"Shit." I mutter. Hickeys mean little to nothing to me most times, but these have me a little fucked up. I'm not too happy, but for some reason, I feel a little pleased.

'She marked her territory.' I think to myself.

In the midst of my semi freak out, I hear my name being called. I hear footsteps coming towards me and Alicia pops her head in wearing that same grin.

"It's not even that bad...ish." Her way of trying to make me feel better isn't helping that much.

I look at her through the mirror. "Okay, maybe they are, but they can be covered up. Come on." She grabs my arm and pulls me over to the couch and sits me down. "Where's your makeup bag?"

"In the bathroom." I laugh a little. She groans and grabs it then comes back.

While she ruffles through, she asks. "So you and AJ? Is that a 'thing'?"

"We're not together, no." I just stare blankly ahead as I continue to think about her.

I think something about the way I answered it bugged her, because she asks, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Sighing, I lean back. It's not that I don't trust V. I just never talked to anybody about any of my relationships with my so called "friends". Not that April and I have one. Plus, I'm fairly confident that this would stay between us.

"Soooo... last night we had some drinks and we were making out and stuff and I was trying to not give in but it felt so good that I did and so we ended up on the bed but before things went too far I stopped because I could tell she was drunk and I wouldn't want to take advantage of her no matter how much I wanted to. Then she be came hysterical and angry mm  try men and shit but I knew it was alcohol talking so I didn't take any of it personally and so I just ended up hugging her to sleep but when I woke up she was gone and when I came back from my house show she wasn't here but my phone was and she when I checked my phone this morning I saw she text me that she left so now I'm a little upset that she's obviously and purposely avoiding me and I really wanna talk to her and find out how I feel because how she feels could've been just her hormones mixing with the alcohol—" I stop to catch many breaths and compose myself. "But um... yeah. That's basically all that happened." I awkwardly scratch my head while I see her staring at me out of the corner of my eye.

"Oh!" she suddenly exclaims "So she wanted you, but you said no." I nod. "Sis, you should've talked to her." She scoots closer and starts dabbing at my neck.

"I tried! When I woke up she wasn't there. Wasn't there after I came back, not here this morning. But for some odd reason, she came, put my phone on my bed and left. Like what the fuck?"

"Ah," she nods in understanding as she sits back and holds up my compact. When I look into, it's like I'm looking at my own skin. "Nice work." I throw the mirror back into the bag and sit back and sigh heavily.

"Well do you like her?"

I have no legitimate answer to that. "...I'm trying to figure that out. I haven't talked to her since it all happened."

"Why do you need her around to figure that out?"

I shrug and look at her. "Maybe if I knew why she was acting like this then I'd have an answer."

"Well duh, it's because she likes you." She punches my arm.

"Ow, one. Two, I'm not oblivious. I just... maybe it was the alcohol talking. Or maybe she just wanted some sex and I was the closest person... both things have happened to me before, so they're possibilities." The look she gives makes me explain.

I look at her and we just burst out laughing. Thinking about it, I've had some pretty shitty flings. They were so horrible, they were laughable.

I sigh at the fond memories. "What about you? Tell me about you. Tell me more about this guy and this date." She's being really patient with me, and I appreciate the hell outta her for that. The least I could do is listen to her.

...
April's POV:
Flashback:

"Now, can we please have this overdue conversation?" I ask with a smile. The tension is gone, thankfully, so maybe this could be the step in the right direction for our friendship.

Saraya takes one final breath after almost being tickled to death. "I thought we did. Isn't this how this all started?"

"That was not a conversation. It was us trying to convince each other of something."

She just stared forward for a few moments. I would've started, but I'm kinda tired of starting everything. "Where do we start?"

Yes! Progress is being made. I can't stop smiling on the inside. But then I think about where to start. "Talk to me about what happened when I 'left'." I guess it could be said that I left to the public eye. Yet, even though we both know that's not the truth, I prefer to not bring up why I had to leave.

She rolls her eyes for some reason. 'Was it something—' my thoughts are cut off quickly. "When we were at the hospital, you said you never wanted to speak to me again. That made me feel like you never cared about me nor our friendship if you were willing to throw it all away. And I was hurt, because I thought you were going to be my biggest supporter when I came to Raw. But you showed otherwise, and I couldn't get over that."

I look at her, even though she's not looking directly at me. I feel bad, because I wasn't in my right state of mind when it happened.

"At the time I was very—"

"Egotistical? Powerhungry? Arrogant?" She smirks. I laugh. That was good.

"Egotistical is more like it, yeah. I did let success go to my head, and I became an asshole. And I was mad that it was you to beat me--"

"Why? Like, that whole day, you were ignoring me, my text, my calls. We were supposed to meet up that day for lunch. You just ghosted on me. So I know you were mad at me for something else that Monday, April. I just wanted to know what I did."

I immediately tense up at the mention of that morning. The amount of heartbreak I went through that morning makes me want to cry everytime I think about it. I chomp down on my tongue to fight back the tears while I watch her cross her legs, because I can't look her in the eyes. I really want to bring it up—badly— but I physically can't. I don't need anymore denial or rejection. I know she feels something for me, but you never know.

I smile nervously and awkwardly. "You did absolutely nothing. If anything, I was mad at myself. Something could have gone a certain way that day and I was pissed for making myself believe that it could. I can apologize for that." I'm so proud of myself for keeping my composure. I didn't think I'd have it in me to give such a valid yet vague response.

I see out of the corner of my eye the dissembled remote. That poor remote. It didn't do anything to deserve that. I get up to go get it,"Anything else you wanna know?" I ask her as a courtesy; I hope she doesn't ask anything else. Without thinking, I bend over to pick up the remote.
I grab it start putting the batteries back in and put the back back on. That's when I hear her clear her throat. I look up at her, and she's as red as a tomato. I walk over and sit down. "Do you need some water?" I ask genuinely.

She keeps rejecting my eye contact and I don't know why. I didn't do anything except pick the remote up.

Ohhhhh. I get it now. She thinks I purposely bent over to show my ass to her to be cute. I grin a little to myself in amusement.

"What has been going with you? Like, you haven't acting like yourself." She asks.

Out of pure curiosity, I cock my head. "How have I been acting?" I half laugh out, still laughing from before. She was totally staring.

"You've been very... comfortable around me. But if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were being flirty with me."

My eyebrows scrunch up. "You've pushed me to be this comfortable with you, and that's what I'm doing!" This is very true— I always caught shit for never being truly open, mostly because I would find it kind of cheating when past flames would do it.

"Why now?" She laughs out.

"Because," I start obviously stuttering trying to find an excuse. I can't say it's because I'm single now. She'll ask why that would matter and then we'll dive into something that's not yet ready to be dived in.

"This is something you've wanted from me, and I'm showing I'm serious about this friendship by giving you something you've wanted from me." I ear feels nod with a smile.

She roll her eyes in response. She doesn't buy anything I'm saying.

"But um, you feel like I've been flirty towards you?" I change up the topic.

"I mean, haven't you?"

"Oh, of course." I shrug it off. No reason to hide it.

"Why, though?"

My eyebrow raises. Is she serious? "Because you started it! You called me and you left a very sensual, very sexy message for me. It would be rude of me to not return the favor." Yes, I did just bring up that message that I've been implanting into my brain daily.

Saraya groans dramatically, but it's not with annoyance, but with a smile. "This damn voicemail... was it that bad?" buries her head in my hands.

I get up to go get my phone. "Define 'bad'." She replies.

"Embarrassing. Humiliating. Frustrating."

"Why frustrated?" I walk over to my bed and grab my phone, immediately going to find it.

"Because when I get drunk out of my bloody mind, I'm always doing something crazy. Something I probably I had no business doing."

Ah, I found i— what? 'Had no business doing'? What the hell is she referring to? She can't be talking about... no. No. No. No. No no. No no no NO! If she's talking what I think she's talking about, then that means she did remember everything that went down and that she made me go through such an embarrassing period in my life because she wanted to lie.

I can feel myself overheating and ready to Before I assume anything, I need to give her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't make me make a complete ASS of mys— calm down April.

After a quick and quiet sigh, I regain my former composure and walk back over. "Oh. Like what?" I ask as I sit down in my previous place.

Sara shrugs. "Like this," I look for any telltale signs of deception but I think she's talking about our current situation. "Ooh and remember what I told you about that situation at Mickey's? When I left with no skirt with Meredith?" She shakes her head. "I was convinced it was there, just nobody saw it."

Ugh, the mere mention of Meredith makes me want to roll my eyes and have them stuck in my head. She doesn't like me (and I don't give a flying shit about her), but I deal with her on the strength of Saraya. I swallow my irritation and I chuckle to myself. "I remember when you told me." I lean back and hold my legs close to me. I'm pretty sure we're gonna see her soon; we have to go to the UK soon, I believe, and Meredith comes to every show to see Saraya. I always felt something off about her and it wasn't until I saw her try to throw herself at Saraya that I knew she liked her. At the time I didn't think it mattered to me, but now that's obviously gonna impact our... situation.

"I was never gonna tell you I knew about it. Well, I never listened to it so it wasn't gonna be much work." Sara admits.

I scoots over closer to her, because I'm about to play the voicemail. "That was never going to work. You know I'm persistent," She chuckles. "But I give you an A for effort!" I start laughing at her.

"Would you like to hear it?"

She shakes her head. "I think I'm okay."

"Too late." I would usually respect her answer, or even try to plead to do it, but not this time. 'I'm not gonna let you forget this time.'

Through the whole thing, she is cringing so hard behind her hands and keeps crouching to make herself seem small. It's very amusing. But, after a a minute of dying laughter, I turn it off.

"So you enjoy torturing me like this? Making me feel totally embarrassed?" She asks defensively, finally taking her head out of her hands.

I do enjoy torturing you like this, but not to embarrass you, darling. It's to laugh about a stupid situation."

We look at each other for a minute, me smiling and her trying not to. I like this unawkward silence, but I have to ask; we're doing so great right now, I can't lose the momentum. "So... are we good? Can we finally get this friendship back on track?"

Saraya sighs and just stares. Not at me, but in my direction. I know I'm asking a lot from her, and I would understand her rejection. Still, it would crush me inside.

When she finally does look at me, she squints and blinks repeatedly. I can only imagine what she's thinking. But it has to be good things, because grins at me before engulfing me in a hug.

I just let out a breath of relief and wrap my arms around her securely me, as if I was never planning to let go.