Crazy night, Silent Night [Year old]

The view from Scarlett’s mother’s New York apartment was beautiful, almost too much so. It reminded Calico of the same fakeness in the smile of the woman who owned the place. Too bright, too distant, pushed away from everyone else. 

That’s what happens when you buy a penthouse, she supposed. All the lights were on, surely running the bill up with each minute that passed. The black-haired woman leaned against the wall, not caring about how the rain water on her jacket was surely getting all over the white paint.

It made her give a faint, wheezing laugh about how they got here in the first place. Scarlett’s parents forced her to attend a stupidly fancy ball to meet the other Mafia members in the area. So what did Calico do?

Well, obviously she stood outside of the rented ballroom in the pouring rain, letting it run down her cheeks while she hurled stones at the windows. 

The scene ended with Scarlett running out while her father chased her, grabbing onto Calico’s hand and letting her lead her away. Coldness had nipped at their skin, but they were too thrilled and amped to actually give a flying fuck. 

After that, Scarlett said she could get them into her mother’s uptown apartment so they could cause some trouble. Calico damn near wanted to kiss her right there in the rain, like a cliche rom com. Dark thoughts crept into her mind after that.

“You ever wonder if this is it?” She spoke up out of the blue, orange eyes looking over to meet Scarlett’s honey ones. There was no emptiness like one would expect with a question like that, just plain old curiosity.

The girl with brown hair paused what she was doing- Taking off her soaked black cocktail dress- and tilted her head, scanning Calico to see what she was up to. This wasn’t one of her normal pranks, that was obvious. “I wonder about a lot of things, Cali, you have to be more specific.”

There was a long pause while Calico drummed her fingers against her own arm, thoroughly thinking over how to express what she meant.

“We’ll both be dead before we make it out of New York, won’t even be on our terms.” She was a bit angry, yet her voice stayed steady as she laid down the facts, “We’re never going to be able to get away from your hellish family, never going to be able to see the world, never going to be able to make any of our own choices. What’s the point?”

A few minutes of deafening silence went by before Calico ran a hand down her face with a huffing laugh, “Yeah, yeah I guess that’s crazy-”

“It’s not.” The shorter girl was closer to her now, making the taller one nearly jump out of her skin and place a dramatic hand on her own heart, “Jesus fuck, you scared me.” They both quietly laughed, like their amusement was something private and only for them. It took a bit for them to calm down enough to actually talk again, both pairs of eyes staring out at the sea of skyscrapers.

“I believe you were saying something about how it’s not?”

“And I believe you were finally admitting that you’re crazy?”

Orange eyes lit up with mischievousness at that line, “We both know I admitted that a long time ago.” That part was true. Getting institutionalized four times over for LSD everytime will do that to a person. It was why she even got involved with Scarlett’s family in the first place. She had money, they had drugs. A symbiotic relationship.

And if took overpaying for bland drugs to get to see Scarlett some more, well, she was fine with that.

“What did you mean by that, by the way?”

“What did I mean by what? Be specific, Lottie.”

“About wondering if this is it. Why bring it up?”

Calico blanked, tapping fingers stilling. There must’ve been something about the look on her face, because not even seconds later a lightbulb was flickering on in the other girl’s mind.

“You want to kill yourself, is that it? You want your death to be on your terms.”

“Lottie-”

“Don’t tell me I’ve got it wrong, it’s true.”

She was right, and she didn’t know how to respond. Calico ran a hand through her wild hair and sighed, crossing her arms, “There’s nothing for me here except you, Scarlett. I’m tired of living just for you. I’m tired.”

There was another beat of hushedness before Scarlett spoke up again, “We don’t have to, you know. Live for each other, I mean.”

“That’s not how it works Scarlett- You can’t just stop caring about someone, not like how I care about you and how you care about me.”

“No, Calico, we don’t have to live for each other.”

The air around Calico was heavy with confusion, it was written all over her face. Wondering if Scarlett hit her head, wondering how she wasn’t getting it. And that’s when it hit- When it dawned on her. 

She stood up off of the wall, wide eyes looking over her to make sure she was serious. “Holy Hell, you’re not kidding.” Calico said breathlessly, mouth hanging open a touch.

Scarlett leaned into her personal space, stretching to wrap her arms around Calico’s neck while Calico automatically rested her hands on the girl’s hips. Their wet clothes stuck to each other and it was uncomfortably cold, but they couldn’t seem to care less. The taller one let her chin rest on the top of Scarlett’s head, holding her close. 

“It’ll really be one big last ‘Fuck you’ to your mom if we do it here.” She joked softly.

“An even better reason to do it- But how are we supposed to?”

Calico peeled herself away from Scarlett, cringing at the sound of the clothes slapping back at them. She gestured for the girl to follow her to the kitchen, stopping in front of a case of aged wines. “We did say we were going to come here to mess the place up, right? This is a great place to start.”

“I know I can’t handle my alcohol, but I’m pretty sure it won’t kill me.”

“That’s where the actual fun part comes in.”

She grabbed a bottle and then the girl’s wrist and tugged her through the place, all the way to the main bathroom. The cabinets were quickly thrown open and she shoved all of the pill bottles into the marble sink. Scarlett watched her from the corner, amused by her determination. 

Then Calico went and turned on the bathtub faucet, plugging it so that it would fill up and throwing whatever bubble-making soaps she could find into it. Steam started to fog up the small room and Calico grabbed the first bottle of pills she saw in the sink, tossing it to Scarlett and popping open the bottle of wine.

Scarlett couldn’t help herself and she bursted out laughing, holding her stomach as she did. The pills clicked against each other as the bottle moved, just adding to the effect. Calico rolled her eyes fondly, “What, don’t like my romantic moves? And they say chivalry is dead.” 

“Seems like you’ve had this planned for a while.”

“Well, I’ve had many fantasies about you.” Calico took a swig of the wine and gestured to the pills, waiting for the other to open the orange container that matched her eyes. The moist air in her nose made her sniffle for a second, but in no time Scarlett was shaking pills into Calico’s hand and then into her own. The tall girl passed the bottle with a grin, “Cheers!” Then she downed the handful of white capsules, already swiping the next bottle and opening it.
The other girl was still stuck on her handful, her laughter not settling down enough for her to get it through, “Slow down!” 

Time passed too quickly and too slowly, the background fizzling out into static to the point where they could only see each other, the pills, and the overflowing bathtub.

Calico stumbled and pushed Scarlett over to the bathtub, neither of them bothering to strip out of their clothes. They both flopped into it with more laughs, the bubbles exploding onto the tiles in the bathroom. She leaned forward and pressed a messy kiss to Scarlett’s lips, pulling back after a mere few seconds.
“Goodnight, Scarlett.”