Chapter Text
"Guys, I have to tell you something."
Everyone turned to look at Nico curiously.
Nico sighed and closed her eyes, trying to build up the courage to say what she wanted to say. "I'm... bi."
Everyone's eyes lit up, especially Karolina's. Partly because she was proud of her for coming out, and partly because she knew that actually gave her a chance with her long time crush.
"Oh my gosh, Nico! That's awesome!" Gert exclaimed.
They both gave each other a high five. It makes sense that Gert would be that excited considering she had also come out as bisexual not too long ago.
"Congratulations, Nico," Karolina said with a kind smile.
Nico returned her smile. "Thanks, Karrie."
Karolina felt her face heat up and she looked down at her lap. Now that she knew Nico was actually capable of being attracted to her, she felt her crush getting even stronger. She still doubted that would ever happen, but at least it was in the realm of possibility.
Nico then started to get bombarded with questions.
"Have you ever dated a girl?" Molly asked her.
Nico shook her head. "No, not yet."
"Then how do you know?" Chase asked, before getting an elbow to the ribs by Gert, his girlfriend. "Hey! What was that for?"
"She doesn't need to have experience with girls to know that she likes them. That's ignorant. Nobody questions if straight people are actually straight if they don't have experience with the opposite sex."
"Sorry," Chase muttered and rubbed the spot where he had been jabbed. "I didn't mean it like that."
"How long have you known?" Alex asked.
Nico rested her cheek on her hand and looked up, trying to recount all the red flags she had experienced her whole life. "Hmm... I think I've known since the first grade."
Alex's eyes widened. "Wow, really?"
Nico nodded. "Yeah. That was when the first red flag happened. There was this girl in my class that I had a crush on. At first I thought I just really admired her or wanted to be her friend, but eventually I realized I wanted to hold her hand.... and stuff." She gradually got quieter as she realized how soft she sounded. It didn't fit with her intimidating exterior, which Nico didn't like.
"Awww," Molly cooed and brought her hands up to her cheeks.
Nico narrowed her eyes at her. "Stop, I'm not saying anything else."
"Oh, come on," Karolina said and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Tell us more about your little crush," she encouraged, wanting to find out as much as possible so she could figure out what Nico's type was and see if she matched it at all. Which was dumb since her type in first grade was probably completely different than her type now. But Karolina was desperate for anything.
Nico sighed longly and took a swig of her latte. "Fine. I don't remember much, but she had really pretty blonde hair and blue eyes and she was really sweet. She always shared her supplies with me because I always lost mine."
"Huh... sounds familiar," Gert teased, looking between Nico and Karolina. It did make sense, since Karolina's appearance and personality matched, and Nico was constantly "borrowing" pencils from her because Karolina always brought plenty of extras just for her.
Nico laughed. "Yeah, right. What are the odds of that? But anyway..." Nico laughed again and hid her face in her hands. "It's so stupid. I had no idea how to deal with my crush on her, because at the time I didn't even know it was a thing for girls to like girls, so I wrote her a note that said 'get out of my school' and put it on her desk when she wasn't looking."
Everybody bursted out laughing. Except Karolina, who instead starting choking on her scone. Once everyone's laughter finally died down and stopped drowning out her coughing, they all looked at her in slight concern.
Nico patted her firmly on the back. "You okay?" She asked amusedly, assuming she had been choking on a laugh.
"Tha..." She coughed a few more times, "That was you?"
Nico's smile slowly turned into a confused frown. "Huh?"
Karolina took a drink of her water, and her coughing finally died down. "It was you that wrote that to me?"
Nico's look of confusion started to turn into one of realization. "Wait... You're telling me that you got that note?"
Karolina nodded with wide eyes. She remembered being so confused and hurt, thinking that whoever wrote it hated her and she desperately tried to convince her parents to let her go to a different school. But this entire time it had been her best friend who she had a crush on that apparently had a crush on her as well.
At least Karolina knew she was Nico's type now. Exactly her type.
"... What is happening right now?" Gert asked, and Karolina had almost forgotten that anyone else besides her and Nico were there.
"That is so crazy!" Molly said.
"Yeah..." Nico replied, not taking her eyes off of Karolina, "It is."
"Oh, c'mon, she's joking."
Karolina whipped her head back to look at Chase. "I'm not joking! I'm serious."
"That is so romantic," Gert teased.
"No," Nico asserted almost immediately, "It's not. It was in the first grade. I obviously don't have a crush on you anymore, Karrie, so don't worry. That would be weird."
Karolina looked back at her, trying to hide the hurt in her eyes. Once she had gotten over her initial shock, she had hope that maybe Nico still felt the same way. But with how quick Nico was to deny that, and with how 'weird' she thought it would be, Karolina knew now that it was just a dumb first grade crush that wasn't bound to go anywhere.
"Y-yeah! Of course. I didn't think you would."
Nico just nodded with an awkward smile, clearly uncomfortable with that newfound fact about her life.
"Um, anyway, I have a ton of homework I have to do. I'll see you guys tomorrow at school." Karolina quickly gathered up her belongings, and made a beeline out of the coffee shop, feeling tears start to form on her waterline.
All her friends watched her leave with blank expressions, no longer finding the situation funny.
Nico slumped in her chair. "Great. Now I creeped her out. I told you guys I didn't wanna talk about it!"
Gert and Molly stared at her, their expressions saying 'are you fucking stupid'? Meanwhile, Chase and Alex were just as oblivious as she was.
Nico's eyebrows raised. "... What?"
"You really think the reason she stormed out was because she's creeped out?" Gert questioned.
"Well... Yeah. Why else would she storm out?"
"Because she likes you!" Molly yelled loudly, turning a few heads from other tables around them.
"What?" Nico, Chase, and Alex all asked at the same time.
"You all are so oblivious if you can't see it," Gert tells them, "She's so loud about it."
"But you didn't hear from us," Molly says, pulling her beanie down to hide her face as if Karolina was still there and wouldn't be able to see her if she was.
"Yeah," Gert agrees, "She would kill us if she knew that we told you. We just didn't want you to get the wrong idea."
"Huh, well that explains why she wasn't into me when I pursued her last year," Chase says, making everyone groan. "I'm kidding!"
Nico just gazed down at the table with her arms crossed, basically looking through it, and she shook her head quickly. "No... She doesn't like me. It's... It's Karolina! She's my best friend! I would know, right?"
"Apparently not," Gert muttered.
"I... I need to go." Nico left just as quickly as Karolina had while everyone watched silently again, not knowing what to do or say.
Nico didn't even know where she was going. She just knew she needed to be alone so she could think. She wasn't sure if she should trust Gert and Molly's judgement over her own. She looked back at all her interactions with Karolina, trying to figure out if Karolina's demeanor with any of them could possibly suggest that she did like her. She did sneak small glances at her a lot, and she was always willing to tag along with Nico to do literally anything. The phrase 'well, if Nico's in then so am I' came out of her mouth quite often.
'Maybe...' Nico thought.
Suddenly, she caught eye of someone sitting in their car. It was Karolina. She hadn't left yet, and the culprit was the tears she was furiously wiping from her face. She was clearly trying to calm herself down so she would be okay enough to drive, but it didn't seem to be working. Nico felt worry surge through her, and she made a move to go comfort her, but Karolina finally gave up trying to stop her tears and reversed out of her parking spot, and sped out of the lot.
"Shit," Nico cursed and immediately pulled out her phone and texted her, casually telling her to let her know when she got home as they always did to each other.
The sight of her best friend in such a fragile state not only broke her heart, but made her come to a realization.
Karolina did in fact like her. And Nico was fairly certain that she liked her back.