& Them | A Stardew Valley FanFiction (Sequel to "Us")

Chapter 12 - Fall 19

"Oh, fuck," Shane cackled, slapping the wooden countertop of the bar. "This is worse than I thought. He should've left your ass dead in the mines."

I rolled my eyes at his amusement—despite my ego begging me not to tell him what had happened, if anyone knew how to navigate a fuck-up, it was Shane. "And I should've left your ass dead in Cindersap," I shot back.

"You bitch," he laughed again, his drink sloshing and spilling over the rim of his glass. "Touché. So...what's your plan?"

"That's the problem!" I shrieked, laying my head atop the damp stickiness. "I don't know."

"It seems pretty clear to me."

"In what regard?"

"Just tell Harvey you were doped up or something, that you've actually loved him all along, and bam! Forgiven, and free healthcare for life."

"I'm serious, Shane!" I groaned, shoving his shoulder away from me. "I just wanted to fuck. Shit, Harvey just wanted to fuck! I mean, seriously, we both made it excruciatingly clear. It's not like this was gonna go anywhere, but somehow I still managed to screw it all up."

"That's the whore lifestyle for you. It gets ya sometimes."

"Are you kidding me?"

"What? I thought that was funny."

"This is why you don't have a girlfriend. At least I've got some action in my life."

"Have Harvey give you an STD test next time you're by, yeah?"

"Fuck you, Shane," I grumbled, downing another shot. "I won't be back by, like, ever. I wish Sam had never shown up, then I wouldn't have been thinking about him."

"Mm," Shane hummed thoughtfully. "Is that so?"

"What do you mean?" I demanded, a dreadful tipsiness settling over me. "Of course it's so."

"I don't know, Sadie," Shane said in that awful, condescending tone. "I had roommates once, and I never slipped up and moaned their name just because they pissed me off."

"That's not the same."

"How?"

His rebuttal stopped me in my tracks. "Because," I said defensively. "It's just not."

"Were you drunk?" He asked.

"No."

"High?"

"No."

"Concussed?"

"That's what I've been telling myself."

"Did Harvey determine you were concussed?"

"...no."

"So you have absolutely no excuse, is what I'm hearing."

"It was an accident!" I shrieked, burying my face in my hands. "I was too busy worrying about Sam's wellbeing to be focused on...that."

"You had someone's face between your legs, and you're telling me you weren't focused on it?"

"I mean—"

"Face it, Sadie. The whole reason you even started hanging out with Harvey in the first place was in an attempt to fix little, broken Sam. Every time you guys have talked, it's been about Sam. Now, you guys bang, and you 'slip up' and moan Sam's name instead...Do you see the trend here? He's, like, a surrogate Sam."

Drunken disgust surged through my body. "What?" I hissed, my eyes darting around the bar to make sure nobody was paying attention. "That is absolutely not true. Sam and I are just friends."

"Didn't you two kiss?"

"I've kissed a lot of people," I whisper-shouted. "And I only kissed Sam during a stupid game of stupid spin the fucking bottle. Or, he kissed me, rather—I don't know! It didn't mean anything."

"You seem eager to prove that to me."

"Because you're accusing me!"

"I was just proposing an alternative possibility," Shane shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. "A simple 'no' would have done the trick."

"You're manipulating me."

"You're manipulating yourself, princess," Shane said, clearly becoming uninterested. "People who don't have anything to prove don't have to try so hard to prove that...Things to think about, I guess."

I took another shot and sat grumpily slumped in my barstool; I imagined I was starting to look like Shane did on weeknights. The fog in my brain was becoming more heavy, my eyesight lagging each time I moved my head. Thoughts of Sam circled my mind; I poured more liquor down my throat to keep them from coming—the fuzzier reality became, the harder it was to think about anything except him. I wondered if Gus was giving me water as I continued sloppily raising my hand for another—it went down easier each time. He can't trick me, I thought to myself, frivolously signaling for more.

————————

I woke up plastered to the bathroom floor, the tile sticky beneath me. I couldn't tell whether it was sweat, alcohol, or vomit that swam in the grout, though the toilet bowl (and part of the seat) seemed to contain all three. I groaned at the sight as nausea overtook me, a burning stream of yellow-tinged liquid spilling from my mouth into the already disgusting concoction.

A pillow and blanket laid a few feet to my right, which were looking as though they'd been untouched for hours. I hoisted myself onto my feet and trudged past them, stopping briefly to add more to the toilet's potion. Fuck, I've never been this hungover before.

I slowly made my way to Haley's room, careful not to disturb my already jumbled organs—I needed to thank her for sleeping in there with me...I imagined it was no easy feat.

Her room was eerily empty, the lingering warmth of her corner lamp emanating into the hallway. I sighed—I knew she was disappointed in me, the thought of which brought the nausea back. I swallowed it down.

I made my way to Sam's room next, hoping he wasn't too over-the-top today. "Sam?" I asked quietly as I knocked on his door, turning the knob before he could reply. "Can I talk to you?"

Staring back at me, unsurprisingly, was Sam, perched at his desk...and Shane, standing next to him. They looked at me, wide-eyed, like a family of deer being blinded by a semi's headlights. An anxious fire ignited inside of me, seeing them there, alone behind closed doors. Sam, who knew all of my secrets, and Shane, who now knew the one thing Sam didn't. It was an evil combination.

I gritted my teeth to prevent myself from regurgitating the night before. "What on earth is going on here?"