'' off the deep end (Renee)

[Lottie Crittenden]

"Heeeeeyyyy! Reneeeeeee! Open upppp! It's meeeee!" Lottie pounded on the door to their dorm room, her breath and body obviously heavy with alcohol. She held her body much too loosely, and the way that she leaned on the door gave away her lack of good balance. She didn't deny that the world was spinning, but that's what happened after six shots of vodka. All it took was a single look at Charlotte to tell that she definitely wasn't the type of girl who could really take heavy liquor well; she was practically stick thin from her aversion to eating, so the alcohol permeated fast and hard.

"I left my keeeeeyyy inside! Open upppppp!" She gave the door another round of impatient pounding, loud enough to wake up any poor soul who happened to be trying to catch an early night. But she didn't care. Today her pockets were filled with the winnings of over a hundred bucks in dollar bills. It wasn't one of the biggest sums, but small-time gambling generally didn't have big payoffs. Still, a sixty-dollar profit was pretty good. Especially considering she was practically dead broke yesterday after a bad bluff. And of course the cycle would continue; she'd make money, get drunk, bet it, and lose it; then she'd get drunk again, win some more, and everything would start all over again.

But that's how teenagers worked sometimes. They didn't know what was best for them, and they rebelled against authority and anyone who was trying to help them live their lives better. But Lottie was only going to live once, only be young once, and she didn't want to grow old anyway. She'd much rather be killed by some kind of hot assassin before she hit fifty. Maybe even before forty. Who knows? But she didn't want to leave it up to fate, that's for sure. Fate had already given her enough motorcycle injuries for her to hate its guts with a passion that was exceeded by no other. Whatever. She was drunk. Now wasn't the time for philosophical thinking. Now was the time to make sure that Renee dropped whatever she was doing and let her in the room. She didn't even think about getting any louder, because the wrath of the dorm adviser would surely be upon her then. She was really pushing it as is, but didn't want to think about the possibility of getting caught at the moment. She had once or twice before, and gotten a stern punishment for it. Something along the lines of cleaning the entire lab for two months straight. A painstaking and rather horrible task, no doubt. Those labs were... well-used, to say the least. She just wanted to be let in.

She hadn't seen Renee all day, since she'd been at the lake in St. Louis. So the most that Lottie could hope for is that she was finally back... She crossed her fingers and waited, leaning her cheek on teh cold, smooth wood of the door.

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[Renee Laurent]

It was simi-late and Renee was just getting back to her dorm room. She was shivering cold because she had just came back from the lake, their she had met Derick and things seemed to get a bit out of control. Even though her cloths were dry when she put them on, she herself was wet and it was starting to cool down outside. She unlocked her dorm room, slammed the door shut and locked it back up. Renee was in another one of her mood swings, and she didnt know why she was so upset. Renee undressed dried her hair and put on new clothes. She put on some short shorts and a regular American Eagle tee.

Renee's head was pounding. She wanted to be alone. Really what Renee wanted was to talk to her Best Friend, her non-related sister, but Lottie seemed to be MIA at the moment. Renee checked her phone to see if she had left her any messages but she didnt. Lottie was out parting probably. Gosh why did she have to text Derick, sure they had fun and all but it ended a bit not the way she wanted to. She sighed as she waited for Lottie to come home. Goodness knows when that would be. Renee knew that Lottie liked to party, mainly because Renee liked to party as well. Thats really were they first met. Renee grabbed her pink laptop from off her desk and sat down on her comfy bed. Renee reached on her bedside table and grabbed her headphones. She really didnt want to be bothered. She plugged in the earbuds into her computer and cranked some music loud.

Renee did multiple things including checking her MySpace and Facebook but sadly their was no messeges. Renee groaned out loud. Through her music Renee thought that she could've heared a knocking at the door. Just in case it was somebody important, Renee turned down her music to see if there would be another knock. Surely their was. The knock scared the living daylights out of her, luckily the voice behind the knock didnt scare her. She smiled as Lotties voice came through the door. Renee hopped off the bed to go answer the door. She twisted to lock and opened to door gently. She kept hold of Lottie just in case she would loose her balance.

Renee looked at Lottie. She stunk, she had been drinking. Renee was sober surprisingly. usually she was out on the town drinking and giving guys lap dances. "Girl get in here before you get into more trouble." She said hoping the door and leading her best friend inside. "What may I ask have you been doing tonight?"

[Lottie Crittenden]

"Hey, don't get so quick with me. I know what you do some nights," she laughed needlessly as Renee helped her inside, and used her heavily for support. Being dizzy wasn't exactly the bee's knees, but being buzzy was always good. No questions asked. Especially when it got her a whiff of Renee's sweet scent... something strange about alcohol was the way that it affected different parts of the body in all different ways. It heightened some senses, piqued some desires, and yet it deadened others, leaving them instead for dead at the farthest corners of the brain, forgotten in the midst of living and (not) thinking.

Yeah, it felt good to be home, in the arms of her best friend, with a nice hiss from Britney as a long-awaited welcome. She slammed the door shut a little too loudly, but she had probably already awakened half the hall so thwre really wasn't much of a problem. She and Renee would probably find someone else to blame if worst came to worst, since they had a rather good track record of covering things up. I mean, how else did a couple of minors (especially one who was only foureteen) get away with underage drinking and gambling? Mostly skill, of course. Lottie in particular used different fauna to hide her vodka bottles, because who would expect to find alcohol inside a giant venus fly trap?

"Well Naynay, in answer to your earnest question, I was simply out winning a few games of poker and some well-placed bets. You'd be surprised how underestimated I am," she stuck her lip out in a light, mocking pout, "because no one seemed to think that I even stood a chance with the big boys and their five dollar bills." By now her voice had changed to a tone of deep sarcasm, but that tune came and went just as quickly. She disentangled herself from Renee, plopped on top of the bright red covers on her bed, and began to take off the uncomfortably tight pants she was wearing in favor of some boxers in her top drawer.

"But enough about my nightly exploits," she continued as she opened her drawer and began the search through her various collections of colored socks. "What have you been up to all day? I haven't had my dose of Renee for so long."

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[Renee Laurent]

Renee struggled a bit to help Lottie inside. Renee was small and thin and wasnt usued to so much weight. Renee was saying that her best friend was fat, but she couldnt lift a person. Renee jumped a little at the sound of the door being closed loudly. She wouldnt be surprised if sometime in the morning they were getting an earful on what was all the commotion. Renee was sleezy and smart and could normally flirt or bribe her way out, with her dads money, of anything. Renee watched as Lottie plopped down on her red covers. Renee sat back down on her bed, which could probably be mistaken for Barbies dorm. Renee loved pink and purple and that was the theme to her side of the room.

Renee snorted as Lottie talked about her gambling adventure. Renee didnt gamble much but when she did it was usually strip poker or she played for money when it came to blackjack. Renee nodded her head in agreement with Lottie's comments. Renee thought that she was an awesome card player but guys never want to give girls chances in this society. Renee wanted to ask who it was that she had been playing with, but the question never escaped Renee's mind. Renee watched as Lottie searched through her dresser for god knows what. Most of Renee's clothes were in her closet hanging up, she hated clothes in a drawer.

She tilted her head to the side as Lottie asked her about how her day was. It was one thing about Renee that you could always count on: She always had a story. Renee sat up and crossed her legs, sitting close to the edge of her bed and facing Lottie. "Well, the day was seemingly slow. I mean it was warm so I went sorta sight seeing you know. Nothing too major." She took a deep breath as her mind imeadiatly went into a replay of the nights events. She decided that she should tell Lottie everything, starting from the begining. "Okay, well let me start from the begining"

"Well in case you didnt know, I decided to head on over to the St. Louis Lake right? Well their I was extreamly bored, so I text Derick and asked if he could meet me their. He texted back and said that he would." Renee paused. "Well we talked and laughed then walked around the lake. I had this crazy idea" Renee rolled her eyes. Lottie would know what she was talking about. Every idea of Renee's was crazy. "My idea was that we would go skinny dipping and we started kissing and taking off our cloths and then we were in the lake. And one thing led to another." She said trailing off at the end. Renee shrugged as if it wasnt that big of a deal.

[Lottie Crittenden]

[Blockqoute][blockqoute]Lottie was half-listening, half-rifling through her drawers, and only partly interested in both pursuits. It's not as though she were really thinking too clearly right now, though usually she was a pretty lucid drunk, but the moment she heard Derick's name pass through Renee's lips her mind immediately zeroed in on her words. Lottie froze. She grabbed whatever happened to touch her hand first (a mismatched pair of socks) and proceeded to put them on absently once she sat heavily on the floor.

"You did what?" she stammered, as though getting her to repeat the story would make it suddenly untrue, that those words would be unsaid. Of course, nothing like that happened in reality, but she was drunk. Reality wasn't something that she had taken keen attention to. Though her best, Renee was a younger friend. Lottie didn't know her too well when she dated Derick, and she hadn't exacly dwelled on the experience. No, there wasn't really any way she could have known, because Renee had made sure that incident was pushed to the back of her and everyone else's minds. She still hated him for it, that unprecedented denial. And to think that he would even... that Renee would get into something serious with him... it was more than just painful. It was disheartening. It was infuriating! She didn't react immediately more than just an increased jagged awkwardness in her motions, and her face remained more or less blank. The large orchid bloom on her desk opened and closed angrily, and Britney's sensitive animal mind knew something was wrong. She hissed from her cage words that only Lottie could understand. She didn't reply, and the snake curled in on itself and slithered to the corner of her cage, where a bright light shone down a comforting warmth.

"Soooo... what exactly happened? Don't skip out on the details for me now, girl!" Her voice was more or less normal, but she couldn't muster much enthusiasm to go along with her question. [/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]

[Renee Laurent]

Renee sighed. It seemed like Lottie was only half paying attention to her. It seemed at that present moment Lottie cared more about her not-so-matching socks, then what was actuallly comming out of Renee's mouth. Renee struggled a bit to find out why Lottie's voice was different. It took her a few seconds but then it hit her like a ton of bricks. She wanted to smake herself. She knew that Lottie and Derick didnt get along so great. Renee didnt know the full story, and she truthfully really liked Derick as a friend and tonight maybe she liked him even more, although after hearing the tone in Lottie's voice she was about to admit that aloud.

Renee sighed as she began to tell her story. Included just standing out on the dock, then walking along hand in hand trying to find something fun to do together. "When we stopped by the shore, well you know how flirty and seductive I can get, I wanted to have a bit of fun, So I brought up Skinny Dipping. Well at first he wasnt really up for it, but then after I danced around and pleaded he finally agreed." Renee paused and swallowed hard. She didnt want to continue on with her story but Lottie was her best friend and couldnt keep anything from her. "One thing led to another and before we both knew it we were kissing, then french kissing then we were both naked in the lake."

Renee recalled what happened. It all seemed to happen so fast. "When we were in the lake their was some passionate feeling on each other and more kissing. When I asked him if he wanted to go farther he panicked and said 'no, I really like you Renee, but I wanna take things slow." Renee felt so stupid and ashamed of herself. Worse she felt like she had betrayed her best friend. "Oh Lottie! I don't even know what happened!" Renee exclaimed as she began to cry. "I'm so stupid. I should have never even done it to begin with." She sniffed and mumbled a soft 'I'm sorry' but not looking up. She was afraid to see the shock or emotion on Lotties face.

[Lottie Crittenden]

Lottie let out a long breath, her eyes tilted downward as she listened silently to Renee's story. Why the hell did it sound so familiar? Oh, right. Because it was. Great. It's not as though she was jealous; no, she'd been there and back that way before, and after a while it just got... old.

So what was she feeling? She couldn't place it honestly, and didn't feel like pondering the question. But that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, you know, how it would feel if one swallowed a bucket of acid and just felt it start to eat away at the intestinal lining? Yeah. That was it.

"Renee..." She paused for a second as the words left her. Apparently she rethought what she was going to say--perhaps because she was trying to avoid hurting her best friend as much as she could--or perhaps because she was trying to protect her from a truth she never wanted to believe in--or perhaps she just forgot what she was going to say. She didn't know what made her keep from exploding, but the momentary lack for words, that unusually stinging silence rang in her ears.

"Don't cry, Renee. You know I love you no matter what happens," she murmured softly as she rose from the floor and sat down next to Renee. She slipped an arm around her shoulders and stroked her hair softly. "Things like this happen, okay? We all make mistakes. Shhh..."

And in the few quiet moments when all she could hear was Renee softly crying an her own consoling coos, she wondered whether or not she should try to explain herself. Was there even any point in trying to be Renee's protector? It's not as though she could do everything to keep her sheltered from the bad of the world (and Lottie had certainly not been helping with a good example as of late), but was there something to trying to be someone's guardian angel? Sure, maybe she was just groping for a purpose, but she really cared about Renee. Really cared. Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

She sighed, resigned to the fact that she was going to have to start talking sooner or later; and it would be better sooner, because she was afraid that mouth of hers would betray her if she didn't keep a cap on it.

"Listen, Renee. The reason why I was," she paused, searching for the word, "well--surprised--is because Derick and I used to be in a pretty serious relationship, and the same thing kind of happened. He flaked out and dumped me for some other girl, no matter how much tries to deny it. She, by the way, did not accept his sincere promises of love and joy and all the shit that comes along with it. And I thought he really cared about me. Turns out, he's a liar and a cheat and I really really resent him for it. I guess partially I resent myself because I let myself get into it--against my better judgment--and I just don't want you to have to go through the same thing. Especially so young... I mean, you're not stupid... You shouldn't know better yet. It should have been my job to look out against this kind of thing... I'm sorry."

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