Chapter Text
Karen sat surprisingly still and calm at her desk as Trish and Jessica rather paced frantically around her dorm room.
“Jesus, I feel like a mom on prom night,” Jessica spattered, rubbing her hands together like a crazy person.
“I didn’t even know you had this much feeling in you,” Trish added as she rapidly tapped her slipped on the ground. “I knew I’d be a mess when this happened.”
They both turned to Karen simultaneously.
“How are you this calm?” they both yelled.
The honest answer was that Karen had no idea why she hadn’t turned into a nervous wreck yet. It probably hadn’t hit her; it didn’t register to her that Frank Castle, the guy she had pined after for a few weeks now, star of the football team, dreamboat extraordinaire, had actually asked her out on a date, and that date was rolling up in, oh, about five minutes now.
“Oh, shit,” Karen suddenly whispered as she checked her phone to confirm that Frank would here in about five minutes.
“I think I’m nervous now….”
That’s all it really took for Trish to phase into mother-hen mode.
“Okay, okay, don’t freak out,” Trish warned as she waved her hands towards Karen.
“You were literally just freaking out,” Jessica reminded her.
“NOT THE TIME,” Trish yelled. Trish grabbed Karen’s hands and yanked her out of the desk chair and over towards the full-length mirror on the back of the room’s front door. Trish pushed Karen in front of her, so that Trish’s head just poked out above Karen’s shoulder.
“Well,” Trish began, “You look fantastic.”
That she did, even Karen could admit that to herself. She’d finally gotten an excuse to wear a long, wrap-around, maroon and white geometric-print dress she’d been hiding in her closest that accentuated her waist quite well. Trish had curled her hair into soft ringlets again, since Karen tended to be a klutz with the curling iron. Karen paired it with a pair of pewter booties that Jessica had actually questioned the practicality of.
“You don’t even know where you’re going yet,” she’d warned.
“Aren’t people in the military usually early for shit like this?” Jessica blathered.
“I mean it’s three minutes to seven, isn’t he like three hours late in military time?”
Karen whirled her head back towards Jessica, her eyes beginning to bulge with fear.
“You don’t think he’s bailing, do you?!” she cried.
“I’m sure that’s not what she means,” Trish said, trying to console Karen and throwing Jessica a quick, back-handed smack.
Karen turned back around towards the mirror quickly, checking to see if her makeup needed to be touched up. It hadn’t changed since she’d checked it five minutes ago, luckily.
Karen heard a text alert on her phone, and the three girls all whipped their heads to check it.
“Is it him?!” Trish hissed.
Jessica, being the closet, snatched the phone off Karen’s desk. Looking down at the notification, Jessica dropped her shoulders and groaned, flatly handing the phone off to Karen.
“Not even close,” she groaned.
Karen grabbed the phone to see that text had been from Foggy, and she opened it to see that he’d send Karen a selfie of him and Marcy with big smiles and some thumbs-up.
Have fun tonight!, he wrote. Let us know how it goes!
Karen smiled at the gesture, but she still noted that it was now only one minute before seven, and her stomach grumbled in anticipation.
“How are you going to know when he’s here, anyway?” Trish wondered. “Did he say he’d call you?”
“He didn’t say, now that I think about it,” Karen admitted.
Jessica scoffed.
“I mean it’s Colonel Sanders,” she groaned. “He probably rode in on a white steed, rolled the red carpet up the stairs, and before we know it he’ll show up right to the door…”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Oh that’s fucking creepy,” Jessica acknowledged.
Karen silently screamed, flailing her hands at Trish as Trish tried fruitlessly not to do to the same.
“Shh, shh, shh!” Trish hushed. “Go get it!”, she whispered.
Karen took a few deep breaths in and out before Frank knocked on the door one more time. Trish pushed Karen towards the door, and Karen could feel her hands trembling as she read towards the doorknob and pulled the door open.
There he was, right on time. Frank stood there at the doorway, one hand planted along the frame as he leaned. He met Karen’s gaze quickly before it fell lower to take her in completely. His eyes widened, and while he’d looked like he’d been preparing to say something, all that escaped from his mouth was a long, wisping laugh.
“Wow,” he finally managed.
Karen pored over him as well. He was dressed on the casual side, wearing jeans and a light sweatshirt under a black softshell jacket. His smile had grown exponentially to an almost cheesy size.
If Trish hadn’t hit Karen in the back, she probably would have forgotten to speak too.
“Well,” she gurgled before she could completely compose herself. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
Frank chuckled at that as well.
“Thanks,” he smiled. He noticed Trish and Jessica in the background before raising a polite hand.
“Ladies,” he greeted.
Trish smiled politely and returned the wave.
“Hi, Frank,” she smiled.
“Colonel,” Jessica added with a salute.
Frank actually saluted back, which made Karen smile widely.
“Well,” she said, “I guess we should get going?”
Karen approached her desk again to get her small fringe purse off her chair, and as she turned back, she was certain she caught Frank checking out the large slit along the side of her dress, and her pale, porcelain leg peeked out from it.
“Eyes up, Colonel,” Jessica barked. “She’s a lady.”
“WELL YOU TWO HAVE A GOOD TIME,” Trish yelled loud enough to be distracting. Trish and Jessica encroached upon the door, shooing the two outside in their own way.
“Have fun guys!” Trish added as both her and Jessica began to wave.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Jessica followed.
“Yeah, I think we’re way passed that point,” Trish said aside to Jessica as the two watched Frank and Karen head towards the staircase.
“I’m really sorry,” Karen laughed as they heard the door slam shut. “They’re really quite socialized, I promise.”
“Nah, that’s okay,” Frank chuckled, “they’re good friends. Guess you should probably do right by them by having a great night, don’t ya’ think?”
Karen and Frank giggled and chatted all the way down the stair case until Frank jet ahead to push forth the heavy metal door to the outside so that Karen could pass through.
"What a gentleman," she teased as she passed through the threshold and into the crisp Autumn air.
The crisp, Autumn air, she reminded herself.
"Shit," Karen whispered as she ran her fingers gently up her exposed arms. She'd been in such a frenzy that she'd completely forgotten a coat.
Before she had the sense to turn around and run up the stairs for one, effectively embarrassing herself for the second time already before they'd even gotten in the car, she felt the warm sensation of felt envelope her shoulders and fall over her arm. She jumped a bit, and then turned quickly to see Frank, close behind her, had draped his outer coat over her shoulders.
"I mean, you said gentleman, didn't you?" he joked with a cheeky grin.
"That I did," Karen affirmed as Frank laid his hand along the small of Karen's back and they continued out to towards Frank's car.
He drove a red Ford F250, which he playfully described as "almost as old" as he was, and he'd been parked just across the quad from Karen's dorm.
"You never told me where we were going," Karen reminded Frank.
"Yeah, that was on purpose,” Frank replied with a grin. “How many times do I gotta tell you that mystery is a good thing?”
“A little mystery is a good thing,” Karen countered. “Too much mystery is how dates like this turn into episodes of Dateline.”
“Well you look like you're dressed for TV in that outfit anyway,” Frank laughed.
Karen in turn playfully began to twirl her skirt around as she walked, pretending to be some fancy actress, or a model on a catwalk.
“So does that make you my chauffer?” she asked in an exaggerated British accent.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Miss Daisy,” Frank replied. Karen felt Frank's fingers brush up against hers quickly, and her heart fluttered thinking he was trying to hold her hand, but he pulled away.
Instead, Frank bounded a few steps ahead of Karen to beat her to the passenger side door and open it for her.
“After you,” he insisted as he swept his arm towards the door. Karen climbed inside, but not before tripping up into the cab.
“You play another round of beer pong before this?” Frank joked as she got herself settled.
“Very funny,” Karen chortled. Frank shut the door and headed around front to the driver’s side.
As he climbed into the driver’s seat, Karen felt she had to assert something.
“You know I don’t usually… go out and get that drunk, right?” Karen asked cautiously.
Frank bellowed with laughter and he twisted his key in the ignition.
“Yeah, I know,” he said finally. “That’s why it only took you a few beers to get there.”
He flopped his head onto his shoulders to look at her inquisitively. Karen could feel her cheeks flushing as he smiled and began to chuckle at her again. Karen couldn’t help but laugh with him, softly nodding her head back and forth in agreement.
“Guess you got me there,” she giggled.
“Alright,” Frank began, flinging his right arm over onto Karen’s seat while he looked behind the car. Karen felt a little flustered over the proximity of his hand to the back of her hair.
“Let’s get this show on the road. I hope you brought your appetite, ‘cause I’ve gotten something really… ah, SHIT.”
Karen whipped her head towards Frank to see him staring at the back cabin floor behind her seat, his eye’s angry as he mumbled more curses to himself.
“What’s wrong?” Karen asked concerned.
“Ah… just forgot the booze.”
Frank sighed deeply before turning his attention to Karen once again.
“You mind if we just swing back to my place real quick?”
Now, Karen believed Frank was genuinely an old soul, an old-fashioned, polite, respectful, one-of-a-kind guy, by today’s standards at least. She also wasn’t an idiot.
Frank could see the disbelief on Karen’s face.
“I promise that’s not what this is about,” Frank swore, his words enveloped with nervous laughter.
Karen lifted her hands in the air.
“Whatever you say,” she said mockingly.
Frank lived in an off campus apartment that exclusively housed athletes. Karen had barely ever seen this part of campus, as she neither knew anyone who was an athlete before this, nor were there ever any parties over here since athletes were kept on a stricter set of standards. Frank pulled into a spot in front of one of the closer apartments.
“I’ll just stay in the car, “ Karen insisted.
Frank shot her a jaded stare.
“The hell you will,” he snorted, unbuckling his seatbelt.
“Are you kidding?” Karen asked, insulted. “I’ll be fine, you’re just going up for a minute.”
“I’m not leaving you in my car, alone, in Harlem, Karen,” Frank insisted.
Frank walked over to her side of the car and opened the door for Karen to exit, so she assumed she didn’t have a choice. She didn’t want to seem like a brat, but she couldn’t help but huff a little as her legs spilled out of the car.
The “thank you, ma’am,” Frank whispered as she exited didn’t make her feel completely better, but it helped.
Frank lived in a second floor apartment, up one flight of some of the newest, marble stairs Karen had seen anywhere near campus.
“It’ll just take a second, “ Frank assured as he turned the key into the door.
Without warning, Karen suddenly felt something large and heavy barrel into her legs. She stumbled back from the initial shock, but felt better immediately after realizing this large, heavy object was also furry and very prone to kisses.
“MAX!” Frank yelled at the large pitbull Karen was now keeled over and stroking.
“Get back inside!” he added as he grabbed the dog by hid collar and guiding him into the apartment.
Opening the door wider from the inside, Luke Cage greeted Frank with a bewildered stare.
“What the hell are you doing back?” Luke asked. When he caught sight of Karen, Luke’s eye grew wider and his expression embarrassed.
“Sweet Christmas, Frank, already?!” he yelled.
“No, not already!” Frank growled defensively as he pulled the dog inside, Karen following behind.
Despite how nice the building was on the outside, you could absolutely tell by the inside that the apartment belonged to two college-aged men. The furniture was unimpressively; there was a plaid, fabric sofa and reclining chair in the living room with a TV-tray set sandwiched in between them. The kitchen was clean enough, but it was completely devoid of any color other than white.
Karen didn’t think it was appropriate to go much further into the apartment than that.
“Do you live here too, Luke?” Karen asked as she shut the door behind her.
“Nah, I live upstairs,” Luke admitted. “Frank just asked me to watch Max while you guys were out.”
Karen looked down at the dog, who was now jovially wagging it’s tail and staring in her direction. Karen crouched down, and the dog immediately took the opportunity to approach her.
“Aww, well you don’t look like you could get into too much trouble, do you?” Karen cooed as she rubbed the dog behind both ears. Before she knew it, the dog was plastered on it’s back as Karen showered him with praises and belly-rubs. After a moment though, Karen began to look at the dog a little more suspiciously.
“Wait a second,” Karen began tentatively. She looked up at Frank, who had been in standing in the kitchen with a small cooler in his hand, and Luke, and the two were already exchanging glances and snickering.
“Is this the Marymount Mad Dog? The one that went missing last season before homecoming?” Karen knew the story well; hell, she’d covered it for the paper.
“Not that you could prove,” Frank replied with a grin.
“You stole this dog?!” Karen began to yell and the two men shushed her.
“It was a prank!” Luke defended.
“He liked us!” added Frank.
"So you've just had this stolen dog for almost a year?"
"What are you gonna do, narc us out to the paper?" Frank teased, stepping forth and crouching down to pet Max along with Karen.
"You read that article, huh?" she asked.
"Every word," Frank confirmed, two shameless smiles growing on both their faces.
"Even the part where you called me... I'm sorry, called the 'assailant', 'an abhorrent example of..."
"I know what I said," Karen quipped, "and I meant it."
Karen gave one last good scratch to Max's ears.
"But the dog is cute."
"Alright, we should get going," Frank said as he rose. He lifted the black strap of the cooler up off his shoulders for emphasis.
"Got the goods."
Karen rose as well, opening the door before they said a final goodbye to Luke, and heading off to finally begin their night.