Chapter Text
"Okay." Nini Salazar-Roberts began, flexing her back muscles as she dipped around the corner of the kitchen and into the small living room area. The woman had a dark bottle of Pinot Noir under her arm and two glasses pressed between her thumb and index finger. "I hope you like red."
"Whatever we've got in the house is good." Came the response from across the room. Gina Porter had her body stretched out along smooth leather cushions, her feet dangling over the bottom arm and her head propped over her hands. "It's a Friday night, and of all the things I could be doing, I'm doing this." She nodded. "Boxed wine would work for all I care."
Nini set the glasses down with a chuckle before moving to pick up a stack of balanced cue cards that were on the arm of her chair. Meanwhile, Gina had arched her back, sitting up to pop the cork on the dark bottle and tip a generous amount of deep crimson into each of the glasses.
"I still can't believe we agreed to go through with this," Gina muttered, picking up her glass and sipping at it carefully. She blinked when the alcohol burned its way into her body. "This has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever done."
"Ashlyn insists that psychology is the bread of life," Nini responded, thanking her friend and taking her glass. "Come on. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish. Think of this as just another opportunity to prove them wrong."
Nini and Gina were two of five best friends who shared the Manhattan home on the lower east side near the NYU campus. With the pair, lived Maddox, an energetic child, youth and family major, Ashlyn, the lover of psychology, and Kourtney, who was doing her graduate work in music therapy. While the other three encompassed the brain's right hemisphere; exuberant and creative, Nini and Gina were in the logical, analytical, number-loving left hemisphere, both in their second year of biomedical science.
So naturally, when Ashlyn had rushed home with a new and inventive way to prove the insanity of the human psyche, the debate had taken a rather unique turn.
***
"A study published in the journal of Personality and Social Psychology says that there are thirty-six proposed questions that anyone could use to accelerate intimacy, and fall in love. All you have to do is go on one date, as each other the questions, then look into each other's eyes for four minutes straight!" Ashlyn had just gotten home and was explaining her day with a grin on her face and a stack of cue cards in her hand. "We got these from our guest lecturer, look!"
Gina just snorted with laughter into her mug of tea, her legs propped up on the dining room table. Nini was sitting up on the kitchen counter with an apple between her teeth and one eyebrow raised. She looked equally unimpressed.
"What?" Ashlyn looked over at the sound, her voice full of mock incredulity. "Ugh, come on Gina. There have been actual cases where this has worked you know. One of the couples fell in love and got married!"
Ashlyn bent over to yank a magazine from her backpack, holding out the glossy crumpled book to her friend. Displayed on the page was a picturesque photo of a pretty brunette in an off-pink sundress. Her forehead was pressed to that of a man, who was buttoned up in a blue and white vertical striped dress shirt. They had been photographed behind what looked like a realistic representation of Candyland, bright green trees and a perfectly round sun.
"That's got to be the cheesiest thing I've ever seen." Nini chuckled, setting the fruit down and combing her fingers through her hair as she hopped off the counter and walked over to peer over Gina's shoulder. In bold letters, the headline read: "I Fell in Love with a Stranger."
"Thank you." Gina flicked her hand at Nini. "All that stuff is crazy. You can't accelerate intimacy. Affection is something that comes naturally. It takes time."
As she turned her attention from a signature Ashlyn eye-roll back to her tea, a set of footsteps sounded from the second floor.
"Maddox, Kourtney, can you tell these two mad scientists that this is legit?" Ashlyn asked, showing the cue cards to the other girls. Maddox took the stack first, examining them for a moment while Kourtney had to crane her neck over her shoulder.
"Hey, yeah I've seen that before," Kourtney said with a nod. "They were talking about it on the radio when I was driving to campus the other day. Isn't that insane?"
"Sure is." Nini cracked a smirk, glancing at Gina who was on the verge of a playful laugh.
"Let me guess." Maddox stepped over to set the cards down on the table. "They don't think it's real?" There was a laughter-lined tone to her voice as well as she tilted her head to the side and gave both Gina and Nini a sidelong glance.
"Of course not," Ashlyn responded, grabbing the magazine and stuffing it back into her bag. "Just like they didn't believe in online IQ tests, or the existence of ESP, or simple conditioning, or anything that doesn't have a set of numbers to back it up." Ashlyn let out a breath, rising to prop her chin in her hands and lean on the kitchen island by her elbows. "All you two care about is making the new prosthetic kidney or crazy robot arms that will replace humans."
"What are you saying, Ash?" Gina smiled over at her friend. It was turning into one of their many recognisable debates.
"I'm saying believe in magic." Ashlyn grinned with another roll of eyes. "Live for once. Get your noses out of those books before you turn into vegetables."
Kourtney let out a signature musical laugh. "I have a simple solution." She said when Ashlyn was finished. "How about you get the two of them to try it, and if they fall in love they can all buy us dinner?"
"Ooh!" Maddox chimed in, tapping her chin. "I like that. Ash and I have that Anthropology night class, and Kourt is just heading out. You girls could have some privacy." She said, wiggling her eyebrows provocatively.
Nini was looking down at Gina, a weak attempt to gauge what she thought of the idea. Gina had her own eyes on her drink, a small smile creeping onto her lips. "So when we're done, where will you all take us to dinner?" She asked, looking from Ashlyn to Maddox, then back again.
"Wherever you want," Ashlyn confirmed excitedly, reaching forward to push the stack of cue cards over to Gina.
"And will it mean that the three of you will quit hassling us about our robots?" Nini asked, drawing the first card from the pile and letting it dangle between her fingers.
"Yep," Maddox responded, after a quick glance at Kourtney who was nodding vigorously.
Nini and Gina looked at each other briefly, each girl reading the other's thoughts. They responded in perfect unison, not knowing in the least what they were getting into.
"Deal."
***
So that's where they stood. Both girls were exhausted from the day of endless lectures and labs, glasses of wine in hand and sprawled out in the poorly lit living room. It was just minutes after seven pm, all the night classes had begun, and the house was empty, save for Gina and Nini.
Gina shuffled backwards, folding her legs underneath her and peering at the first card she had grabbed moments earlier. "So how are we going to do this?" She asked, picking it up and turning it over to examine both sides. "Did you want to just alternate asking them?"
"Yeah. That sounds good." Nini responded with a brisk nod. "Ash said this was supposed to take ninety minutes, so we can be done in time for dinner. Hit me."
"Okay. First question." Gina began. "Given the choice of anyone in the world, who would you want as a dinner guest?"
Nini turned her body so her legs hung over one arm of the soft reclining chair that her moms had presented to her as a moving gift. The brown leather suited the rustic character of the small home.
"Hmm..." She thought for a moment before grinning wide. "Lady Gaga."
Gina looked over at her, eyebrows lifted. "Really? I thought you were going to say Bob Marley or Stephen Hawking... or the blonde guy you keep staring at in our genetics class. Why Lady Gaga?"
"Because her family is Italian, and I love spaghetti," Nini answered with a simple shrug, all while ignoring Gina's quip about her crush and causing the girl to laugh. "She can sing to me while I twirl my pasta, she can teach me how to make it into a hat... or a jacket or something."
Gina made an amused sound. "Oh my god, that's so stupidly wonderful."
"I also like her music. She's edgy and weird. Did you know she looked at me at a concert once? We actually made eye contact and it was probably the single most fantastic moment of my life. What about you?" Nini looked over at the girl who was sipping at her wine.
"Gordon Ramsey," Gina spoke soundly after a split second of contemplation. "It would have to be in the UK somewhere. And he would choose the restaurant, or cook the food depending on whether we wanted to go out or eat in. Maybe we could try one of his restaurants, and I could watch him yell at his staff... that'd be so cool."
"You're twisted."
"Oh I know, I mean who better to have dinner with than a professional chef? And he's actually really nice you know. He's the sweetest thing ever to those kids on Masterchef Junior."
"You watch Masterchef Junior?" Nini didn't see Gina as the type to watch the food network.
"You don't know what I do at four in the morning on Saturday nights." Gina chuckled softly. "It's fun."
"Oh my god." Nini sat up and leaned back, gazing at the girl with a laugh of her own brimming on her lips. She could see where this experiment had the potential of being fun. Gina sat up a little straighter as well while Nini reached for the second card. "Okay. Would you be famous? And in what way?'
Gina bit her lip. "Okay, I know it's stupid, and I don't really tell anyone this, but I think it'd be really cool to be a musician." She said quietly, her eyes on the floor. Nini tilted her head to the side. Gina had never expressed any specific interest in music before. She had a beautiful voice, but Nini had only ever heard it when muffled through the shower.
"Like a pop star?"
"Maybe. You know, tour the world, sing on stage, take pictures with fans..." When she looked up, her eyes were shy. "It's lame, I know."
"It's not lame." Nini countered, jumping in at Gina's self-inflicted degradation. "I think it's awesome."
"It would help if I could sing." The girl smiled.
"Stop." Nini shook her head. "We both know you can sing."
Gina felt an uneasy twinge in her gut and shifted the topic of conversation back to her friend. "Okay, what about you? Would you be famous?"
"Yeah," Nini answered. "I guess... I mean if someone has the chance to be famous, they would take it, right?"
"What would you be famous for?"
"I would love a Nobel prize one day." She admitted, knowing Gina was already well aware. "I guess that's kind of its own type of famous." She thought for a moment, reaching forward to fill her glass again. "I would love to be famous for something that changes the world. Start a charity, advocate for people who need it."
"That's awesome."
Nini smiled. "Realistically, being a pop star doesn't sound half bad either." She added. "It would be nice to be talented."
Gina frowned. "You're talented. You don't think I hear you singing to yourself through your headphones?"
Nini just rolled her eyes. That was a can of worms she was less than enthusiastic about opening.
"Next question." Gina cut in, eager to move forward briskly. "Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you're going to say? Why?"
"Oh wow." Nini leaned back. "When I was in fourth grade, there was this boy I really liked. He had dark curly hair and the cutest brown eyes with freckles all over his nose. He was pretty much my first crush, and I was so happy when Ms O'Donnell put us in a group together for our baking soda volcano."
Gina unfolded her legs, taking a sip of wine. "I can't imagine you building a baking soda volcano." She said with a laugh. "So what happened?"
"We had to get together at his house because he was allergic to my dog, so my mom made me call him to arrange the plans. It was so scary... I'm pretty sure I wrote down what I wanted to say before I even dialled. My mom could tell you more."
"Aw, Nini, that's so cute." Gina crooned. "I wish I had known you back then, you must have been so adorable. Did you guys ever become one of those cute little elementary school couples?"
"Never, I was too shy." Nini shrugged. "What about you?"
"I never remember rehearsing anything." Gina answered. "I was kind of a loner... no one really talked to me, ergo I really had no one to rehearse to. I spent a whole bunch of lunches alone in the library though, I swear if those books could talk."
"You ate lunch alone? You never told me that." Nini frowned.
"Yeah. When we moved, it was really hard for me to readjust." The girl admitted. "I don't take well to change, and I didn't really make much of an effort to form many new friendships. By the time I graduated, there were a few of us who were really close, but we kind of drifted apart by first year." Gina stopped herself, surprised at how much she had rambled. "I guess that story is more sad than it is interesting. Let me grab the next question."
Nini couldn't help but wonder what high school Gina had been like.
"Oh, this is a good one. What constitutes a perfect day for you?" Gina asked as Nini stood up and made her way over to the kitchen, fishing around one of the shelves.
Nini talked as she shuffled through the bags and boxes that were sprawled messily throughout the open cupboard. "The perfect day for me would probably be a day without any studying. Maybe I could sleep in, watch Netflix in bed and eat a bag of gummy worms without anyone judging me. Breakfast would be those little toaster strudels with the icing packs that you can use as mini piping bags, and maybe some of that extra sugary chocolate milk that they sell at the corner store by the end of campus. The one that no one knows about."
Nini snagged a bag of pita chips she had been yearning for, closing the cupboards and making her way back to the living room.
"That sounds amazing." Gina gushed, letting her body relax on the couch again. "And we would have no classes, because one of the water pipes burst." She added, looking up at the pot lights embedded on the ceiling. "We could go out and take a trip to Governor's Island to go kayaking along the river... maybe stop and listen to one of the concerts where they don't make you pay."
Nini's eyes brightened tremendously at the prospect of free live music.
"Ooh, and for lunch, we could go to one of those extra loud bars and eat ten dollar popcorn shrimp and Shirley temples until we burst at the seams." She added. "Maybe when the bartender isn't looking you can do that thing Ash does all the time and lean over the counter to use the tap for some free refills?" Nini paused for a minute to pop a chip in her mouth, setting the bag on the table. "Wait a minute, when did my perfect day become our perfect day?"
Gina turned her head with a sly look. "When your perfect day started with personalised toaster strudels and illegal fruity beverages." She answered with a smirk. "You know I have a weakness. And also you need me if I'm going to be the one to get free refills. I'm stealthier than you."
"That's true." The Nini edged Gina on to continue, ignoring the cute look on her roommate's face.
"After lunch, we could grab a ferry ride back to the East Village, and spend the rest of the afternoon listening to the underground hippies and starving musicians on the lower east side. We could drink those shaken iced teas from Starbucks, unsweetened of course, especially after all those Shirley temples. After that we could bring the excess change to that big fountain that Kourtney fell into when we first met."
Nini laughed at the memory, while Gina continued. "Then after a two hour nap, and a few super disturbing episodes of American Horror Story, we could head out for the night, and get discounted rush tickets to one of the off-Broadway shows that are playing."
Nini had her eyes closed now, the stream of neon billboards dancing at the inside of her lids at the idea as Gina continued.
Nini sat up. "Oh my god yes! And then for dinner, we can get two dollar hotdogs from sketchy carts, and walk around like tourists, stopping to take selfies at every water feature we can find."
Gina nodded. "Then we can find some drunk idiots at a bar, flash some side-boob for a free cocktail or two, a shout out from the DJ, and a room key, before heading out for an all-expense paid night at the Mariot Marquis. The late night Sauvignon would be charged to the room of course."
"And the chocolate covered macadamia nuts."
"And the small bags of cheddar dusted popcorn."
"And the peach vodka."
Nini laughed. "We sound like raging alcoholics."
Gina was sitting up now, her eyebrows wiggling playfully as she took a delicate sip of wine before setting the glass down again. "This is actually kind of fun." She admitted. "But the next day those hotdogs probably would give us food poisoning, so we would need to skip all of our classes again right?"
"Oh of course." Nini grinned. "You can't risk infecting other students. That would be downright disrespectful."
Gina laughed. "Okay, the next question is... when did you last sing to yourself, and to someone else?"
When the memory hit her, Nini took a deep breath and rested her head in her hands with a sigh. If there was anyone whom she was going to be completely honest with, it would be Gina.
"Okay." She breathed out. "The last time I sang to myself for real was when I was fourteen, and Taylor Swift's music video for 'You Belong With Me' was one of my favourite things ever."
Gina's jaw dropped. "You didn't."
Nini groaned, hating her younger self more every second that passed. "I had my Mama D's rounded hairbrush, my Mama C's thick framed reading glasses... and a cardboard sign that read 'kiss me' in bright purple sharpie."
"You DIDN'T." Gina tried again, her features shifting into a broad smile.
"Oh I did."
"Nini!" Gina began to laugh, while Nini busied herself with a handful of crackers and keeping a stink eye on her roommate.
"I was dressed in a baggy t-shirt I had dyed at summer camp, and had tied my hair up just like Taylor had done in the video. The song was playing in the background, and I plastered the sign against the window when I thought the cute boy from across the street was walking by."
"Wait, when you thought? Was it not him?"
Nini nodded slowly. "When I got a good look, at him, I realised he was our mailman. He still gives me weird looks, so I guess the last time I sang to someone else was then too." The more Nini reminisced about the moment, the more she hated her mid-pubescent self.
Gina burst out laughing, holding her sides and burying her nose against the leather of the furniture arm while the girl across from her rolled her eyes.
"I know the last time you sang was to me when you were in the shower and being obnoxiously loud, so can we please move on?" The Nini tried as she lifted her hands in exasperation.
Gina let out a muffled squeak.
"NEXT QUESTION Gina." Nini tapped her fingers on the arm of her chair with a grin of impatience. Gina tossed her the card blindly, and Nini let out a puff of air before turning it over.
"If you were able to live to the age of 90, and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which one would you want?" Nini waited for Gina to sit up and sigh, wiping her eyes, small bouts of laughter escaping every once in a while.
"Hmm... I think I would want the mind." Nini responded. "When I was younger, my mom would always comment on how sharp my grandparents were because they had done crosswords for three-quarters of their lives. It was cool how my grandpa could do his own taxes when he was ninety."
"That's impressive." Gina nodded. "I guess I would have to say the body then. Just because men are always so goddamn shallow."
"You're going to find someone who's going to love you for you, not for your body." Nini insisted, causing Gina to look down at her toes with an involutary blush. "But I can understand that." A second later, Nini's eyes widened. "Did I tell you about when I went down south a few summers ago with a few friends, and got a spray tan before so I didn't burn?"
"No, I don't think so." Gina brought her glass to her lips, raising an eyebrow. Another tangent, despite the fact that the clock was rearing to just about 30 minutes into the night.
"Okay, so we were going out to Punta Cana for grad trip, and I figured that I didn't want to come home looking like a tomato, so I went to this spray tan place my aunt had recommended. You know how they work right? There's a set of nozzles, and you wait for the signal before getting sprayed on one side, then turn around and get sprayed on the other?"
Gina nodded. "I've seen Friends." She said with a grin. "Did you get two twos?"
"No." Nini chuckled. "It was worse." The brunette set her glass down on the table, propping herself up a little straighter. "So you go in naked, and they get you to stand spread eagle, so the chemicals will coat evenly, and there won't be any streaks and stuff. Depending on the place, you usually do the front first, and it's all good. The real problem is with the back..."
"Oh god." Gina could see where this was going, and it was amazing.
"Yeah, so they don't really account for the fact that there's like a crease underneath your ass cheeks, so everything gets tanned properly, except for the random white patch under your butt."
"Holy shit." Gina coughed with laughter. "That's so fucking great."
Nini stood up to demonstrate. "Right, so if you want the underside of your ass to get tanned, you have to like grab your cheeks and... hold them up. The issue with that is that the outside of your hands get extra dark."
Gina burst into hysterics and slipped off her recliner as she saw the girl standing in front of her, holding her butt. Nini couldn't help but smile as the sound of Gina's laugh filled the room.
"It's not funny!" She protested, turning around. "I realised three days into the vacation that whenever I took a step, people could see the white lines under my ass! And I could see it with others too, like there was this girl who bent over for a towel or something, and you could totally see where the tan didn't reach. Spray tan places really need to angle the nozzles properly or someething. It happens with girl's chests too!"
"I'm crying." Gina laughed as she hid her tear-streaked face in her hands, her dark hair plastered to her face messily. "I'm literally crying."
"I'm just gonna read the next question. And when you're ninety, and you're standing in the spray tan chamber holding your 30 year old ass cheeks, you better remember me, and all the wisdom I've imparted upon you today." Nini said with a chuckle as she moved to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. They had gone through about half the bottle of wine together, and the effects of the alcohol was lifting the initially doubtful spirit of the room.
"I will, I promise." Gina had to stand and compose herself, her fingers drawing through her hair before she grabbed the next card and handed it to Nini.
"Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?" Nini took a sip of water and traversed back to the couch, flipping the kitchen light off as she went to bathe the room in the isolated glow of the single yellow lamp.
"I really don't think about that." Gina answered honestly. "I mean, after every Thanksgiving meal when I was little, I used to think I was going to die via turkey explosion, but it never happened. I guess my hunch is that I'm going to die peacefully in my sleep... that's ideal, right?"
"Yeah." Nini agreed. "I think I'm going to die doing what I love." She pondered. "Maybe I'll drop dead in the cadaver lab I plan to build."
"You're such a nerd." Gina grinned. "I can almost hear Ash and Maddox making fun of you."
"I know." Nini laughed. "But really though, I could go straight from the floor to the table, and my team could cut me open right on the spot."
"Ew, Nini." Gina protested, setting the handful of pita chips she was holding on the glass coffee table with a soft clatter. "I was eating." She grabbed the stack of cards, flipping to the next one. "Let's move on before you start describing how they're going to put your lungs on an artificial pump and fill them with air." Nini's eyes lit up, while Gina just rolled her own. "Alright, name three things that you and your partner have in common. This one should be easy. Our majors? Our tastes in music?"
"Our ideas as to what constitutes the perfect day."
"Our love for the cheap and cheerful. And food. And coffee."
"This Pinot." Nini chuckled, bringing her newly filled glass to her lips.
"Our raging alcoholism." Gina lay back on the couch once more and repeated what Nini had mentioned earlier, flipping the card between her fingers idly. "Wow." She commented. "You know, I never really noticed how many things we have in common."
Nini twisted her chair around and pulled the clutch, flipping it backwards slightly so she was curled up on the cushion with her legs beneath her. "You didn't? I always noticed how we did. Especially when I met the others, you were the one I knew I would become closest with."
Gina looked over. "Aw." She smiled through the glow of the lamp. "That's sweet."
"Don't get too sugary now." Nini said with a grin, as Gina tossed her the pile of cards over the table. When Nini moved to pick the next one up, she was well aware of Gina's soft gaze on her, and she laughed quietly to herself. "For what in your life do you feel the most grateful?" She then asked, looking up to meet Gina's set of eyes.
"My friends." Gina answered without a single moment of contemplation. "You, and Maddox and Ashlyn and Kourtney. I'm more grateful for you guys than anything else, you have no idea. I'm also grateful for the opportunities I have. There are millions of people around the world who would kill for the chance to get an education in the heart of Manhattan... or to get an education at all for that matter."
Nini was nodding in agreement.
"I love you guys, even with all your little quirks." Gina finished. "There's nowhere I'd rather be."
"I have quirks?" Nini asked, tilting her head to the side and honing in on the comment with curiosity. "Quirks like what?"
Gina rolled her eyes. "Like the way you can recite the stages of Glycolysis back to front without looking at your notes. The way you know the words to that crazy periodic table song that Daniel Radcliffe sang. The way you literally can go up and correct the TA when he made that mistake explaining the action of chymotrypsin in the seminar the other day." Gina smiled. "And the way you get so focused on your work, that you don't need any breaks. Meanwhile, I'm over here taking a half hour every two, just to eat Captain Crunch straight from the box and roll around the floor whining."
Gina gestured to the top of the fridge to where four red boxes of the sugary cereal sat in a neat line.
"Nah, that's crap that no one cares about. You would think a student going for his PhD would know that the substrates of chymotrypsin are tyrosine, phenylalanine, leucine and tryptophan, not cystine." Nini followed Gina's gaze to the cereal. "I mean actual quirks. Is there anything I do that pisses you off?"
"Not really." Gina was being honest. If there was anyone who was the innate definition of flaw-free, it was Nini. Studying in the cramped library with anyone else all night would have driven Gina off the wall, but she would happily do it with Nini any day of the week. They got shit done.
"But you have to give the guy a little credit, tryptophan and cystine have the same triple base pair sequence. He was close."
"Slip-ups are for the week." Nini grinned. "And I have a hard time believing you, but you're being extra sweet, so I'll take it."
"Who's sugary now?" Gina didn't wait for an answer before she jerked her chin towards her friend. "Your turn. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?"
"I'm grateful for a lot of things." Nini slumped down in her chair, her fingertips grazing her chin. "I'm grateful for my amazing family, my moms, and for you guys." She grinned. "You really covered all the bases."
Gina balled herself up with a smile while Nini continued. "I'm also grateful for the Starbucks on campus, and the fact that the library is open all night. Oh, and the super-fast wifi corner of the cafeteria that nobody knows about." She winked. "I'm grateful that I have a killer study buddy who's always going to be there. I guess I'm extra grateful for you."
There was a moment of comfortable silence when Nini finished, and the girls were caught within a mere two seconds of intent staring.
"Um... next question." Nini quickly cut in, pushing the pile over to Gina and clearing her throat. She hadn't intended for the conversation to cut so deep and reached forward to take a long sip of wine to avoid talking further.
"Sorry, yeah." Gina nodded, reaching forward to grab the card. "Okay, if you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?"
"About the way I was raised?" Nini asked, looking over in confusion. "Like the way my parents raised me?"
"I guess. I don't know, Ashlyn's guest lecturer didn't really specify."
Nini thought for a moment. "I guess... I wish my parents would have let up a little on stressing the importance of school." She spoke. "When they saw my potential, they really had this hope that I would grow into a prodigy, and be the top of my class. It pushed me to stray away from that, and I spent a lot of my time getting into trouble, dating dumbasses, smoking weed and getting wasted. My grades were alright, don't get me wrong, but there was a lot of pressure, and I would... disagree with them a lot."
Gina hadn't known Nini's parents were strict. Whenever they had come to visit they showed nothing but love, to Nini, and to the others. "You did that kind of stuff in high school?" The girl asked, a hint of surprise to her voice. "You never told us you were a badass."
"I don't know if badass is a good way to put it. I would go for something more along the lines of trainwreck." Nini said, a reminiscent tone to her voice. "I spent a lot of time doing things I regret with people I regret doing them with. There were a lot of bad influences in my life, something I let happen by my own will. Once during midterm season, a whole bunch of us snuck into a parking lot with a shit ton of fireball and got wasted on the hoods of the cars. When the staff found out, they called the police, and we just made it out unscathed."
"Wow. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you kind of sounded like an asshole."
Nini leaned her head back, her eyes locking on Gina, and flickering with humour. "Oh I was the worst. We egged a house once you know. A girl from our school pissed off one of my friends, and we decided to get even. It was a small group of us, we decided to combine scrambled yolk with two ply toilet paper, and hurl it at her mom's expensive Venetian brick. Now that I think about it, when my moms found out, that was the point in my life where I was pretty sure I was going to die."
Gina couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable at the notion that Nini was big into drugs and alcohol. They didn't go to many parties among the five of them, the occasional Friday night, celebratory birthday, or Monday dollar beers were usually it, especially with Gina and Nini's heavy workloads. The worst it had ever been was when Maddox came home with a bag of her own vomit, and insisted drunkenly that she could throw it out on her own. When she missed the garbage can in the garage, Gina had taken care of the dirty work, not without a sincere curse or two along the way. The morning after, Maddox had apologised more than enough, but Gina still joked that if she ever was to need a kidney, it would come from her.
It had only been just over two semesters, but Gina was slowly noticing how little her and her roommates discussed their lives before NYU.
"Did you party a lot?" Gina asked, her long legs shuffling under her slightly. "Like in high school?"
"A lot of my friends were older than me." Nini answered, her eyes down on her hands. "I guess as a freshman, they taught me the ropes early."
"So yeah?"
"Yeah."
An image of a young Nini, hunched over a toilet to retch the contents of her stomach into the bowl passed through Gina's mind, and she shuddered.
"Are you okay?" Nini asked, noting Gina's sudden shift in composure. Gina's face lightened immediately, and she nodded.
"Yeah sorry. What was the question again?"
Nini gave her roommate a quizzical look, before picking the card up again. "If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?"
"I guess if there was one thing I could change about the way I was raised, I would go back to elementary and high school and tell my mom to care a little more about my ambitions." She spoke quietly. Nini tilted her head to the side, her gaze trained on her friend as she continued. "There were a lot of complications when I was growing up, and I wasn't really the biggest thing my mom had to worry about." She admitted. "I got upset a lot because most of the time, she wouldn't really take me seriously, and you know me. I'm the kind of person who buckles down, and gets what she wants no matter how long it takes."
Nini had to agree. When Gina had missed over ten multiple choice on the general chemistry midterm of first year, she had curled into a ball and sulked in her room for what felt like 48 hours straight. All the girls had tried to coax her out, but Gina had temporarily lost all drive. It took some time, but on the evening Gina realised she could bounce back with the final, she had bolted from the house and to the library, only to glue her eyes to the textbook for the rest of the semester.
Nini refilled her glass, watching as the dark liquid sloshed around with a satisfying sound. "I guess we would have been well off to trade parents." Nini remarked. "I wanted mine to care less, you wanted yours to care more?"
Gina laughed nervously, watching her roommate's movements like a hawk. When she leaned forward to grab the questions, her fingers brushed Nini's outstretched arm, just grazing her wrist. "Sorry." Gina muttered, wrapping her grip around the index cards and yanking them back quicker than she had intended. She noticed the flash of confusion in Nini's eye, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. The girl busied herself by stretching her limbs, checking the time, and shifting her eyes back to Gina silently. The girl avoided her gaze, looking down at the next question.
"Take four minutes, and tell your partner about your life story in as much detail as possible." Gina shivered. "Okay, you go first, do you have your phone?"
Nini nodded, lifting her hips off the chair to fish around the pocket of her jeans and pull out the smudged device. "Alright. Here goes nothing." She spoke, tapping around the screen to set the timer for four minutes, then resting it in her lap. Nini looked over at Gina briefly, noticing that the girl was tensed up, her shoulders hunched forward, which was a blatant indication of nerves. Deciding to leave it for now, Nini began. "I was born in Southern California but raised in Salt Lake City. Went to East High School, like I mentioned before, there was a serious stress on me to perform really well, by my parents and my teachers, and I absolutely hated the pressure."
Gina nodded. Even now Nini hated being put under pressure of any kind. It was what made her such an effective student, she did things well in advance because she knew that deadlines were her largest source of stress. It pushed Gina to improve as well, and she knew that Nini strived to succeed to NYU because she wanted to, at least more than she did for the satisfaction of anyone else. Yes, Nini did want her parents to be proud, but she never hesitated to let her personal happiness take precedence over that. It was something they had discussed at length before, and it was another thing they had in common.
"I guess my high school career wasn't exactly typical." Nini continued. "I had a few friends my age, but most of them disappeared when I met the group of seniors. We got into a whole lot of shit like I said before, and while my parents hated every minute of it, there was something about it that never ceased to satisfy me."
The timer rounded two minutes.
"But you're hardly a badass now." Gina noted. "Something had to have changed between the end of senior year and now, right?"
"A few things." Nini had her fingers midway through her dark hair, her eyes shadowed considerably. "It was the night of our senior formal, a few kids had a little too much to drink, one thing led to another and we had an alcohol poisoning death." Gina was surprised at how casual Nini was being, as if death by alcohol poisoning was just another day at the office.
"I knew the kid... not enough to be shaken to the core, but we had met in the halls once or twice. I just remember his body being taken away, completely still, and terribly silent."
Gina shuddered again. "So that was what changed you?"
"I guess. I mean it was a huge blow to the school, and the general community. No one really knew how to deal with losing a high school student that way, it had never happened before. After that night I figured that things needed to be a little bit more serious. I realized that I had dumped most of senior year out the window in the form of broken beer bottles and nicotine, so I changed. I figured maybe throwing caution to the wind wasn't the best way to solve all of life's decisions, but neither was following the rules on the straight and narrow with no chance of deviation."
"So you needed a balance."
"Exactly." Nini had unfolded her legs now, her glass of wine empty once more. "I needed to start doing things because I wanted them. To start living in a way that would make me happy, rather than struggling to please the people around me. It's a hard ass lesson to have to learn, especially in high school when you're surrounded by nothing but the pressure to deliver."
Three minutes.
"I was terrified that one day, it would be me in that body bag, and seeing as I had come close before, it really hit me hard. So in order to shape myself up for post-secondary, I decided to cut the drinking, the smoking, and all the late nights. There wasn't much more of my time in high school left, but I began to get along better with my family, and although a lot of our ideals never lined up, we got through it without too many bumps and bruises. NYU was always a dream for me, and I'm so glad I went for it."
"Wait a minute." Gina had to go back and replay what Nini had just revealed. "You came close before?"
"Yeah." Nini was looking down at her feet, the shame evident on her face. "I don't remember the details, but it was a particularly hot night, we decided it would be a good idea to do tequila shots by the abandoned scrap yard. A lot of the guys I was with were huge and muscular, and I tried to pace them by taking way too many shots in a short amount of time. I remember throwing up everywhere, then woke up in a hospital room alone. The doctors told my parents I needed a tracheostomy, an IV all through the night, and a stomach flush. It was scary, and my parents didn't punish me nearly as much as I thought they would, only because they had come so close to losing me."
There was a moment of quiet, and Gina caught herself staring at the girl while she was gazing down at her fingers, clearly deep in thought. "Oh my god Nini." She croaked, her voice nothing but hushed rasp. "How big of an idiot were you?"
Nini let out a breath of laughter. "Yeah... It wasn't exactly the highlight of my high school career. You would think it would be the thing that made me sober up, but I was young, and it just drove me to keep pushing the limits. Someone had to die for me to understand the danger I was pushing myself into, as ridiculous as that sounds."
"Well I'm glad you learned." Gina said softly, filling the silence. "And I'm glad you went for NYU as well. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met you."
"Thanks Gi." Nini grinned as the phone began to vibrate against her leg, signalling that her four minutes were up. "Were you ready to go?"
Gina took a deep breath. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to." Nini assured her quickly. She knew Gina never talked about her family for a reason, and the last thing she wanted to do was push her. Especially when they had the rest of the night together, turning the conversation on its head probably wasn't the best idea.
"No, I want to." Gina gave her a small smile. "Hit the timer." Nini leaned forward and did so, nodding at Gina to begin.
"I was born literally right by the beach. At the time it was just me, my older brother, and my Mom and Dad. I had to have been no more than nine or ten when we made the move up to join other family in Michigan for financial, and stability reasons... at least that's what my mom told me. Like I said, I'm the kid who struggles with change, and I hated leaving all my friends, and abandoning the things I grew to know so well."
Nini knew she should have focused on the moving part, but she had no idea Gina had an older brother. "I always thought you were an only child?" Nini asked when Gina paused. "You have an older brother?"
"Yeah. His name is Jamie, he's five years older than me, and was just in the midst of starting high school when we moved." There was a twinge of annoyance in her voice which was replaced quickly with a kind smile.
Nini closed her mouth apologetically, gesturing for Gina to continue.
"So when we got settled, my mom enrolled my brother and me in a new school, my dad didn't really want to move. There was a period of time where my brother and I would always hear him and my mom fighting, and neither would tell us what was going on. I still don't understand it fully, but one thing led to another, and he left."
"He left?" Nini's eyes widened momentarily.
"Yeah. Just like that. He never told me why, or even really gave me a proper goodbye. I know he told Jamie because he was older, but only under a sworn secrecy. So I guess you could say that little Gina was kept in the dark, which she didn't hate considering school was her biggest priority."
"You must have been crushed..."
"I would be lying if I said I wasn't." Gina admitted. "When we were little, Dad would take the whole family down to the beach and make little campfires, then spend all day relaxing and eating those mini marshmallows while the sun set. He made time for me, even though it wasn't a mystery that Jamie was my father's son, and I was my mother's daughter. We made it work somehow." Gina had to pause to ensure Nini had no further questions. When there was a moment of expectant silence, she continued.
"So when Jamie was about sixteen, somehow, he had scored a part-time job at the car wash by our house and was making a little bit of money. The shitty thing was that both of my parents had always told us when we turn sixteen, and we could support ourselves, we could do whatever we wanted with our lives. My brother was angry at my Dad as well, but it never seemed to affect him the way it did my Mom and me. One thing led to another, and he ended up dropping out of high school, got into drugs and alcohol, and starting disappearing for days on end." Gina paused for a moment, taking in a long breath.
"Mom was concerned, but in hindsight, she had another kid to worry about. I needed her support through school, and all she did was supply Jamie with additional small amounts of cash here and there to ensure he had something to stay on his feet when he returned after weeks on end." Gina took a sip of water, crossing her legs neatly beneath her once more. "A year later, Jamie started to get aggressive, and when we learned that he had been leaving to go visit our Dad, all hell broke loose. I mean it wasn't much of a surprise, but it took my Mom and me about three seconds to realize that both of them were slowly starting to fuck over the family. He would usually come home completely wasted."
"Wasted?" Nini furrowed her brow. "But he was young..."
"I know." Gina shrugged. "I wanted to go and find my Dad and knock some sense into him for supplying Jamie with booze, but he never told me or my mom where he was, so I was stuck spending endless nights hosing my brother down in the backyard, and keeping him on his side as he slept. I remember during one Christmas, my Mom had invited some of the family over for dinner, and we had all agreed to be there. Jamie came in about two hours into the meal, completely out of it and reeking of whatever god forbidden drug he had on him at the time. It was so ridiculous, and after we had given a loose explanation to most of the kids, he passed out on the couch after puking in the powder room sink."
"That's awful." Nini breathed. "I can't believe your Dad would give him alcohol when he was underage like that."
"Yeah." Gina could feel the tears beginning to form on her bottom lids, and struggled to keep her voice level. She was thankful they had dimmed the lights. "But despite all that, he was my mother's son, and she didn't have the heart to just kick him to the curb. But she also couldn't have him running back and forth without any notion of whether or not he was safe and sober. She didn't have the energy to deal with him."
"I can't imagine what that was like for you or your mom." Nini murmured softly. There was sympathy evident in her voice, and both girls heard it.
"It was pretty terrible. I should have had an older brother, and a Dad to help me grow up, and I didn't get either." Gina looked up at Nini. "But I think I turned out pretty good."
Four and a half minutes.
Nini gave her a sad smile. "Well if you ask me, there's no one more kick-ass than you." She said kindly.
The timer hit five minutes, but Gina ignored it. She was knee-deep in this can of worms already, so she figured she might as well get it all out.
"I got a card from him on my eighteenth birthday you know." She said softly, fiddling with a hangnail that she had slowly torn over the last few minutes. "From my Dad. It had a five dollar bill inside, and a note that said he was sorry, and he loved me, and all that crap. It still didn't explain why he left, which was the only reason I had for opening it in the first place. It also said that Jamie had a case of psychosis, which he dealt with through drugs because he couldn't afford rehab. I guess he didn't have the balls to tell my mom directly, so he put it on me."
"Did you tell your mom?"
"I did." Gina nodded. "I made sure to burn the card and the money before I told her though. I didn't want her to know that Dad had made a pathetic attempt to reach out, because by that point, she was back on her feet from everything that had happened. We got word that Jamie had a girlfriend, and had taken off to live with her, so we hadn't seen or heard from him in a few years. To this day we still don't, and we really never expect to again."
"Gina..."
"It sucks, I know." Gina cut in before Nini could continue. "But all throughout my teenage years, I spent most of my free time keeping Jamie away. I hated it, and I hated my Mom for repeatedly letting him back in the house. She would just tell me that he was her son, and she couldn't lose 'hope'. I guess a part of me was sympathetic to that, but another wasn't. I was forced to grow up way before I should have Neens, and for a kid who hates change, it was hard."
Nini could feel something brewing in the centre of her chest, a weight that wasn't there before, yet grew heavier the longer Gina spoke.
"I want to do well here at school, and I want to show my Dad, and my brother what they walked away from. More importantly, I want to tell myself that I can accomplish something without my fucked up family problems getting in the way. I want this for myself as well."
Nini chewed on the inside of her cheek, racking her brain for a way to respond. "Well if you ask me, your Dad didn't deserve a daughter like you." She spoke with confidence. "Anyone else who had to deal with bullshit like that when they were growing up would have been broken by now, and you're a better person because of it. You can make your own choices Gina, you're self-driven."
"Thanks." Gina responded sheepishly, wiping her eyes from the film of tears that had clouded her vision.
"Did you want to grab the next question?"
Through all the heartfelt storytelling, Gina had forgotten that they were still in the middle of Ashlyn's stupid experiment. She nodded, motioning for Nini to go ahead, to which she did.
"If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?" She asked, her eyes lifting up to meet Gina's. She had a red rim around her own eyes, and she was doing her best to mask the residue of tears as a result of the emotion sparked by the previous question. Nini gave her some time, lifting the bottle of wine and refilling both glasses.
After a moment of thought, Gina chuckled to herself. "We had to do this as a project for school when I was in second grade. I said my ability would be to be invisible, so I could pull down people's pants without them knowing. It was mostly geared towards this girl Tess, who wouldn't stop teasing me because I couldn't brush the back of my hair properly to get it all up into a ponytail for gym class. Man I hated that girl."
Nini let her chin fall into her hands. "Of course you did." She grinned with a shake of the head.
"But now..." Gina continued. "I think that if I could wake up having gained any one quality or ability, it would be the ability to have Ryan Gosling appear out of thin air."
"Aaaand of course you would." Nini repeated. She looked up to smile at Gina, who was beaming. "And what would you do with Ryan Gosling?"
"I would make him to me to his beach house in California. We could get married and make beautiful children together."
"Alright." Nini set the stack of cards down with a resounding thump, and looked over at her friend. "And thus, we conclude the reproductive portion of our night."
Gina just continued to flash Nini an ear splitting smile. Nini was finding herself admiring it more and more as time progressed. "What about you? If you could wake up having gained any one ability or quality, what would it be?"
"I would love to time travel." Nini responded. "If I hadn't gone into science, I would be doing history, even though it sounds super lame. I've always wanted to go way back to the Victorian England, or maybe Renaissance Italy, or the American Revolution. I guess it's technically not a superpower, but the question never specified."
"That's clever." Gina noted. "I'm not surprised that you thought of it though."
"Another reason I want to time travel is because I would want to go back to when we were in high school. I would use my friend's illegally licensed truck to drive up to Michigan and find you."
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"What? Why?"
Nini took a short breath, hoping her response wouldn't be crossing any lines. "Because I want to find young Gina, and do whatever I could to make her life easier."
Gina felt her heart leap from her chest to her mouth. "Nini...." She managed to say, her voice soft. Nini nodded to her sweetly.
"You never deserved to go through any of that, especially when you were little, so I want to go back and try to make it better for you. I know it's dumb, and I probably couldn't do much, but I feel like you were forced to deal with a lot of it on your own. I would want to help you hose off your brother, and make sure he doesn't vomit back into his mouth. You can bet your ass I would help flick the lighter that you used to burn that birthday card. I feel like you could have helped me as well. You wanted someone who would invest more dedication to your academic career, while I needed someone who would whip mine into me."
Gina didn't know what to say.
Before she could respond however, Nini's phone began to ring, the sound of the vibrations against the glass jolted both girls from their reverie.
"It's Ashlyn." Nini groaned as she saw the photo of the girl on the screen of her phone. Ashlyn had taken her caller ID photo personally, it was a snapshot of her smiling while pointing to Nini who had her mouthful of grapes and was in mid-chew over her shoulder. As much as she hated it, Nini was way too lazy to go in and change it.
"You should answer her." Gina said softly. "Before she jumps out of the phone and attacks you."
Nini brought the phone to her ear, keeping one eye on Gina as she spoke. "Hey Ash... what's going on?"
"Hey, Maddox and I are on break from our three-hour night class, so we went and grabbed food. How are things going over there? Are you two in love yet?"
"Shut up." Nini muttered into the phone. "This is actually taking a lot longer than you said it would. It's been an hour, and we're only on question twelve out of thirty-six."
"Question twelve?!" Ashlyn's voice was incredulous. "You haven't even gotten halfway through yet? Girl at this rate you're not going to be done by the time we get back and we're going to have to listen. What are the two of you doing, turning each of the questions into a novel?"
"Technically you read a novel, I think what you mean is we're turning each of the questions into a speech. If you're going to poke fun at me, at least do it right." Nini could almost hear Ashlyn roll her eyes. "And so what if we are?"
"You truly are a loser." Ashlyn joked, while Nini laughed into the phone. She saw Gina look up to smile at her as she finished off her glass of wine.
Nini could hear Maddox in the background. "What's going on?" Her voice was muffled through the speaker. "Is that Nini? Is she in love with Gina yet?"
"No, she's only on question twelve of thirty six and it's been a freakin hour. Do you believe that?"
"Seriously? What are those two doing, writing a novel?"
"Oh my god I know right?"
Nini groaned to herself. "OKAY, as much as I love listening to the ladies of The View, I would really like to know when you two are coming home. How much longer is that class of yours?"
"Technically it's running for another hour, but seeing as Maddox almost fell asleep halfway through the documentary about the cultural relevance of sacred tapestries, we might end up leaving earlier than we planned. Have you guys eaten? Maybe you could go out?"
"Not yet, we just drank. Actually we drank a lot." Nini answered, eyeing the bottle of wine that was now three quarters empty. "But something tells me Gina is hungry." She added, turning to see the girl was elbow deep in the bag of pita chips, sorting them by size. Nini set her hand over the receiver of the phone, turning to address her roommate. "It's only eight thirty Gi, did you want to go out and grab dinner? Maddox and Ashlyn are going to be back soon, and we've got a lot more of these to go." Gina nodded with a smile, her cheeks puffed out and full of food.
"Alright Ash, we'll head out now and get them done. Don't wait up."
"Good." Came Ashlyn's response. "It's like I can almost feel the love tonight."
"Shut up Ash." Gina called through her mouthful. As she spoke, a stream of chewed up pita chips sprayed from her lips and went flying over the coffee table, a few stray crumbs landing in Nini's lap. She looked up at her friend with one eyebrow raised, brushing off the speckles. "I'm thorry." She apologized sheepishly.
"You two are the cutest." Ashlyn continued, not hesitating to push every button possible. "Oh, you have to go out to that restaurant that I told you about, Westville? It's so good, and it's so perfectly romantic place to go for a first date!"
"Bye Ash." Nini sang as she moved to hang up the phone.
"Get the blended mint lemonade and the crab cakes! You'll thank me one day Nini Salazar-Roberts!" Both girls heard Ashlyn yell before Nini ended the call. She then leaned forward and tossed her phone onto the glass table, her elbows resting on her knees and eyes trained on Gina.
"What do you say?" Nini asked as she watched the smaller girl swallow the unnaturally large mouthful of crackers. "I can go grab the address for that place. I know it's in the East Village somewhere, which isn't far, so if we wanted we could just walk home."
Gina stood up, grabbing both empty glasses as she went. There was a slight red tint to the curve of each glass, small traces of Nini's light lip-gloss smeared on the ridge of the one on the right.
"I'll call a cab."