Chapter Text
“So,” Kelly beamed, leaning far too close for Nicole’s comfort. “Do you ~like~ her?”
“Jesus Kelly,” Nicole shoved the blonde away, causing her to giggle like an idiot as she finally stood back up to her insane six foot plus height. “I don’t like anyone, especially not you when you get like this.”
“Like what?” Kelly put on a pouty face, like a puppy that had been left out in the rain.
“You know damn well what,” Nicole grunted, swiveling back to continue fishing through her drawers. “Also, did you see what I did with that jacket? The one I had to wear to the thing?”
“I do not know 'dang well what,'” Kelly turned up her nose. “And uh,” she looked back down now, confusion making itself at home across her features. “What thing?”
“The uh…” Nicole trailed off trying to remember, spinning a finger through the air as she thought. “Y’know, the thing…? The one where we all had to dress up and shit.” Kelly blinked, Nicole sighed, before changing tracks, “have you seen my suit?”
“Oh,” Kelly bounced, “yeah it was hanging in my closet!”
“Why was my suit hanging in your closet?”
“I figured it’d be a better spot for it than your floor,” Kelly chirped helpfully.
Nicole (barely) held back a groan, “can you get it for me?”
“Yup!” Kelly bobbed again, disappearing so fast Nicole half expected to see a puff of smoke where she had been standing.
Wasting no more of the precious little alone time that had allotted her, she quickly grabbed a perfume bottle she kept stashed in the back of her closet. Sniffing it, as if to test its quality, she decided it was satisfactory enough, and sprayed it on where appropriate. No sooner had she finished than she heard Kelly bumping her way back to the edge of her bedroom, and she hastily shoved the bottle back beneath the stray sock it had been hiding under.
“Here you go!” Kelly bounced in, practically throwing the suit at Nicole.
“Thanks, now get out.”
“Why?”
“Cuz I need to change?” Nicole raised a brow.
Kelly seemed to finally get the hint and leaned back out of the room, bringing the door shut with her. At last, Nicole was able to let out a sigh of relief, before that sigh was cut off by Kelly’s voice from outside.
“Oh, by the way,” she called as if she needed to raise her voice in order to communicate through the styrofoam Nicole had come to call their apartment walls. “I think she’s here.”
“What?!” Nicole blurted, still attempting to find which hole in the suit was meant for her arm versus her head. “She’s not supposed to be here for another ten minutes.”
“Yeah,” Kelly called out, still all but yelling, “but like, aren’t you always supposed to show up ten minutes early for a ~date~?”
“This isn’t,” Nicole said, finally pulling the shirt over her head, “a date!”
“Mhm,” Kelly hummed from the other end of the door, and then much quieter, (clearly to a degree she thought Nicole would not hear,) “keep telling yourself that…”
Nicole grumbled, but didn’t have the time to argue as she pushed herself through the door and out into their main living room. “How do I look?”
Kelly looked her up and down as though she were a sculptor inspecting her work, before sticking out both her tongue and a thumbs up. “Ready, steady!”
“What does that even- y’know what, I don’t have time to ask.” Nicole said, pushing past and around. “Try not to almost burn the place down while I’m gone!”
“Oh c’mon, I only did that, like, once.”
Nicole stopped to give a dry look back to Kelly. One that conveyed “are you sure about that?” without actually saying the words.
“Okay, twice, but that second time wasn’t my fault, the oven wouldn’t turn off.”
“Right, whatever, I have to-”
And suddenly, Nicole’s brain was silenced by the shrill dinging and subsequent donging of her apartment doorbell.
“Shit,” she audibly gasped.
“Go on, go get’em tiger!” Kelly said, stepping up and before Nicole could stop her, pulling the door open with her gargantuan reach.
As soon as it opened, Nicole got a whiff of strawberries. A figure carried by the light seemed to stand before her. Golden hair worn long and clad in a dress that looked straight out of her dreams. No, get it together Nicole.
“Oh, uh, hey Nicole, hey Kelly!” Jecka waved nervously.
“Jecka!!” Kelly said, forgetting Nicole’s earlier request not to get in the way as she practically pulled the blonde into a bear hug. “It’s been too long!”
“It’s uh,” Jecka choked out, “been about a week?”
“Yup,” Kelly nodded, finally releasing the poor blonde. “A week too long.”
“Right, well uh,” Nicole finally jumped in. “We’ll be going now,” she said, before gritting her teeth. “Thanks Kelly.”
“Don’t mention it!” She chirped, and just as Nicole and Jecka turned to walk away for their very important, hockey-related, business meeting that was nothing more than that, she heard Kelly yell out one last remark. “Oh, and I love that brand of perfume you used! You probably shouldn’t leave the glass bottle hidden away in your closet though!”
Then, as if to punctuate the point, she brought the door shut with too heavy a slam, the type that would no doubt leave another dent in the doorframe, and one Nicole had been telling her to stop doing just because she thought it was dramatic.
“Jesus Christ," Nicole groaned. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be, after all she’s right,” Jecka smirked. “I am a fan of that perfume.”