just because you both were too damn drunk to know any better?"

Tess tossed her head once and stood her ground. "No, I expect you to not be upset because you understand Josh loves you, and will for quite a while. The fact that we were drunk is irrelevant to this conversation."

She resisted throwing the wet towel in Rae's face, she was proud of that. "Neither of us are stupid, Rachel. Don't assume we are. It was just sex, and I'm sure you've had at least one good drunk one-night stand."

"Yeah, I can really tell how much he loves me," she snapped sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "And I don't think you are, though I do wonder about Josh at times. I actually haven't had a one."

"And, it's not only that. I thought I was fucking pregnant. He knew that, too." Rachel balled her other hand into a fist, despite the glass.

"Not until after the night was well through, and you know it. You were the one avoiding him at every turn. Did you really expect him to come find you and make nice when this is how you act towards people?" She held out her hand for Rachel's as patiently as she could manage. "Now hold out your damn hand before I yank it off your arm."

She wiped at her eyes with one of the fist and managed not to yell in reply, "Bullshit! He's avoiding me as much as I am him, and I wouldn't think there's much to expect from him now." She glanced at the hand through blurred vision. No way in hell she was moving.

"Do not curse at me, Rachel Grey. The boy is worried about you and he loves you. You want to know whose name he yelled all bloody night? Rachel. Not Tessa. Rachel. Now, I'm not heartless enough to believe that means nothing, but I don't know about you."

Tessa still held her hand out, starting to clench the towel harder than she should. "Hold. Your. Hand. Out."

She cringed slightly at her full name but was glad Tess didn't know her middle name. She slid down wall into a sitting position and pulled her knees up, a sick feeling growing in her stomach. "My damn hand is fine. I think I can fucking deal with a few cuts."

"There must be something about the phrase 'Don't bullshit me' you don't comprehend." Tess moved to crouch in front of Rachel, watching her face with a blank but faintly stern expression.

"I don't care if you think you can fucking deal with a few cuts. There's glass in it and I don't want your hand infected." She grew tired very quickly of the attitude that reminded her incredibly of Danny, and just grabbed Rae's hand, pulling it out flat and wiping the blood off it. "I swear to god, girl, you are dense. Josh was worried sick about you being pregnant and you chose to ignore that just now in favor of acting immature and childish."

Rachel tensed as Tess grabbed her hand and attempted to pull it back while keeping her teke in check. They really didn't need anymore glass in the hall. She bit her lip, "Not the first time I've been told that, and I couldn't really tell. If he was that worried, you'd think he would've followed me after he found out."

She held onto the arm just above the wrist tightly, snatching it back to a comfortable place to pick out the little shards of glass. "Not if he was expecting a dressing down like we both know you want to give him. There's a whole lot of ways to be worried about someone." Tess set the glass pieces on her knee as they came out, dabbing at the palm of Rae's hand with the towel. "And to be honest with you, I wasn't expecting anything to happen either. But that is what happens when you have company and copious amounts of alcohol. It was well and truly only a one-night stand."

Rachel used her free hand and raked it through her hair. Not like she could deny it. Well, and that hadn't exactly been working for her. "That doesn't make me feel any better."

"So get yourselves drunk and try an encore, I'm sure you'll enjoy it more than I did." Tess inhaled deep and slowly, pushing her hair back and fishing the last piece of glass out of Rachel's hand. She wouldn't mention Andy. "It turned out to be not what I was looking for."

"I'd highly doubt I'd enjoy it, at the moment," she sighed and stared at the small nail marks in the hand she'd just ran through her hair, "Towel? ...Please?"

"Ought to make you go get your own damn towel. But I'll cede this one to you from the kindness of my heart." Her voice almost dripped with disdainful sarcasm as she handed Rae the damp towel. "You going to be a decent adolescent now instead of acting like my neice when she doesn't get what she wants?"

Rachel wiped at her hand with the towel and handed it back, "Maybe." She opened her mouth to say something and closed it again, going back to gnawing on her lip.

Tess went about gathering the small, sharp shards in her hand. "Maybe isn't an option." she glanced up at Rachel and saw her chewing her lip. "Spit out whatever it is you're wanting to say."

"Fine. I'll try. Better?" Rachel would've rolled her eyes. "Noth...Just...He loves me?"

"I don't recall stuttering over that statement. He does happen to be in love with you, yes." Tessa leaned around the doorjamb and dropped the pieces of glass she'd collected into the wastebasket.

Her shoulders slumped as she pushed herself off the floor without, gathering the glass from the vase with her teke. Just when she thought she couldn't feel any worse...

"Relly, it is quite bewildering, isn't it? When it dawns on you that yes, you really are in this deeper than you thought you were." Tessa managed a half-smirk and stood. "Go find Josh and let him say he's sorry."

She dumped the glass in the trashcan with a shrug, "I'll find him when I'm not so pissed and when I'm sure I won't have another breakdown."

"Which will be nowhere in the foreseeable future if today is any indication. Now would be best, or would you like company?" Tessa lifted an eyebrow.

"I think I'd rather just go and be alone in my room like I'd planned. And you're not exactly the company I want at the moment, no offense."

"Oh, none taken. But I'm quite sure Lizzie wouldn't like hearing of your procrastination in the issue at hand."

"I'm fairly sure Liz wouldn't care as she probably has more important things to worry about, and I'm pretty sure she knows it's really none of her business." Rachel walked over to her door and opened it, "I'll see you later, Tess." She really hoped they didn't run into each other later actually.

"Short of Warren, I believe you're one of the only things she would be concerned about. Have a nice day." She watched her go and followed suit, sprawling across the bed and crossing 'get drunk' and 'get laid' off the list of ways to lift spirits.

[Starfish]

Great instance, girls. Poor Rachel needs hugs.

[Freak]

...

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[Edited on 4/1/08 by Freak]

[Feuerstein]

Tess is smart.

Josh is an ass.

Pobrecita Rae!

"... not what I was looking for" heck is she saying the sex was bad?? LOL!

And I love this:

[wingyding]

lol, no. she's saying it wasn't what she was looking for. you'll figure it out sooner or later.
:sage

[Ult_Sm86]

The drama is just...*puts hand out and touches it* WHOO-HOO!