Nicole gave her and Sophia a once-over before returning to examine a few statues closer. Chuckling quietly, Serena did the same, which set off a chain reaction of everybody following suit. It was obvious Grant was the most conscious of them being there, but he played it off well. With casual disregard for how fragile they might be, he flicked at the comically large nose on a clay statue, drawing a sharp snicker from Serena. She raised an eyebrow in challenge, going down a row Aubrey was busy dusting and booping each of them on their noses.
Aubrey frowned and swatted her with the duster. “Serena, why don’t you go grab the broom in the corner and start sweeping?”
“Hah, you got yelled at,” Grant mocked, still watching Kenna, who did not appear thrilled at being shut out.
Aubrey stopped sweeping to pinch the bridge of her nose. “You’re not much better, Grant.”
He waggled his eyebrows like Serena had. “But still better?”
Him and that midget sure had gotten close, but Nicole supposed weirdos tended to attract more weirdos. She just didn’t particularly appreciate what that said about herself.
Kenna and Sophia shifted from the outskirts of the room to near where Nicole was on her knees hunched over a box. “This is what you’re doing? Hanging out with the loser brigade?”
She scoffed and crossed her arms. “That’s a pretty big word for you. I’m impressed. Did Sophia help you with the pronunciation on your way over?”
Kenna bristled at the insult, shoulders shaking. "Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot! I don't need Sophia's help to put you and your lame club in your place."
Nicole raised an eyebrow, amused by Kenna's outburst. "Oh really? And what place might that be?"
"It's obvious this club is a joke," Kenna retorted. "I mean, look at you. Shoved in filth in the back of the building where nobody has to look at your ugly–"
A jab to the side cut her statement off. "We didn't come here to pick a fight, Kenna."
Nicole turned her attention to Sophia. "Why are you here? You both seemed more than happy to act like I didn’t exist the past few weeks."
Sophia held up her hands in a placating gesture. "We just wanna talk." Kenna grumbled under her breath but stayed quiet as Sophia spoke. "Look, can we please just talk for a little, Nicole? Alone."
The rest of the club shuffled over to Nicole, deciding that particular cardboard box was the most important item to appraise and consider now. It was a rare moment of complete solidarity, and one that left both of them unhappy. Sophia's hands dropped to her side, and her eyes turned downcast. It served them right, but this wouldn’t end if she acted petty.
"Five minutes," Nicole stated. "Less if you piss me off."
The relief flooded over her face before Sophia managed to get it under control. A soft smile settled in its place. "We can work with that."
"Are you sure?" Aubrey asked, drawing the ire of the two.
"It'll be fine."
"I'm sure it will be," Grant said, holding his arms out and trying to appear unbothered. He noticeably swallowed, but took a determined step toward them. They regarded him cautiously but stood their ground, not wanting to be the one to back down. "They wouldn't do anything as lame as what you're thinking, Aubrey. That'd be pretty hypocritical, after all."
"You're pretty bold now. You forget how the last fight you were in went down?" Kenna asked, disdain obvious.
He glanced at Nicole; she gave him the smallest of grins and refrained from commenting how they didn’t know the half of it. This boy might not be the toughest, but he was no longer afraid to take control. Even if that meant making a scene and screaming his little head off. "It'd be different this time."
"You seem eager to beat on a girl. Compensating for something?"
Grant chuckled. "Just my own bruised ego."
"Be a shame if I got some others involved. You'd have a lot more bruises and breaks than just your ego. But you’re used to that by now, right?"
Kenna and him had moved closer to one another, practically chest to chest. Her chest was heaving and his shoulders quivered, barely noticeable underneath his loose hoodie.
"Enough." Nicole stepped in between. "You wanted to talk, so that’s what we’ll do. The rest of you, out."
Nicole could tell he wanted to argue, but the glint in her eye proved enough to make him back down. With a glare, he made his message clear to them. It was sweet–in a twisted sort of way–but Nicole didn’t need his help to handle this. His gaze softened and he squeezed her forearm. “We’ll be back.”
The three of them left, and Nicole stood up and sat at the table, uncertain what to do about the strange feeling in her stomach. It was the first time he had purposefully touched her. Perhaps that was why it had such a strange effect on her. Yes, that had to be it. She simply hadn’t been expecting him to do such an odd thing.
"Damn that moron!"
Kenna’s face was twisted in anger, cheeks stained red, and Nicole couldn't say she blamed her. That boy really did know how to get under someone’s skin when he wanted to. She stormed over to a chair and flopped down like a rag doll, anger apparently burning bright for only so long. Sophia took the seat next to her.
“Nicole…” Kenna trailed off, and Nicole wasn’t overly eager to jump in and spare her the awkwardness; she could squirm for a little bit.
Sophia reached out and grabbed her hand. “I miss hanging out with you.”
She pulled away, trying not to feel guilty about how crestfallen she appeared. It was her choice that led to them being here. Nicole might not have always been the best friend, but she would never have abandoned them. Not like they had dropped her like a brick the second their homeroom class had started to make fun of her. Had she been expecting too much of girls who were perfectly happy to torment their classmates?
Could she herself have been any more hypocritical?
“Sorry,” Sophia squeaked out, dropping back onto her chair.
“Is there any way to go back to how we were?” Kenna asked. “Before all this?”
Shaking her head, Nicole responded: “No. How can I trust you?”
A heavy silence descended and stretched on until Sophia broke it with the scraping of her chair. “Got it. We’ll leave you be.”
They stood up, and Nicole pictured her stupid face. That annoying speech of hers. Because of Aubrey’s meddling, this club had turned relationships full of malice into something better. Something that Nicole was starting to look forward to seeing more of each day. Those meddlesome idiots probably would have told her to do whatever she thought was best, yet her head and heart didn’t align on this one.
“Sit your asses back down.”
“What?” Their voices rang out in unison.
“I’m not happy with either one of you right now, but somebody else taught me the importance of fresh starts. Of making up and fighting to fix our mistakes.” She snorted. “Honestly, I’m still not a huge fan of hers, but I’m trying. And I’d like to give what’s left of our friendship a fair chance too.”
They shared the briefest of glances. “Are you saying this is a second chance?”
“Something like that,” Nicole agreed.
Kenna sat in a chair. “What do you want us to do?”
Sophia did the same. “I’ll do whatever.”
“I don’t want you to do anything for my sake. It won’t mean anything if we go back to exactly the way we were. I don’t even know if I can go back to the way we were.” Nicole exhaled deeply, blowing over her nose. “I’m not making much sense, am I?”
Her friends smiled weakly, but she could see they were unconvinced. How could she articulate what she meant, though? They couldn’t just keep talking behind people’s backs for easy laughs. Not now when she had gotten to know Grant and Aubrey. Their relationship had to evolve past that and into something else. So why couldn’t she bring herself to say that?
A knock on the door alerted her to a new presence. “Um… Grant?”
Nicole’s light blue eyes narrowed as she recognized the voice. “What I want is for us to give everybody a second chance.”