Chapter Text
Cady gripped onto the plastic red cup, scanning her surroundings as she stood awkwardly at the corner of the room, right next to the table full of punch bowls filled with beverages that were definitely not punch.
Despite the parties she had attended when she was still working as a Plastic, Cady has yet to be able to properly adjust to the pure chaos that came with high school parties. The energy, filled with loud laughter crashing with the music blasting from speakers mixed with shitty alcohol in a tiny red cup made Cady feel out of place, and she was not really sure what she was supposed to do in environments like this.
Karen had dragged her to the party a while ago, having pleaded with Cady to join her since she wanted a friend with her, and she couldn’t bring herself to say no. Karen had almost immediately wandered off to some unknown location in the house as soon as they stepped into the place and Cady hadn’t seen her since. So much for wanting to have a friend with her.
Halfway through senior year, Cady had watched the year pass by in a blur. Her relationship with Aaron had unexpectedly taken a complete u-turn when he started his first week of university. She had expected their relationship to naturally slow down, but the distance between them was unbearable. Calls with him were getting shorter, and their schedules not lining up were building a gigantic barrier between the two. Cady had thought that the relationship would be strong enough to survive the distance, but it had been clear to her what was going to happen when she finally got the text from Aaron that he was driving down to meet her.
A month into the newly long-distance status of the relationship, they met up and decided to break up. Aaron gave her a long, firm hug, and Cady hugged back.
She only cried when she stepped into her bedroom.
Cady had spent the past few weeks getting used to the fact that she no longer had a boyfriend. They had been together for almost a year, but now that Aaron had graduated, the distance between them was realistically not going to work out. It wasn’t anyone’s fault; it was just the way things had worked out.
The breakup had not been a completely happy one, it was more bittersweet and amicable. Neither one of them could have asked for a kinder end to their relationship than the one they had been through.
Cady sighed long and heavy as she took a sip from her cup, washing away all the squishy feelings in her heart. She might not miss Aaron specifically, but she missed having a partner.
It wasn’t something she considered essential in her life, but it would be nice. Nobody explained to her how strange it would be to have been in a relationship that involved so many gentle kisses and tight hugs, then have it completely disappear from her life.
Nibbling on the rim of the cup, Cady focused on the view in front of her, the group of sweaty teenagers piling into the party, their booming voices overlapping with the music.
Blonde hair poked out from the entrance to what Cady assumed was the kitchen, and Karen’s smiling face appeared in front of her. She looked around the room, clearly searching for someone before her eyes locked with Cady’s, and the other girl beamed.
“Cady!” Karen squealed, giggly in a way only she could make lovable. She made her way to where Cady was standing, wrapping her hands around hers.
“Karen,” Cady’s frown turned the other way around upon hearing her friend, eyes lighting up when she spotted her walking towards her. A surge of warmth went through her at the sight of Karen. She was always able to pick her mood up, and just seeing her made her feel instantly better about being at the party. “Where were you?”
“I saw Gretch at the back.” Karen replied, eyes wide with a pink tint brushed on her cheeks, so faint that Cady almost missed it.
Cady paused, looking past Karen’s shoulder to think. She hadn’t properly talked to Gretchen much in the past months, and at most, they only exchanged a few words. Ever since Gretchen joined a new clique, it had been a little harder to fit their free time together, which made Cady’s heart hurt— she missed her friend.
“Really? How is she?” Cady asked after a moment, eyes back on Karen’s face.
Karen’s face scrunched up in a smile. “Good, I think. She asked me to hang out this weekend, you should totally come with.”
“That sounds nice,” Cady replied almost immediately. It had been way too long since they had gone out together as a group. Ever since the Plastics broke up, they all remained friends, but Cady couldn’t remember a time when all of them hung out outside of school.
Catching up with Gretchen and Karen sounded fun.
But they were missing a person.
Memories fogged her mind, one of fancy cars, gigantic mansions, and pink heels. Soft fingers, tubes of lipsticks, and long blonde hair. Calculative looks, sharp words, and a hand, skin lit aflame as it slid down her cheek.
“You have soft skin. We can work with that.”
A jolt went up Cady’s spine, and she groggily blinked as she realised that Karen was still talking, her muffled words coming back to her ears.
“— A game in the room over there,” Cady heard Karen say. “I don’t wanna play alone.”
“What?” Cady asked to clarify, her cheeks matching the color of Karen’s nails, embarrassed that she somehow managed to zone out mid-conversation.
Karen didn’t seem bothered. “Spin the bottle, it’s gonna be fun.”
Karen didn’t wait for Cady’s reply, hands clasped around her arm as she dragged the ginger over to the next room.
Cady was only half processing what Karen was telling her at the moment, her head still pounding with the sudden onslaught of memories, trying to get her head back into the conversation when she realised she was being pulled away into another room, her drink forgotten on the punch table.
Cady was dragged off by an overzealous Karen, and she was pretty lost as to what was going on now. She was no stranger to party games, and spin the bottle was never necessarily her type of game, but she couldn’t say no now that Karen was dragging her along. Not that she could ever say no to anything Karen asked for.
In the room, a group of teenagers were gathered around in a circle, already spinning an empty bottle of vodka, all of them eagerly (or dreadfully, depending on whose expression was being focused on) waiting for it to choose its targets.
The bottle stopped spinning, pointing between the legs of two students she had never seen before and towards Cady’s shoes, right as she entered the room.
The people in the circle looked up, an overwhelming pair of eyes staring right at Cady. Intimidated by the sudden attention she gained from the group of teens, she looked down to see that the bottle had stopped spinning, and was pointing her way, causing the people in the circle to eye her like she was prey.
“Oh, no. I’m not playing.” Cady took a small step back, ready to escape. She looked at the crowd of people, some of whom had already turned their attention back to the bottle, and a body reached forward to spin the bottle again.
She looked up, catching Cady’s gaze, the blonde hair that had been previously covering her face as she leaned forward sweeping back, strands hanging from her shoulders.
Regina.
“Wait.” Cady’s lips parted, and she wasn’t sure what exactly made her open them again, but she took a step forward. They looked at her, the bored expressions of the juniors in the group burning into Cady’s skin, but she wasn’t looking at them. Cady stared at Regina, whose finger had been lingering above the bottle’s neck for a few seconds now, her pair of blazing blue eyes leaving its own special type of burn in Cady’s chest.
“I changed my mind. I’ll join.”
Cady didn’t know why she changed her mind. Maybe it was the fact that Regina was still staring right into her eyes, with an expensive leather belt wrapped around her waist, or maybe it was because the pair of earrings Cady had bought for Regina’s birthday the previous year were hanging from her ears; the ones that she had said, with a yawn, didn’t fit her too well, but at least Cady tried.
Cady squeezed into the circle with Karen, who was wearing the widest grin she had ever seen on the girl. The carpeted floor scratched against her legs, fuzzy in the worst way possible. Cady could match that feeling to what Regina was making her feel.
Cady found herself in a locked daze as Regina continued to stare right at her, cross-legged, looking at her with eyes that could eat away at her freckled skin. It almost seemed Regina was daring her to look away, but Cady couldn’t do that no matter how hard she tried.
Karen shuffled closer, their shoulders touching as she moved to whisper in Cady’s ear. “By the way, this game works differently than normal spin the bottle. The people that get chosen have to stay in that closet over there for as long as they want to, until they get kicked out by the next chosen pair.”
She pointed towards a small wooden door by a wall in the room, and this was what managed to snap Cady out of her daze, her jaw slack as she looked at Karen, who was giving her a doe-eyed smile.
When Cady looked forward again, Regina had finally taken her eyes off her, and she briefly heard another voice speaking before the blonde gave the bottle another spin.
Once again, it landed right at Cady, and to add salt to the injury, the other end of the bottle’s aim had also managed to land at the girl she was having a staring contest with just moments prior.
Regina stayed silent, and Cady couldn’t bear to look at the expression on Regina’s face.
Blue and green met— Cady couldn’t look away from Regina now, a person she hadn’t spoken to in months, and started to get the feeling that Regina was doing it on purpose to mess with her. It was almost like she knew that the bottle would land on her, but Cady knew that wasn’t the truth. It was just by pure chance.
Cady was somewhat aware that Regina was nothing like her previous self, less brutal and sharp with her remarks. From what Karen had told her, Regina still said a few things that would come from junior year Regina’s handbook, but she was genuinely trying to be a nicer person. Cady had talked to her just a handful of times after she came back to school before they managed to drift away, their relationship status having messily changed from friends, to enemies, back to friends, and now, to awkward acquaintances.
Someone had frozen Cady’s lips together, her mind spinning wildly like thread on a wheel. Regina wasn’t talking as well, but she didn’t seem too interested in leaving either. It was like the ex-queen bee was taunting her, daring Cady to make the first move, like she was testing her to see how she would react in this situation.
The intensity in which Regina was looking at her was starting to make Cady feel uncomfortable in the stomach with an acid that was splashing all over her body, and she wanted to turn away, but she couldn’t.
The thought of spending time trapped in a little room with Regina for an undetermined amount of time was making her nerves snap in half.
“Just go in already!” A nameless voice groaned, impatience heavy in his voice as a hum of agreement came from the people around him.
Cady flinched, and her stomach stung, the anxiety starting to run through her toes while the entire room now stared at her. Cady felt like a bug that had been pinned to a glass dish, inspected under a magnifying glass.
The redhead hesitatingly stood up, hoping that her face wasn’t giving away the explosion of emotions that were running through her. Regina tilted her head slightly to the side, blinking slowly before she parroted Cady’s actions, her lips laced with a ghost of a smile.
Unsure of what to do next and not wanting to make the interaction more awkward than it already was, Cady carefully stepped away from the circle, making sure to not step on the hands that were splayed on the ground.
The room seemed to spin, but the people around her paid her no mind, going right back to their loud, loud conversations.
Walking towards the small door of the closet, Cady was very much aware of Regina following behind her, the scent of her perfume still the same as it was the last Cady saw her.
The scent of Regina’s perfume still clinging to the air was snapping all the strings in the chambers of Cady’s heart, stirring up the not-so-distant memory of Regina in her life.
As they reached the door, Cady took a deep breath and let it out silently, trying to gather herself before she had to go inside. In a way, it was exciting that she could finally hear Regina’s voice again, because no matter how much Cady tried not to think about it, she missed talking to her. She missed a lot of things from junior year, despite how messy it all was. It was hard to explain.
Regina stepped forward, briefly brushing against Cady’s arm while she twisted the doorknob and opened the door. A cold hand on Cady’s back, now lined with goosebumps, pulled her into the closet.
The door shut, and the lights from outside disappeared, leaving the two girls in the dark.
The quiet, enclosed space was a little unnerving. Regina’s hands were still pressed firmly against her, even more so now that they were squeezed into a small space. For a moment, Cady could feel something stirring inside her. Whether it was fear, or something else, she couldn’t say.
She was slightly uneasy in the darkness, unable to hear anything but the steady breathing coming from the both of them. Cady couldn’t see anything around her, her eyes not yet adjusted to the darkness, but she could see the person pressed against her as clear as day. She felt incredibly nervous, a rock jammed in her throat, the most anxious she had felt in days, which was somewhat odd to her, because it was just Regina.
That thought went through her head flimsily.
Cady was completely cut out from the rest of the party, and she shuddered a bit when she came to the fact that she was stuck in the dark, alone with Regina for the first time in months. She could feel her heartbeat going haywire, on edge, unable to shake away that feeling of unease of being trapped in an unfamiliar place with someone whose touch set her skin on fire.
The eerily close environment was suffocating, the enclosed area making everything louder. Cady almost shivered, instantly missing the light of the party outside. The darkness felt oppressive to Cady, and it was eerie how quickly it could all be whisked away from the bustling party, all with the turn of a doorknob.
She could sense Regina’s presence, skin touching skin, the warm feeling able to bring some comfort but not able to soothe the awkward tension between them. They were trapped in the space together, and they could hear the chattering laughter past the door.
“Cady.” Regina whispered, taking the first step forward to break the silent air.
Cady could feel the heat radiating from Regina’s touch in the cold closet, the way each exhale of her breath was warm and how it would hit Cady’s skin. Every bit of Regina’s presence was making her heartbeat race and her flesh itch, tingling in a sort of thrill Cady wasn’t able to pinpoint. It was like Regina was an unstoppable force of nature that was coming back, creeping its way toward her, taking control of her mind and body.
She almost jumped when Regina suddenly spoke up, her voice sounding much softer than she remembered it being. Cady’s legs felt like jelly from the adrenaline and emotions coursing through her body, but she managed to stand tall in response to the other girl’s voice.
“It…” Cady stammered, her back hitting a high stack of cardboard boxes as she took a small step back. “It’s been a while.”
“It has.” Regina agreed, humming. Her hand dropped from Cady’s shoulder, the knuckles of her hand sliding past her arm, her fingers floating above Cady’s fingertips before moving to stay at her side.
Even without Regina’s hand on her, Cady could still feel, hear, and vaguely see her in front of her.
God, who needed a closet this small?
Cady stiffened as Regina’s voice echoed in the closet. The two girls were so close together, their skin almost touching and breath mingling in such a tight space, and it was making it even harder for Cady to focus and keep her nerves under control.
A beat.
Regina pushed forward, her nose just inches away from Cady’s, their breaths practically mingling. “Cady.” She mumbled again, and if Cady squinted hard enough, she could maybe make out a little splash of darkness spreading across the blonde’s face.
Cady could feel her heart stop when Regina got up closer to her, breathing a centimetre away. It felt like everything was falling around her, like the world around them was falling apart, leaving them alone. Everything was closing in on her, and the air was thinning.
Regina’s voice left Cady almost agape, the difference between her current tone and the energy she brought with her when she used to be a Plastic immediately noticeable. It was soft, like the petals of the flowers Cady had bought for Regina to apologise just months before— there wasn’t a hint of the voice that used to hurl biting insults at everyone that didn’t meet her expectations.
The glint in the darkness of Regina’s eyes made Cady feel like she could just drown in them, like stars in the sky, she could melt right into her.
“You’re wearing the earrings I gave you.” Cady breathed, unable to construct anything else out of her voice box. Stumbling through her quiet words, Cady felt her heart freeze the moment it came creeping out of her mouth.
Regina’s eyes widened at the statement, an amused expression sitting on her face. She raised a finger to touch her earrings. “Yeah.” She nodded, her voice sounding like sugar was dripping from her lips.
A pause fell between them, echoed music and chatter filling the lines that were left blank. Cady found it hard to breathe, and she felt like she was right on the edge of losing herself completely. A bubble lost in an ocean.
Cady wanted to make a response, to say something about this, but it was like her vocal cords were rebelling against her. She felt twisted and confused with herself in the silence that followed.
Then, Regina’s arm fell, and she touched the knuckles of Cady’s left hand. Cady’s body practically went into shock when Regina brushed her fingers against hers, and she had to mentally convince herself not to pull back from surprise. It felt like Regina’s touch was paralysing her.
Cady tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but her mouth felt like a desert. The walls of the closet were pressing in on her. The music and sounds from the outside were becoming muted now that she and Regina were practically pressed right up against each other, their bodies brushing lightly against one another. The way Regina had touched her, soft and tender, made Cady’s legs feel like feathers.
“Kiss me.” Regina murmured, twirling Cady’s fingers between her own.
“What?” The sudden request caught Cady off guard, and for a moment she felt like her heart was going to pop like a balloon. She had forgotten how to breathe, her breath quickening and her heart pounding right through her chest.
Breath hitching in her throat as Regina whispered those two simple words, her fingers lingering in Cady’s palms, Cady could feel Regina’s breath against her cheek.
If Regina was testing her resolve, she was doing an incredibly good job of that, but there was something about that smooth voice of hers that made Cady weak in the knees.
“I said,” Regina’s voice whispered back to her, sending a hot chill down her entire body. Cady was surprised she hadn’t completely folded over and collapsed. “Kiss me.”
Cady didn’t need to be told again.
Cady’s body was almost on autopilot as she leaned in, acting on adrenaline, immediately bending her knees slightly to move the distance between them closer. Her hands shook as she leaned into Regina, the heat between them almost too much to handle. Cady’s lips were on the edge of brushing Regina’s own, waiting for her to make the final move of confirmation.
Regina closed her lips on Cady to meet her halfway, the distance between them now non-existent. She felt the sensation of Regina’s fingers curling into her hair, almost pulling her in, and the next thing she knew, they were pressed against each other.
It felt warm, in the small, closed-off space; Cady’s entire body felt like an explosion of excitement and pure delight. Bringing their lips together felt like the sweetest kiss ever. Cady’s eyes flumbled shut as she lost herself in the kiss, Regina’s lips brushing lightly against her own. It felt like she could just keep kissing the blonde over and over again, until the end of time, never wanting to ever stop for fear of breaking the spell between them.
While she wasn’t aware of it, Cady felt like she had been waiting for months, even years, for this moment to happen. The thought of this happening had flown through Cady’s mind once or twice, but she never focused on it because she never thought it would actually be real. As her lips touched Regina’s, it almost felt surreal.
The way Regina let out a quiet sigh when Cady’s lips pressed against her was the cherry on top. Cady let out a breathless gasp as the heat between them grew, both their mouths parting a bit, letting their breaths combine, allowing Regina to take control. They intertwined with one another, every move Regina made to deepen the kiss was met with an equal response from Cady, the latter never wanting to let go.
It was like a movie, the way they were so lost in the kiss that both their hearts didn’t even beat. Cady couldn’t help but let out a noise that was a mix of a groan and a whine, the feeling of Regina’s tongue coming into contact with her producing a content sigh out of the redhead. Regina’s hands slipped up to run through the ginger strands of Cady’s hair, both of them tangled up in each other so tightly it was hard to tell who was leading who here. Cady’s mouth opened even wider as they pressed hot and heavy against each other.
Regina’s free hand moved to Cady’s hips and pressed her harder against her.
Regina broke away suddenly, pulling back slightly while looking Cady in the eyes. Their arms were still wrapped around each other, and Cady was still pressed against the wall in the darkened room.
"Don't make a single sound." Regina said, her voice low and urgent. Cady nodded quickly, her heart hammering in her chest.
The feeling of Regina's warm body against her own was foreign and new and exciting, and Cady wanted to stay here forever and never speak again.
Regina kissed her again, pushing her back against the wall so she could press against her as best she could.
Cady could scream.
She heard the pounding of her heart inside her chest, the sound echoing around the closet, though she wasn’t sure who the heartbeat she was hearing belonged to.
Cady had no interest in speaking at that moment, instead enjoying the feel of Regina’s warmth going through her body. She could feel Regina’s hands gliding up and down along her body, their lips interlocking in the most intoxicating way possible.
Regina’s perfume and shampoo burned Cady’s sense of smell, the scent having already been memorised by her. Their kisses and touches grew more passionate with every moment, and Cady was in pure bliss as Regina continued to tie them together with kisses.
It felt like the moment would last forever, that they could survive on this as they did with oxygen, and Cady couldn’t have been more thrilled. Everything that had been built up at this point, stolen glances of longing, unresolved tension that couldn’t be cut with a knife between the pair, and emotions finally unleashed in this very moment.
Regina was like a rash, spreading across Cady’s body, infecting her with a feeling of need and want. Time stilled as Regina leaned back in, but this time, her mouth connected with Cady’s neck instead, slowly sliding down to kiss her skin.
Cady wished she moved her hands to her mouth in time, because a soft whimper escaped her lips, her face flushing in a hot heated way, her breathing ragged.
Every touch and kiss made Cady shake. She could feel herself becoming more and more helpless with every kiss and every bit of skin Regina came into contact with.
The feel of Regina’s warm mouth on her neck sent Cady’s body into a frenzy, a low moan slipping past her, and she could physically feel her cheeks turning bright red, but she didn’t care at all. The feeling was unbearable, and Cady couldn’t handle how good it felt to have Regina’s mouth on her neck. Her hands were still pinned behind her, but she could feel the radiation of heat coming from both of them, and the warmth of Regina’s body was the only thing that mattered to her at the moment.
Cady was a mess of shivers. Regina’s touches were leaving imprints on her skin, Cady felt like she would burst with a combination of excitement and need. She felt like all she could do was watch Regina’s mouth make its way down to her shoulder blade from her neck, and when Regina sunk her teeth into her skin, Cady crumpled.
Regina sucked the area of skin, pulling back to do the same to her other shoulder blade, and Cady didn’t care that she was wearing an off the shoulder shirt; the thought that people could very much see the marks Regina was leaving unimportant at the moment.
Cady’s head tilted back against the wall as Regina’s teeth connected with skin, a startled whimper slipping past her as teeth sank into her that immediately pulled back and came back in for more.
She thought she might have let out another moan as Regina’s teeth grazed her skin, leaving imprints that would be there for days. The whole experience was so hot, so incredibly exciting that Cady felt like a melting pot waiting to boil over. The thought alone that Regina George had just left two hickeys on her shoulders was already enough to make Cady explode.
Cady felt Regina licking the marks she had made before her mouth connected with hers again, rough in a way Cady had never experienced, making her light-headed. To prevent herself from falling, Cady gripped the wall behind her, her breathing becoming more rapid with each kiss that Regina left, and she raised an arm to hook it around her shoulders.
Waves of sensations erupted through Cady like an earthquake when Regina’s hands went back on her waist, sliding down and down and almost—
Cady would gulp if she wasn’t so preoccupied with kissing Regina.
It was only then that Cady realised Regina’s nails were free of the manicured acrylics she used to do on a weekly basis, and the feeling of her trimmed nails gently scratching at her skin did a whole different gymnastics routine in Cady’s mind.
A knock.
“Are you done?” Someone shouted from beyond the door of the closet, pounding at the wooden door with a fist.
Cady’s eyes shot wide open at the sound of the voice outside the door, and her breathing quickened. The sensation of Regina’s hands at her waist gave way to the consecutive realisation that people were beginning to wonder what was taking them so long in the closet.
When Regina pulled away suddenly, it was almost like waking up from a fuzzy dream. She was back to reality, the world suddenly feeling cold. She was still pressed against the wall, the heat of Regina’s body was fading fast.
They didn’t put a time limit, they couldn’t blame them. Cady thought bitterly, missing Regina’s lips on hers as soon as they had to pull away.
“We should leave.” Regina held Cady’s arm, helping her get back to a normal standing position.
The sight of Regina so dishevelled, with messy hair and smudged lipstick spread across the sides of her mouth made Cady breathless in a different way than she did before.
They both began to move towards the door, trying to act normal as they approached the exit, not bothering to fix their appearances because Regina’s lipstick was already smudged all across Cady's face, and not to forget the visible hickeys that were already starting to bruise on Cady’s shoulder blades.
They tried to act normal as they turned the doorknob, and it was a challenge for them to keep their expressions from betraying the fact that they had just been kissing and doing god knows what in a closet for who knows how long.
Cady was still struggling to keep her face straight when they finally exited the closet. She wanted to look around to see if anyone was staring at them, and was starting to wonder if everyone already knew exactly what they had been up to in there. But, she pushed forward, trying not to care about what others might think of her.
The light was almost blinding, and Cady had to squint her eyes to get through walking past the closet door.
Karen’s face was the first thing Cady saw, her smile soft and her eyes travelling down to look at the state both of the girls were in. Her smile became a little wider, which made Cady blush with embarrassment.
To avoid having to see everyone else’s reactions to the pair, Cady looked down at her shoes, her fingers still intertwined with Regina’s.
Regina leaned down, her breath still warm, her mouth barely touching Cady’s ear. “We can continue this later, okay?”
Cady’s head snapped up, and the blue of her eyes was bleeding with the green of Cady’s. Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly like a dying fish, unable to come up with words that could reply to that.
“Meet me outside,” Regina winked, grinning at her.
Cady nodded mutely, stunned by the idea that Regina was actually asking for another meeting after what they had just done in some random person’s dusty closet.
Regina’s wink left her feeling like a puddle on the floor. As Regina’s fingers slipped away, the blonde turned away to leave for the exit, but not before Cady saw the painting of red on her cheeks.
Regina was nervous and flustered too. Huh.
When Regina left Cady alone in the room, she had to fight the urge to scream, and maybe giggle.
Before she hurried to follow after Regina, she reached up to touch the still-raw bite marks on her shoulders, the sting of it bringing a smile of delight on Cady’s face.
Janis and Damian were going to have a field day when they learned about this.