This Love

2. Toxic

~BEATRICE~

" Oof. "

The air left her lungs in a rush as the top of Lilith's foot crashed into her stomach. Beatrice doubled over gasping for oxygen, her gloved hands grabbing at her knees. The room spun around her.

Fuck, that hurt...

"You good?"

She lifted her head to see her partner's unsympathetic expression.

"What do you think?" Beatrice huffed, straightening with a groan, "Fuck, Lil. That could have broken my ribs."

Lilith crossed her arms over her chest, "You're the one who said don't hold back and then immediately lost focus..." She gave Beatrice a pointed look, "If you hadn't been busy obsessing about a certain brunette..."

"Okay, okay." She raised her hand to interrupt Lilith's unfortunately very accurate observation, "I get it."

Beatrice had been thinking about Ava ever since she'd woken that morning. When she'd joined Lilith at the gym, her partner had of course noticed Beatrice's inattention instantly. She really didn't know why Ava was haunting her thoughts quite so intensely, there was just something about her Beatrice couldn't shake.

Chewing on her lip, she turned from Lilith and made her way over to the side of the mat where her stuff was.

"Are you going to tell me what happened at some point or...?"

"Nothing happened." Beatrice half snapped, crouching down like a pregnant woman to pick up her bag because fuck did her ribs hurt, "I dropped her off and went home..."

"Hmmm..." Lilith hummed, following Beatrice into the changing room, "And that's why you've been brooding all morning."

"I haven't..." Her eyes caught Lilith's 'don't bullshit me' expression, and she sighed, "Fine. Maybe I have been thinking about her a little bit."

Beatrice dug through her bag for a towel and a change of clothes, hopefully a shower would ease the ache of her bruised ribs. When she looked back up, her partner was watching her with raised eyebrows.

"Oh, don't look at me like that..." Beatrice groaned, it was easy to see what Lilith was thinking, "I'm worried about her okay? You didn't see her outside the club...she was really upset."

Ava's broken expression as she hugged herself flashed through her head. Beatrice's stomach twisted uncomfortably.

Her partner rolled her eyes, "You don't have to save her, Beatrice... She's a big girl and can look after herself. And besides that, she drank a fuck ton. I doubt she even remembers what happened last night."

Beatrice remembered the feeling of Ava's mouth pressed against her own and shivered, "Yeah, you're probably right..."

"I'm always right." Lilith stated, grabbing her own stuff and heading towards the showers, "Now get your ass in the shower. I wanna get some breakfast bagels before work, not to mention an enormous fucking coffee for this hangover."

She couldn't help but smirk at that, "Told you not to drink on a school night."

"Ha. Ha." Her partner said, flicking her with her towel.

~AVA~

Ava just might be dying.

The morning sun spilling through her window was a rude awakening and Ava had no choice but to roll away from the offending light with a groan. Her head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton wool as she tucked it under her pillows, desperate to catch just a little more sleep. But it wasn't to be. Just as she started to nod off, her alarm pierced the stillness of her room. Digging her way out of the pile of pillows, Ava hunted for her phone on the bedside table only to knock her hand into something hard. The crash that followed confirmed Ava's suspicion that the something was glass.