The satisfying sound of shattering glass was music to Bindhi’s ears. Now, she didn’t have to worry about broken glass hurting Sanskrit. Not since she’d build the little lean-to in her back yard. The side walls kept the glass from spreading and kept it all in one place. Well, roughly in one place. But it would keep her and the dog both from getting hurt.

Much as she was beginning to welcome that pain. If her body hurt, it was a lot easier to ignore the empty, screaming hole inside her head. Not even getting drunk was helping with that anymore. Blearily, she tallied up the days in her head and realized, with a start, that it was Halloween.

Her birthday. Her 21st birthday. She didn’t need to rely on fake IDs anymore.

Holy s**t.

Wobbling drunkenly for a moment as she considered this bit of news, Bindhi’s legs gently gave out on her and she flopped bonelessly to the ground. Flinching a little a stray bit of glass bit into her knee, she scraped it out and tossed it into the lean-to. Tradition dictated that she find some friends and go out and get wasted to celebrate. Except, she’d been getting wasted pretty consistently for the past few weeks. And she didn’t really want any friends around. Not when she was reasonably sure that once they saw her in this state, she’d either end up lectured or dropped like garbage.

Not that she wasn’t already garbage. Ava and Amytis had both made that clear enough. Why, if she wasn’t, neither of them would have left her. Logic. Simple.

She felt the tears welling up again and pulled her knees up to her chin, before shoving her face into them. It was no use fighting them anymore. Not much use in her doing anything anymore if she were to be honest with herself. Still, the idea of sitting alone in her backyard. In the dark. On Halloween. Snorting in disgust at the idea, she wondered if Cordelia would be working tonight. The burlesque club on Halloween would certainly be interesting. All she’d have to do if Cordy was there would be to promise to not get so disgustingly drunk again. It had been a long time since she’d woken up on someone else’s couch. And the fact that she’d wound up there because the waitress had felt sorry for her and was worried about her drunkenly wandering into traffic… ugh. It was embarrassing. Not enough to get her to stop drinking. But enough to make her try to tone it down a little.

At least when she was around Cordy.

Yes. She’d go to the club and watch the show and limit herself to two martinis tops. Maybe this time, she’d be able to actually try that vanilla bean cheesecake Cordy had recommended and manage to keep it down this time. That’d be nice.

Pushing herself to her feet, Bindhi made her way carefully to where a heavy broom leaned against the house and grabbed it. First, sweep up the broken glass. Then, get cleaned up and try to make herself look like a human being.

Maybe she could talk Cordy into make-outs this time. Birthday girls deserved birthday kisses after all.