Enigma

Embarrassing

Nico wandered down a hallway, and after accidentally checking a room that was occupied by a couple people hooking up, she stumbled into another room and noticed it was empty...apart from Julian, sitting in a corner with a cigarette in his shaky hand.

"Julian..?" she gingerly walked in and closed the door behind her. "Are you okayyyyy?" she sang out, making it quite obvious she was intoxicated.

Julian looked surprised to see her, and was even more surprised that she was clearly drunk. "Nico? Are you okay?"

She held up an OK hand sign as she downed the rest of the straight vodka she had in a cup and threw it to the side. "Why are you in here by yourself, Julian?" she asked, slowly walking over, her eyes narrowing on him. The way she said his name made Julian feel a little strange and he anxiously chewed on his bottom lip.

"I'm kinda drunk and I thought about what happened last time I was and I realised I didn't wanna embarrass myself again, so I came in here to just chill and try to sober up a little." he said, then taking a long drag of his cigarette as he looked away.

Just before Nico could approach him to place a hand on his shoulder, the door burst open and in stepped Tracie. "Nico!" she yelped, clearly out of breath. "I've been looking for you! Are you drunk?!"

Nico turned to her and rolled her eyes. "I'm fiiiiiine, Trace!"

Tracie jogged over and grabbed her wrist. "Sorry, Julian." she said, then dragging Nico out of the room.

"I said I'm fine!" Nico snapped, trying to pull away.

Tracie scoffed. "Two more minutes and you would've been climbing him like a tree, girl!"

Nico crossed her arms and huffed as Tracie set her down on a couch. She then caught sight of Nikolai and called him over. "Hey! Can you watch her for while I go to the bathroom? Do not leave her by herself."

"Uhh...sure thing?" Nikolai confusedly sat down beside Nico, who was pouting like a child. "Are you alright, Nico?"

"I'm completely fine! She's treating me like a kid, man!" she narrowed her eyes on Nikolai. "Do you think I'm acting like a kid? What do you think of me, Nikolai?"

Nikolai gulped, his eyes darting around the room. Why did Nico have to put him on the spot like that?!

She frowned at him. "Well..?!"

"I, uhh...I haven't known you very long, but I think you're cool."

"Good enough for me!" she giggled, then placing a hand on his thigh, which made him tense up. "Wanna make out?"

When Nico was drunk, she never thought before she did, resulting in extreme spontaneity, which was very out of character for her.

Nikolai was drunk too, but he was clearly more sober than Nico, and he didn't know what to do. He ended up freezing up even more, not moving a muscle as she moved closer to him.

"N-Nico, I don't think-"

He was hushed by her index finger pressed against his lips. "C'mon, Nikolai...we're drunk teenagers...it's what we do."

The persuasiveness in her voice was just too much for Nikolai to say no to, and he didn't even want to say no anyway, so in a split second, their lips were pressed together and moving in sync. Nico's hands found themselves tangled in Nikolai's hair, as his arms were wrapped around her waist. Since they were making out in the living room, people were cheering them on, causing quite a lot of commotion.

Tracie could hear yelling and cheering coming from outside as she fixed her hair in the bathroom mirror. She was about to ignore and continue checking herself out, but she heard Nick yell, "Ooooh yeah! Get it Nico!"

"I leave her alone for two minutes." she hissed to herself through gritted teeth, then storming out of the bathroom. "Nico!" she screeched. "Get your hand off that boys ass! And Nikolai, I advise you do the same!"

Nico seemed to have snapped out of whatever trance she was in as soon as she heard her friends panicked, yet furious voice. She pulled away from Nikolai and gasped. "What am I doing?!" she questioned herself.

Tracie sighed. "Come on, Nico. Let's go home."

"Aww, what?!" Nick intervened. "It's not like they were fucking or anything!"

"Trust me, dude...five more minutes and they probably would have."

"It's okay, T." Nico sighed as she stood up. She had to steady herself against a wall because all the alcohol had made it's way to her head, causing a dizzy spell. "Just let me sober up a little. I'll be fine."

Nico, embarrassed by her spontaneous behavior, quickly made her way out of the room and locked herself in the bathroom as she ignored Tracie's cries.

She looked at herself in the mirror and gasped. Her hair was all messed up and so was her lipstick. She was mortified. Sure, there was nothing wrong with a little harmless make out session, but Nico knew Nikolai was a sweet and kind being, and he respected her, and she forced herself upon him without even asking if he was okay with it, and that was just plain embarrassing. She practically took advantage of his kindness, and she was disgusted with herself.

After drinking directly from the tap and making herself look more presentable, she slowly walked out of the bathroom and was glad to see Tracie wasn't there waiting for her. While she appreciated her friends concern, she needed a little space to clear her head.

She suddenly remembered Julian, and quickly made her way back to the room he was in before. She was glad to see he was still in there, smoking, just like before.

"Julian," she spoke softly, closing the door behind her. "...I'm sorry about before."

He looked up and her and smiled. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just need to chill." she said with a sigh as she walked over to sit beside him. "I embarrassed myself real bad a few minutes ago."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked.

"That'd be nice, yeah...but don't judge me, okay?"

"I'd never."

When Nico told Julian about how she made out with Nikolai, he was a little shocked, but he could tell she regretted it. She explained it all with a frown and was clearly shocked at her own behavior.

They smoked the same cigarette in silence for a while until Nico rested her head on Julian's shoulder with another sigh. She wanted to ask Julian what he looked so sad about before, but she found herself falling asleep on him before she had the chance.