Worth Playing For

The first time Hailey saw her—really saw her—was at a party. It was also the first time she kissed her.

The Wayne twins had hosted an end-of-summer house party in the absence of their parents and with nothing better to do with her Saturday night, she had attended.

She heard the loud music pumping through the speakers all the way from the driveway. It took all of her will to step inside.

Hailey had never been one for partying and even as she stepped through the doors of the magnificent house that was the Wayne residence, she continued to question why she was there.

Oh wait...she did know why. And the reason took the form of a short redhead slash her best friend pushing through the cluster of gyrating bodies to meet her.

"Hailey!" the girl greeted, waving frantically.

Was she drunk already?

"Are you drunk?"

"I'll never tell," she slurred, "Fancy seeing you here."

Her breath was tainted with the faint smell of alcohol.

"You invited me here, Cait. No idea why I agreed to it," Hailey replied, rolling her eyes from behind a pair of rather large glasses.

"Yeah but I wasn't sure you wouldn't just stay at home and binge-watch Friends...again."

"Wait, that was an option?"

"Not anymore," Caitlin said.

Hailey folded her arms and frowned at her.

"Oh come on. As if you had better things to—" She paused as she took in Hailey's outfit, "What are you wearing?"

Hailey looked down at her T-shirt and jeans combination, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Or was it the grey beanie that held snug to her head?

"You realise this is a party right?"

"You realise I didn't want to come to this thing right?"

"Fair enough. Just..."

Faster than Hailey could react, she snatched the headwear off her head and tucked it away in her purse.

"Hey!" Hailey protested.

"Shush!"

She ran her fingers through Hailey's auburn shoulder-length hair till it cascaded down around her head.

"That's better...I think."

"Can I have my beanie back now?"

"No," Cait answered.

"Rude."

Cait looked like she was about to say more but she froze with her mouth half open which meant one thing: she just spotted a cute guy.

"Cait?" Hailey called. Then when the girl didn't respond, she yelled, "Cait!"

That snapped her attention back to Hailey.

"What? What?"

"I'm still here."

"I see you sweetheart, but Jace just walked in and I mean...he's Jace!"

Her eyes continued to dart from Hailey's face to somewhere far to the side where apparently Jace was.

"Why did I let you talk me into this?"

"Cause you're my best friend."

"I know that. The question is why are you mine?"

"Ouch!" She feigned hurt but ever the rubber ball, she bounced back to half-crazed in a second, "Look, I love you and all but I gotta go. There's tons of girls here who can love you in ways I cannot. My love belongs to cute guys one of which is named Jace. The drinks are in the kitchen, stay away from the punch...it's evil!"

Evil as in that was probably what she had been drinking. That was enough warning.

She kissed Hailey's cheek and more or less ran off in the direction she had been staring.

"Ah jeez."

All of Hailey's being screamed 'turn around and walk away!' but she couldn't. Mostly because she was Caitlin's ride home. It was after all the reason Caitlin had begged her to come.

She sighed and proceeded into the kitchen.

There were people in the kitchen too but they were standing around talking in guy-girl pairs and one particular girl-girl pair by the sink really getting into a heated smooch-fest.

She grabbed a beer from one of the coolers on the counter; she needed the buzz if she was going to last through the night, and made her way out, but not back the way she had come. The sweaty bodies swaying to the groove was nauseating.

That was how she found the staircase up to the floor above.

She moved on to another room and found this one practically empty compared to the room she had come from.

There were students hanging around. Some seated on the couches and others just standing in groups. The light was dim and Hailey assumed nothing good was happening here.

A guy in the corner had a girl lap dancing on him. In another corner, another guy had a girl pinned against the wall with one hand under her dress.

She recognized a group of girls seated in the middle of the room as the soccer girls.

Hailey wondered why they had a thick fog around them until she realized it was cigarette smoke or something close.

On one couch there was a Latina seated between two girls. She had dark makeup on from her eyeshadows to her lipstick and was dressed in a black sleeveless dress with knee high boots.

Both the girls had their attention fully on her.

She took a drag of her cigarette and pulled one of the girls to her and kissed her full on the lips.

The smoke moved from mouth to mouth before slowly escaping into the air as they finally pulled away.

Hailey knew the girl. They had had several classes together last semester and she had passed her in the hallway countless times. Not that the girl noticed her or anything.

To be honest, Hailey had done more than just walk past the girl. Anytime she happened to see her, she couldn't help staring. She couldn't deny it as much as she could never voice it but she had a huge crush on the carefree girl who sat in front of her destroying her lungs and liver and kissing other girls that weren't her.

Had she just thought that?

It took a while for Hailey to catch herself and move her eyes away.

What was she doing here? She couldn't be in the same room with her. Her cheeks were already heating up. She had to leave...after one more glance.

That was when she realized she wasn't the only one staring. The girl in the middle was now watching her with an unreadable expression on her face.

Had she caught her staring before? And what was that look in her eyes?

She shook off the feeling and made to leave but she decided as much as this wasn't her scene, she didn't want to go back to the party.

Then she noticed a door to the left that led to the patio.

Salvation! She almost cried.

The fresh air was exhilarating as was the space.

She looked down from the railing and found a large swimming pool. There were several kids down there too. Only a few of them were doing any actual swimming.

At some point, her attention moved on to the night sky where she got lost in her thoughts.

"If what they say about misery loving company is true then you must love me plenty right about now," someone said.

Hailey nearly jumped out of her skin in fright, but what did jump out was the beer bottle from her hand...right to the floor below.

"Jesus Christ! Don't do that!"

She turned. It was her! Standing close enough to give Hailey an eyeful of cleavage.

"Oh...hi?" she said, then reflecting on what the girl said, she added, "I am not miserable."

Wait...she was here! Talking to her!

She looked over the railing and found where the bottle had shattered spilling the rest of its content.

"Could have fooled me."

"Aren't you supposed to be with your friends back there?"

"Do I detect the green-eyed monster?"

"You're just imagining things. You're probably drunk or something."

She paused as if to ponder.

"Or something."

But for someone under influence, she seemed rather coordinated. Her eyes were focused and Hailey detected only a tiny slur in her speech.

"I've seen you around school but I'm not sure we've talked before. I'm—"

"Everybody knows your name, Ash."

The girl was taken aback for a moment.

"Ah it's like that eh, Hailey?"

If Hailey had not dropped her bottle before, she would definitely have dropped it right then.

Ash knew her name!

"How do you..."

"You're not as unpopular as you think," she said with a tiny smile that went all the way up to her grey eyes.

Suddenly Hailey couldn't breathe.

She had seen Ash smile many times, but this one was directed at her!

"Oh...right."

"So why are you out here?"

It took a second for Hailey to get over the fact that the most beautiful girl she had ever met was standing very close to her and actually focus on the question.

"Oh, I'm not a party person."

Ash nodded in what Hailey assumed was understanding.

"So, the party aside what would you rather be doing?" she asked.

"I'd rather be in pyjamas playing Call of Duty till two in the morning."

Why did she say that?

But apparently it was a good answer because it got her to laugh.

"That's interesting but not quite what I meant. I meant right here. Isn't there something you'd rather be doing than standing out here moping? Moping is for tomorrow morning when everyone's hungover."

"I am not moping!"

Ash raised a brow.

"Okay maybe I was moping a little," Hailey admitted.

A smug grin stretched across Ash's face.

"I'm pretty sure everything I want to do is either illegal, morally wrong or..." Hailey trailed off.

The pause piqued her interest.

"Or what?"

"Or isn't mine to uh...do."

"I feel like I like where this is going. Who is he or she?"

"She. And it doesn't matter. She has a girlfriend," Hailey said.

Why was she still talking?

"Oh please," Ash sighed, "I probably lost my license to give advice two bottles and three joints ago but here's one; if you want something, go and take it. If you don't succeed, then it really is taken."

'Does she know I am talking about her?' Hailey wondered, 'Is she playing along?'

"You were right about losing your license," Hailey said finally, letting out a nervous laugh.

"I'm serious. Life's too short to spend it worrying about consequences. Do whatever you'll regret not doing and vice versa," Ash said with a shrug, "Now go get her."

Hailey didn't know what gave her the courage. Was it the beer? Or was it that Ash had basically given her the go ahead—she hoped—? Or was it the fact that Ash stood in full glory with her sexy eyes and full lips literally waiting? But for a second she actually considered it.

How drunk was she?

Hailey couldn't believe her ears. Here was the most popular girl in school basically giving her permission to kiss her. It felt surreal.

She pushed her glasses up her nose and subconsciously bit her lip.

"But what do I know? I'm way past sober and I probably won't remember giving you any advice in the morning." Ash said with a little laugh.

And just like that, Hailey's heart sunk. But not to look disheartened and risk ruining the mood, she laughed along.

"Right," she said.

Ash's eyes seemed dazed and unfocused as she looked at the horizon for a bit. Hailey had a feeling it had nothing to do with the fact that she was under influence.

"The stars are bright tonight, don't you think?" she asked finally.

She wasn't looking at the sky anymore.

"Yeah..." Hailey whispered.

Ash seemed like she wanted to say something more but she never got the chance as someone appeared in the doorway.

"Ash! There you are."

Ash turned but Hailey noticed her reluctance.

It was one of the soccer girls. Hailey had spotted her by the pool sitting in some guy's lap.

"Hey Emily," Ash said.

"We're heading out. Caleb asked me to come get you."

"Oh...right. I'll be down in a sec," Ash replied.

Hailey caught a hint of something in her eyes. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought it was sadness.

"I guess I'll see you arou—" Hailey began, failing to mask her sadness.

She never got to complete her sentence.

She must have underestimated just how drunk she was because she barely saw Ash move. One second she was a foot away, the next,  the dark haired girl's lips were on hers.

She tasted of cream liquor and chocolate but in a good way.

The kiss was deep. She could feel the passion and the longing with each passing second.

Soon enough, she felt Ash's tongue push past her teeth into her mouth. It felt like she had been electrocuted as their tongues touched. Her knees could barely carry her weight.

It didn't last long but Hailey knew the memory would last a lifetime.

Her eyes were shut when Ash pulled away.

"Fireworks..." Ashley whispered.

"What?" Hailey asked, pulling herself out of her trance.

"Nothing," Then she leaned in and whispered, "You get this one easy but next time you're gonna have to work for it."

She backed away and smiled softly,

"Hasta luego, hermosa," she said.

And just like that, she turned and walked away, leaving an utterly shocked Hailey with a finger on her lips, tracing where Ash's had just been.

It was when Ash left that Hailey realised...there were no stars in sight.

"Isn't she just drunk?" Emily asked as she turned to look at her.

"Oh she's drunk alright. On liquor and something else," Caleb said, pulling out of the driveway.

Meanwhile Ash was smiling to herself.

"I kissed a girl tonight..." She pinched her fingers at the sides of her head and released them explosively as she whispered, "Boom!"

Then she smiled to herself, turned over and fell asleep.

Caleb had a smile on his face like it had been printed there. Emily was confused.

"She realizes she has a girlfriend, right?"