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When Nicole woke up the night after Centennial, the first thing she thought of wasn't Chase or even the past 4 weeks she had spent pretending not to like him. It was the confusion of being woken up by a stray cat in her room. Or no- it was Chase's cat? she couldn't tell with the sun, sitting half above the horizon and blaring into her eyes through her wide open window.
Her wide-open window.
This had happened 4 other times in her life with a screenless window that she often left ajar, she should consider herself lucky that more wild animals didn't find their way inside and if Nicole said anything to her mom about it, she knew she'd get lectured about rabies and such for days on end so she made a note not to tell her mom and not to leave her window open. Most likely, neither of those notes would stick in her conscious and she would end up bypassing both.
The small, clean? looking cat approached her, eyes clear and quiet, Nicole backed up at the very same speed. Chase's cat was new, months old and Nicole hadn't had the chance to get to know it yet, she couldn't even remember its name.
"Stay." she tried, whispering in the early hour. It did not stay, its form shot out of the sunbeam and she spotted a shiny silver collar around its neck that instantly put her at ease. Nonvolatile. Somebody's. Nicole didn't favor animals at all, they were never allowed in her house growing up and her grandma had a guard dog that trampled Nicole multiple times as a kid for being too 'rowdy' her grandma said.
The cat's attention was now on the room rather than the person in the room, curious wandering at the brand-new space. Nicole got actually got closer and it didn't seem to mind so she crouched in front of it, far enough away to run if need be and close enough to see its tag.
Taylor Hammond - to this address.
It was Chase's address, she heaved a sigh that startled Taylor- and ran under Nicole's bed to the very far corner. She considered waking Chase up but it really wasn't his fault. She groaned and began crawling under her bedframe.
-
"Cole." She heard a brisk whisper-yell from behind her. She was red in the face from chasing Taylor around her room, trying to get her to jump out the window, and as she turned around, a squinting chase was leaning out of his window looking at her like she had full clown attire on.
"Why are you awake?" she whisper-yelled back and he leaned further out of his window.
"I had to pee, I saw you running around your room and thought I was still dreaming."
She rolled her eyes before hearing something drop loudly and shatter behind her. Nicole's face screwed up, folding in on herself at the loud noise, certain it woke up her mom.
"What was that?" Chase leaned over to try and see into her room.
Taylor knocked over a cup, a cup of water that was now living on the floor in a puddle of intact glass and itself. "I left my window open and your cat got in and she's breaking everything." Nicole sighed.
He let out a single laugh, unmoving. "Wow."
"Wow? wow come get your cat out of my room!"
"It's your fault she's in there!" he threw back, obviously still amused at the situation. "You have responsibilities as a window owner. As do I."
"Please, Chase, I wanna go back to sleep." She glared at him, he stubbornly glared back and then silently rolled his eyes, climbing out of his window in pristine white socks. He held back a smile as he went, it gave her half a second to remember everything, she almost thought it gave him one too. He stood outside and looked at her, waiting.
"what," she asked.
"Hand her over." He said, motioning his thumbs towards his house.
"No way! She won't come near me."
"you want me to come inside?"
"Uh yeah, I do." She looked at him like he was being ridiculous because he was being ridiculous. Chase sighed and approached closer. She watched him climb atop the cinderblocks that sat under her window like he'd done it before, which he had, at least a few times but still, he was so weirdly good at it that she forgot to move out of his way.
"Woah-" he almost headbutted her before he realized she hadn't moved.
There they stood, staring at each other. Nicole was half zoned-out just thinking about his facial features that were suddenly very up close. His freckles in certain places, his eyebrows raised, and his lowered gaze. The corners of Chase's mouth turned up in a fond sort of way but broke when something else fell in her room behind them.
"Cat-"
"-Right-"
His feet hit the ground of her room, "Where is she?" He crouched.
"Probably under my bed again." She crouched with him. "There- in that shadow." Nicole pointed to newfound Taylor. Chase shoved himself halfway under her bed and then beckoned the cat the rest of the way with ease. Taylor was actually pretty cute when she wasn't breaking things but Nicole still wouldn't get too close because she seemed on guard even in Chase's arms. He sat Taylor on Nicole's window sill and she jumped out into their yard. The air was freezing, the wind cascading down into her room, and something reminded her of this among all of the commotion. Goosebumps appeared along her forearms.
"Thanks," Nicole said. Eager to get under her covers in an airtight room.
"Yeah." He rubbed his eyes and headed towards the window, shoulders sagging, hair messed up and ungelled as he had it before the whole scheme. She liked it better that way. He did too.
"Wait-" She grabbed him. Chase stared at her expectantly for a few seconds. She really didn't know why she asked him to wait, she was half asleep and maybe just wanted to say bye.
"What?" He encouraged her. She pulled him into her and hugged him, slow and aware of how warm they both were in the breeze of the morning piercing their bubble with icy bullets. He hugged her back immediately, sighing into her neck.
They had done this multiple times on the night of the centennial, latching onto each other in the middle of the crowds. They actually hadn't seen much of each other since then. Everyone stayed out until sunrise including Chase and Nicole. The mild hangover and sleep deprivation were hell and neither of them engaged each other at all the entire following day, trying desperately to catch up on their sleep schedule before Monday.
This was the reunion, almost well-slept and totally sober.
"Ray and Dave are going to a showing of the iron giant today." Chase blurted. Still hugging her.
"What's that." She asked.
"It's this animated movie. they've seen it like twelve times and they keep trying to get me to watch it."
"Oh."
"I'm going with them." He said.
"Oh that's cool, I'll see you after if-"
"They invited you too if you want to come. I don't know." He sounded bashful. A characteristic she remembered from childhood and moments here and there within the past few weeks. Nicole smiled into his clothes for a long moment, waiting for him to say something else. He didn't, but he fidgeted further.
"Do you want me to come?" She asked him, snaking her arms further around Chase's waist.
"Yeah, obviously. I just didn't know if you partook in the culture that is animation not intended for toddlers." Nicole scoffed at that and tickled him briefly, feeling him squirm away from her with a huge smile. She smiled back at him, dropping his defense of covered chests and tensed shoulders.
She sighed, "Yeah, the only stuff I watch these days is Cinder-Elmo." He laughed at her, "So I'll pass, sorry." Nicole finished. Silence fell and he settled next to her against her wall, looking around, yawning.
"Seriously, though." He scratched the nape of his neck, "If you wanna go, everyone would want you there."
"Even..." She joked, exaggerating her need to be validated and would've come without him saying another word.
"Especially me." He looked over at her. "Because you're my best friend." He joked, She rolled her eyes.
"I mean- we are." She said honestly, yawning for what felt like the millionth time. Chase held his breath, looking at her all weird. Nicole really did consider them friends, not only friends obviously but she felt like they'd been friends forever and it hadn't stopped at any moment. Not when they weren't talking and not even when she realized she wanted to date him quite a bit. Usually, she just dates people, both parties having their separate friend groups and not mixing fluids at any point in the short-lived relationship. This was different. This was valuable.
"I-" He tried. She raised her eyebrows, clueless about what she had said wrong. "I agree." He nodded at her. He kept nodding at her. And leaned slowly towards her face. Nicole smiled as he kissed her cupid's bow once, immediately spinning around towards her window.
"Sleep." Chase said and swung a leg outside. "Go with us?"
"I'd love to." She said, hand above his head on the glass, She leaned down to kiss him again on his cupid's bow. Chase laughed at her, she rolled her eyes and he went and crawled back into his room for the night yelling a 'bye' through her finally closed window.