Is She, Isn't She? Ch. 02

She was just totally smashed, that's what Ashley could see. But of course, she didn't say so. "I'm looking for Jeanie," she made sure she pronounced all her words clearly.

"Jeanie?" the smaller girl repeated. "Who're you?" she asked.

"I'm her friend, I'm her lift," Ashley replied. "Are you ... Kendra?" she knew the girl who'd just won was Remonda, and Kendra was the only other name she could remember out of Jeanie's Moronic Flatmates.

"Gertrude," replied the smaller girl. "Kendra's in the bathroom, probably puking her guts up!" she chortled with laughter.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch!" a pretty black girl now entered their line of vision. "I have my period, that's why I was in the bathroom."

Ashley's green eyes fluttered. They were all class, these girls. Maybe they were a different story when they were sober, she was willing to suppose that, but she'd only ever been around them when they'd been intoxicated -- and in such a state, they were odious. Their language alone ... every second word!

"Chick is looking for Jeanie, Jeanie's lift is here, where is she?" Gerty summarised the situation for Kendra.

Kendra was tall, lean, her hair braided into a short, high ponytail. "Uni-friend!" she pointed at Ashley and got out, remembering through her haze of intoxication (with effort).

"Yes," Ashley nodded quickly. "Ashley," she offered her name. "Is she okay? I mean, I rang her. She sounded really drunk. Where is she? Did you guys lose each other?"

"Oh, nah," Kendra said carelessly. "She's fine! Dream-Jean!" she started laughing uncontrollably. "We bought her this ticket to this hot-ass stud show because she's just started working in this dyke bar," she lowered her voice to whisper it to Ashley scandalously. "So we thought, we'd make her feel better by giving her some eye-candy -- some proper eye-candy anyway, because the lord knows she's not getting any at her feral job! Ha ha ha!"

"Hmm," Ashley smiled icily. "Yeah, she told me."

"Because it must be so creepy for her, God knows I could never work in a place like that! Yeah, so we treated our poor girl out to a riot of a night, didn't we girls?" Kendra, obviously the leader of the pack, turned and demanded of the other two.

Remonda was in the process of posing for a photograph being taken by Gerty, where she had her tongue out and was pretending to make out with her winning machine.

"Yeah well, we did!" Kendra answered herself, turning and saying it to Ashley. "We had the front table! And you know what Jeanie's like -- eye-catching little piece of work -- she's hooking up with one of them right now," she said casually.

"Oh is she?" Ashley's voice became even flatter.

"Those guys are so hot!" Gerty intruded now. "They're professional body-builders and oh! Swoon!" she laughed loudly. "'Cause we had the front table, Jeanie caught one of the boys' eyes."

"I bet she did," Ashley nodded politely, teeth pressed together.

"They were eyeing each other off all night, it was pretty hot! He was on the stage, she was in the front row, and while he was dancing and gyrating around he was staring at her pretty much the whole time!"

"How sweet," Ashley responded, sweetly.

"That's our girl!" roared Kendra proudly. "Always the sexy one! There was a screaming auditorium full of five-hundred screaming women and our girl landed him! Dream-Jean she is Queeeen!"

"Isn't she?" simpered Ashley, trying to keep from punching this girl's teeth out in her rage. "You must be so proud." She paused. "Where is she now?" she tried again.

"Through those doors," Kendra finally relinquished Jeanie's position, pointing to a big set of double-doors that led into a room that was thumping with music. "They set up a DJ on the stage after the boys had finished. Our boy got changed out of his fireman's gear," here, she digressed to giggle hysterically with Gerty and Remonda.

"Yes, right, he was pretending to be a fireman, I'm sure that's very attractive, yes," Ashley waved the girls on impatiently.

" -- came and had a drink with us -- then he took Jeanie backstage. Aaaand they're still there now! Probably going at it like rabbits! Ha ha ha! Erotic, right?"

"Very!" Ashley continued to smile at them like a blonde game show host, teeth gnashed together like a piranha. "Thanks, ladies!" although she was sure her sarcastic use of both words must be lost on the Moronic Flatmates. "I might go see if she's ready. I'm sure I'll see you again!"

"Bye Asher!" Remonda waved her goodbye.

Ashley didn't even bother trying to correct her. She pushed through the big doors -- the enormous stage rose before her imperiously, the floor before it writhing with dancers. Ashley sighed, and began pushing her way through the mass of sweaty bodies, up to the stage.

Security was pathetic, but that was lucky for her. The DJ looked as though he was on drugs and as such, posed no obstacle whatsoever. She mounted the stairs leading up to the stage and simply strode right by him unhindered, to the side door, which was open and revealed a concrete staircase winding downwards into the bowls of the building, lit with bright fluorescent lights.

Ashley knew she was entering what was technically the restricted section of the building. But what choice did she have? Jeanie was alone and wasted somewhere, with some random guy. Hooking up with him willingly she may be -- and Ashley would have to deal with that fury and pain later -- but that still wasn't the point.

The brunette was alone and her judgement was impaired, that was the point. It would have been all very easy for Ashley to simply go storming off in a rage, but when Jeanie sobered up, how would she get home? Probably with the Moronic Flatmates, but they were terrible influences on the girl, and that wasn't a very desirable outcome either.

The fact of the matter was, at the end of the day, that, as annoyed as she was at herself for feeling the way that she did, Ashley did feel protective over Jeanie, and needed to make sure she was safe.

So she was thinking as she climbed down the stairs. She reached a blue-carpeted hallway, doors going off left and right -- the dressing rooms. She heard a high giggle, and sighed. God, she must have been a saint in another life, because she was certainly being one in this one.

The correct door, from which the noises were coming, was ajar (of course). Ashley massaged her head as though she had a headache. Did she look, did she not look? She knew what was going on in there, did she really need to see it?

She walked by the offending doorway and leant against the cold brick wall beside it, waiting for them to finish -- she got a glimpse inside the room as she passed it, and that was all she needed a get a full rundown of what was going on.

Dressing tables bordered the room, and mirrors circled every inch of the walls. Jeanie was leaning against one of the dressing tables, facing it and the mirror in front of her, watching herself as an enormous, hulking, beautifully-sculpted pretty-boy did her from behind.

The guy was over six foot, with jet black hair. His arm muscles bulged like balloons -- he was only young, around Jeanie's age; Ashley would have guessed around the twenty-three, twenty-four mark. He was tanned all over, bling-bling smile written across his dial as he screwed Jeanie with a steady beat into the dressing room table.

There was grunting and groaning, and Ashley felt like putting her fist through the brick wall in front of her. God, she was so angry! What the fuck did Jeanie think she was doing?? How fucking dare she?! Perfect, the first day after Ashley had just decided that she and Jeanie must be "seeing each other", and already Jeanie was cheating on her with a guy.

Ashley had time to ask herself what she herself was doing, standing there in the cold concrete corridor. She was a classy, gorgeous, beautiful, brainy blonde, with a stunning body, a good work ethic, a caring disposition -- she was a catch, goddamn it! She had poise and dignity -- so what was she doing there, hiding out in the hallway, waiting for some hopeless, careless, disloyal, unfeeling, immature brat to finish fucking a random stripper (because that's what he was; stuff Jeanie calling him a "performer") in the stripper's dressing room?

Damn Jeanie straight to hell! Ashley cursed. This was humiliating and she really couldn't, at that moment, fathom her reasons for doing it. She would wait five minutes, and that's all she could stand to wait.

The messy sounds of Jeanie (presumably) making out with her stud sounded out into the hallway now. Ashley rolled her eyes. The guy was grunting and carrying on -- so was Jeanie.

Fuck it, that was enough. She reached out her hand and tapped on the door.

"...the hell!" the dimwit Jeanie was with swallowed out. "Someone's there babe!"

"Helloooo?" Jeanie called like an idiot.

"It's your lift, babe," Ashley sighed, anger deserting her, just leaving her feeling cold.

Silence. Then,

"Fuck!" she heard Jeanie swear in an immense flap of a panic. "Get out of me, now!"

"Who is it?" demanded the guy. "Not your mother?"

Okay, could this be going any worse? Ashley wanted to kick, hit, punch, or snap something!

"No it's not my fucking mother!" Jeanie was hissing furiously. "Just get away from me now, okay?"

"I've got your number, I'll text ya!"

"Whatever!" the sound of Jeanie's heels spiking on the carpet sounded out, and then she appeared out the door.

She was wearing short-shorts and patterned, sexy black tights underneath, sheathing her forever-long legs -- both of which (the tights and the short-shorts) had been pulled down midway to her thighs during the act of sex with the stud, obviously. A purple top slipped down her shoulders. She was a mess. Her dark hair was everywhere, her eye makeup was everywhere, mascara smudged, eyeliner streaked, lipstick gone.

It was obvious that even then, she was still very drunk. She leant and drooped about in the doorframe, eyes bleary, reddish and unfocused, long limbs loose and movements languid, lacking precision.

Ashley sighed and looked at her. Jeanie swallowed, hard.

"It wasn't ... I wasn't ... nothing happened ..."

"Jeanie, please!" Ashley merely shook her head at her. "Do you want to go home? I really think you should -- you've had too much to drink tonight. But I won't make you -- if you want to stay here with him then ..."

Jeanie shook her head, cutting Ashley off.

"Alright, so you're going to come with me?" Ashley put to her.

Jeanie nodded. Ashley considered her for a moment, then held out her hand. Jeanie didn't even hesitate. She took it right away, linking her fingers with Ashley's and squeezing (for comfort?).

Ashley turned and pulled the brunette along after her, back up the stairs. Jeanie swung all over the rails as she climbed laboriously up.

"Gosh, we really need to get you home, don't we?" Ashley said to her, watching her assessingly. "You're going to be very sick, I think, tomorrow."

Jeanie paused halfway up the next staircase, and turned, put her head on Ashley's shoulder, and her whole body started to become limp.

"No, Jeanie, no!" Ashley pushed her up, taking both her hands and giving her a little shake. "Now is not the time to pass out. It's not far to my car, come on!"

Jeanie's eyes crawled back open and she allowed herself to be tugged up the last of the stairs by Ashley, and through the grooving crowd, back through the coloured gambling room. Ashley was glad they didn't run into Kendra, Remonda and Gerty on their ways out -- she so wasn't in the mood to deal with the Moronic Flatmates without punching one of their lights out.

Finally, out into the cold, drizzly night air, and over to her car. Ashley had a much nicer car than Jeanie -- a sexy little Mazda Three, silver in colour, with central locking. The blonde beeped it open, then pulled the passenger side door ajar for Jeanie. Jeanie practically fell into the seat, and threw her head back over the headrest, eyes closing, breathing shot -- not with arousal, this time, but with dangerous levels of alcohol.

"Jeanie, can you put your seatbelt on? Jeanie?" Ashley looked at her worriedly. "I don't want to get a fine, and I don't want you to die if I have an accident on the way home ... Jeanie?"

"Yeah? Seatbelt, right!" Jeanie didn't bring her head down, instead fumbling with her hand blindly in the general direction of the seatbelt. Her fingers pulled pathetically at it with no strength. Ashley sighed again and leant in, and strapped the younger girl in as though she were a child.

She closed the door, strode around her car, got into the driver's seat, started up the engine and pulled out of the carpark.

Jeanie made for a silent driving companion, and Ashley didn't really feel like listening to the radio anymore. The blonde concentrated instead on navigating the roads carefully in the slightly wet weather. Concentrating on driving safely was preferable to concentrating on the way Jeanie smelt -- like male aftershave, and mountains of it. Ashley grit her teeth together again. Don't think about it, don't think about it, just think about it tomorrow ...

She pulled up to her driveway, into her building's carpark, and put the car itself into park. Jeanie squinted drunkenly out the window.

"We're not at my place?" she asked.

"No, we're at mine," Ashley answered shortly, removing her keys from the ignition.

"I thought you were dropping me off?" Jeanie said confusedly.

"Nope," Ashley replied without looking at her, opening her door and abruptly getting out of the car. She waited for Jeanie to join her by the boot, gradually getting more and more impatient when the younger girl didn't budge. The blonde rolled her eyes angrily, stalked around the car and yanked the door open. "Are you coming anytime soon?" she put to Jeanie.

"I think I should go home," Jeanie stated definitely, to the front windscreen.

"I think you should just get out of the car and come upstairs," Ashley corrected firmly. "Now please, Jeanie, I'm tired!" she complained.

"I think I should just call a cab and go home!" Jeanie's voice shook slightly.

"Please, for God's sake Jeanie, get out of the car!" Ashley was pleading with the lord for more patience.

Jeanie slurred something else about going home, and Ashley let out a furious, frustrated noise. She turned and stomped away, leaving Jeanie sitting in the car, and crossed the carpark over to the lift. She presumed Jeanie could hear the sound of the blonde's footsteps getting further away.

Sure enough, one long slim leg, followed by another lethargically pulled itself out of the car, followed by Jeanie's dishevelled (but still very beautiful) head, peeking out the car door to see where Ashley had gotten.

Seeing the older woman all the way on the other side of the underground carpark obviously caused Jeanie to panic about abandonment. She hurriedly got out of the vehicle and slammed the door behind her, hurrying after Ashley. Meanwhile Ashley calmly pointed her keys at her car and sealed it with the press of a button.

"It's about time," she turned to tell Jeanie, holding her hand out to the younger woman firmly again.

Jeanie looked miserable as she took it.

"You can't run away from this, hun," Ashley told her resolutely, as they waited for the lift. "God," she muttered to herself next. "Why am I even saying this -- it's not like you'll remember any of this conversation in the morning, will you?"

Jeanie turned away.

"Hmm," Ashley watched her candidly, before pulling the brunette into the lift with her.

Once they were on Ashley's floor, out of the lift and through Ashley's front door, Ashley directed Jeanie to the bathroom.

"Shower-time!" she said to the girl, gently taking hold of the bottom of her shirt and drawing it over her head.

"You wanna have sex with me?" Jeanie sounded very surprised.

"Not at the moment, no," Ashley replied dryly.

"Well I won't have a shower while you're right there!" Jeanie declared, crossing her arms over her bra-covered breasts defensively.

"Honey?" Ashley said long-sufferingly. "I'm not leaving you. You're drunk. If you pass out the wrong way in the shower, and the jet hits your lips and nose, or something -- you'll drown."

"That's not going to happen!" scoffed Jeanie.

"Baby, it's called a precaution, and we're taking one! Strip off! Look, I'll sit right here, and I'm not looking!"

Fifteen long minutes later, Jeanie had showered -- stumbling and slipping around in the shower. Ashley held a towel out for her when she got out. Jeanie took it from her and dried herself down, before getting back into her underwear.

"You want to borrow some pyjamas?" Ashley asked the warm wet girl.

"Hmm," Jeanie looked so exhausted now that it wasn't funny. Her body had been fighting against passing out now for ages.

"Come on," Ashley led her to the bedroom. "Right," she said, turning away from her, to her cream-coloured chest of drawers. "I've got some spare ones right here ..." she turned, to find that Jeanie had collapsed on the older woman's large white bed, and was asleep in just her underwear. On Ashley's side of the bed.

Ashley glared at her, then turned and stormed into the kitchen. She filled a large glass with water, carried it back to Jeanie and set it on the bedside table next to her. She knew full well how much the girl would need it the next morning. She also tossed a spare blanket over the skimpily clad brunette to shield her from the cold -- Jeanie hadn't even bothered to get beneath the bedcovers.

Changing into her own pyjamas, Ashley climbed in beside Jeanie, but sleep was a long time coming tonight. Jeanie's betrayal left a bitter, sore feeling deep in Ashley's chest. She closed her green eyes, and wondered if the next day was she day she would finally have to give up on the gorgeous, but obviously confused dark-haired girl passed out in bed beside her.

***

The next morning, the bed shifting beneath her as somebody dragged themselves around told Ashley that it was morning, and that it was time to wake.

Jeanie was apparently awake beside her, judging by the loud, pained groan that escaped the girl's lips. Ashley, who was lying with her back to Jeanie in bed, smiled into her pillow at Jeanie's obvious hangover. The girl was going to feel like death warmed up for the entire day after her effort the night before -- and it served her right! Hopefully it dissuaded her from drinking such a ridiculous amount ever again -- two bottles of wine in less than three hours, plus fixings! Honestly!

Peeking at her wrist in bed, Ashley observed that it was very early in the morning -- it wasn't even six yet. Beside her, she felt Jeanie slowly, painfully sit up. Then followed the sounds of frenzied gulping -- Jeanie had obviously located the glass of water Ashley had set up for her. The blonde had to violently suppress a laugh at the dark-haired girl's expense.

Next, as quietly and as slowly as she could, Jeanie slipped out of bed and left the room. Ashley assumed she had just gone to get another glass of water -- then the blonde sat up rather quickly, another thought entirely entering her mind. She kicked her covers aside and got out of bed herself.

She passed the bedroom mirror -- she didn't look a million dollars first thing in the morning either. Her blonde hair was in a sagging ponytail, dripping down her back, with soft tendrils all over her face. She was in long pink pyjama pants and a soft white shirt, with a pink love heart in the middle. She distractedly pulled blonde pieces of hair from her face as she slipped outside into the hallway.