Freshmen Dorms

Ashlee had slowly turned over to see if Ashton had woken up, she heard some rustling but wasn't sure if he was just moving around or not.

She squeaked though when her turquoise eyes met his dark ones and sort of hit him with a pillow on accident.

"Fucking hell," Seth mumbled miserably, reaching down to grab a pair of jeans off the back of his desk chair. He dropped the sheet while Rose's back was turned, and scrambled into his jeans, hastily doing them up. He ran his hands over his face again and wondered just what the hell to do.

He'd never been in this situation before. THIS was why he preferred to leave the sleeping around to Jake.

Rose was fumbling with her phone and looked like she was having an internal breakdown. Honestly, Seth could care less because he was freaking out on the inside and suddenly had a crazy urge to punch something. He dropped to his knees and began searching frantically for a condom packet. Please be here. PLEASE!

He never prayed for anything but he really prayed now. He couldn't take the risk that she...

No. Not happening. Oh fuck, please no! I - I can't handle that! He felt panic build in his chest and it was suddenly hard to breathe.

But Rose was already freaking. And Seth was supposed to be the calm one. The one who came up with solutions, even if they were crazy. "Okay," he said, getting up and deciding there really was no condom involved. "Okay," he repeated himself. She needed to cover up, clearly. Where was her dress?

He looked around and couldn't see it amidst the clothes scattered through his room. he found her bra though, and grabbed a large shirt from his closet along with a pair of sweatpants and walked over to her, kneeling down and thrusting them in her arms. He kept his face nonchalant to hide the panic inside him. "Here, put these on and then we'll freak out, okay?"

***

"Ow!" Ashton yelped when the pillow hit his eye. He stumbled back and banged his head into Evelyn's door. "Oh no, not today too!"

Rosemary kept as silent as a ghost, and waited till Seth stepped out of his room, before standing up and let the sheet drop off of her. She yanked the sweats on quickly and did up her bra before yanking on the shirt and grabbed her phone again, taking the moment to collect herself, as slight as she could, and call Alexis.

Alexis pursed her lips and groaned inwardly, her hand snatching out and grabbing up her cellphone from her nightstand before snaking back into her blanket and answering. "Hello?" She muttered.

"Alex? C..can.. um. Can you.." Rosemary choked up. She couldn't just run off and it wasn't exactly like Alexis could just walk on over and come get her. "I-it's gone, it's w-wore off and I'm n-not on the pi-pill..and.." Rosemary gave up with holding back and started to sob on the phone.

Alexis froze up, staying quiet as she sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. "..Shit.." She whispered, gnawing at her bottom lip. "Rosemary, see if you can get out of the dorm quickly, and and...I'll take you home." She nodded firmly and waited till Rosemary gave her an sob-ridden "okay" before hanging up and went to get ready quickly.

"I'm sorry!" Ashlee said sitting up and covering her mouth with her hand.

She looked him over and went to look at his head, "I didn't mean to hurt you! Its just you startled me. I thought you were sleeping still and...I didn't bruise you or something did I?" Ashlee rambled, for a moment but then hushed herself.

Seth knocked on the door and then when she didn't object, he entered and huffily sat down on his desk chair, after yanking a shirt from his closet and tugging it on over his head. "So," he began calmly like he was proposing a business plan, "We might be overreacting here. Why don't you just go do the simple thing - get tested? There's a lot of margin for error."

***

"No, no, it's all good," Ashton said, rubbing his head. He suffered worse with Seth and Jake and Antonio. "I'll, uh...get going. See you later, Ashlee." He pulled open Evelyn's door and headed out to the living room to go grab Lucifer.

"..Y-yeah, I'll go do that, now." Rosemary said hastily and stood up before putting her hand on the bed, feeling her head swim briefly before standing up straight and made a bee-line for the door. "I..I..I'll get the test and have Alexis tell you or something." She said, pausing at the door.

"Right, okay, whatever," Seth muttered, frustrated and somewhat scared as he avoided her gaze.

Rosemary bit hard on her bottom lip, till she drew blood even, as she rushed out of the room and the dorm just as quickly, to see of course her best friend waiting in the hallway by his door. Rosemary whimpered and stared at her before throwing her arms around her and burying her face in Alexis' shoulder.

"Hey. Shh. It's okay, we're gonna fix this." Alexis said, though she wasn't sure HOW. She cringed and rubbed Rosemary's back, kissing the top of her head. "C'mon, you could use a shower and a clean up, and proper clothes. Lets go back to my dorm, okay?" She said soothingly, as if taking care of a child.

Rosemary nodded and pulled away, wiping at her face more as she whimpered and sniffled, following beside Alexis as they walked back to her dorm. She felt like she was doing the walk of shame, in more ways the one.

"Hey- c'mon, smile, it's not that bad, I mean, you're a model, this could happen many times... okay, I suck at this Rose, but really, it's gonna be okay, it just sucks and doesn't seem like it right now, but it will." Alexis pursed her lips and looked up at Rosemary, putting her arm around her and squeezed.

Rosemary nodded meekly and followed Alexis into the dorm, glancing as she saw a flash of silver puff ball but ignored it, going straight for the bathroom, where Alexis had already laid out clothes for her. "Take as long as you need, alright?" Alexis said.

"Thank you." Rosemary muttered, not really up for talking at the moment and went into the bathroom to shower and collect herself, or so she hoped.

Ashton flew by just then and tackled the cat by the table, injuring his chin on the tableleg. "Owww...." He straightened and then glanced up at Alexis, frowning. He'd just seen Rose....dressed in Seth's clothes and looking miserable. "What's going on?" he asked quietly.

***

Seth had flopped onto his back on his bed and furiously texted Jake because he really didn't know what else to do. He didn't dare tell Rafe because Rafe would probably flip his shit and tell their parents. Seth wasn't going to let onto anything until he got answers from Rose. U awake? Need 2 talk 2 u. Imp.

Alexis pursed her lips and shook her head slowly, moving away from the bathroom door and closer to The Monster and Ashton. "Um. You wouldn't believe me if I told you to be honest. But uh a part of it- Rose isn't on the pill." Alexis said quietly. "And if you tell anyone else, I will hunt you down." She pursed her lips, feeling a minor migraine coming on.

Ashton didn't think Rose was the type to be on the Pill. He shrugged with Lucifer squirming in his arms. "Seth's always careful, though."

"Yeah, well, he wasn't this time." Alexis said bluntly, crossing her arms as she faintly listened to the shower running.

Ashton ran a hand through his hair, slowly realizing the gravity of this situation.

Neither Seth nor Rose had protection. At all. So that meant a fifty-fifty chance of him having possibly....

Oh no...

"I see," he said weakly. Seth was probably awake. And panicking. "Shit, I gotta get home and see if he's, uh, okay." Ashton grabbed his shirt off the floor and holding Lucifer under one arm, carefully yanked it on before darting out of the suite and down to his own.

***

Did u wake up next to the tranny? Jake had replied.

Seth sighed when he saw Jake's message. Georgiana would have been a safer bet and he kind of wished what Jake said was reality.

He typed back, No. I'll be ovr in ten.

He leaped up and headed to the bathroom to shower and freshen up.

Just as he got out and was in fresh clothes, Ashton burst into the suite.

Seth met his eyes and there was a slightly awkward silence. Seth could tell he knew.

"Going to Jake?" Ashton asked, dropping Lucifer to the floor. The cat bounced and waddled off angrily.

Seth nodded mutely, not really having anything to say. His heart felt like it was going a mile a minute and he felt jittery all over.

"Give me a second?" Ashton asked. Seth shrugged and Ashton darted into his room, grabbed clothes and darted to the bathroom.

Five minutes later, he reappeared and shoved on his shoes and winter jacket as Seth waited.

They headed out together toward the Hospital.

[[Seth and Ashton to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]]]

Rosemary soon enough emerged from the bathroom, in the long sleeve and jeans Alexis had loaned her. She kept quiet as she went into Alexis' room and grabbed up her winter jacket and boots that she left there from the previous night and pulled them on.

Alexis went into her room after Rosemary and instinctively went to grab up her leather jacket and then paused, realizing Rosemary didn't' have it. She clenched her jaw and told herself to let it go. Rosemary had a lot of worse problems right now and she'd just find it later, maybe it was in Seth's room. "Ready to go?" Alexis asked her, grabbing a different jacket instead and pulled it on, zipping it up.

Rosemary nodded and grabbed Alexis' hand, practically yanking her out and out of the dorms, just wanting to get a cab and go the fuck home.

((Rosemary and Alexis to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]]]

[[Evelyn from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]]]

Evelyn reached her floor and dragged her aching feet down the fifth floor hallway. She entered her suite and dropped her coat on the nearest chair.

Nova tore out of Alexis' room and bounded to Evelyn. She knelt and scooped him up, kissing his head, and fought a sudden urge to cry as she walked with him in her arms to her room.

As always, she was already feeling exhausted. She dumped her ruined formal dress on her bed (anger at Jake tore through her again) and changed out of Rose's clothes into a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Then she plugged her phone into its charger and FINALLY turned it on.

Damn, how many miscalls did Ashlee make? Ashlee and Alexis and various others had called her while she'd been with that asshole. Evelyn sighed and texted Ashlee back.

Sorry, just got ur msg. Phone died last night. :/

Ashlee had returned home after waking up, she saw Evelyn's message and replied.

Good to know.

Evelyn ruffled Nova's head on her lap as she detected the note of anger in Ashlee's text. She knew the girl and Ashlee was pissed.

Understandable.

Which reminded Evelyn she had another mess to fix. James.

She got to her feet and kissed Nova's head, setting him on the ground before grabbing her eycard and keys and heading outside again.

She took the stairs up to James' suite, tying her squished curls into a ponytail as she went, and knocked on his suite door.

***

Luke was in his room, headphones over his ears, and Taylor and Joel were out for lunch. "GET THE DOOR!" Luke hollered to James, whose room was nearer.

James' jaw was aching, and it was still kind of swollen even after putting ice on it.

Last night had to be one of the worst nights he ever had. James had been so fed up with how everything went he sort of just sat around and didn't do much.

When he heard the door knock James got up to get it because he had no idea what Luke was up to, he ran a hand through his messy hair and opened the door and saw Evelyn standing outside.

James narrowed his eyes into dark blue slits and he clenched the doorknob so hard he could have broke it off. He couldn't stand seeing her right now so he slammed the door so hard in her face the walls of their suite shook.

Evelyn, remembering James' temper from his messy fighting days in Ash Creek, simply sighed and leaned back against the wall opposite their door, trying not to shake too visibly.

Luke could hear the door slam evne wiht music roaring in his ears. He paused the song and poked his head out of his room after flinging his headphones down. "James...?"

He could FEEL James' anger from where he stood.

Luke walked past him, throwing him an uncertain glance. "Who was it?"

"Why don't you open the door and find out?" James said in a low voice. He then went to the living room and started to pace nervously. He was so furious with her! But this was his fault for being an idiot.

Luke gnawed the inside of his cheek and walked over to the door, pulling it open. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to see Evelyn standing there with a resigned look on her face.

He was surprised to see the defeated look she shot him. "Can I come in?"

Half of Luke kind of wanted to say no. She'd completely blown everything he and Ashlee had been oping for and on top of leaving James at the formal, had gone running ot see Jake. Not that he had anything against Jake but it was just...aggravating.

Why she would possibly do that, Luke didn't understand. And Evelyn looked like she understood what she'd done. Her shoulders were slumped and her head down, so unlike the Evelyn he knew.

"Yeah," he said, not liking the trampled-puppy look she was wearing.

She filed in past him and Luke closed the door. Evelyn's eyes were on the pacing James and Luke took the cue and headed back to his room, putting his headphones on back over his ears.

Evelyn walked over to James, stopping a fair distance from him. Sure, she'd never been afraid James might hit her - unlike Jake - but she still felt so unnerved already that she decided to keep her distance from him.

She wondered if James knew where she'd been. By the look in Luke's eyes, he had known. And clearly, James' anger spoke for itself.

"I'm sorry," was all Evelyn could say. Shit, I can't do anything right, can I?

James stopped pacing when he heard Evelyn's meek voice, "You're sorry? You're sorry?!" James snapped turning to face her.

"You know if I wanted to have a swollen jaw I would have gone to the damn dentist!" James yelled he was just so fed up with her damned bullshit!

"Honestly Ev if you didn't want to go with me no one fucking forced you too! I don't need your damn pity! I could have sat home on a night of a dance instead of wasted money on a stupid corsage ands flower, like you asked me!! Because for once I thought "After all the crap she has gone through this semester she at least deserves one night where things go her way." But that didn't matter to you because I'm not Jake. " James snapped he didn't care he was furious and had every right to be.

"I mean really? I thought hey maybe for once it would be nice for us to actually do something as friends or whatever! But I know you accepted my invitation out of pity cause of that stupid potion crap! If I wanted to be alone at a dance, I could have sat at home and been alone. You spend your whole night getting trashed with that low life Connor and then you leave, telling us you were going home when in reality you were going to see Jake!" James said icily.

James stopped for a moment and lifted blue eyes at her, "I mean for fucks sake Ev, its like I get it he's in the hospital and you wanted to see him. But you had to string me on? I mean after everyone came down on you and gave such shit about your potion back firing I was the only one who defended you. I sat there the rest of the night, ditched by my date and since Seth is being an asshole I try to be nice to Rose and I get punched in the face. Its just like...ugh." James sighed frustrated and annoyed with everything.

Evelyn ducked her head, unable to say a thing in defense. Except...

"You're right," she murmured, when he paused for breath. "I'm a heartless idiot who follows her whims and those whims and instincts are pretty much always wrong. But I will tell you this - when I said I was going home, I meant it, I swear I did. I couldn't be at the dance and I know you'll think I'm lying but I've been wanting to go for weeks and yet when I got there all I wanted to do was go home."

She knew why, but she wasn't going to tell him.

"But when i was leaving," Evelyn raised her head hesitantly, "I figured, okay, it's barely nien on a holiday night and all my friends are partying the night away and I'm being a loser going home. So I figured if I was going to go all emo, i may as well be useful and go see Jake since I hadn't in a while. That was all there was to it. I didn't ditch you for some grand plan to go see him."

Her voice wobbled. So she was half-lying. She had left the formal because of Jake even if she only planned to go see him a while later.

I'm such an idiot. I can't even say it enough, she thought miserably, feeling her heart begin to ache all over again at the thought of the asshole.

"I just...I wanted to get away," she said honestly, looking at James and blinking hard to keep her wet eyes at bay. "I w-was messing everything u-up and..." She fought to keep her composure but after facing emotional turmoil with Jake, consoling a heartbroken Rose and skidding and sliding all over Manhattan in a fancy silk dress, she felt beaten. Not to mention the mountian of guilt she felt. "I - I - I told y-you last night, I had my reasons for wanting out and they were all true and Jake ha dnothing ot do with why I felt that way."

She paused and took a deep breath to calm her racing heart and fight down the compressed feeling in her chest. God, she hated Jake, so much right now. If she never saw him again, it'd be too soon.

"I'd apologize again but there's nothing I can do to take back what I did yesterday," she finished, looking down at her feet.

James felt his anger subside only for guilt to take over. How did this keep happening? No matter what the situation was, he always felt like a bad guy.

He had the shitty night and yet he felt bad for Evelyn! Because he knew underneath all the anger and frustration that he felt horrible knowing that she thought that every little move she made was wrong, that she couldn't even breathe without someone judging her.

James didn't know why he did what he did next but he crossed the room to her and gave her a hug. It just sort of felt like the right thing to do.

Evelyn froze in disbelief, unable to comprehend why on earth someone she had treated like shit would be....hugging her.

She stood there for a second and then her eyes began to sting as she lifted her arms and wrapped them around James tightly, feeling like she was coming undone. All she wanted right now was a hug, she realized. It didn't matter from who. She hadn't been babbling for no reason about her mom to Jake at the hospital - she really, really missed her mother right now. She missed having someone to watch out for her. She just wanted someone to care enough to look past the messes she was making and give her a hug. And right now, James was that person.

Try as she might, Evelyn couldn't stop the first few sniffles from escaping and soon, before she realized it, she was crying harder than she had in a long while into James' shirt. She cried for herself, for her stupidity in not caring about a poorly mended heart before handing it off to someone who only tried to mold it to fit her to be someone else's shape. She cried for the overwhelming loneliness she had been feeling all semester, the sense of distance from the family she''d had in Seattle, she cried for the parental authority she missed having at Ashlee's house and she'd never told Ashlee the best thing about staying at her place had been, to Evelyn, the fact that Ashlee's mom put them on curfews. Because it was nice having someone who cared enough about you to insist you be home by a certain time. Evelyn had never had that because she'd lost both her parents before she was old enough to have a curfew enforced. And she cried not just for the guilt she always carried but also for Rose, whose life might just have been flipped upside down by one stupid potion that had been Evelyn's idea. And she cried because she wanted, at that second, more than anything, to return what James had told her he felt for her back to him because if anyone deserved her trust and affection, it was him.