Work Text:
College wasn’t as exciting as people said it was, possibly because Nicole wasn’t enrolled. From her perspective as someone freeloading off her girlfriend, it was just a place where a bunch of nerds acted like they were learning stuff they’d forget the following semester. The parties sucked enough that they made Nicole miss Kelly’s old shitshows. Even if Kelly would always invite a bunch of 20 year old guys she barely knew, Nicole knew how to step around those burnt out wastoids and they didn’t know where she lived. Now if Nicole ran into a drunk fratboy he could follow her back to her dorm making her circle around the entire campus just to shake him off. It was too much effort for too little reward. The only good part of the whole ordeal was being away from her bitch mom and getting to spend basically every moment she wasn’t in class with Jecka. Their weekends usually consisted of Nicole lounging around the dorm room until Jecka finished whatever project she was working on, leaving sometimes to go to the convenience store for smokes or whatever, they’d both more or less gotten addicted to energy drinks.
As Nicole came back with her bounty of camels and red bulls, she was confused by what she saw as she entered the dorm. In front of her was Jecka dancing, but she was holding the netflix remote in hand and was matching what was showing up on the TV. If Nicole didn’t know any better she’d swear Jecka was playing a video game. Jecka seemed to be particularly focused as she didn’t really even notice her deadbeat roommate wander into the room and sit down on the bed watching her. A few minutes later the song finished and Jecka, clearly exhausted from the workout, sat down on the edge of the bed.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Jecka jumped a little, clearly unaware the catlike girl had entered the room.
“What, can’t a bitch get some exercise?”
“A bitch can get all the exercise she wants but are you seriously getting it playing a video game? I thought that thing just played movies.”
“No, Nicole, it’s a video game system that we use to watch movies. I was talking to Kelly the other day and she said there was this really good dancing game for exercising so I figured I’d try it.”
“If this is a video game thing why do you even own it?”
“My dad bought it when it came out because it was like the hottest fad that year. We used it once at Christmas and he threw the controller through the TV and he never used it again. That’s why I was able to bring it with me here.”
“I can’t believe my girlfriend was a gamer this entire time. The next time I come home you’re going to be eating an entire deep dish pizza alone and yelling slurs at children.”
“Shut it, whore. People like that don’t even use the Wii, it burns too many calories. You should try it with me.”
“Jecka, I am not playing a dancing game.”
“Fine, if not that then at least play Wii Sports with me.”
“Do I look like a bitch that plays sports?”
“No but you look like a bitch that’s gonna be homeless if she doesn’t start being nicer to me. Like, come on Nicole it’ll be fun. Just once and I’ll shut up about it.”
“Ugh, fine but if word of this ever gets out I’m killing you.”
“You won’t regret it!” Jecka squealed as she leaned over to give Nicole a quick kiss on the cheek. From there she jumped off the bed and went over to the Wii, ejecting Just Dance from the system and putting the disk down on her nightstand. She went over to her bookshelf and searched for a bit before finding the sleeve with Wii Sports in it. Jecka put the disk in the system and pressed reset, before picking up the second controller from beside it. She handed it off to Nicole who reluctantly took hold of it as she rolled her eyes. Jecka gave her a nudge with her elbow as she pointed at the TV and selected the channel to boot Wii sports. After a few minutes they were finally facing the sport selection menu.
“Wait, boxing? They consider boxing a sport?”
“How is boxing not a sport, Nicole?”
“It’s just 2 sweaty guys beating each other, you may as well call barfighting a sport.”
“Then you won’t mind that we can’t play it.”
“What do you mean we can’t play it? That sounds like the best one!”
“You need the extra stick thing to play it and I only have one of those, so we can only play one of the other 3.”
“This is bullshit, so because your parents cheaped out we can’t fight each other?”
“We fight each other every other night, just pick a different sport.”
“Well I’m not a middle aged white rapist or serial killer so we can pass on golf, and I don’t think I’m heavy enough for bowling. Guess that leaves tennis.”
“Nicole, what the fuck are you talking about? Skinny people can bowl.”
“Nah, skinny people don’t actually bowl, they just go to bowling alleys to hit on girls in highschool or to smoke weed in the arcade.”
“Fucking whatever. Just don’t forget to put on the wrist strap, if we lose this TV I’m going to kill someone.”
“Sure thing, Constable Jecka.”
Jecka chose tennis and the two of them spread out the best they could inside the dorm room. It was technically a one person dorm but it really wasn’t too cramped, most of the time. Right now with two adult women both trying to find enough space to have an imaginary game of tennis they were pushing it. The two of them stood in the room swatting the air for a few minutes, Jecka taking an easy lead over Nicole who both had never played before and didn’t work out. Eventually Nicole started panting and paused the game.
“Hold on, time out.”
“Aw, is someone all tuckered out? I told you that you needed to get your pale ass to the gym with me more often.”
“And I told you, bite me. Just let me catch my breath.”
“If you wanna catch your breath we should switch to a different sport, you haven’t scored any points anyway.”
“If you quit now it counts as a tie.”
“Fine, if you wanna be that petty it can be a tie. Now we’re gonna do bowling though.”
Jecka exited back out to the sports menu and started up the bowling game instead, which was much easier for the both of them to play inside their room since they could just take turns standing in front of the TV. Unsurprisingly Jecka once again was doing much better at the game, but Nicole was at least hitting pins. After a few frames Nicole did eventually get a strike.
“Awesome, Nicole!”
“Is it though?”
“What do you mean is it, you got a strike! That’s the best thing that can happen.”
“I think the best thing that could happen would be if my mom died and I got her inheritance.”
“So bowling really doesn’t do anything for you? What if we bet on it?”
“Please, I learned my lesson after beer pong, you always have me do weird shit when you win.”
“You didn’t seem to complain in the moment.”
“Just fucking load up golf.”
Jecka sighed, going back to the main menu once again and highlighting the last game they could play, Golf. This went over like a lead balloon. Neither of them were particularly enthused about golf and Jecka’s initial energy about bringing Nicole into this was wearing off as she got her third double bogey. Nicole was flopped over on the bed, waving her controller blindly. Dejected, Jecka closed out of golf. Removing the strap from her wrist, Jecka rolled on the bed over to Nicole before cozying up in her side. Nicole barely moved her arm enough to let get it around Jecka. The two of them just laid there for a bit, one of them defeated and the other just her usual bed rotting.
Eventually, Jecka muttered into Nicole’s side, “So did you still wanna try boxing?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“... maybe.”
“Alright then, come on. Get up.”
Jecka got up off the bed and half dragged Nicole to her feet. Connecting the first controller with the nunchuck, she handed both over to Nicole. Nicole stood in the center of the room facing the TV and after another annoying reminder from Jecka to attach the wrist strap, she began the game. Nicole took a few minutes to understand the controls but took to it surprisingly well. A few matches in and she really seemed to be getting into it.
“Holy shit.”
“Enjoying yourself?”
“Somehow. Why do they even bother putting in the other games when you can just fight with this thing?”
“Well it’s supposed to appeal to entire families and suburban moms are probably more into tennis than watching Mike Tyson bite someone’s ear off.”
“Not the suburban moms I know. Ha! Did you see that? I didn’t even get hit once.”
“Very impressive babe. You’re the boxing champ.”
Nicole continued to box for a while longer, getting surprisingly into it. Jecka on the other hand just laid back and watched Nicole shake her ass in front of the TV for a while. Nicole eventually got tired again and had to sit down.
“Fuck, I may be more out of shape than I thought.”
“Considering you never did physical therapy after getting shot you’re more in shape than I thought.”
“Yeah. I’m not going to the gym though.”
“You could always quit smoking, go for walks, eat healthier.”
“Or I could stay out of shape. It’s not that big a deal.”
“Nicole, you got winded playing video games.”
“Jesus, don't say that out loud.”
“Just come with me to the gym once, you liked this when given a chance. If you got your stamina up you could even take boxing classes.”
“I’ll settle for doing it virtually. It would be kinda hot to watch you fight though.”
“Duh, everything I do is hot.”
“You’re right but don’t let it get to your head.”
Jecka dragged Nicole back into their bed by the waist. Nicole put up a feigned resistance at first but stopped as Jecka kissed along her neck up to her ear. Turning around, they locked eyes before sharing a deep kiss.
“Do you wanna take a nap like this?”
“That sounds really good right now actually, I have to finish an essay later when we wake up though.”
The two of them fell asleep just like that, Nicole in Jecka’s arms. The hum of the fan in the window just barely audible over the sound of their soft slow breathing.
Jecka woke up a few hours later to the sound of Wii boxing. Opening her eyes she could see that at some point Nicole had escaped her grasp and gone back to the video game, but something was different. Nicole did a left punch, right punch, then the controller went flying out of her hand. It flew towards the window, striking the fan and causing it to fall backwards out the window into the bush just outside.
“Nicole…”
“.... well I didn’t break the TV.”