What The Fork?

Chapter 5

*6/7/20 I made some minor grammatical corrections*


Roz woke up feeling sweaty and constricted. *God damn, I’m in bed with a fucking octopus.* Roz looked across the room and saw Vince in his bed. Going off of the wavy hair that was tickling her neck and shoulder, she was being aggressively cuddled by Tommy. She decided to try to slip out of his arms and it was definitely a battle. At first Tommy just pulled her in tighter. After a few minutes, she managed to get out of his arms. Roz stretched and looked at Tommy and Vince. Neither boy seemed to be waking up any time soon.

Roz decided to take a shower before working on the black-eye peas. She grabbed the last clean pair of Tommy’s shorts and snagged a black t-shirt. Roz crept quietly out of the bedroom and to the bathroom. Once she was in the bathroom, she cringed at the filth. She peered into the shower and was relieved to see there wasn’t any mold. She grabbed a towel and laid it and the clothes on the towel rack.

As she was washing her body, Roz had a panicked thought. *Shit! I really hope that I switched my spare menstrual cup into my cloak when I put everything else in there. I do not want to use tampons or pads from this era. I don’t even think there are any commercially produced menstrual cups in the US until the late 80's. My cup would be so much cleaner and cheaper.* Roz finished up and got out and dried herself off. Once she was dressed, Roz quickly braided her hair back. Before heading to the kitchen, Roz went to look in her cloak and found that she did indeed have her menstrual cup in one of the inner pockets of her cloak. *Thank goodness for seemingly infinite pockets* Roz put the cup and cloak back.

Roz looked around at the living room as she passed through to get to the kitchen. The bathroom was definitely more gross than the living room. *It will have to be the first thing that I clean after the food prep is done. That bathroom is gross.*

Roz checked the water level on the black-eye peas and added the rest of the needed water. Once she turned the heat on medium-low, she started adding ingredients. After adding the chicken bouillon, garlic, salt, pepper, and bay leaves, she got ready to chop the onions. She started to think about the time turner necklace. *I’m not sure if I want to try to use it. I am more worried. I’m afraid that it’s not going to work. I don’t want to find out that it doesn’t work. It would be terrible to have to go without watching Hope grow up.* At this point Roz had tears streaming down her face. Whether it was cutting the onions or her emotions, she wasn’t sure.

At this point Nikki walked into the kitchen and saw Roz starting to cut the last onion. *Oh, this will be good. She hasn’t noticed me yet. I can have some fun and try to scare her.* Nikki walked up behind her and covered her eyes and yelled out, “Good morning Roz!”

Roz jumped and screamed as the knife slipped and cut her left ring finger. “Fuck, Nikki! You absolute ass!” Roz dropped the knife on the counter and elbowed him out of the way. She quickly grabbed a paper towel and applied pressure to her finger. Nikki's eyes widened and he froze in the middle of the kitchen. Roz looked around the kitchen and then at him. “Nikki, I need your help. Can you grab me the vodka? I need to clean this cut.”

Nikki took a swig of the vodka before he handed it to Roz. She took the paper towel off and ran her hand under the tap. “Thanks for opening it Nik,” she said as she poured the vodka over the cut. The blood had mostly stopped. She wrapped a clean paper towel on her finger and turned to Nikki, “Okay Nik I’m a bloody mess and it’s your fault. This means you have the pleasure of helping out with the rest of the chopping. Also, I need you to find some stuff for me.”

Nikki eyed her warily, “Are you okay? Seriously, how are not freaking out at me? Most chicks would be panicking and freaking the fuck out.”

Roz shrugged, “Well I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean to make me almost cut my finger tip off. As long as you help me out, I have no reason to get upset.”

“Wow, so, what do you need first?” Nikki said.

“I need super glue and duct tape.” Roz said matter-of-factly. Roz smirked at Nikki’s wide eyes, “Be lucky I didn’t ask for a needle and thread. Its small enough that the super glue will hold the edges of the wound together. Also, I'm glad that the knife was so sharp. It will heal much better than if the knife were dull.”

Nikki started to rummage around in the junk drawer. After a couple of minutes, he set the super glue and duct tape on the counter next to Roz.

“Thanks Nikki. Can you take the cap off of the glue, and then cut a 4-inch-long piece of duct tape?” Roz asked as she looked to see if the bleeding had stopped. Since the bleeding had stopped, she took the super glue from Nikki and then spread a little over the cut. She then took a piece of a clean paper towel and folded it and put it over the dry glue. She looked up and saw that Nikki was holding the piece of tape, and she asked, “Okay Nikki, can you wrap the tape around my finger, on top of the paper towel?”

After he wrapped the tape around her finger, Nikki brought her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers. Roz blushed and stammered, “Th-thanks for helping me Nikki.”

Still holding her hand, he frowned and looked up at her. “You shouldn’t be thanking me. It’s my fault that you got hurt.”

Roz lightly squeezed his fingers and said, “While it was a stupid thing to do, I’m pretty damn sure that you didn’t do it just so that I would get hurt. Anyways, it’s time for sous chef Nikki to get to work. Can you finish chopping that last onion?”

Nikki chuckled and said, “Sure thing babe.” He kissed the palm of her hand before letting go. As Nikki cut the last onion, Roz cleaned up the blood and paper towels. When he was done with the onion, Roz dumped the onions into the stock pot. Roz then grabbed the ham from the fridge and set it on the cutting board. “Well Master Chef, what size do you want me to cut the ham to be?” Nikki asked.

Roz chuckled, “Can you cut it into quarter-inch cubes?”

As Nikki started cutting the ham, he decided to ask a few questions to get to know Roz a little. “So, besides us, who was your favorite band?”

Roz thought for a moment, “Well, my other favorite band would be Green Day. My favorite solo artist is Machine Gun Kelly. Green Day won’t be around until 1990-ish, and Machine Gun Kelly won’t even be born until 1990.”

Nikki scoffed, “Well that doesn’t actually tell me what kind of music you like.”

Roz rolled her eyes, “You should have asked that question then. I like rock music the most, but I like almost all types of music. The only things that I don’t like that much are most rap, and almost all country music.” Roz started grabbing up the cut ham and putting it in the pot.

“That sounds like such a cop out answer. But anyway, what is your favorite movie and favorite book?” Nikki asked as he looked at her for a moment.

Roz laughed, “I don’t know if you are going like the way I answer this question either. My favorite movies are the live action Lord of the Rings and Hobbits movies. My favorite books are the Harry Potter books. Before you ask, it is impossible for me to pick a single favorite book or movie.”

Nikki scoffed, “Of course you don’t give a simple answer. Well, what do you normally do for fun?”

Roz thought for a moment, “Well I read, watch movies and TV, listen to music, and I play video games. Video games have come a long way. It’s almost like being immersed in a different world.”

Nikki thought a moment and then asked, “Well what kind of partying do you even do? And, how do you have fun at a party without any drugs?”

Roz laughed at the pout Nikki had on his face, “Well I’ve only been to one real party. It was a frat party where we played drinking games like flip cup and beer pong. We also danced crazily and sang drinking songs. Then late-night tacos before bed. Most of the drinking I’ve done was with my mom and at family gatherings. Once my mom even made the mistake of telling my drunken self that there were leftovers in a crock pot in the fridge. I went to go get myself something to eat and when I went to set the glass lid down on the counter, I completely missed and it shattered all over the floor. Before my mom came upstairs, I started to try and clean up. I ended up getting a big cut on one of my fingers. My mom freaked out and then cleaned the mess up and then she cleaned my hand. My drunk ass thought it was hilarious when the hydrogen peroxide started bubbling up. I was giggling quite a lot at that. It’s easy to have a fun and crazy time without drugs. You just have to learn to let your mind and body loose. It also helps to ignore the little voice saying ‘No, don’t do that!’”

Nikki looked at her skeptically, “Seriously, you just turned 19 and your mom is the one who regularly gets you drunk?”

Roz laughed at the look on Nikki’s face, “Well yea of course she is. It’s legal in Wisconsin for a parent to give their minor child alcohol. My mom taught me how to get drunk responsibly. Don’t drink on an empty stomach. Don’t drive. Keep yourself well hydrated. I’ve never been black out drunk or had a hangover.”

Nikki finished cutting the last of the ham and looked at Roz, “If you’ve never blacked out or had a hangover, you just haven’t drunk enough.”

Roz rolled her eyes at Nikki and said, “Let’s just agree to disagree.” Roz put the last of the ham in the pot at set it to a simmer. Roz saw that it was just a few minutes past noon. “Are you guys practicing again today? I was thinking of trying to clean the bathroom but that might have to wait until the cut on my hand heals up some.”

Nikki took her injured hand and looked it over. “Mick will be here later and I was probably going to just write until then.”

Roz looked at her hand in Nikki’s for a moment and then asked “Are you hungry? I think I’m gonna make some grits and sausage. I can make enough for you guys."

Nikki kissed the back of her hand before letting go. “I sure hope it actually tastes good.” he said, smirking as he left the kitchen.

Roz rolled her eyes and called after him, “Yea like I’d poison you!” She quickly got to work and started on breakfast while thinking. *If Nikki’s going to act like that, maybe it won’t be so bad to be stuck here.*