Chapter Text
Lizzie was confused, no perplexed. She'd been seated in the love seat, spaced out glaring at the door for the past 20 minutes. She'd been trying to pinpoint what happened to cause Hope, her roommate, to storm out of their apartment like that.
Dramatic storm outs midway into a heated arguments were her thing. Not Hope's. She was shocked at Hope's audacity to do it to her, moreso that she actually did it better.
She couldn't ignore how perfect Hope had looked storming out. The way her eyes were lit with rage, how her lips curled to form the words and the way she practically spat her last sentence out. And then the angry twirl with her hair flowing perfectly behind her otherwise chaotic movements. The way her hips swayed as she stomped out and slammed their door shut.
It was perfect. Oscar worthy performance. Lizzie finally understood what M.G always tried to convey with his: 'You're hot when you're angry.' excuse when he used to space out while they argued. She'd never seen Hope look so...powerful. It had definitely thrown Lizzie off her game. Which was the only reason Hope walked out having the last word.
It was actually three.
Lizzie was so focused on how Hope looked and then sidetracked by the echoing thud of the door slamming shut. That Hope screamed: "Fuck off, Lizzie!" registered after.
Now Hope telling her to fuck off was nowhere near her '100 worst things Hope and I've ever said to eachother' list. They were childhood enemies and had some legendary verbal smackdowns. Hope and her traded jabs far fiercer than 'fuck off' at the age of like ten. Cursing at eachother was common by the time they were twelve.
So in the grand scheme of things 'fuck off, Lizzie!' wasn't even a splash in their history. Truly it was no big deal, yet Lizzie couldn't understand why she felt her chest ache.
Hence her glaring at the door, like it held the answer for her. Like maybe it was actually the door's fault, she did feel the ache start up when it smacked into the door frame after all.
If she were to be honest with herself, she would acknowledge that it wasn't the door in the slightest. If she were to be honest, she would admit that it was the split second before the door slammed shut, the moment Hope had crossed their threshold to be exact. But now wasn't the time for honesty.
Lizzie wasn't quite ready for honesty so she preferred to try to figure out where it had all went wrong. What had lead them to their first major fight since they were seventeen, their first major fight after four years of being best friends and three years of sharing an apartment.
Sure they had disagreements, who wouldn't? But they hadn't had screaming matches since they were sixteen. And they sure hadn't cursed at eachother out of anger either. Passive aggressive disputes that ended with them apologizing in their own kind little gestures.
So this, the yelling, storming out it was all so...unnerving. And baking Hope some double fudge brownies probably wouldn't fix this.
Lizzie figured it was going to be one of those issues that she'd have to the root of, figure out why it managed to grow to such a state and then effectively communicate her feelings about it. Or whatever it was Emma said she was supposed to do in times, when she couldn't really clarify her thoughts or feelings on a matter.
It was time to yank out the root.
It had started with this morning....Well it had actually started the night before.
It was only 11pm on a Friday night but Lizzie was already set for bed. She had promised herself one more episode of B99 and then she'd go to sleep.
It wasn't what she had planned originally, but after her disaster of an outing with M.G she thought it would help her night still end better than it began. But it seemed not even Jake Peralta could brighten her mood. Her mind had kept straying to the events from earlier. And no amount of funny banter seemed to help.
Mostly because the banter reminded her of Hope and what she really wanted to do was cuddle with Hope and discuss what had happened. Unfortunately Hope was out on a date. So Lizzie was stuck with her thoughts on her own. Which she hated.
But Hope wasn't really the point, well she was. Just not the reason for her crappy Friday night, even though it would've been infinitely better if she were home and not on a date with some..floozy.
Lizzie sighed and settled more into her pillows. She had no other option but to deal with it.
Just she finally tuned into the on going plot she heard a loud noise come from their livingroom. Lizzie felt like her heart was going to march up her throat from fright. She was frozen in place, ears perked trying to hear if there was actually a serial killer there to murder her.
After a few moments she heard an unfamiliar giggle. It was definitely female, and annoying. She sounded like squeaky toy. Which sent a fresh wave of fear down Lizzie's spine. Just her luck she was going to be murdered by a maniacal bitch that sounded like a squeaky toy. However, before she could get her umbrella she heard another voice speak up. It was Hope's.
"I'm so sorry bout your head." She apologized to the squeaky toy.
"It's ok baby. You know I like it a little rough." Squeaky toy replied.
Somehow her voice was even more annoying than her giggle and Lizzie thought such a thing would be impossible. But here she was listening to the most nasally voice, if she could she would rip out her vocal cords. She'd be doing the world a favor. Luckily she was silenced.
Luckily turned sour rather quickly, as the slurred voices were replaced with wet smacking lips and low moans. It made Lizzie's stomach churn in disgust. Just then nasally let out a loud moan. Lizzie was sure she was going to hurl at that point.
"Shit, sorry forgot you had a roommate." Nasally apologized. Which Lizzie appreciated at least she thought about the sacredness of her hearing.
"She's out with her boyfriend. Be as loud as you want baby."
Lizzie heard Hope say with an edge to her tone. She questioned why Hope sounded angry, almost bitter at the word boyfriend. Because for one she hadn't gotten back together with M.G or even mentioned wanting to. She ultimately chalked it up to Hope being drunk.
Followed by nasally's loudest moan yet. It was unfortunately not the loudest she could be, Lizzie would learn later.
God could this night get any worse, Lizzie thought to herself.
It did.
Nasally was a screamer. Actually Lizzie was pretty sure Nasally was some human banshee hybrid. Not even blasting Paramore had drowned her out completely. And for two drunks they really had stamina. They had finally went silent after 3 am, passing out most likely.
Lizzie sadly did not have the same luck. There was a weird feeling gnawing at her that she couldn't quite describe. She assumed at first she was just uncomfortable hearing her best friend like this. Or annoyance at Nasally's high pitched screams. But it gnawed at her long after they were done. Taking root inside her and just twisting into something unfamiliar.
That was the first thing that had went wrong, that lead to their blow out. The second thing was unsurprisingly Nasally's fault.
Well it might've been her fault. But in her defense she didn't get any sleep.
And she woke up to the very annoying reason that she didn't, in one of Hope's way to big for herself sweaters. They weren't that big on Nasally though. That was the first thing Lizzie had noticed.
See Hope's way to big sweaters were normally Lizzie's sweaters that she'd steal or it would oversized college sweaters. Luckily for Nasally she grabbed was one of the latter.
(Lord knows what might've happened if she hadn't.)
While Hope normally looked cuddly and cute in her sweaters, Nasally looked...sinful, like the start of a cheesy porno sinful. She was just slightly shorter than Lizzie, so the the sweater barely covered much of anything. Lizzie had not expected an eye full of ass to be the first thing she saw that morning.
No matter how nice said ass was, objectively speaking. She had just wanted some coffee. Not some forced interaction with Hope's half dressed one night stand. So naturally she turned to go back into her room.
Her streak of bad luck continued however, because just as she started to creep away Nasally turned towards her and saw her.
"Oh goodmorning, you must be the roommate. Lindsey,right?" She greeted with what a smile.
There were several things that in that moment weren't right. The first being, Lizzie was not just some insignificant person in Hope's life to be referred as just the 'roommate'. She was the best friend, keeper of secrets, wind beneath her wings. Lizzie would not stand to be reduced.
The second thing was that as annoying as Nasally's voice was, she was pretty. Like she was runway model pretty, like a long lost Hadid sibling. All blonde, strong jawline and piercing eyes. The girl was beautiful and Lizzie hated her.
Not because she was beautiful, Lizzie Saltzman does not do insecurity. Lizzie hated her, because she was a bitch. It took one to know one after all. And Lizzie could spot a size up and fake mistaken name, like she patented the move herself. The small 'I've decided you're not a threat' smirk on Nasally's face made her skin crawl. Lizzie Saltzman would not be dismissed by some squeaky toy, no matter how pretty she was.
"Lizzie actually, and you are?" Lizzie inquired not returning the greeting. Trying her best to seem aloof.
"Ashley." Nasally replied. "I'm a friend of Hope's."
"She hasn't mentioned you, but it's nice to meet you." Lizzie replied seeming uninterested. Her ploy worked because Nasally's confidence seemed to falter.
"We're a new thing, an unofficial thing as of right now." The shorter girl supplied as an explanation.
Lizzie felt that weird feeling bubbling up inside her once more. It was even more intense than the night before. Something about Nasally implying that she'd actually have a 'thing' with Hope just made her insides knot up in disgust and anger. She didn't know why.
"Cool." Was all she trusted herself to say in the moment. She just wanted this conversation to end, for Nasally to get her ass out of her apartment and to go back to bed and pretend none of this happened.
"Yeah.." Nasally trailed off awkwardly nervously fiddling with her hands. "I made coffee if you'd like. Thought Hope would need some after last night." She offered gesturing to behind her.
Lizzie looked to where she was motioning. She felt her anger intensify and she was ready to burst. Not only did Nasally seem to lack basic manners, she was a messy person.
There was coffee all over the counter along with sugar and splashes of creamer. On top of that she used Lizzie's special roast, the one that Hope only found in New Orleans and only brought back just for her. She also contaminated said roast with creamer by dipping the dirty spoon back into the jar. Lizzie felt her eye twitch at the scene before her. The audacity of the other girl was making it hard to reign in her temper.
"I'm just gonna head back to my room." Lizzie spoke thru clenched teeth, not wanting to explode. Turning to leave.
"All right. Just a heads up it might get loud again. I'm gonna put in the work again." Nasally told her rather smugly.
Lizzie grumbled under her breath.
"What was that?"
Lizzie had planned to say nothing or lie, but when she turned around to do so she was confronted with a smirking Ashley drinking out of her mug. Her 'you're my favorite person' mug that Hope made for her, at some pottery class Josie dragged her to. And something in Lizzie snapped.
"I said do a better job this time at least." Lizzie said stonefaced glaring at Nasally.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nasally asked looking insulted.
"Notice when she's faking this time around." Lizzie said matter of factly gaze unwavering.
"How would you even know?"
"How could you not?" Lizzie turned around and went to her room. Without giving Nasally a second glance.
And that was the second thing that went wrong. That set their fight into motion. And looking bad maybe it was her fault, not that she'd ever admit it out loud.