The air was thick with smoke from the Romano’s fog machine (which Elle had lent to Violet for the occasion), intermingled with second-hand smoke from Johnny’s cigarette. Violet had replaced the normal light bulbs with black ones, which cast violet light over the basement, highlighting everything pale. Everyone was hanging out in the open area, dancing and playing stupid drinking games with the rum-spiked coke. Everyone, that was, except for Jez and Victoria. It is a general rule that when you first get together with the person you’ve been madly in love with for the past ten years, you can’t keep your hands off of each other.
There was a tiny alcove off of the room, the entrance to which had been hung with streamers. It was big enough to hold about two armchairs, which it did. Jez was currently sprawled out across one, with Victoria straddling his lap. They were (as Johnny so eloquently put it when he popped his head in for a minute) “sucking face like they were going to die tomorrow.” While Victoria planted small, soft kisses along his jaw line, Jez ran his hands through her long red hair, feeling the silky strands slide through his fingers. He let the tips of his fingers graze her neck, traced her collarbones through the thin material of her black shirt, memorized the outline of her breasts, waist, hips… She kissed his mouth again, biting his bottom lip gently. His hands slipped under the hem of her shirt and she gave a little gasp and broke away. He looked up at her guiltily.
“Sorry, I – “ She shook her head.
“No, It’s fine, I just…you surprised me, that’s all.” Jez grinned.
“So can I…?” he let his brown eyes sweep over her body in a very suggestive manner and she blushed, but nodded.
He started to unbutton her shirt from the top, fumbling slightly, but as soon as the first glimpse of pale, freckled cleavage was revealed, he growled,
“Fuck it,” and ripped it off of her, revealing an unremarkable black lace push-up bra and sending buttons flying. Victoria inhaled sharply, right before Jez’s lips slammed down on hers, more aggressively than before. Somehow their positions in the chair were reversed, so that she was underneath Jez, and she let out a soft moan as his hands found their way to her breasts. It occurred to her that they were moving too fast – that she barely would have even kissed another boy merely three hours after becoming his girlfriend, but Jez was different. His hands felt so good against her skin, and they fit together so perfectly, so she closed her eyes and kissed him back passionately, tasting the chocolate and apple cider on his breath. He kissed the corner of her mouth, then her cheek, the spot just below her ear, and then she gave a gasp of surprise as she felt him bite her neck sharply.
“Mmm…God, Jez…” She knew that he was marking her as his territory, and though she was the sort of girl who ought to have been offended by the very idea of belonging to someone else, she found it incredibly arousing. He continued to bite her, his teeth marking their path down her pale, slender neck as his hands memorized her body. His fingers were just on the front clasp of her bra when -
"What the fuck is that?" Victoria's eyes flew open. Jez was staring at something on her left shoulder. He ran his thumb over it, brushing her hair back with the back of his hand. She looked down, trying to figure out was it could be. Two dots, glowing white under the black lights and spaced about an inch and a half apart adorned her shoulder.
"I- I don't know," she muttered, frowning. Why was he being so weird about this? Jez raised an eyebrow.
"It looks almost like a...bite mark," he said, meeting her eyes with a strange, almost angry sort of look. Victoria shook her head.
"It's not a bite mark. That's ridiculous. Who would've bitten me?" Jez scowled.
"That's what I'm asking you." A look of realization crossed her face. Of course. He thought she'd been bitten by some other guy and now he was pissed.
"Jez, you're being stupid. I swear I don't know what it is, but if I know one thing, it's that this isn't a bite mark."
"Then what is it?"
"Haven't I just told you that I have no idea?" She frowned at the thing on her shoulder. "It wasn't there when I got out of the shower last night, and I haven't been alone with anyone since then except for - "
"Violet," he finished for her, his eyes darkening.
"Jez - you don't honestly think - "
"Well, she's bi, Vic! And you can't suddenly pretend that you two aren't always hugging and sitting on each other and all over each other..." an angry, hurt look crossed his features. "And here I was thinking that you really did like me..."
"You are such an idiot!" Victoria exclaimed, pushing him off of her. She fumbled around underneath the chair, trying to find her shirt.
"Well maybe if you weren't such a slut..." Jez mumbled, sitting back down heavily and crossing his arms over his chest. Victoria burst into tears. Giving up the search for her shirt, she grabbed the throw blanket off of the other armchair and stormed out of the alcove, wrapping it around her shoulders as she went. She was quickly spotted by Violet, who rushed over to her, concern marring her face.
"Vic, what happened? Did he hurt you?" Violet searched her friend for any signs of violation, and deemed that the absence of Victoria's shirt was enough grounds to get out her ever faithful baseball bat and maul Jez with it. Victoria said nothing and stared at Violet’s boots. “Vic? Vic come on, talk to me!” Violet backed the redhead against the wall, her eyes burning with a sudden hatred for Jezebel Wolfgang Kersekoff. Victoria made and attempt to slide away from the smaller girl, but Violet’s arms came up on either side of her, blocking all possible exits. “Did he hurt you?” Violet growled, her face an inch away from Victoria’s. Victoria remained speechless, tears still streaming down her face as she buried it in Violet’s shoulder. The brunette sighed and wrapped her arms around the older girl, gently stroking her curls.
Jez chose this very moment to come bursting out of the alcove. He saw the two girls embracing, and instantly jumped to conclusions. He stormed over to the two, ready to kill Violet, even though he was strongly opposed to hitting girls, but that dyke was all over his girlfriend, therefore she had to die.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he roared, seizing Violet and roughly throwing her to the ground.
“Jez, stop it!” Victoria screamed.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He demanded again, ignoring her.
“I think the real question here is what the fuck did you do to Victoria!” Violet spat as she stood up, crossing her arms and glaring at Jez.
“I have a better idea,” Jez growled, “Why don’t you explain this,” he pointed accusingly at the marks on Victoria’s arm. She slid down against the wall until she was sitting against the baseboard, curled up in the fetal position, and buried her face in her little hands.
Violet stared at the two small, glowing dots, just visible through a space in Vic’s hair. They looked an awful lot like bite marks. Then it hit her: Jez thought she’d bitten Victoria. Violet had to come up with a lie, and come up with one fast. “It’s…sharpie,” she lied, “Glow in the dark sharpie. When Vic fell asleep last night, I thought it would be funny to draw on her…and myself,” she moved her hair to reveal the identical marks on her own neck.
“Oh,” Jez said quietly, his rage quickly draining away. He felt horrible, as it turned out he’d upset Victoria, his Victoria, over nothing.
He dropped to his knees in front of Victoria and took both of her hands in his own. She lowered her gaze, her face half-hidden behind her long curls.
“Victoria, look at me,” he said, softly. She sniffled, but kept staring determinedly at her knees. Violet took this as her cue to bow out, knowing that he’d find her later to apologize.
“Victoria,” he said again, pushing back her hair so that he could see her face. Her cheeks were streaked with black eyeliner, and she was biting her lip. “Please, Vic,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.” She looked up slowly, fixing him with a hurt, sea-green gaze. That look made him feel ten thousand times worse. “I am so, so sorry,” he said, earnestly. “and if you forgive me, I promise it will never happen again.” Tears began to stream down her cheeks again, and she took a deep breath and blinked rapidly several times.
“I know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry too.” Jez breathed a sigh of relief and scooped her up into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. “You know,” she said softly, “it will happen again. We can’t go for an hour without fighting.” Jez laughed quietly.
“I meant I’ll never call you a - well, you know, again,” he mumbled. Victoria smiled. He kissed her then, softly, and they both ignored Johnny and Locke’s complaints of, “Get a room!” from across the basement.