Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[1.29]

𝓢omehow, Jess managed to convince Taryn to attend yet another party held by some random douchebag from their year. She had no idea how he had managed to do so yet she found herself surrounded by party goers and the distinct smell of cheap, stale beer. With the loud music and extremely overcrowded chatter, Taryn spent fifteen minutes inside the walls of the house before she found herself reaching up to turn off her implants entirely. As she moved her hair out of the way to display the white wires stark against the hair she always hid them in, some douchebag in the crowd must have caught sight of them. Whilst she talked to Jess through a mix of charades and yells over the music (as per usual), the dude approached and instantly disconnected the device from her left ear with a drunken flick to the side of her head. He made some 'hilarious' comment to his friend, one which she knew was negative based upon Jess' reaction but she couldn't make it out due to the slurred speech. Her lack of ability to understand what he was saying seemed to only egg the dude on more and Taryn didn't need to fully hear what he was saying, she'd heard it all before.

Jess stepped forward, a certain glare fixed between his eyes and furrowed brow, but Taryn's gentle hand to his chest prevented him from doing anything that could get him into trouble. As the douchebag laughed, Taryn fixed her hand into a fist and punched him square in the face. Blood splattered from the man's nose as he stepped backwards, hand that wasn't holding onto a beer going up to hold onto his nose. A dull ache spread across her knuckles as a surprised and proud looking Jess took her arm and led them both from the party.

They stepped outside of the house and drifted towards a bench on the other side of the street. The bench itself was cold and she laughed softly as the adrenaline left her system. Now whilst she had always wanted to hit the people who made such comments in the past, she had never gone through it beforehand. Tas ran out of the house after them, a damp towel in hand whilst he laughed at the entire situation. She turned her implants on again as Tas approached, wanting to hear the laughter in the hopes it would drown out her thoughts for a moment. As Tas sat on the floor in front of his best friend and began to blot the blood from her knuckles, Jess instantly noticed the swelling of teary film within her eyes.

"Tas?" she spoke softly and he did not find it necessary to look up to decipher the emotion behind the sudden break in the silence.

"Yes, Taryn," he responded, signing with the now bloodied towel in hand.

She cleared her throat and pressed her back up against the cold metal of the bench, her shoulders resting against Jess' outstretched arm. "Do you still have that bottle of vodka you stole from your mom?"

"Hidden in my sock drawer," he answered instantly, this time looking up with such a grin that it didn't take Jess a second to realize that this was going to be a long night. The three walked to Tas' home with a excitement filled buzz passing through the two best friends. Jess, against his better judgment, snuck into the back of Tas' house with Taryn and entered the second sitting room with the biggest tv he'd ever seen. Taryn immediately kicked off her shoes and sank into one of the comfortable couches, letting her body relax for just a second. Tas, bottle in hand, victoriously ran into the room after carefully shutting the thick door behind himself. The room itself, due to the large tv, had been made partially soundproof so it was the perfect place for their evening. As the night progressed and the movie they had chosen became even more relevant, Taryn and Tas passed the bottle back and forth. Jess refused to touch a drop after the first shot - during which, he had witnessed Taryn swallow the alcohol like it was nothing and immediately ask for another. And after all the times she had looked after him after house parties, they were rather common for a small town, he figured she needed this one.

Jess found himself rather glad of his sobriety when Taryn climbed out of the window, after not tying her shoes whatsoever. She, with her laces dragging on the ground to the point where she almost tripped at every step, ran to the nearest park. Stars Hollow had two parks and, thankfully, the closest one happened to be her favorite. Jess, having chased after her, made it to the gate into the park just as she tripped and fell into the chopped bark with loud laughter that would most certainly wake up a nearby house. She, though he tried to convince her, refused to leave the park and she ended up swinging on the swings whilst he sat on the floor near the arms of the swings and smoked. He could not help but chuckle to himself as she laughed and swung back and forth, joyfully enjoying the wind fluttering through her hair.