What The Fork?

Chapter 7

As Roz waited for Nikki to come to his door, she picked at the duct tape on her finger. After a minute, she knocked on Nikki’s door again. Finally, she heard some movement on the other side of the door. Roz flinched when Nikki violently threw the door open. He leaned against the door frame, crossed his arms, and fixed an annoyed yet questioning gaze on Roz.

Her shoulders slumped and she looked down at her feet for a moment. Roz sighed and said, “I feel like I should be apologizing, but I can’t control Tommy. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but, I know it was an accident. I just wanted to say thank you again for helping me with the food.” Roz then surprised Nikki by springing up on her tip toes and kissing him on the cheek.

Nikki’s eyes widened in shock and he just stared at her for a moment. Roz sensed that he wasn’t going to say anything. She smiled and started to head to the kitchen as she said, “Well, the grits are ready. If you want food you have to come to the kitchen to g-"

Before she got too far, Nikki caught Roz by the wrist and pulled her into a tight embrace.  Roz stiffened at first. After a moment she wrapped her arms around his waist and relaxed into him. A few minutes slipped by before Nikki pulled back slightly. He simply said, “Thanks,” before kissing her on the temple. He let her go completely before he rushed off to the kitchen. Roz blinked slowly and  thought about how much she wanted to be back in Nikki’s arms already.

After a few minutes, she snapped back out of it and headed to the kitchen. Roz groaned when she entered the kitchen. There was a large pile of grits on the floor in front of the stove that looked as if someone stepped in it. “Oy vey! Boys, this is ridiculous. Which one of you stepped in the food and got it all over?”

Mick just pointed to Tommy and kept eating. Tommy sheepishly looked at the bottom of his socks. The bottoms of his socks were sticky with grits. Tommy pulled his socks off and just tossed them to the side. One of his socks stuck to the wall. Tommy snickered, “Whoops.”

Roz snatched up Tommy’s socks and rounded on him. She let out an exasperated sigh, “Seriously Tommy, this is just gross.” Roz looked again to the small, smushed pile of grits. Suddenly, she had a smirk on her face and a wicked gleam in her eyes. She bent down and scooped the pile of grits with Tommy’s socks. She slowly walked towards the trash can on the opposite side of the kitchen.

Instead of going to the trash can, she turned to Tommy and started to smear the grits into his hair. Tommy sat there blinking owlishly. Sensing mayhem, Mick quickly ate the last bit of his food, put his dishes in the sink, and escaped to the living room. Vince looked at Tommy’s hair with a disgusted look on his face and scooched away from him. Nikki smirked and started to eat as he leaned on the counter. Roz started to chuckle and said to Tommy, “Keep this in mind. I do not tolerate gross, sticky messes in the common walkways. Now finish your food and take a damn shower before practice.” She then made quick work of cleaning up before she grabbed her own food.

She sat on the counter next to Nikki and started eating. Vince finished quietly, not wanting to incur Roz’s wrath, and placed his dishes in the sink. Tommy finished shortly after Vince. He pouted at Roz as he put his own dishes in the sink. Once everyone else had left the kitchen, Nikki nudged Roz’s knee to get her attention. He smirked at her and said, “Babe, that was fuckin’ awesome! Also, the grits actually taste good. I’m glad that I got you the biggest container.”

Roz smiled to herself, and blushed slightly. She stayed silent and quickly ate the rest of her food. Nikki finished his food first and set his dishes in the sink before leaving the kitchen. Once she finished her food, she cleaned all of the dishes and stirred the black-eyed peas. She decided that she was going to clean up the bathroom, bandage or no bandage.

Roz grabbed the cleaning supplies, and an empty garbage bag and headed to the bathroom. As she passed through the living room, she smiled at the boys starting to practice. When Roz got the bathroom she braced herself. She opened the door and cringed. First she gathered dirty clothes and towels and she set them just outside the door. Then Roz started grabbing up the used condoms, empty hair dye boxes, empty toothpaste tubes, empty hairspray cans, and much more. Roz started humming as she started to scrub down the bathroom. Roz was running a silent commentary as she scrubbed. *Ewww this toilet is almost yellow with the amount of piss on it. I know they’re guys, but still this is ridiculous. Also we need a new shower curtain. This one is caked in mildew.*

While she finished cleaning, she was also thinking about time travel. *I wish I didn’t have to think about this. I think it will be easier to try the time turner if the boys aren’t around. I don’t want to leave the boys, especially Nikki. I have to try to get back to my time for Hope’s sake.* Roz looked around the bathroom and decided that it was good enough for now. She grabbed the garbage bag and silently went through the living room. Nikki caught her eye and winked and smirked at her as she passed by. Roz smiled back and then went outside to the dumpster.

Roz noticed that the sun was getting low in the sky as she went back inside. When she got back inside, the boys were done playing. Mick was in the armchair, drinking. Tommy and Vince were animatedly talking about some party later. Nikki wasn’t in the living room though. Roz cleared her throat to get Tommy’s and Vince’s attention, “Dinner should be almost ready. All I have to do is cook the rice.”

Tommy cheered loudly, “Awesome, thanks Roz" He then turned back to Vince who just smiled at Roz. Mick just nodded his head.

Roz went back to the kitchen and boiled water before putting in butter, salt, and rice. With nothing left to do but wait, Roz's mind turned to the time turner again. She had a sinking feeling that it wouldn’t work. She still had to try, and wanted to try it so that she could know for sure. Roz wanted to do it the next time the guys were out. She felt torn and, as if, no matter what happens, she was abandoning someone, somewhere, some when.

After about 20 minutes, Roz shook herself out of her thoughts. She checked the rice and it was done. She hadn’t realized that she had been thinking for so long. Roz got bowls and silverware out. She called out to the boys. Tommy came in first followed by Vince and then Mick. Roz started to show them where everything was. Roz noticed that Nikki still hadn’t come back out of his room. She sighed and left to try to coax him out of his room for the second time that day.

Roz knocked on his door and leaned on the door frame. She didn’t hear anything from inside of the room and called out to him, “Hey Nikki! Foods ready!” She knocked again and just before she was about to give up, he finally came out.

Nikki glanced at her as he passed her by, “Thanks babe.” Roz smiled and followed after him.

When they got to the kitchen, Tommy exclaimed, “Rozzy! This stuff is amazing! I think I could eat this forever.”

Mick shook his head and said, “It’s god but if you don’t watch how much you eat, you’ll eventually get fat.”

Tommy pouted and Vince laughed. Vince looked at Roz and said, “It is way better than I thought it would be.”

Nikki finally took a bite of the black-eyed peas and rice and let out a small moan. He smiled at Roz, “Roz this tastes great. So who wants to go out after this?”

Tommy whooped and Vince agreed. Mick thought a moment before saying, “Eh sure. What about you Roz?”

Roz fell silent and became fascinated with her bowl. Nikki nudged her and gave her a questioning look. She sighed and said, “I don’t think so. I’m going to clean more and try to re-arrange stuff in Tommy’s, Vince’s, and my room. Gotta try to get room for another mattress. Also I wanna do the bathroom again. I even have to put the leftovers away. There is less left than I thou-“

Nikki cut her off by putting his hand over her mouth like he had in the diner. “You are rambling again. You get this one pass. Next time, you’re coming with us.”

Roz smiled sadly and gently took Nikki’s hand off her face. The rest of dinner seamed to pass in silence to Roz. She was thinking about the time turner again, and didn’t notice any of what the guys said. Roz was thinking for so long that she hadn’t noticed that the guys were about to leave the apartment. Tommy came up to her and gave her a hug and whispered in her ear, “Don’t work too hard.” Tommy left and Mick and Vince waved as they left. Roz took the last bite of her food and went to put her dishes in the sink.

She was about to start putting the food away when she felt someone come up behind her. She quickly turned around and calmed when she saw Nikki. “Hey Nikki, I thought you left without saying bye.” She said sadly as she leaned against the counter.

Nikki laughed and said, “Relax babe, you’re actin’ like you’re never gonna see me again.”

Roz forced a smile and said, “Right, well I hope you guys have fun.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if trying to literally hold herself together.

Nikki didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that she was upset. He kissed her forward and said, “See you later Roz.” He left, not noticing that Roz had started to tear up.

Roz wiped a tear off her face and started clearing up the food. Once the food was put away, she cleaned the dishes. She wanted to at least leave things relatively clean before her possible departure. Once she was done, she looked around the kitchen and the living room before going to Tommy’s and Vince’s room. She grabbed her cloak and wrapped it around herself.

She dug out the time turner necklace and put it around her neck. She then sat on Tommy’s bed. Roz took a deep breath and started to fiddle with the time turner. She also, started to think about Hope. Hope may be the only thing she really wanted to get back to in 2020, but she had to try. A couple of minutes turned into an hour. As time slipped by, Roz lost hope and the tears from earlier started to flow freely. She started to get frustrated and whipped the necklace off.

Midnight came and went and Roz still had no luck. She screamed and threw the necklace at the wall. The small hourglass inside shattered upon impact. She whipped the cloak off and threw it to the side before collapsing to the bed. Roz started to sob uncontrollably and curled into a ball. After a long while her cries died down, and her last thought before she passed out was of Hope.