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Rue wakes up quickly to erratic tapping at her window. She groans and looks at the digital clock on her night stand. 2:36am. What the fuck?
Rue’s heart starts to hammer in her chest because who the fuck would be at her window at this hour.
She was convinced it was someone trying to break in or murder her until she heard a long and slurred “Ruuuue, open up!”.
Rue jolts up, flicking on her lamp. Why would Maddy Perez be at her window right now? They weren’t close like that. She didn’t think Maddy had even been to her house since her dad’s funeral years ago. Her heart was pounding.
“Rueee! Open the fucking window!” Maddy slurred, aggression growing, tapping on the glass harder with an acrylic, clearly drunk.
Rue yanks open the blinds and her heart drops. She sees Maddy perched on the AC unit on all fours, swaying slightly, holding a half empty handle of tito’s, even though Maddy was a tequila girl. Rue didn’t know why she thought of that right now. Her hair was tangled and her makeup was ruined from what looked like hours of crying, eyes red and puffy, and worse, her lip was split, and left cheekbone was angry red and swelling, definitely forming a bruise.
“Jesus Christ Maddy, I thought you were a murderer” Rue says, swinging open the window.
Maddy lets out a laugh that sounded more sad than funny. “You really think I’d be out here at 3am drunk off my ass trying to kill you, Rue? Let me in.”
Rue shrugs, “I don’t know… maybe”. Because maybe she did think Maddy was capable of killing, but not right now, looking like this. Right now she just looked sad. She reaches out to help steady Maddy as she stumbles into the room, collapsing onto the floor.
Maddy giggles again, the sound cracking open in the middle, flicking open the bottle again and choking on a long swig. Rue just stares.
“So..” Rue starts awkwardly, grabbing tissues to start dabbing at the blood on Maddy’s lip, “What the fuck happened, are you okay?”.
Maddy snorts “Do I look okay?”
Rue crouches down next to her. “I’m sorry, that was a stupid question”.
Maddy nods, wipes a tear that hadn’t fallen yet, and looks around at Rue’s room slowly. Brown walls, who the fuck chooses brown wallpaper, barely any posters on the walls, the picture of her dad they used at his funeral pinned to her cork board.
“Your room is like, really depressing” She slurs before taking another swig, staring at the photo.
Rue reaches out for the bottle, “Maybe you should slow down” she whispers, but Maddy yanks the bottle away from Rue’s hand.
Maddy was too quiet.
“Maddy” Rue tries again, “Why are you here?”.
Maddy smiles sadly and watery. “It’s stupid, I shouldn’t have come”.
“I promise, whatever happened that got you looking like this, and blacked out on a school night is not stupid” Rue says, pausing before asking “Was it Nate?” she gestures towards Maddy’s battered face.
Maddy shrugs and avoids the question. “I couldn’t go home. Cassie would freak out at the blood, Kat would smell the booze and turn me away and say I’m too drunk and being dramatic.”
Rue nods like it makes sense. Waiting for Maddy to say more. It takes a minute.
“We broke up” she admits, playing with a loose thread on her hoodie sleeve.
Rue takes a deep breath. They broke up every other month, none of it left Maddy looking like this. At least, not that she knew about.
“Oh” Rue sighs “That’s… that’s good though, you deserve better”.
Maddy shakes her head.
“He was cheating on me.”
Rue holds her breath. Already knowing what Maddy was about to say
“With Jules.”
Rue just nods. she’s known for weeks, months even.
Maddy looks at her, expecting a reaction but not getting one. She narrows her unfocused eyes towards her.
“You knew.” Maddy spat. Not a question. A fact.
Rue lets out a short breath. “Yeah. I knew.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Maddy’s eyes watered, and Rue suddenly felt guilty. She could handle Maddy being mad at her, it was intense yeah, but she always cooled off after awhile, but seeing her upset like this really hurt. She didn’t know why.
“What the fuck, Rue” She slurs, but there was no bite behind it.
She takes another swig from the bottle, coughing hard at the burn, some of it went down the wrong pipe.
“I fucking hate vodka, that’s all they had at that stupid house, fucking vodka and gin and whatever else fucking narcissistic losers like to drink. I fucking hate his family, I fucking hate him”. She cries, chest heaving, attempting and failing to keep it together.
Rue thinks about how Maddy probably would be keeping it together if she were sober, it’s good to let it out.
She pulls the hoodie around her tighter. At least 4 sizes too big, East Highland football hoodie, Rue realizes it’s Nate’s. Of course it’s Nate’s.
Rue doesn’t say anything right away. She just sits there on the floor next to Maddy, close enough that their knees almost touch, watching the way Maddy’s fingers keep twisting that loose thread on Nate’s hoodie like she’s trying to unravel the whole thing; him, them, whatever was left. Probably just a nervous habit.
“Look” Rue starts, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was trying to come to terms with it myself. I knew Jules had been texting someone for awhile. It took me awhile to figure out it was Nate, and even then, I wasn’t positive. I didn’t want to be the one to hurt you Maddy. It’s no excuse but I was high and hurting and confused. I’m so sorry”.
“It never would’ve been you hurting me” Maddy says quietly. “It’s Nate. It’s always Nate.” She lets out a long breath before continuing, even quieter, “I liked Jules, I thought I could trust her.”
“I know” Rue says, finally pulling her arm around Maddy’s back, pulling her closer. Maddy rests her head on Rue’s shoulder. “I thought I could trust Jules too”.
Maddy was quiet for a minute before admitting what Rue already assumed but didn’t want to bring up, “He hit me tonight”.
Rue pulls away slightly to look down at her head which was still resting on her shoulder.
“I saw the texts and got mad. I shouldn’t have yelled, I always push-“ She starts.
Rue cuts her off “No. No don’t do that. He doesn’t get to put his hands on you because you call him out on his bullshit. That’s not fair. He should never put his hands on you, like, not even if you do the worst imaginable thing to him. Not even if you hit him first. That doesn’t give him the right.”
Maddy looks up at her with tears in her eyes and a watery smile. “Thanks Rue Rue.”
Rue hugs her tighter, looking into those sad, drunk eyes.
“Come on, let’s get you off the floor, you can sleep in my bed.” Rue says.
Maddy flops dramatically back onto the floor, spreading out her arms. “The floor just like, speaks to me. I like it down here”.
Yeah, definitely drunk.
Rue lays down next to her, propping herself up on her elbows, looking down at Maddy. Maddy looks up at her. The bruise on her cheekbone was starting to darken, she had licked away most of the blood on her lips. She looked beautiful. like always, but this was different, raw and torn open and bruised and she still looked so pretty.
“You’re really pretty, you know” Rue blurts before really thinking about it.
Maddy pauses for a second, blinking up at her, confused for one millisecond before grinning sloppy, “I know”.
That made Rue’s heart squeeze. She was still Maddy. She was gonna be okay.
For a minute they’re just staring at each other. Rue looks down at her lips before quickly bringing her gaze back up to Maddy’s eyes. Her throat goes dry. She shouldn’t be thinking like this right now. Maddy was drunk, and hurt, and just broke up with her boyfriend literally an hour ago. Rue shouldn’t be looking at Maddy like she wants to devour her.
Maddy returns the favor, smirking as she glances at Rues lips once. Smirking like she knows exactly what Rue was thinking. Maybe she did. Maybe she was just drunk.
“Mmmm Rue” she whisper slurs, “I’m drunk. I think- I’m not, I’m-“
But Rue cuts her off. Slowly, allowing time for Maddy to pull away, to shove at her chest, to curse her out or something- but she doesn’t. She just glares into Rue’s eyes with the most innocent look Rue has ever seen from her. Rues lips softly attach to Maddy’s. Parting slightly. Maddy sighs into the kiss, bringing her hands up to the side of Rue’s face. Rues fingers tangle into Maddy’s already tangled hair.
“You’re shaking” Rue whispers.
“Shut up, I don’t wanna think. Just.. kiss me” Maddy whispers back.
And Rue does just that.
Maddy moans softly into the kiss, opening her mouth wider for Rue’s tongue. It’s messy and drunk from Maddy, but Rue was painfully sober for once, grounding the drunk girl. Tasting vodka and tears and blood and faint cherry lipgloss on Maddy’s lips.
“Rue” Maddy whispers against Rue’s lips.
“Hmm?”
“I’m really drunk but- I think I really like this”
Rue kisses her deeper, bringing one hand down to Maddy’s waist, causing a gasp to escape against her lips.
“I think I really like this too” Rue whispers.
The kiss lasts longer than either of them probably expect. Sloppy and drunk mixed with sober, hands too afraid to explore more tonight.
Maddy pushes up onto her side to face Rue on the carpet.
They just look into eachothers eyes for awhile longer.
“You’re really good at that” Maddy says hoarsely, “I didn’t think- never mind.”
“What?” Rue asks, curious, tucking a strand of hair behind Maddy’s ear.
She sighs before telling her. “This is gonna sound so retarded to you and like such first world problems or whatever the fuck, and maybe I’m only telling you this ‘cause I’m drunk and depressed but I’ve never really kissed a girl before.” Maddy admits, looking away from Rue’s face, cheeks flushing from more than just the red glow of the alcohol and crying and hit and leftover blush. “Like I have but just- just Cassie a few times” She continues, “just quick pecks while drunk at parties to get the guys riled up and free shots, didn’t mean anything, didn’t feel like anything special. But this felt like it might’ve meant something.” She looks back at Rue.
Rue just smiles, and kisses her again to shut up her drunk rambling. Trying not to grin into it as Maddy melts into her. Rue’s hand brushing down Maddy’s waist slowly, brushing against the bare skin that peeked out from the hoodie that rode up.
“Come on, let’s get you to the bed. Lexi threw up on this carpet after smoking too much weed once and I’m not exactly known for being a great cleaner while high”.
Maddy smacks Rue’s chest playfully.
“You could’ve told me that before I rolled all over this bitch!” Maddy laughs, dramatically gasping and sitting up.
Rue notices how she sways after sitting up too quick.
“You wouldn’t have listened” Rue offers her hand, Maddy takes it and Rue hauls her up. She notices how light she is and how she stumbles into Rue’s chest when she gets to her feet.
“Woah… spinning” She murmurs.
Rue helps her get out of Nate’s hoodie, and shoves it under the bed. No one needed to look at it any longer. She helps Maddy out of her jeans and corset and into a pair of her own sweatpants and oversized tshirt. Rolling the bottom of the pants 3 times so they wouldn’t drag. Maddy swimming in both of the items. Rue thought she looked cute in her clothes, Maddy probably thought otherwise.
Maddy’s eyelids droop, the vodka finally catching up now that she was upright, and Rue guides her to the bed, helping her under the covers before dragging her trash bin next to the bed- just in case. Rue slides into the bed next to Maddy. Facing her, Maddy’s back to Rue.
Rue just lays there in silence before Maddy reaches back, grabbing Rues arm and dragging it over her waist.
“Don’t make it weird Rue Rue” She mutters before her eyes flutter shut, and breathing evens out. Rue tightens her grip around Maddy’s waist just slightly. She didn’t know what the morning would bring. If this would just be a drunk regret for Maddy, or if it actually meant anything. Rue was just happy to help Maddy feel better, safe, wanted, even if it ended up being just for the night.