SUSAN

Alec shoved the key into the lock to Jade's apartment.

This was the third key he was trying. As a reply to, "Unlock the door." a thoroughly drunk Jade had handed him a bunch of keys before sitting down on the floor.

Even as he struggled with the sheer number of keys, Jade was sitting and giggling away to glory.

"You know Jade, this will be faster if you get up and tell me which key it is!" Said Alec who was exasperated.

Jade laughed at that like it was a joke, "You know Alec your girlfriend has a horrible choice. I mean that green dress, who in their right mind spends money on a dress like that for themselves. It's horrible."

"Uh huh..." Alec replied still trying to unlock the door.

"And Julia was describing the beige suit she wore the day you'll came... Let me just say it sounds horrible!" Jade said and started laughing again.

Being drunk somehow reduced Jade's vocabulary to only a few adjectives.

The last few tequila shots had surely been a mistake, thought Alec as he finally opened the door. He pushed it and walked in.

He turned around to see Jade still sitting on the floor outside the apartment and talking to herself.

"Okay! Jade we have to go inside. We don't want to wake the neighbours..." He walked out and pulled her up onto her feet.

"Oops!"

Jade stumbled. Alec pulled her up just in time to stop her from falling.

"Oh! Alec just a last drink. I'm not even tipsy! Tipsy my foot! You'll learn your lesson when you wake up tomorrow... All the best with the hangover." Alec mumbled as he supported her till the bedroom, imitating her pleas from earlier that evening.

Jade just kept giggling. Drunk Jade reminded Alec of a five year old Jade.

"I'm drunk!" Jade stated as she plopped down on her bed.

Alec looked at her, "Now are you!" He said sarcastically. "You need to change."

Jade completely ignored him and started pulling at the covers.

"No... No... Change first. Okay. Jade change." He again pulled her up and made her stand on her feet, "I'm outside you change. Okay?"

Jade nodded her head, a pout playing on her lips.

Alec walked out.

It had been a mistake to let Jade drink so much.

She would have a horrible hangover the next morning.

But who was he to say anything to her about drinking too much. He had almost the same amount as her to drink. But all the tension of taking Jade back to her apartment and convincing her that calling her editor while she was drunk was not the best idea, had one good effect. It had drained out all the effect of the alcohol and he was no longer drunk.

He sat on the sofa and sighed.

Suddenly a loud noise came from the bedroom.

Alec jumped up and ran to Jade, images of her on the floor with a bleeding head playing on his mind.

Instead of all the horrible things that had gone through his mind, he found Jade sitting on the floor and laughing.

She had changed into a loose T-shirt which fell till get knees.

"What happened?" He said, picking her up from the floor.

When she had caught her breath, she said, "See what fell out of my cupboard."

That's when Alec noticed the dress in Jade's hand. It was the dress Emma had given to her the night of the homecoming party.

"Your girlfriend has a horrible choice!" Jade shrieked with laughter.

Tears of mirth were running down her cheek.

"Yes, that's very funny Jade. You need to go to bed now."

It took some time to control her laughter and coax her into bed, but finally Alec was successful.

He stood up once she was tucked in, "Okay now... I'm leaving! You go to sleep."

He started backing out of the room. He was almost out of the bedroom when Jade called out to him.

"Alec?"

"Yes Jade? What is it?" He came back inside and stood next to her bed.

Her eyes were drooping and Alec knew that it was only a matter of minutes till she would be fast asleep.

"Your girlfriend has a terrible choice." Jade slurred.

Atlast another word to describe Emma's choice!, thought Alec.

He smiled, "You might have mentioned that once or twice."

"Except you. Your not half bad..."

Jade flashed a smile at Alec.

"Thanks, I guess. Now sleep."

"Good night, Al!"

Jade turned around and closed her eyes, snuggling deep into the comfort of the blanket.

Alec walked to the door of the bedroom, switched of the lights and as he left the room he whispered, "Good night, Jady!"

.............................

She woke up at 8 when her alarm started ringing.

Switching off the alarm, she got up, immediately groaning and clutching her head.

She felt like there were little and evil '' in her head, hammering away to glory.

Jade somehow opened her eyes and got out of bed. All the events from last night filtered into her head.

She remembered the vodka which had been generously served by Bob and then the tequila shots she had ordered after that.

No wonder her head was on the verge of bursting.

But the events after that were pretty blurred. She remembered Alec refusing to let her have another drink and dragging her out of Splendour. She remembered being sick in some bushes. That was it!

How did she come home? How did she land up in her bed? Everything was a mystery.

She decided to think about all that a little later. Thinking made the headache worse.

She stumbled out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, thoughts of coffee flitting around her head.

Was she hallucinating or was that actually the smell of coffee?

She walked into the kitchen to find her coffee maker filled with strong black coffee. Someone had set a timer on the machine, since the coffee was still quite warm.

She almost moaned in delight while pouring herself a mug, the smell of the heavenly liquid wafting up.

She took a sip of the coffee, black, without any sugar and this time she really moaned.

After having a couple more sips she kept the mug and sat down on the kitchen chair.

There leaning on the fruit basket was a note.

She picked it up and recognised Alec's handwriting.

The note read,

.

.

!

That was so sweet of him. Jade smiled at the note and took another sip of coffee.

She made a mental note of thanking him in some special way.

She must have been a real pain in the ass last night. Like she always was when she got drunk.

Nicole was quite used to her drunk behaviour, whereas Alec must have gone crazy trying to handle her.

She would make it a point to make it up to him.

After finishing her coffee, she decided that the remnants of the hangover could be chased away with a couple of aspirins and a hot shower.

She swallowed the aspirin and went into her bedroom.

There on the floor near her bed lay the green dress that had been 'given' to her by Emma.

She picked it up.

What was it doing out here? She clearly remembered shoving it to the back of her cupboard.

That's when she noticed that the door of her cupboard was also wide open.

She went and put the dress back in.

After closing the door she saw herself in the full length mirror on her dresser.

She winced when she saw the state of her hair and her blood shot eyes.

The t- shirt she was wearing was all crinkled.

Wait! T- shirt?

She was surely not wearing a T- shirt last night, when they had gone to Splendour.

She remembered the blue top she had been wearing.

A look around the room, showed that the top and her jeans were lying on the other side of her bed, all crumpled.

Jade didn't remember changing out of her clothes.

So did that mean Alec......?

But then who else could have changed her clothes?

All the warm thoughts that had come into her head about Alec after reading the note quickly vanished.

He was going to pay for this!

Instead of going for the shower, as she had planned earlier, she changed into jeans and a hoodie, brushed her teeth in a hurry and left the house.

Alexander Carter had some very important questions to answer.

.........................

Susan looked at the photo of Jade and Alec she was holding in her hands.

It really felt like Alec was back to Millbrooke to stay. And she couldn't pull the smile off her face.

She, Julia and Alec had eaten breakfast together earlier, chatting and laughing just like old times.

Even now as she cleaned her house she knew that Julia was up in her bedroom going over some mails while Alec was taking a shower in his room.

And that thought comforted her so much.

She really tried not to show it, but without her kids in the house she sometimes felt very lonely.

And this was the reason sometimes she was jealous of Amanda, though she was her best friend.

While her kids all had moved out of town and rarely met her, Jade still lived in Millbrooke and made it a point to meet her mother as often as possible.

But then Jade was as much a daughter to her as to Amanda.

She had never differentiated between her kids and Jade.

Never had it once crossed her mind that Jade was not her daughter, while lovingly feeding her as a child or taking her for shopping.

She still remembered, when Alec and Jade had been in high school, Jade used to come barging into the house. Most days without knocking or any other warning.

She would come into the living area, first hug Susan tightly and then stomp into Alec's room, either thoroughly pissed off at him or excited about something. Either way yelling on top her lungs.

Susan smiled at the memory and kept the photo she had been holding on the mantle.

The picture was of one such day, when Jade had come into the house yelling and screaming with joy.

She had come first in the essay competition in her school and had to tell all of them about it.

The photo had been taken by Susan, sneakily while, Jade had been giving the good news to Alec.

The absolute joy on Jade's face and the look of pride on Alec's made Susan feel like it was just yesterday when they had been teenagers, and not almost a decade ago.

Just as she was picking up the next photo to wipe it, she heard a loud noise come from outside.

It sounded like someone banging a car door.

Before she could look out of the window to see who it was, she heard the front door bang open and Jade walked in.

"Mrs Carter!" Jade came into the living room and hugged Susan.

"Jade... What are you doing here?"

"I need to meet Alec now!" Jade looked like she was going to kill Alec.

Susan looked at her with concern, "Is anything wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong... Where's he?"

Jade's expression softened a little as she spoke to Mrs Carter, there was no way she was scaring her because of something that Alec did.

"In his bedroom. I think he's taking a shower."

"Thanks Mrs Carter!" Jade flashed a smile and ran towards Alec's bedroom, leaving Susan stunned in the living room.

Once she got over the shock of seeing Jade, Susan laughed and sat down on the sofa.

A decade might have passed since the time Alec and Jade were in high school, but they still behaved just like teenagers. Or sometimes worse.

.........................

Happy Reading!! XX