Enigma

Tight Fit

"Did he specify what flavor?" Nico asked as she stood on her tiptoes to grab a bag of chips off a shelf.

"I don't think it'd really matter, everyone will probably be drunk." Nikolai said as he scanned the shelves. "They'd want variety though, right?"

"I guess so." she studied the label of a pack and with a sigh, threw it into the basket Nikolai was carrying. "Ugh, how'd I let myself get roped into this?"

"You're gonna be asking yourself that quite often if you hang around Nick and Fab." Nikolai chuckled softly.

Nico laughed and threw a few more bags in. "Let's grab some soda and get outta here."

"So how come I've never seen you before?" he asked as Nico grabbed two random bottles of soda, not caring about the flavor. "Fab's mentioned you a couple times, but that's about it."

"Well, I've known Fab for a while, but we've only recently started really hanging out." she began to explain. "The last few days have been kinda weird, actually. I've gone from hanging out with like, one person, to..." she paused and began counting on her fingers as she whispered her newfound friends' names. "...about five," she then smiled sweetly at Nikolai. "...guess that'd be six now! But yeah, everything's gone quite fast."

"Well, that's a good thing...right?"

She nodded. "I guess so!"

"I hope this party won't be lame." Nikolai thought aloud. "If it is, I'll probably just get super wasted to take my mind off it."

"I don't think I'll drink tonight." said Nico with a subtle frown.

"Why not?"

"Well, mostly because it's a school night...and, between you and me," she leaned closer to him to whisper. "...sometimes when I drink, I can turn into a bit of nymphomaniac." She then pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Sorry, that was a little too much information, but you seem nice, s-"

"It's okay!" Nikolai chuckled. "The last time I was drunk, I was running from the cops and I jumped into a dumpster to hide. It was full of wet hot trash, and yeah...you can imagine what my walk home was like."

Nico began to giggle, making Nikolai feel like he achieved something.

"That's still not as embarrassing and doesn't sound like a consecutive thing, but I'll take it." she said with a smile.

They walked out of the store, bags in hand, and looked around for Nick's car, which seemed to be nowhere in sight. But just when they were about to sit on the curb to wait, it sped into view.

"How'd it go?!" Nick yelled out the window. The two held up the bags and Nick grinned. "Let's get going!"

Nico and Nikolai put the bags in the trunk and piled back into the car. Fab had occupied the front seat this time, so Nico was squished in between Julian and Nikolai.

"So what were you guys doing?" Nico asked as they began to drive off.

Fab turned around and started laughing. It was then that Nico realised exactly what they were doing, and she stared into Fab's droopy, bloodshot eyes with a frown.

Nikolai caught on at that point too. "So you made us do all the work while you guys got to smoke up?"

"That doesn't seem very fair." said Nico, crossing her arms.

"Life isn't fair, babe." said Albert. Julian elbowed him in the ribs in response to his comment, causing Nico to laugh. He didn't like Albert showing such attitude toward her, but mostly he didn't like him calling her babe, especially after knowing of his sleazy motives.