#thread: jessie1

[marleybosswitch]

“Just new?” Marley settled for. She thought that Maddie was nice, but had never entertained the idea of her beyond that. They weren’t exactly friends, more like acquaintances, and even now Marley was telling herself that the tiny brunette probably wouldn’t have the same alleged crush on her if she actually knew Marley. She wasn’t trying to be self-deprecating - hell knows, Diego never let her talk down about herself when he was around - but she thought that if Maddie did like girls, then surely she’d prefer someone a little more delicate and bookish. Someone like Katie would be more her type, now that she thought about it. Which didn’t make an awful lot of sense seeing as Katie was also Marley’s type as well. Hey, maybe Katie Murdock was just everyone’s type. The O-neg of lesbian crushes.

At Jess’ question, she tipped her head to the side. She’d been too busy trying to convince herself she definitely wasn’t Maddie’s type that she hadn’t even thought about the other way round.

“I’m not sure if I have a type. I mean… all girls are kind of my type,” she said, before she felt her cheeks turn red. It was supposed to be a joke. Jokes were her thing. But it had fallen flat and left her looking like she was desperate enough to go with any girl who would have her. And was that so far removed from the truth? She helplessly pined after Poppy, made a goddamn Goodreads account just to add Katie on it and now she was even entertaining the thought of getting to know Maddie just because it was some positive attention for her. She needed to get a grip.

Eyebrows flying upwards in surprise at Jessie’s statement, she wasn’t sure if she was more surprised by the content of the declaration, or just the fact that this was information that Jessie had on hand.

“Wait, really? How do you even know that stuff?” Maybe Marley was just severely lacking in female friends, but she didn’t think she’d ever gleaned a tidbit like that about someone else’s sex life that she only sort of knew. Hell, even with Diego, she found herself yelling a loud la la la and childishly clamping her hands over her ears whenever she was in danger of hearing him be particularly vocal about his sexcapades. 

She held onto Jessie tightly as they hugged, hoping that she could provide the other girl with some comfort, when the source of her annoyance loudly called her name. Glancing up to see Jared waving a bottle at them as he tried to get his girlfriend’s attention, Marley’s gaze slipped back to Jess. The girl looked none too happy about it and Marley wrinkled her nose in sympathy.

“Boys,” she muttered with a shrug.

And then Maddie showed up. Standing a little straighter, the wink that the other girl gave her was hard to miss and Marley felt every single one of her limbs lock into place as she stood still, frozen where she was and completely unable to react like a normal human being. By the time she recovered, she let out a quiet, “hi” but Maddie had already moved on to talk to Jess.

The corner of her mouth tugged downwards when she realised that Jess was probably now due to escort a wasted Jared back home. Sparing a selfish moment to be sad about the other girl’s impending departure, it took Marley a minute to realise there was a commotion coming from the living room.

“Jared, you fucking douchebag!”

“He threw up on the couch!”

Dread settled in Marley’s stomach as she grimaced and poked her head around the living room door where, sure enough, Jared was sitting on the sofa, completely out of it and wearing more of his own puke than anything else. Half the people in the room were doing everything they could to get away from him while the other half were howling with laughter and trying to take a photo of him. Probably to embarrass him in the morning.

Marley couldn’t say she was in either camp. If anything, she was just struck with the dumb urge to cry.

She knew that Jared wasn’t in any immediate danger - unless Jess wanted to smack him, of course, which she was well within her right to do - but the sight of him sitting pathetically in a stained shirt with half-lidded eyes reminded her too much of the sorry states she’d find her dad in sometimes, that she was more sorry for him than anything.

Hand gripping the doorframe, she turned back to Jess and reached out to gently squeeze the other girl’s shoulder.

“Hey, I’ll help you get him back, alright?” she offered, knowing from experience that an already tall man would weigh a lot more if he wasn’t interested in using his own feet to start walking. It wasn’t a one-person job, even though she knew Jess was way stronger than her from all the gym selfies on her Instagram.

Pulling off her own baggy hoodie and leaving herself in her thin t-shirt, she crossed the living room until she was kneeling down in front of Jared.

“Jared? Hey, buddy,” she said gently, feeling a breath of relief leave her when he lifted his head a little in recognition. “You wanna take your shirt off for me?”

A smile tugged at his lips and she tried to return it with one of her own. Up until the asshole had to ruin it.

“I knew you wanted me out of my clothes, Marls,” he slurred.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” she muttered, pushing a hand against her face in despair before lifting her head to send Jess a pleading look.

“Help me out? I’m not carrying him along the street when he stinks of puke.”

Jessica couldn’t help but laugh a little at the other girl’s disgust. It came from a place of well intended concern, Marley no doubt concerned her friend was trying to talk Jess into doing something she didn’t want to. Truthfully, and Jessie knew it was awful of her to even think it, the idea of a threesome wasn’t what made her so uncomfortable; it was the idea of Jared also being there. In all their years together, he’d never made her come even once. Their sex life was boring, never changing, always ending with Jared falling asleep while Jess disappeared into the living room with porn and a hand between her legs to finish the job. She often found that the girl-on-girl stuff did the job just right, and when Jared had made his suggestion her mind had, shamefully, wandered to Marley. Not that she’d ever let Jared anywhere near Marley – and no doubt, if Marley ever heard him even hint at getting her into bed he’d soon find himself with a knee between his legs – but in Jessie’s fantasies, he was never there; just Marley, Jess, and another nameless, faceless girl. 

“Gross, right?” she agreed absently, pulling herself back to the conversation, all too aware she’d allowed her mind to wander. 

She watched curiously as Marley’s features appeared to flit through every human emotion on the spectrum, her eyes widening as she felt the weight of Maddie’s sultry smile. 

“Good new or bad new?” she mused, catching the other girl’s gaze. 

In Jessica’s honest opinion, Marley was a knockout. She was without a doubt the most beautiful person in the house, and Jess found herself hard pushed to ever spot a girl in any room who was hotter than Marls. In fact, gender aside, she thought Marley was the hottest person in any room, full stop. Maddie was pretty, absolutely, but she couldn’t help but feel irked by Marley's response – she would bet any money that Maddie had never even gone down on another woman. 

"Would you say she’s your type?” Jessie asked, aiming to keep her tone light and conversational.  

She wasn’t sure it really mattered, or why she even cared, but she felt a pang in her chest as she watched Marley continue to blush under the other girl’s stare. Jess couldn’t help but notice that Marley never blushed under her stare. 

“I mean, I’ve heard she doesn’t even go down on girls, y’know?” she blurted out, the lie falling from her lips unguarded and without her consent. 

Clearing her throat, she breathed a sigh of relief as the other girl wrapped her up in a hug, the distraction from her word-vomit more than welcome. The press of Marley’s body against her own made her stomach fizz, her heart pounding at an alarming rate. 

“Thanks, baby,” Jessica whispered, nuzzling her face against Marley’s neck and breathing her in. The girl’s blonde hair tickled her cheeks, the scent of her shampoo filling the air, dizzying and alluring. 

Her mind wandered once more, the urge to press a kiss to Marley’s neck overwhelming. Jess couldn’t help but note there had been a lot of moments like that recently, specifically whenever she found herself around Marley; everything about her was just so enticing. She often found herself absently thinking of the girl, wanting to breathe in the scent of her, the visual of her hands on Marley’s naked skin imprinted into her mind; she wanted to taste her so badly it made her feel insane. 

“Jeeesssss!” A voice cried out, causing Jessica to whip her head up in surprise, distracting her from her daydream. She blinked, dropping her hold on Marley and glanced back over her shoulder, groaning as she noticed countless eyes on the two of them, Jared waving an empty bottle in her general direction. 

Nose crinkling in irritation, Jess rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Marley, offering the girl a loaded grimace, an expression on her face that she hoped read Can you believe this guy? 

Before the two girls could get back into the flow of the conversation, Jess felt a hand against her elbow, a gentle squeeze followed by a familiar voice. She looked up in askance, her gaze landing on Maddie. 

“Hey, Marls,” the other girl greeted the blonde, shooting her a not-so-subtle wink that gave Jess visions of ripping her head clean off her shoulders.  

The girl turned her attention back to Jessie, however, and winced. 

“Jared keeps asking for you. He said you’re not giving him enough attention,” she informed her, at least having the decency to look embarrassed at having to play messenger. “He’s kind of wasted, actually.” 

Jess sighed, knowing fine well that this meant her night was coming to a swift end. Fucking Jared. 

[marleybosswitch]

It was still a mystery how Jared had managed to land Jessie. The girl was always so bubbly and chatty and full of life and Jared was… well, he was Jared, Marley mused fondly. She had to remind herself that opposites attracted, or so the saying went. Maybe that was why her friends had managed to successfully maintain such a long running relationship. It wasn’t for Marley to try and understand.

With Jessie’s hands on Marley’s waist, she was momentarily distracted by the feeling of them. Eyes dipping down automatically, she glanced at the tight hold the other girl had on her, before her attention was quickly captured by one of the collie pups chewing on the shoelace of her Converse. Smiling fondly at the sigh, she glanced up, about to tell Jessie to take a look when suddenly the other girl was leaning forward and planting a kiss on the tip of Marley’s nose.

At once, Marley let out a good-natured laugh, her nose scrunching itself up automatically. She supposed she wasn’t used to girls - straight girls - being so affectionate with her, especially when they weren’t blackout drunk.

There had been a number of the boys’ girlfriends in the past who’d been afraid to get too close to Marley, smiling nervously at her when they were left in her company at a party, as if the absence of their boyfriend would immediately prompt Marley to shift into a predatory lesbian whose only goal was to jump them. There had been other girls as well, the ones that had giggled in her ear as they drunkenly cosied up to her and told her: I’ve always wondered what it would be like to kiss a girl. Ezra said he wouldn’t mind if we did it. More than few of those instances had caused Marley’s stomach to flip, often with anxiety, but on a few occasions, with a shameful surge of lust. She hated that it had become such a running theme whenever one of the boys introduced a new girl to the group, a sort of red-pill/blue-pill dilemma she’d readied herself for.

Thankfully, she hadn’t come across that particular predicament with Jessie. The other girl was just nice. She didn’t seem uncomfortable around Marley, and was perfectly at ease with her like she was with the rest of her girlfriends, the heterosexual ones, at that. She’d never drunkenly come on to her either, thank goodness. The last thing Marley wanted would be to lose Jessie’s friendship because the other woman only saw her as a lesbian experimentation she thought herself entitled to.

“Ew, you’re kidding me. Jared,” Marley groaned in despair, tipping her head back in defeat. She’d thought that she had at least spent enough time around the other man to have instilled some sort of respect in him. Yet now she was hearing that he was pressuring his girlfriend into threesomes.

A snort left her when Jessie brought up Maddie, Jared’s apparent frontrunner in his threesome fantasies. 

“Maddie? You think Maddies likes me?” she asked, wearing a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me smile. Discreetly, she glanced over her shoulder to where she had last seen Maddie, sitting with a bunch of other girls and discussing the importance of Jane Austen novels, a woman who was not a staff member at A Novel Idea, much to Marley’s surprise. She had Harlow to thank for clearing that one up for her. As she glanced towards the other girl though, she realised Maddie was already looking back at her. Flushing bright pink, Marley whipped her head back around to give Jessie a wide-eyed look.

“Okay, that’s new,” she said, biting her lip and blinking rapidly as she tried to process that. Maddie not being straight was already a revelation in itself, but Maddie in all her brogue-wearing, cardigan-loving glory liking Marley was another thing entirely.

She squeezed Jessie’s hands sympathetically, steering them back towards the heart of the matter.

“I’m really sorry Jared is being a dick though. You deserve better than that,” she said, honestly. Pouting a little as she took in the look on Jessie’s face, Marley felt her heart do a sad little flip in the face of her friend’s frustration. “C’mere.”

Using the hold she had on Jessie’s hands, she pulled the other girl forward so she could wrap her arms around her in a hug. In Marley’s opinion, Jessie needed it.

If there was one thing Jess had been certain of when relocating to the kitchen, it was that Marley would be in total agreement with everything she’d said. Not that Marley was a bitch or anything, not by any stretch, but she knew that some of the company Jared kept was veering on pretentious, and if the kitchen they were currently standing in was any indication, his friends were also kind of douchey, nepo-babies with more money than sense. 

Jessie’s cheeks flushed with heat as Marley shifted in her arms, cosily readjusting herself so the two were now face to face, lips barely a breath apart. Not that she was thinking about Marley’s mouth, obviously. Marley was a beautiful girl; gorgeous, full lips and a pert nose, and a figure that made her question her sexuality in ways that not even her college roommate Clara had managed to (and Clara had spent many nights with her tongue between Jessie’s legs, so it was an impressive feat on Marley’s part). All that being said, she wasn’t into the pretty blonde quite like that, she just had an admiration for her beauty. Nothing weird about that. 

“Yup, sure is,” Jessie nodded, the words a mere breath on her lips, her hands feeling suddenly clammy where they pressed against Marley’s waist. She’d gotten too wrapped up in her thoughts, too busy imagining what it would be like if Marley had been her roomie instead, the two experimenting, exploring one another’s bodies.  

Clearing her throat, she huffed out a sigh, forcibly rolling her eyes in a last-ditch effort to regain some composure. Then, without thinking, she leaned forward and pressed a playful kiss to the tip of Marley’s pretty, pert nose, once again unravelling herself within mere seconds. 

“He’s also very drunk,” she groaned, pretending her forward displays of affection were simply a byproduct of her overall character, and not a direct reflection of how flustered she always seemed to find herself around the other girl.  

She slowly pulled back from Marley, letting her fingers brush slowly down the other girl’s body until they found her hands, sliding her fingers through Marley’s instead as she stretched their arms out between them. A safe distance, while still getting to hold her one way or another. 

“Did I tell you that last week he asked me if I’d be up for a threesome?”  

It was true; he’d had a few too many to drink and had been rattling on about lists and asking Jessie which of their friends he was allowed to fuck if she, like, tragically died in a car crash or something. She’d rolled her eyes at the crassness of it, slightly disgusted while also silently pleased that he was at least showing some semblance of a personality. The conversation had soon derailed, Jared listing their supposed hottest friends, musing over whether they needed to try something new in the bedroom. She’d actually not been entirely opposed to the idea, given that nothing about their sex life was remotely stimulating, but she’d given his shoulder a gentle shove, told him to shut up, and sent him off to bed for the night. Alone. 

“He seems to think Maddie is our strongest contender, but given the way that she looks at you I’d assume otherwise.” 

[marleybosswitch]

“What? No, I haven’t read the book,” Marley grimaced. Her confession earned her an appalled look from the man she was talking to. The sweater vest he wore should have probably been her first clue that she shouldn’t have struck up a conversation with him upon spotting his Christopher Street tote bag, but she’d pushed on anyway, eager to tell him her own little funny anecdote.

She watched as he pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and gave her an appraising look.

“And yet you claim that…”

“That my dog is the reason the whole of BookTok is up in arms about who the book is about,” she finished for him, sounding far too pleased with herself. 

The frown he wore only deepened further when he asked her, “What’s BookTok?”

She stared at him, suddenly too aware of the fact that this man definitely did not want to hear about the BookTok girlies and their sexy hockey romances. In fact, she doubted he wanted to hear about anything that wasn’t tragic, gay literary fiction that he could brag about having read. Which meant that the two of them were already at an impasse. Marley wrinkled her nose, bored with the turn the conversation had taken.

“Anyway, I think the book’s about the boxer. Oh look, I’m empty!” Marley said, wiggling her half-full cup of soda and giving the man a wave as she walked away.

She didn’t really know who else to talk to at the party. Truth be told, their little group was only here at the request of Jared, who liked brushing shoulders with pretentious sorts from the Village. None of the people at the party had laughed at a single one of Marley’s jokes, which was why she knew that this wasn’t her crowd. She wondered how much longer she had to endure before it was no longer considered impolite if she’d left. Ezra had already made his escape, not giving a damn about manners, and Sephy had refused to let Marley convince her to tag along in the first place.

Wandering into another room to see if there was anything to keep her entertained for the meantime, her jaw dropped in utter delight when she came across two collie pups tussling with each other.

“Oh my god, hello!” she crooned, immediately crouching down so she could greet them. She let them sniff at her fingers first of all before giving them the pets they so desperately wanted. One of them started biting at the hem of her jeans, tugging on it furiously like the piece of denim had offended him. The sight made Marley throw her head back with a laugh, the night suddenly becoming a lot more tolerable.

It only seemed to get better from there. Marley lifted her head and beamed at Jessie when she showed up.

“Hey, you!” she greeted her. She smirked at the girl’s words and nodded back to the two dogs now wrestling with each other, making happy yelping noises. “Oh, definitely the puppies!”

She relaxed into Jessie’s hold, delighting in the casual display of affection. When Jared had first introduced his girlfriend to the group, Marley had worried they wouldn’t get on. Not because she didn’t think Jessie was nice but because Ezra had informed her, with all the authority of someone who didn’t know what the fuck he was taking about, that as Jared’s “girl best friend”, Jessie would automatically feel threatened by Marley’s presence in Jared’s life. She’d thought that was fucking stupid since she’d never felt an ounce of romantic interest in Jared and not just because she knew she was a lesbian before she knew the capital city of Texas, but because he was so… Jared. He was her friend but sometimes she felt like they had no common ground. Thankfully, Jessie had been warm with her from the get-go and Marley was surprised by the easy affection the girl bestowed on her, but didn’t take it for granted.

Jessie’s lips tickled her cheek and she scrunched her face up in amusement.

“Ugh, I thought it was just me!” she said. “I mean, what twenty-five-year-old can just afford their own brownstone in Manhattan?” She looked around the room, at the high ceilings and windows and once again had to wonder what the hell kind of company Jared kept.

“Let me guess, he’s talking numbers again?” she asked, fidgeting a little in Jessie’s arms so she could look around enough to give the girl a sympathetic smile.

Jess sighed, the sound leaving her before she could think the better of it. She absently registered the side eye that Jared gave her, immersed in his own tangent as he was. He was telling the whole room a story, everyone so captivated by whatever shit he appeared to be spewing, but Jessie was bored. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her boyfriend – she did, she was sure of it! – but she couldn’t deny that he was a little... uninteresting. He was an accountant, meaning that every day he’d come home, talk to her about his day, and Jessie would be quietly imagining a world where she actually gave a shit about the things coming out of his mouth. It was tragic and cruel, she was all too aware, but she could feel her eyelids growing heavier by the minute, the soft buzz of the few glasses of wine she’d had helping ease her into a gentle lull beside him. 

Just as she’d been slowly drifting off, tucked into his side and pointedly disinterested in the looks of irritation that were being directed at her by their circle of friends, a noise from the kitchen caught her attention. Jess would recognise Marley’s laugh anywhere, and the familiar sound seemed to ground her, dragging her back to reality as she tore her gaze away from the living room and over her shoulder. She could just about see the outline of her friend’s smile, a glow so captivating that it was almost dizzying, warmth spreading through her chest at the sight of her. 

With a lazy, half-hearted peck to Jared’s cheek, Jessica pushed herself up off of the sofa, mumbling something about needing another drink, and ambled towards Marley and her party of one. She already knew that whatever was keeping the pretty blonde distracted on this side of the house was a damn sight more interesting than anything anybody else was doing, and her own presumptions were confirmed the second she rounded the corner, seeing two border collie puppies rolling around at her feet. 

“I actually don’t know what’s cuter. You or the puppies,” Jess laughed, making her presence known. 

In her usual, overly affectionate manner, she joined Marley from behind and wrapped her arms around the other girl’s waist, tucking her chin against her shoulder as she took in the sight that had kept her so amused. 

“See, this is where the real party is at,” she teased, pressing a playful kiss to the other girl’s cheek. “It’s a literal snooze-fest in there. Thanks Jay-Dog.”