One of us - Nichorello

12. Home

<Nicky's POV>

"The greatest stud is back" The familiar, deep voice yelled through the window. Vause and I jumped up simultaneously, excited to finally see our friend again.
"Holy fuck, Boo!"She sat down next to us, looking around, examining my living room in which we used to hang out all the time. „Where are the guys?" Boo asked. "Crying cause Nichols seduced all the girls," Vause chuckled. I reached my phone and dialed Logan's phone number.
„Logan, Boo arrived. You guys coming over?"

"Sure, be there in a sec"

-------------

Half an hour later, we were sitting in a circle, drinking and smoking. In our earlier years, when Boo had still been a part of the gang, we would do this about once a week. The "circle", smoking our best weed, we would sit in a circle, mostly playing truth or dare, even though nobody would remember the things that were revealed the next day.

Vause and I were sitting on the sofa, unlike the rest who was seated on the wooden floor. The bottle of beer in my hand was half empty, just like an hour ago. Somehow I wasn't in the mood to get drunk, like normally. The doorbell rang. Too lazy to get up, I let Boo answer the door, hoping to witness a delightful conversation.

Everyone was listening to Boo, who was babbling at someone.

"Hey, princess. Sorry, this is a closed circle." She paused shortly, probably listening to the response. A few seconds passed before the door was slammed shut and Boo came back with Lorna.
"Lorna?" I stood up, surprised by what she would be doing here.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt. I didn't know you were busy." I noticed that everyone was staring at us, carefully listening to our conversation. I pulled Lorna up the stairs into the bathroom, which I had luckily cleaned this morning.

"What are you doing here?" I grinned at her nervosity.

"I just came by for our chemistry project" She was cute when she lied, every time she would glance down at the floor. It was funny, I always did that too.

"I didn't know you were uh-" she paused, thinking about how to end this sentence "occupied," she said. I began to grin, her innocence was so adorable.

"You mean high?" I laughed. "Yeah"
"I'm not high" I nudged her lightly, " I could be, but today I'm not"
"Are you celebrating something?"

I chuckled. As if there was something to celebrate every time we were high.
"Nah, just a game we're playing," I paused shortly "Do you wanna join us?"
I was praying that she would say yes, with that bright smile of hers.

"Sure"
I wanted to hug her and tell her how happy she just made me, but I knew I couldn't.

----------

"Do you want some?" Logan handed Lorna the joint, offering her some weed. By her nervosity, I could tell that she had never done drugs before. I was glad she didn't.
"No, thanks" She handed me the joint, expecting me to inhale deeply. Looking at Lorna, who seemed to be scared by all of this, I handed it to Vause. Lorna relaxed as if she was relieved by my decision to stay sober, and smiled at me. She cared about me; she cared about my health, I could tell.
Lorna and I have had a few beers and were both tipsy. Some of the others had left so that only Vause, Boo and Caleb were with us. We were still playing truth or dare as Boo started flirting with Lorna.

"So, what's your name?"

"Lorna"
"I'm Boo. If you ever feel-"

I could tell where this was going and stopped her right away.

"Leave her alone" I put an arm around her, protecting her from Boo.

"Ah, she yours?" Boo raised her eyebrows, interested in my personal life as always. I didn't answer, not knowing how to respond to that question.

"Well, I can tell why. You're really hot," Boo smirked "Nicky always gets the hot ones"I frowned at Boo, hoping that she wouldn't tell her more about my former status in this town.

"Lorna's a cheerleader!" Vause blurted out. I wouldn't have invited Lorna to hang out if I had known that my friend would behave like such idiots.

"Why would you do that shit?" Caleb asked Lorna.

"It makes me feel good" Lorna responded.
"Cheerleading makes you do stupid cartwheels. Orgasms make people feel good," I add. Vause and Boo both laughed, all of them agreeing with my statement. Lorna, on the other hand, scooted a few inches away from me.

"Back to the game. Lorna, truth or dare?" Vause asked.

"Truth"
"What do you like most about Nicky?"
I had already expected Vause to ask such a stupid question since she was a really stubborn person.
"Ah, her humor" Lorna whispered while looking down to the floor, avoiding my eyes. I smiled, aware that that was a lie.

----------

Boo and Vause were sitting on my couch, selecting a horror movie to watch.

"Hey," Lorna mumbled while handing me the empty bottles of beer.

"Hey" Her eyes were fixated on the floor, showing her sadness.

"What's wrong?" I reached my hand out to stroke her hand, but she pulled it away.

"Did you mean it?" She looked up at me, her eyes filled with devastation.

"Mean what?"
"That cheerleading is stupid"

I smiled at her sensitivity, which would annoy me by other people.

"It's not funny," she tried to remain serious, but soon she started giggling too.

"I lied when I said I like your humor the most," she glanced up at me.

"What is it then?"

"It's the fact that you feel like home and adventure at the same time"

Did she just admit that I feel like home? You know what they say, home is where the heart is. I smiled at her response and slightly touched her hand with mine. As she stepped closer to me, I intertwined our fingers. She looked up at me again, her eyes filled with passion. Although all I wanted to do was to kiss her, I hugged her instead. We remained like this for a few minutes, her chin resting on my shoulder, my left arm wrapped around her waist our hands still intertwined.

"Come on Nichols, the movie started!" Vause shouted out of the living room. Morello pulled me into the living room and sat down next to me. After a few minutes, she fell asleep, snuggled up against me.