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Nicole was weird.
Jecka knew that already. She had known that when Nicole first approached her during lunch, high out of her mind and under the genuine impression everyone else there was also skipping. She had known that when Nicole invited her over to recreate Breaking Bad in her bedroom and then almost get arrested for selling crack. She had known all that, but she still asked Nicole to come with her to LA, to move in with her while she tried to make it through college. Nicole was weird. She did weird things. Not Jeffery weird of course, but weird nonetheless.
All of that being said, nothing could’ve prepared Jecka for this morning. It started out pretty regular, she had been quietly drinking her coffee and looking over the newspaper, ugly ass reading glasses propped on her nose. A very mundane, calm Saturday morning. Nicole, who was barely ever awake that early, walked into the kitchen and stopped right in front of the counter Jecka was sitting at.
“We should get married.”
And there goes my normal day. 8am, that’s a record.
“We should… what?”
Nicole apparently thought that was an unreasonable reaction, because she scoffed in annoyance and rolled her eyes.
“ Get married. Do you not know what that means, or something?”
Jecka did, in fact, know what getting married was. It used to be something she dreamed of, even. Marrying some broad-shouldered doctor or surgeon in college and moving into his mansion, rich and comfortable for the rest of her life. At some point though, that dream had slowly faded into obscurity, be it because she found actual enjoyment in being a doctor herself, or… other things.
“No shit, I know what getting married is, just- why the hell do you want us to get married??”
Nicole gave her such an incredulous look that Jecka was almost convinced that she was asking stupid questions, and getting married to your best friend on a whim was a completely reasonable thing to do.
“Uh, because of the money? Married people get like, a fuck ton of benefits.”
Jesus , today was not the day. The blonde girl pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath in.
“Okay, so… hold on. You want to get married, like official, court-certified married , so we can, what? Get tax write offs? Do you hear how insane you sound?”
“Don’t be a bitch about this, I’ve read up on it! People do this type of thing all the time. It’ll get us lower income taxes and everything!”
“Nicole, you don’t even have a job.”
“Yeah- well lower income taxes for you then, same difference!”
“…”
As much as she hated to admit it, Nicole was making a little bit of sense. Like, a very small amount. They really could use the benefits, considering they live off of Jecka’s residency at the local hospital and Nicole’s occasional band gigs at bars. Plus, she was still trying to pay off her mountains of student debt, so money was definitely tight.
“I…”
Oh my god, am I actually doing this?
“..oh my god, I am actually doing this… fine. We can get fucking married , I guess. Wow, ew, this is weird.”
The grin that split Nicole’s face should’ve been the first sign that this was a terrible idea. Anything that made Nicole smile like that was probably either batshit fucking insane or super-villain levels of evil. Sometimes both. Try as she might though, Jecka couldn’t manage to figure out how exactly this particular scheme would be fucked up enough to bring Nicole joy. As far as she could tell, it was just stupid and sorta weird.
“Fuck yeah, I knew you would agree with me. Now let’s go get a marriage paper or whatever it’s called from the court-”
“-Nope, no, no way in hell. We can do your whole marriage scheme later, this is my Saturday morning. So either sit down and be quiet or fuck off.”
Nicole rolled her eyes and stalked off, but a sliver of a smile remained on her face.
Jecka turned back to her newspaper, though it was now basically impossible to focus on.
My first time being proposed to, what a fucking way to do it.
…
By the end of the month, they were “married”. Jecka had dealt with most of the courtroom shit, considering Nicole hardly even bothered to manage her own bank account, making anything financial or legal automatically become Jecka’s responsibility. To her credit though, Nicole did at least attempt to be involved, given it was her idea in the first place.
Now that all was said and done, everything was still pretty much the same. Nicole still called her a bitch every other sentence, they still fought about basically nothing all the time, they were still arguing over which restaurant to go to whenever they went out, it was all as per usual. The only difference now was that every time they got into some half-hearted spat, a voice in the back of Jecka’s head felt the need to remind her that the petty bitch she was yelling at was technically her wife .
God, it was weird to even think about.
They were also going to share a last name, for some reason. Nicole had insisted that “no one would believe them” if they didn’t do so. Jecka wasn’t sure why it mattered whether or not people believed them, they’d get the benefits regardless, but the other girl was adamant.
That, of course, led to the current moment, in which they were having the inevitable argument of who would take whose last name.
“ Obviously you should take mine, this shit was literally my idea! Plus, I brought it up first, so technically I proposed.”
“Oh yeah? Where’s the ring then, bitch? I’m the one that got dragged into this shit, I should get to at least keep my name.”
“I’m not buying a goddamn- look, you’re way more girly than me, I don’t want it to look like you wear the pants in this relationship.”
Holy shit, this bitch was gonna give Jecka an aneurysm before she hit 30.
“Nicole- first of all, we aren’t even in a relationship. Second, no one “wears the pants” in this, unless you wanna invite some frat guy to be our third.”
“Ew, fuck no.”
“Yeah, see, that’s what I thought. Now, why do you want to keep your name anyways? Don’t you like, hate your family?”
Nicole raised an eyebrow at her skeptically.
“Don’t you ?”
Jecka shrugged and looked off to the side, embarrassed already with what she was about to say.
“I guess.. but I dunno, my mom was nice sometimes, and my dad used to be like… cool and shit, I don’t really wanna erase all that.”
“-Wow, sometimes I forget you’re an emotional bitch. Your parents are the fucking worst, I thought you would’ve figured that out by now.”
“Yeah yeah, you’re a sociopath, so cool and mysterious, whatever. We’re using my last name.”
Nicole scowled, but relented out of what looked suspiciously like pity.
“Fine, but only because your whole family thing made me feel depressed. Nice going, asshole.”
Jecka chose not to address the rest of that statement, and just focused on the fact that she had won the argument. She sent a smug look over at Nicole and crossed her arms.
“ Thank you.”
“Fuck off. Can you at least stop spelling it weird since I have to use it now?”
“What’s wrong with Andersson? Seems pretty basic to me.”
“You have two “s”es in there, it’s weird.”
“It’s Swedish , jackass.”
Nicole blinked at her in mild shock, and it made Jecka realize that in all their time of knowing each other, this had somehow never come up.
“Shit, really? I thought you only said that so you could pretend to be a minority.”
“First of all, I am a minority, I’m a woman. Second, I’m not actually like, from Sweden, my dad moved to America when he was really little. My mom’s born and raised here though, and I look way more like her, so I only got the “weird” name from there.”
The brunette just continued to stare, somehow bewildered by what Jecka thought was a pretty easy concept to grasp. Maybe she had just noticed how odd it was that this had never been brought up as well. Regardless of why though, the look Nicole was giving her was starting to piss Jecka off.
“Stop looking so surprised, Swedish is just another way to say I’m white. Where’s your family from?”
“Fuck knows, I think my grandpa was some type of Asian, maybe.”
“Huh… You do look kinda Asian, now that I think about it.”
“No I fucking don’t, slut. I’m pasty, all-American white. Actually, we both are, so I don’t know why you even brought this up.”
“ You brought it up.”
“Sure, whatever makes you feel better.”
“Don’t- you can’t just say that everytime I’m right!”
The bitch just shrugged, and that was the end of that. Nicole was annoying as all hell, but at least, technically, Jecka had won that debate. And now that the name thing was settled, being “married” to Nicole wouldn’t change anything except for their finances, hopefully.
…
Okay, turns out, hoping for normalcy was way too much to ask for. Of course the two girls still talked to each other like normal, but clearly something had shifted. Namely, something in Jecka’s head. for all she knew Nicole was doing just fine. She, however, felt like she was going crazy.
The first sign of it was when Jecka had dragged Nicole to Target with her, which she did every few weeks to use up the pile of gift cards and coupons she had collected. Everything went smoothly for most of the trip (besides Nicole whining about being in a Target every 5 minutes), and they had made it all the way to checkout with no problem. But God hates pretty bitches, so something had to go wrong.
“Hey man… I like your Green Day shirt… where’d you get it?”
The voice made both girls visibly cringe, and when they turned to look at the owner of said voice, it just got worse. A 20-something looking guy was standing between them and the in-store restaurant, dressed like a 12-year old aspiring emo boy.
Ew.
He was clearly talking to Nicole if the style was anything to go by, which would of course be the greatest mistake of his life. The brown-haired girl always made sure of that. Jecka had seen this same thing a million times over, and she knew exactly how it would go.
So why did this particular one bother her?
What about this guy pissed her off so bad?
While still lost in that string of thought, she half-heard Nicole spew obscenities at the poor fucker who tried to talk to her, and then walk towards the exit, Jecka in tow.
The blonde girl was silent the whole walk through the parking lot, and once they had reached her car, Nicole looked over at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Was it the wannabe concert perv in there? Don’t let some dumb fuck like that get to you.”
“No- no, he didn’t. It just made me think- can we even date people anymore? I think being married is probably a red flag.”
“Eh, I guess that would be weird. Neither of us have dated anyone seriously in ages though, I’m pretty sure it won’t change much.”
“You’re not gonna call me a “cheater” if I hook up with someone, right?”
“No, I don’t really care.”
Jecka just nodded, unable to actually vocally agree with that. It was probably because of how traditional she was raised to be, but the idea of sleeping with someone else while married felt wrong. She hadn’t been planning on doing it either, the question had been more a joke than anything. Obviously she couldn’t actually get mad if Nicole did sleep around, but it’d be uncomfortable.
Once the conversation died down, Jecka started the car and began driving back towards their shared apartment. As she did so, she sent a glance over at the girl in the passenger seat, who was currently fiddling with the latch on the glovebox.
..I should buy rings.
…
Why am I doing this again?
Jecka was currently in the mall, alone, staring at a Pandora storefront like it had personally wronged her. Ever since the idea crossed her mind in the car ride home, she had been unable to forget about it. So here she was, jackshit and fuck all to her name, trying to buy a ring for herself and Nicole.
The blonde girl prided herself on having a pretty damn good sense of style, but rings had never been something she had looked into, for obvious reasons. Meaning now that she was staring at her options, she had no idea what Nicole would want. Scratch that, she didn’t even know what she wanted, let alone Nicole’s preferences. Jecka could’ve easily just asked her, but doing so felt wrong, somehow.
(Also Nicole would’ve definitely made fun of her for doing this in the first place.)
“Hey there, can I help you with anything today?”
A short woman popped up beside Jecka, wearing a polo shirt with the store’s logo on it and a name tag that read “Cathy”.
The blonde girl jumped slightly in surprise, not having heard the employee approaching at all.
“Oh- uh, yeah, do you have any rings that would be good for like… getting married-?”
Jecka cringed at the idiotic way she had phrased it, but the worker, Cathy apparently, appeared unbothered.
“Of course honey, we’ve got a great selection for your special someone. Come look over here.”
Cathy motioned for her to follow, walking over to a display case with a plethora of jewel-encrusted rings kept inside.
“These are our best ones. Lots of pearl, some rubies in there, we have diamond as well, if you’d rather.”
They were all very pretty, it was true. At some point in her life, Jecka was sure she would’ve fawned over any man that offered her one of these. Any of these would be a good choice, she thought.
That is, until she saw the price.
Holy shit- this feels like an under-cover robbery.
“Sorry- these are a bit.. pricey, do you have anything cheaper?”
The worker just smiled warmly at her and began walking towards another side of the store, chatting as she did so.
“Of course sweetheart, I understand. You know, when he proposed, my husband couldn’t even afford a ring, so the silly man went and tried to make one himself! Can you believe that?”
“Wow that’s… some dedication, for sure.”
“Oh yes, even when he could hardly buy us a meal, he was always as dedicated as can be. Here we are then, some more.. reasonably priced options.”
She waved down at another display case, this one holding much less gaudy jewelry, with price tags that wouldn’t completely drain Jecka’s wallet. She scanned the variety of rings inside, looking for something her roommate/“wife” would be willing to wear.
After a few minutes of looking, a pair of rings caught her eye. Two bands, one colored gold and one silver, with intricate matching designs carved into them, and a very small gemstone embedded in each.
The blonde girl pointed into the case, and pulled out her wallet to pay.
“Uh- those will work. The silver and gold ones.”
The older woman looked down at her choice, and blinked in surprise before looking up to face Jecka again.
“Oh? It’s a lovely choice, but you want to buy them now? Forgive me for being nosy, but your boy is awfully rude for making the lady buy the rings.”
Jecka almost laughed at that, picturing Nicole’s face after being called a man .
“Trust me, I know.”
…
“Hey, got you something.”
Jecka had just made it back from buying the rings, walking into the apartment and over to Nicole’s spot on the couch. The brunette momentarily muted the TV, and looked up in lazy curiosity.
“What is it? I’m not seeing a McDonald’s bag, so it better be pure crystal meth or something on the same level.”
Jecka rolled her eyes and pulled the silver ring out from her pocket, tossing it down onto the other girl’s lap.
“There, put that on. Had to fix your half-assed “proposal”.”
Nicole picked up the band and flipped it around in her hand, looking between it and Jecka skeptically.
“A ring-? You do know we don’t need rings for it to be official, right?”
“Bitch of course I know that, you’re the one who said you wanted this marriage to be believable. Rings are like, the most recognizable part of being married.”
The other girl was motionless for a minute, and then seemed to make up her mind, casually slipping the jewelry onto her ring finger.
“Huh. It’s not terrible, I guess. I am not paying you back for this though, I didn’t even ask for it.”
“Never said you had to.”
Nicole suddenly twisted her body to face Jecka directly, and held up her hand with the ring on it, pointing between it and the blonde girl.
“You have one too, right? I’m not gonna be the only one wearing this shit, so you’d better have bought two.”
Jecka pulled the golden ring out at that, slipping it onto her own ring finger.
“Don’t freak out, I've got one. That is how marriages work, after all.”
“Cool.”
Nicole then looked back to the TV screen and turned the volume on, zoning out as if there was nothing else to be said.
“Uh, Nicole ?”
“What? I’m wearing the ring, you can fuck off now.”
Jecka huffed and furrowed her brow in annoyance.
“Aren’t you gonna say thank you?”
“Fuck no. like I just said, I didn’t ask for it.”
“Well, you’re sure as hell still wearing it, so say thank you. These cost me like, way more than they should’ve.”
“And how is that my fault? I would’ve taken one from Claire’s, you’re the one who’s got high standards about this sort of thing.”
“Bitch, just say thank you!”
“Fuck off!”
“Oh my god, you are so fucking stubborn- would it seriously kill you to say two words?”
“To you? Yeah, it would.”
“Fuck you mean “to me”? If anything, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person you would say thank you to.”
Nicole scoffed and turned her head to the side, rolling her eyes dramatically like every “sarcastic teenager” cartoon ever.
“Whatever, I’m still not saying jack shit. Just sit down and watch this with me, it’s one of those dumb reality shows you like.”
The blonde girl sighed exasperatedly, but flopped down onto the couch beside Nicole, crossing her arms and leaning back. It was easy to tell when Nicole had chosen a hill to die on, and this was one of those times. Sometimes the back and forth was fun, but she was too tired to deal with all the petty insults that would entail, so Jecka let this one go.
The two girls ended up getting sucked into the trashy show Nicole had put on, and they only snapped out of it when evening rolled around and they started feeling hungry.
Nicolel spoke first, yawning and stretching as she got up from the couch.
“I’m starving, let’s order a pizza or something.”
Jecka yawned as well, covering her mouth with one hand and slowly standing up.
“I am not spending any more money today, the rings almost put us in debt.”
“No they fucking didn’t, stop being dramatic.”
“Doesn’t matter, we aren’t ordering out.”
“Then you want to just starve? I thought you got ove-”
“-Shut up. We have food in the apartment, probably.”
“The last time either of us went to the store was like, 2 weeks ago. All we have left is some random ingredients and shit.”
Jecka let out a long groan and looked up at the ceiling.
“Godammit, I hate cooking. Don’t know how my mom did it every night, maybe that’s why she left.”
“Makes sense. If I had to feed your fat fuck of a dad, I might’ve followed in my dad’s footsteps.”
“Yeah, can’t wait until I’m rich and have my own personal chef so I don’t have to cook ever again.”
“You’re completely delusional still, but anyways, if you hate cooking so much, I can just do it instead.”
While saying that Nicole was picking at her nails, acting as if the offer was insignificant. Jecka could see the tension in her shoulders though, and the way her eyes kept darting up, covertly watching the blonde’s face for a reaction.
“Seriously? Can you even cook?”
The girl gritted her teeth and sent Jecka an irritated look.
“ Don’t give me that shit. I make the meals like, half the time.”
That was true. To be honest Jecka just thought it was funny how embarrassed Nicole was about her aptitude for cooking. Every time it came up, Nicole would try (and fail) to tiptoe around the fact that she enjoyed making food, pretending to only do it out of necessity.
“Yeah yeah, I know. If you’re gonna make dinner then do it soon, I feel like I’m dying of starvation.”
Nicole grumbled something under her breath that sounded a whole lot like don’t tell me what to do , but still begrudgingly walked towards their dingy little kitchen and opened the pantry, pulling out a few boxes of fuck knows and setting them out on the counter.
Jecka sat at the other side of the counter and absentmindedly watched the other girl cook. It was relaxing, in a way. No noise was made besides Nicole’s occasional curse under her breath and the sound of boiling water simmering on the stovetop. The domesticity of it all was not completely unheard of, they did live together after all, but now with the glint of silver on Nicole’s finger as she worked, it felt recontextualized to something far more.. confusing.
The girl seated at the counter looked down at her own hand, eyeing the gold wrapping around her ring finger in silence.
Maybe this was a mistake. I think being “married” is fucking with my head. Everything is still the same, but it feels different now, and I keep on forgetting it’s not real. I keep on forgetting that we aren’t-
“Hello? Earth to blonde bitch, what the hell has you zoning out so much recently?”
Nicole was standing right in front of her, waving a hand over Jecka’s eyes in an attempt to get her attention. Said girl blinked rapidly for a moment, running a hand through her tousled hair before replying.
“Wha-? ..I dunno, tired maybe. Are you done with the food yet?”
“Yeah, I said I was like, 5 minutes ago-? Did you take something without me? You promised that if you found a good plug here you would-”
“-I’m not high, just… thinking about shit. Let me at least eat if you’re gonna interrogate me.”
Jecka then abruptly stood up and walked over to the small kitchen table, followed a moment later by Nicole, who was carrying two plates of chicken alfredo along with a can of Pepsi and a cup of water.
“Dinner is served, I guess. Now tell me what your deal is, and stop deflecting. I live with you, in case you hadn’t noticed, so you acting like you’re 4 edibles into a bag all the time is kinda annoying.”
And what the fuck was Jecka meant to say to that? She keeps forgetting they aren’t actually married? The guy who hit on Nicole at the store made her jealous? She thinks they should get a divorce? Maybe that last one, but that would probably just make Nicole pissed. Plus, the benefits they had gotten married for in the first place were helping, so a divorce would reverse that too.
“I..”
Shit, what do I say?
*DING*
Jecka whipped out her phone the moment she felt it vibrate, and looked down at the alert she had gotten.
Kelly (fake blonde): Hey Jecka! Long time no see, or text, i guess? Anyways do you want to come out and meet me and some of our other friends for a drink?
Jecka had never been more grateful to be pestered by Kelly. She had no idea who their supposed “other friends” were, but she didn't really care at the moment, the excuse was all she needed.
Kelly (fake blonde): oh also you can bring Nicole
Nicole leaned forward across the table to see who had texted Jecka.
“-Who’s that?”
“It’s Kelly. You know, from high school? She invited me out for drinks. And you, by extension.”
“Oh. Are we going? If we are, I need like, 5 days prep to revert to my high school mindset, so I don’t kill myself on the spot when we see them.”
“Shit, she didn’t actually tell me when, hold on.”
Jecka: when is this?
Kelly (fake blonde): Saturday, if that works for you. prob around 9, at the bar near campus.
Oh right, Kelly went to UCLA too. There were a few drinking spots “near campus”, but only one legitimate bar, which was probably what Kelly was referring to.
Jecka: k we’ll be there
She then closed her phone and looked over at Nicole, who had an elbow on the table with a hand holding up her face.
“It’s on Saturday, so you’ve got like… 3-ish days until then. Don’t start acting like a high schooler again though, I’m pretty sure I almost died more times in those 2 years hanging out with you than the rest of my life combined.”
Nicole leaned back in her chair and sighed theatrically, a look of mock disappointment on her face.
“Damn, I need to up my game then, I’ve become boring.”
Jecka shook her head and smiled despite herself.
“Not even close, don’t worry. You still basically give me a heart attack every other week.”
The brown-haired girl put on a sickeningly sweet voice, reminiscent of the one she used to get men to do what she wanted.
“Aw, you always know just what to say.”
Jecka snorted as she walked past Nicole to put away her now-empty dishes, shoving at the other girl’s shoulder.
“Ew, don’t use your “sweet voice” on me, I’m not Kylar.”
“Holy shit, I almost forgot about him. You think Kelly invited him as one of her “friends”?”
“I doubt it, she reaalllly didn’t like him specifically back then, still don’t know why.”
“Well thank god. I think if I ever saw him again, I might kill all men just because he happens to be one.”
Jecka nodded as she walked back over to put Nicole’s dishes up as well, picking up the Pepsi can along with them to toss it in the trash.
“Same. Knowing he probably won’t be there though, are we going?”
Nicole shrugged, pulling out her own phone to check something and then standing up from the table. As she walked away, she called out a response.
“Sure. It’ll be interesting, at least.”
…
Apparently when Kelly said “friends’, she meant every single girl she could remember from senior year. A whole group of girls Jecka didn’t even recognize had been engaged in enthusiastic conversation with Kelly when she and Nicole arrived, all of which scattered like a pack of makeup-wearing hyenas once Kelly turned to greet the two.
“Hey Jecka, so glad you decided to show up! I haven’t seen you in ages , even though we go to the same college. Weird!”
Jecka nodded stiffly, neglecting to mention that that had been mostly on purpose, for her part.
“Yeah totally.. Anyways, who were all those girls you were talking to just now?”
“Friends from high school, do you not remember them?”
No, no she did not. Maybe she had known them before, Jecka was pretty popular back then, she and Kelly were similar in that aspect. Unlike Kelly though, who was a pure-blooded extrovert that hosted a party practically every 30 minutes, Jecka had never actually found vast or constant company all that enjoyable. So any faces she may have known at one point had more likely than not blurred together over the years, becoming just a piece of her hazy recollection regarding high school.
“No, not really- is there anyone here who Nicole and I do know?”
Kelly blinked, as if she hadn’t even realized Nicole was there until Jecka said it.
“Oh hi Nicole! Don’t worry, some of the other girls from school are here too, I'm pretty sure you’ll remember them.”
Kelly led them both to a row of bar stools opposite to the entrance, a couple of them occupied by what were, in fact, familiar faces. Ari was the first one Jecka noticed, sat drinking a margarita of some sort on one of the stools. Next to her was Megan of all people, who was saying something indiscernible to the red-haired girl as she took a shot. Further down the row was Karen, who was the only face Jecka was mildly happy to see. The two of them had become friends of sorts in recent years, ever since the blonde girl had gone seeking Karen out for help with some of her college coursework.
On the complete opposite scale of friendship however, leaning on the wall near Karen, was Emily. Who, judging by the look on Kelly’s face at the sight of her, had definitely not been invited to the bar. Figures. Emily always had a knack for just appearing places, no directions or invitations needed, and this time was no exception.
“Hey girls, look who I finally convinced to come!”
Kelly waved her hands in the direction of Nicole and Jecka, regarding them like some rare prize that she had won. It was true that the two of them had largely ignored her invitations before, but the game show-esque showmanship was still a little over the top, In Jecka’s opinion.
Nicole spoke her first real words of the night, glancing at the rest of the group in irritation and rolling her eyes at Kelly’s theatrics.
“I already regret this.”
…
Everyone had been.. semi-amicable, throughout the night. Jecka and Nicole mostly stuck to each other and talked about nothing in particular, occasionally watching the other girls to see if they did anything worth recording and keeping to laugh at later. After everyone was a few drinks deeper though, Emily walked over to the two, swaying and stumbling slightly with each step.
“Hey- you guys wanna like… spike those old guys’ drinks with me?”
Nicole looked over at said old guys Emily pointed out, and took on an expression that looked concerningly like she was actually considering the offer.
To avoid the bullshittery that would undoubtedly cause, Jecka held up a hand to signify she and Nicole weren’t going to help Emily’s petty crime spree.
“Nah, we’re good. If you do it be sure to send a picture though.”
Emily didn’t respond to that, and instead fixed her attention on Jecka’s hand, which was still held up in front of her. Emily’s eyes then widened slightly and she looked up to stare at the girl’s face.
“Woah.. you’re married?? I guess if any of us it was gonna be you. Show me what he looks like, I wanna see if he’s ugly.”
“Uh- actually I-”
Nicole cut them both off abruptly, holding up her own hand next to Jecka’s to show their matching rings.
“She’s married to me , dumbass. Got the license and everything.”
Between the sudden exclamation and the way she said it, if Jecka didn’t know any better, she would've thought Nicole was proud .
Emily, whether it be because she was hammered or simply thought this was hilarious, began laughing like a drunkard at the sight of the two matching rings.
“HA- oh my god- you’ve gotta be- no fucking way -”
Nicole tried in vain to shush her, but it was too late. Kelly perked up at the hysterical laughter and came over to the three girls in the corner, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.
“What’s up? Why is Emily like… dying, or something?”
Emily, unable to provide a legible vocal response, simply pointed at Jecka and Nicole’s hands, both rings visible next to one another.
Kelly looked down to where Emily pointed to, and her eyes widened almost cartoonishly as a grin spread across her face.
“I KNEW IT! I knew you two had a thing going on, no one hangs out in bathrooms alone that much unless they’re fucking! And now you’re married?! Oh my god, tell me everything! Who proposed? Did you have a wedding? Who planned the wedding? Why wasn’t I invited to your wedding? Do you want a second wedding? Can I plan your second wedding? Have you-”
“Wait, hold on-”
Jecka cut her off in a desperate attempt to save herself from the endless assault of questions.
Godammit, I really should have seen this coming.
“Okay, so, first of all, we aren’t actually married-”
Nicole shot her a look of disdain, as if she resented that statement. Jecka continued though, electing to ignore whatever Nicole’s problem was with her explanation.
“Well, technically - we are, but not because we’re like- gay or whatever. The benefits are just really good, and we needed the money. That’s all, no wedding or anything.”
Kelly looked confused at that, tilting her head to the side like a dog when you say anything besides its name.
“But- then why do you have wedding rings?”
Nicole responded before Jecka could, looking at Kelly like she had just asked if the sky was blue or something equally stupid.
“So it’s believable, duh. Marriage fraud is a thing, you know.”
Jecka then turned to Nicole, bewildered.
“Nicole, that's not what marriage fraud is-”
“It’s not?”
“No, marriage fraud is like… an immigration thing.”
“Actually? Fuck, then I changed my name for nothing, godammit.”
At this point, both girls had completely forgotten they had an audience, so when a new voice cut them off, they jumped in surprise and looked away from each other to find the source.
“You fucking what?! ”
Megan and Ari had joined the group apparently, and were now both staring at Nicole like she had grown a second head.
“I… changed my name? My last name, obviously. And I guess I did it for nothing, according to the blonde bitch here.”
Nicole gestured towards Jecka, misinterpreting what the two other girls were confused about.
Ari didn’t even move, still just looking at Nicole incredulously, while Megan put a hand to her head and muttered under her breath in disbelief.
“Oh my god, she’s serious… I can’t even- how ??”
Jecka responded in place of Nicole, very aware of where the conversation would go if she let her talk to Megan.
“We got married for all of the tax benefits and shit, that’s all.”
Ari finally spoke up as well, looking skeptically at Jecka and folding her arms across her chest.
“And one of those “benefits” was Nicole taking your last name??”
“No, that was just so people thought it was real.”
“ And the rings? What separates it from an actual marriage, at this point?”
“Uh, the fact that we aren’t in love , duh. I’m still straight, and Nicole still hates everyone, it’s just for the money.”
Ari stiffened and then turned to face Nicole herself.
“Sure, whatever. I just can’t fucking believe this- you “pretended” to be gay for our entire relationship, almost made me straight, and then you turn out to actually be gay the whole fucking time ?!”
“We dated for like 2 months, get over it. Plus, didn’t you hear what Jecka literally just fucking said? We aren’t gay, we only got married for the benefits.”
The red-haired girl rolled her eyes and scoffed at Nicole before turning away.
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”
Nicole flipped her off and grabbed onto Jecka’s arm, trudging towards the exit with a large glass of whiskey still in hand. Kelly called out after them, but neither of the girls even bothered to respond.
…
When they got back to the apartment it was almost midnight, and as Jecka hung her coat up on a hook, Nicole began ranting drunkenly in her general direction.
“Oh my god, how is Ari still such a little bitch about that? It was literally years ago, but she’s still basically obsessed with me.”
The blonde girl just stared at her and nodded.
“And- she had the fucking audacity to call me gay, even after apparently not getting over me for 3 years? What a hypocrite.”
“Mhm.”
“Plus- plus Kelly, that whore, why is she always assuming things? If that’s why you hated her in high school, I understand it now. All of them are the worst, actually, what’s so hard to understand about getting married for the money? It’s basically just mutual gold digging, which is better than normal gold digging, like, morally.”
“Yeah, for sure.”
“Also the- …what the fuck are you doing?”
While she had been ranting, Nicole hadn’t noticed the other girl gradually getting closer, until she was standing right in her face. Jecka shrugged nonchalantly, as if she wasn’t basically nose-to-nose with the brunette.
“Nothing, don't worry about it, you can keep talking.”
“I- no seriously bitch, what are you doing? This isn’t funny, I’m gonna fall over if you keep-”
Jecka continued walking forwards until the back of Nicole’s knees hit the couch, and then she fell forwards onto the cushions, pulling Nicole down with her.
“..Jecka, I-”
“Just shut up, okay? I’m tired, being around those people brought back memories.”
Nicole shut her mouth and looked away in embarrassment as Jecka leaned against her shoulder and closed her eyes.
It was silent for a long moment, but a thought eventually crossed Nicole’s mind, and she spoke.
“Those bitches reminded you of how shitty high school was then? I get it, between abusive parents, creepy teachers, and rapist classmates, I can’t think of a worse part of my life. Well, besides maybe-”
She cut herself off, but not before Jecka caught on to what she had meant. The blonde girl didn’t say anything at first, just looked at Nicole with a strange expression. Right before Nicole was going to ask what the fuck she was staring at, Jecka spoke.
“Yeah, high school was pretty awful. That’s not really what I was thinking about, though. I just remembered the day we became friends.”
“What about it?”
“I'm not really sure. You weren't even sober, do you remember that? First day of school and you had already found some drug to abuse, It was almost impressive.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“..I’m glad you stuck with me, after it all. I know you don’t really care about- well, anything, so it doesn't mean much to you, but thanks anyways.”
Jecka closed her eyes again after that, and let her head fall back onto Nicole’s shoulder. After a moment, she felt the girl relax and shift slightly closer as well.
"-You’re welcome."
…
The two of them ended up falling asleep like that, staying there until later the next day, when Jecka woke up to a notification from her phone.
She picked it up groggily and punched in the password, sending a quick glance over to the still sleeping girl beside her in the meantime.
Damn, she must of been tired too. She always looks so much happier when she's sleeping, it's a little uncanny, actually.
Almost instinctively, Jecka held up her phone and snapped a quick picture of Nicole before opening her messages to see who had texted her.
Karen (be nice): Hey jecka, heard you and nicole are married, congrats! (•ᴗ•)
Jecka smiled a bit, shaking her head side to side. No one had cared to tell Karen that she and Nicole weren’t actually married, apparently. She should probably tell the girl the truth, or else she’ll have to deal with an awkward conversation next time they meet up.
She opened up the text box and stared at it for a moment, fingers hovering over the keyboard.
Jecka: …
Jecka: Thanks