Snakebite heart

"Yeah, that." Sapphire watched her inhale the rest of her drink, quietly pushing the rest of her own towards Alex. It seemed like she was going to need it more than her. Sapphire was thinking about it now - Alex and Jesse - and she just knew in her gut that she was right. Everything had changed after Sophia left. Everything had changed after Lexa was born. Jesse had been everything to Alex, Sapphire had seen that first hand. They were so in sync sometimes. She knew they had been best friends all their lives, but this seemed different. Right? Maybe Jake was a bad comparison but why had she said it? Because Jake was her... He was probably the... Jake was Jake. "Shit, Alex. And I was texting you about whether or not he'd want to hook up with Tabby... Oh my god, you were pissed off, weren't you?"

Alex didn't hesitate, the second she sat down her empty glass, the one Sapphire had slid to her was in her hand then at her lips. They weren't having this conversation. They weren't about to discuss all the ways in which she had found her thoughts drifting to Jesse, or how she sometimes forgot what she was saying because she was watching him from across the room, or god forbid she own up to any of the vibes from the Walker family Christmas. He was Jesse and she was Alex, and they were best friends. He was married to her cousin, for fuck's sake! The thought had crossed her mind–of course it had–but she had never acknowledged it, never looked at it directly for fear of what it might mean, or what it could change... what she could destroy. "Sapphire, stop." The words were a plea; don't make me think about it, don't make me ruin everything. "I just–... I can't stand Tabby Dryden."

Juliette could see the look on Alex's face as she said Tabby's name, she couldn't blame her. Almost everyone here tonight had a story about Tabby, and most of them ended up with her doing something messed up. It was part of her charm. "I know, of course he is hot. But I mean all these people interested in him make me feel like I have blinders to how hot."

"Right..." She felt weird. Was it weird that she felt weird about discussing the hotness of Jesse with another woman? Jesse had always been the cutest boy in any room and, while Alex wasn't sure when that had shifted to hot, it was baffling to her that anyone could have been blind to that fact. "Maybe they're shameless and are just feral over him being an attainable married man."

Jackson grinned, one thing he loved about Alex was her honesty even if it was a little painful at times. As long as it wasn't towards him or Logan then he could move past it easily. "Didn't you help throw it?" Or did he receive some fake information. Oh she was definitely tipsy and had..... a good point. "Well true but he had Sophia so did any of those girls really ever had a chance before?" He didn't believe that shit either but maybe it really would work out for Jesse tonight. He wasn't about to get laid but maybe he would at least find a new crush. He laughed then nodded, "sure. Anything specific for your wine? Your wish is my command." She probably didn't need any more.

"Me?" Alex scoffed and almost choked on her laugh. "No, absolutely not. The only Vandervort responsible for this is Sapphire." There hadn't been a single Upper East Side party that had been planned by Alex and she would die happy if that never changed. "Well... if they didn't even have a chance before, why should he settle for less than what he had?" Something about what she had said wasn't sitting right with her, but she brushed it off. "The stronger and redder, the better." She said with a nod, "Have you seen Logan tonight? I thought they might've been here." Jesse's mom was watching Lexa for them, so she knew that they had planned to come out tonight, but she hadn't seen him.

Aaron always liked to tease Alex. He had noticed how much Alex had changed since Lexa, it wasn't a bad thing to him. But he also didn't want his sister to lose herself, she had always been the fun one between the two of them. Part of him wanted to see if the drunk Alex was still in there.

"I'll have you know that I'm plenty fun." But did she have evidence to back that up? If Lexa could talk maybe she could vouch for her, but Alex wasn't sure how fun giving stuffed animals silly voices could really make her in the grand scheme of things. "Jesus Christ, Aaron, there's not a grape famine. At least have a full glass."

"No shit, right? Here's a question though... who would you have voted for? I mean, all's well that ends well, but I so doubt Logan would have been your top choice. You can be honest, I won't tell anyone. And, like, what does it really matter now the truth's long out. Congrats, BTW," she added as an afterthought, realising she never actually like, got her a card or anything for the kid.

Alex's mouth was open and her eyes were ever so slightly narrowed, definitely looking like she had plenty of things to say to the other woman, but the question caught her off guard, sending her thoughts into a spiral. Would Logan have been her top choice? It really was a moot point considering there hadn't ever actually been another option, but if she could have chosen... would she have picked differently? Logan had been a perfect father to Lexa–there was no denying that–but would someone else have been less complicated? Only one face came to mind, and she quickly shook it away to return to the conversation. "It's Logan Hunter. I wouldn't change that for the world."

An uncontrollable laugh erupted from Tessa at Alex's comment about Jesse. "I'd rather die," she joked. "No, I mean, seriously... I'd choose you at the best times anyway but let's be so serious. Jesse needs to leave the planet to get out of this frickin' love octagon or whatever shape's going on here. You need to exit Manhattan to be even remotely safe from kissing someone who dated someone who dated your sister's best friend's cousin. At least at Yale, all I had to worry about was Blair Waldorf. And Nelly Yuki... What was my point again?" Right! Drinks. She rummaged around and filled up both their cups with something red. "That should do something."

"Bit harsh." Despite her words, Alex still laughed at Tessa's adamance that she would never go for Jesse. After the mess with Rose, she could understand why Tessa could never, but surely no one found him this repulsive. "Aw, thank you." She pouted with a hand on her heart. "I'm touched." A laugh burst from her again as she nodded, in complete agreement. "You don't have to tell me that." Her own situation could be used as an example to back up her statement because what do you mean that her baby daddy's ex girlfriend dated her brother and cheated on him with her then boyfriend, who's now in a situationship with Juliette and maybe Freddie who was high on the list of her potential baby daddy guesses? And don't even get her started on how Logan now seemed to be seeing her cousin, Scarlett. This city was fucked. "God bless you."

"Smart girl," Sapphire laughed, shaking her head at Alex. Okay, everyone adored baby Lexa but it was probably best she not tempt fate. Fool me once and all. Sapphire was about to make a joke about just how much fun you could have above the waist when Alex said that. Sapphire's peach fizz was halfway to her lips but now it was stuck midway, her mouth now hanging open. The realisation hit her like a ton of bricks and now she was thinking it, how obvious it should have been. Like, right? Oh... Oh! And how bad it was. Shit. Sapphire blinked at her cousin, waiting to see if she'd catch on without Sapphire having to say anything. "Is- Is Jesse your Jake?"

Alex hadn't heard it–the tone of her own voice, the implication of her own words. She had carried on snacking and drinking as if the entire vibe hadn't just shifted and it took her far too long to realise that Sapphire had frozen. "What?" She questioned, wiping her mouth as if the look she was giving her was due to the crumbs of a vol-au-vent. At her question, Alex's brow furrowed, her mouth opening and closing multiple times before she could force a sound from her throat. "Is he my Jake? What does that even–... Like what Jake is to you but... to me? That–... Sapphire. Maybe that's enough peach fizz for you." She inhaled the rest of her drink, letting what she had said finally sink in. "Maybe Jake was a bad comparison."

"I wonder if that's how people thought of me when I lived with Dan and Jenny...," he mused, half-smiling at the memory. When Alex moved over to wrap her arm around him, he let out a little laugh. "Thank you, Alex. I appreciate that and, uh, happy almost birthday to you. If you want Juliette to unintentionally throw you a party, I can put in a good word too." Nate laughed again, surprised by it as he usually was these days. "Yeah, it's like my own personal Pinterest board come true."

"Would you have been the keeper or the kept in that scenario?" Alex laughed and shuffled away from again. "Thank you. I do think I'll pass on that though. No one needs to be doing all this on a Thursday night." Fucking hell, she sounded like such a mom. "Truly, so happy for you." She jokingly pressed a hand to her heart before wiping away a fake tear. "No, but seriously. You doing anything actually for your birthday?"

Sapphire almost choked on her wine cooler when Alex brought up baby number two. "Shit, that really would be your luck. Maybe you and whoever should keep things from the waist up, just to be safe. I would never keep anyone away from a tequila shot, Alex. You know that. I'm just saying, this is like, your debut. The night is young. Drink your peach fizz." Since Alex had confided in Sapphire about being pregnant, they had been closer than ever. She'd gotten pretty good at reading her, even after all the tequila. Sapphire didn't know why her bringing up Jesse like that made her pause, but it did. "Does Jesse not give you enough attention?"

"I think I'll be keeping things from the waist up until I reach menopause." Alex absolutely adored Lexa, but she would be damned if she was going to end up in a similar situation again. Her uterus was too strong to be tempting fate. She let her cousin finish her speech and only rolled her eyes a little as she grabbed the aforementioned peach fizz and took a drink. "Happy?" At her next words, Alex scoffed. "What kind of question is that? Does Jake give you enough attention?"

OMFG, GG... so much is going on at this party!

This was the last place Aaron wanted to be, most of the people he worked with were at the art gallery. But he had to be at the hot tub party. He wanted to keep an eye on his baby sister, first night away from Lexa had to be a lot even if they were at a party. He had left her for a bit to see some of his friends.

Alex's jaw dropped dramatically at the shade being thrown from her brother and, had she been a touch more sober, it might've actually stung a little. Sitting here at this stupid party, it had never been so apparent to her that she was a different person than she had been before Lexa had been born–since before that, even. She wasn't really sure about what to do with that information.

"You should be so lucky," Sapphire countered, raising both her eyebrows so high they almost left her face. She dumped a healthy selection of wine coolers on the table between them, pushing one towards Alex. "Try being more fruity and fun, and less sour and grouch."

"Please. Knowing my luck, I'd be starting 2026 with baby number two." There would be zero harlots for her, thank you very much! "Wine coolers? Really? You think because I've been out of the game for over a year, I can't shoot tequila as well as anyone else?" Alex had, in fact, only been drinking wine tonight and was far more drunk than she would admit, but for Sapphire to bring over wine coolers was just insulting. "Maybe I'd be having more fun if I didn't have to fight for the attention of my best friend."

"Woah" Jackson blinked before wrapping an arm around Alex's shoulders. "Not looking for Jesse, I'm sure he's having a fun time." Or terrible with everyone who was anyone trying to make a move on him. He was probably overwhelmed if he hadn't figure it out yet. "You look a little stressed for such a fun party. Anything I can help you with?" Like maybe another drink. "Come on, you gotta have a good time here. Your best friend might find someone tonight."

Alex had to fight desperately against the urge to recoil from Jackson's embrace. Being one of Logan's closest friends got him a pass, but anyone else might've lost some fingers. "I just think the party's really stupid." She said lamely and with a little slur to her words. "No... No, he won't. Look around, Jackson. It's all the same people he's known for years. If he was going to find one of these people, he would've already found them." She teetered, momentarily leaning into him. "It would be very appreciated if you could find me more wine, please."

There was one Vandervort that Lucas had once found... fine, and that was Alex. That is, before she revealed herself to be quite monumentally irresponsible. The whole pregnancy thing was, for a lack of a better word or care, disappointing. And the name? Lexa? Entirely unforgivable. He had, however, heard through the grapevine that the child was to all intents and purposes quite adorable. Hopefully not something he would need to bear witness to in person anytime soon.

At the sound of his voice, Alex's heart did a little skip. There was no world where she would ever admit to having had a childhood crush on a Baizen, and she certainly didn't still have to fight those feelings, but there was a residual something there. Maybe just nostalgia, maybe the idea of a life she could have wanted if she hadn't felt the need to rebel against her parents at every opportunity. Maybe she just missed her best friend. Alex couldn't look at Lucas without seeing his cousin, Ginny, and so looking at Lucas continued to be emotionally complicated.

Sam poorly suppressed a smile as Alex chewed up yet another hopeful, uh, suitor (gender neutral) for Jesse. It was definitely a bad idea of him to be at this party, that much he knew. There was no way Juliette signed off on him being on the guest list (but he hoped she had) and Jake was still so pissed off at him... Suddenly Sam was ready for a stronger drink.

Alex's eyebrows raised a fraction at Sam's presence at this party. She definitely hadn't expected to see him here, but as a former party crasher, she could respect the audacity of showing up uninvited to your ex-girlfriend's festivities. Leaning forward, she slid the bottle across the table towards him, "Knock yourself out." She took another drink from her own glass before adding, "I'd probably avoid the hot tub area unless you actually do want to get knocked out. I don't think I've ever seen Jake this drunk."

"Fuck me, Alex. I was only asking... It's not like you two spend every waking minute together or anything. Oh, wait! I mean, full disclosure and like, no offence- everyone was doing it at the time- but I totally voted for Jesse on your Gossip Girl poll. You know, the 'who's the daddy' one? I really thought I was onto something. You mind?" she asked but was already reaching for the bottle on the table.

"Yeah, I think I remember the poll, Latife." Alex didn't snap at her, but it was definitely toeing a line. At the time, the stupid poll had probably helped her out with keeping the father a secret for so long, but it had really made her take a long, hard look at the reputation she had built for herself. After everything, Alex wasn't even sure who she was anymore and sitting here, at an Upper East Side party with a wine glass in her hand, didn't fill her with the same thrill that it used to.