partizzle my nizzle ;; poppy, axel

Scout stopped for a moment, but then continued to follow, determined to catch up to Poppy. It was hard, Poppy was moving fast, and Scout was wearing heels, and with every step the sharp points of her shoes sunk into the damp, dewy dirt.

"Poppy!" She called, still just a few steps behind her. "I'm sorry! Please slow down...it didn't mean anything!"

She didn't care if Axel was able to hear her either. Right now all she cared about was her friend, and her friend was hurting.

"Poppy wait, I'm..." she stopped suddenly. "I'm about to throw up!"

Sure enough, as soon as Scout stopped, she bent over, her hands on her knees, and vomit poured from her mouth. It felt like it was never ending, and it tasted like alcohol, which only made it worse. She felt so humiliated, throwing up everything like this in front of everybody. Her eyes started to water, and she slowly lowered herself to her knees, dangerously close to the insides of her stomach.

"Poppy," she whimpered.

Suddenly a lot of things seemed to be happening in a really short amount of time.

First, Poppy snapped at them about making out, which...should they not have done that? Was she mad because they left her alone at the party? That had been an accident, Axel couldn't even remember how the three of them got separated.

Then Scout started chasing Poppy down, which looked really awkward because her shoes kept getting stuck in the muddy ground. Then she called out to Poppy that "it didn't mean anything." Axel was so confused. What was even going on?

Aaaaaaand then Scout threw up. "Oh. Ohhhh shit." He jogged over and knelt down beside her. While he still wasn't sure what was happening right now, he wasn't gonna just leave her on the ground in her own puke. "Are you okay?" Should he try to help her up? Take her back to the house? Try to get her back to the dorms? He looked up at Poppy with a 'help me, please' expression on his face.

Poppy, who had chosen to leave instead of to confront, was irritated the issue was following her. She almost continued to ignore Scout, preferring to deal with the situation in the morning when everything didn't seem to be moving so fast, but then she heard the tell-tale signs of Scout gagging.

Poppy stopped walking and turned around. She was quite a distance away from her friends, partially because she had had a head start and partially because she'd worn a pair of cute sandals instead of heels, but she could see Axel leaned over Scout...who was on her knees because she was puking.

Poppy started laughing again. She walked back to where Scout was whimpering her name. How was that for dramatic? All Poppy had wanted to do was go home and sleep it off, and Scout was acting like she might lose Poppy forever or something. ...which definitely meant Scout knew she did something wrong...which made Poppy more irritated.

But still, here sat her roommate and best friend of five years, kneeled in front of a pool of her own vomit. Poppy laughed again, not in a mean way but in an "omg I can't believe this is happening to us" kind of way. "Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down (avoiding the puke) and raising an eyebrow. Scout had tears in her eyes. "Girl, you're a mess right now," Poppy said through another laugh.

She helped Scout into a sitting position and took off her shoes. "And you're definitely going to break your ankles if you try to walk home in these."

She stood up and looked to Axel. She was still pissed at Axel (and for no real reason--how was he supposed to know she didn't want him kissing Scout) but she also felt bad that both of the times he'd hung out with her had gotten...messy. Sigh. Poppy pulled up her hair and knotted it into a bun. "I'm sorry, but do you think you could help me get her up?" she asked apologetically.

"I want to go to bed," was all Scout could say, as she stayed in the sitting position. She wasn't sure how, but somehow she was pulled up and onto her bare feet. "Who has my shoes?" She asked no one in particular. She felt her friends let go of her for a hot second, and she started to lean forward, but stopped when somebody grabbed her again. "I'm so tired," she mumbled.

Axel still had no idea what had happened in front of him just now, but he was grateful that Poppy was willing to help him with Scout, who was just...so fucked up at this point. He offered Poppy a confused yet grateful smile as she helped him help Scout to her feet. He stupidly let her go once she was up, and then had to grab her again when she started to sway.

"We're gonna go home," he told Scout, pretty sure she wasn't going to comprehend anything he was saying.

Somehow, Axel and Poppy managed to get Scout back to their dorm and into bed. Axel was too drunk and tired to walk back to his aunt's house, so he planned to sleep here on the floor. "Can I have a pillow?" he asked Poppy. She had been really quiet this entire time. Was she still mad? Why was she mad? "And also, uh...back there...did I miss something? What was all that about?"

Poppy walked over to her closet and grabbed out an extra blanket, and then took a pillow off her bed. She handed them to Axel and laughed. "Oh, no," she told him. She forced a smile. "Stupid stuff," she waved a hand, brushing the question off. Obviously she would not be telling Axel about the stupid crush she'd been sure she didn't have.

"Sorry it got so, uh, crazy," she said, climbing into her bed and resting against the wall so she was sitting up. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "This is twice now that you didn't get to go to the bars."

She blinked a few times and the world seemed to spin, slowly. "Well, if we haven't scared you off, maybe we will make it out next time. No promises, though."

Popper wrote:"Sorry it got so, uh, crazy. This is twice now that you didn't get to go to the bars. Well, if we haven't scared you off, maybe we will make it out next time. No promises, though."

"Well last time was my fault, so we're even now," Axel said with a small laugh. "Third time'll be the charm." He undressed until he was just wearing a T-shirt and boxers, and took the pillow and blanket from Poppy to set up a little sleep area on the floor. As soon as he laid his head down on the pillow the room started to spin and he groaned. "Ugh, I have the spins."

He sat back up groggily. His drunk mind randomly wandered back to his question that Poppy had brushed off. "...You sure I didn't do something to make you upset tonight?" He just wanted to make sure everything was cool before they went to sleep.

Poppy tried not to watch Axel undress, but couldn't help stealing a few glances at him, anyway. UGH WHY. It was so entirely inconvenient for her to have started to like Axel. Especially now that she knew Axel was actually into Scout.

She was happy that he intended on seeing them again, though. She liked hanging out with him, even if he didn't like her back.

Poppy leaned over and grabbed a large pajama shirt from her beside table. It was old and tie dye--she'd made it last year with Frances. Poppy pulled her shirt off and pulled the pajama top on, not caring that Axel was there. She slipped under the comforter and wiggled out of her jeans. The pajama shirt was big enough to serve as a nightgown.

Axel wrote:...You sure I didn't do something to make you upset tonight?

"Nope," she answered much too quickly. "Definitely not." She flopped her head back onto her pillow. "I don't even remember half of tonight," she said. That part was honest, at least. She laughed.

"Oh, wow, I think it's bedtime," she said. Her head was spinning, anyway, and she definitely did not want to say anything more on the subject until her mind was free from the drunken slowness.

"Hmm, okay good," Axel said, accepting Poppy's answer like the clueless boy he was, eyes closed. He slowly laid back down, and the spinning immediately started again. Fuck. He was too tired to try and sit up again, so he'd just have to deal with it. "'Night, Popalop."