Chapter Text
A loud bang from the kitchen makes Christen’s eyes snap open.
She groans as her eyes unglue from her sleep to take in the sunlight. It's streaming in and throwing shapes across the spotless floor, forcing Christen to realize that it is, in fact, mid-day. She takes a minute to assess her surroundings, hearing music drift in from the hallway before stretching upwards to look at the clock on one of the wood grained shelves over her bed.
11:32 AM.
“Shit,” she mutters to herself, head falling back down onto her pillow. Christen Press never used to sleep in, she scolds herself.
After lying there staring at the ceiling and listening to her best friend, Kelley, clamour around in the kitchen for a solid ten minutes, Christen finally resolves that there is no more rest to be had today.
She swings her legs out of bed, and is met with her cold, bare, hardwood floor.
She cringes at the unwelcome temperature, and stands to adjust her bunched up blue sleep shorts.
She takes a minute to clamber to her dresser, and crouch to pull out a pair of black fuzzy socks. She smiles down at them, her feet feeling much warmer, and shakes her head when she hears Kelley singing from down the hall, before she makes her way to the kitchen.
_
“What’s love got to do, got to do with it!” Kelley sings soulfully into an orange dish scrubber, as her iPod dock blares the song across the kitchen.
She’s in her skin tight black Nike leggings and a red Stanford tank top, standing back on to Christen, hair in a bun, facing a massive pile of dishes which Christen can only assume are the result of Kelley’s latest cooking experiment.
She stands in the door frame, smiling like a fool, as she drinks in her best friend’s toned physique. There Kelley stands, bopping side to side, singing off-key, completely unaware of her presence.
Sneaking up behind the freckled shorter girl with the help of her fuzzy socks on the cool tiles, Christen snakes her arms around Kelley’s waist. She jumps at the contact, but Christen holds tight as the other girl drops a pan into the sink out of her hand.
“Jesus, Chris! You trying to give a girl a heart attack?”
“Good morning to you too, sunshine!”
Christen squeezes her best friend’s waist, before releasing her and moving toward the counter. She props herself up next to the sink where Kelley works.
“You do know I did Taekwondo in high school, right?” Kelley says, eyeing Christen mischievously and gathering back up her scrubber and pan. "I could have went all ninja on your ass. Then again, you could use a good ass whooping, maybe I will anyways.” Kelley scolds, gesturing with the scrubber.
“The thought truly strikes fear in my heart,” Christen says incredulously.
Kelley’s mouth drops as she feigns shock, smacking Christen’s arm playfully before refocusing her attention on the pot she had been scrubbing.
“I’ll have you know I’m built. And terrifying. You should’ve seen the little freshmen girls shaking at the knees when O’Hara stepped in to spar with 'em!” Kelley exaggerates, looking up to smirk at Christen.
Kelley played more sports than Christen could count, and was somehow good at all of them. So in all honesty, it might not surprise Christen if it was true. However, to keep Kelley’s ego small, she rolls her eyes and laughs.
“So,” Christen begins. “Which should I comment on first? The huge pile of dirty dishes, or the Tina Turner?”
“Well, smart ass,” Kelley begins, "I’ll have you know I made yo' lazy self a plate of Crepes. I made my lazy self one too, and my friend dropped by on her way to the library to clue up for finals. She saved my drunk ass at that party last week, the least I could do is make her breakfast.” She shrugs. "But that’s besides the point. Ours food is long gone, since you took the liberty of sleeping until noon. Tina turner is a legend, by the way. I’ll have none of that negativity in my kitchen.” Kelley deadpans, pointing at the dark haired girl once more with the scrubber.
“Our kitchen,” Christen cuts in, as she jumps down from the counter and heads to the table on the far side of the room. “It’s our kitchen, and Tina Turner is okay,”
She smirks over her shoulder, she truly loves getting under Kelley's skin. It’s all in good humour, of course.
They fall into a comfortable silence as Kelley returns to scrubbing the dishes before giving up and all but dragging herself to the table to take a seat across from Christen. You'd swear she was exhausted from the two minutes it took to clean up the mess she had no problem spending an hour creating.
“So, who is this mystery friend who swings by at 9 am on a Sunday, and why does she have no name?” Christen inquires, smirking and taking up residence on one of the wooden dining chairs she and Kelley had scrummaged at a yard sale that fall.
“It was Tobin, from soccer. And before you even go there, no way. Not my type. She’s basically me. Total bro type. Well, me if I were taller. And less devastatingly good looking.” Kelley quips matter-of-factly before wagging her eyebrows, earning a laugh from Christen.
“I guess I’ll have to meet this potentially less good looking O’Hara and judge for myself,” She ponders. "Maybe if she’s a little less loud when rearranging dishes in the morning, I can swap you out for her. Hell, maybe she’ll even do her own laundry sometimes.” Christen dares, eyebrow raised, looking directly at Kelley and shoveling a forkful of her breakfast into her mouth.
Kelley accepts her best friends dare and gets up from her chair, shaking her head in disbelief and walking to the raven haired girl's side of the table.
“You’re just so funny this morning, aren’t you Chris? Get up,” Says Kelley, stopping in front of Press, a glimmer of playfulness in her eye.
“Kelley… I’m eating. Be good for once.” The taller girl scolds, half laughing, and completely unsure of what Kelley is doing. Kelley stands next to Christen’s chair, eyebrows raised, staring down at her, never breaking eye contact or relenting whatever it is that she's playing at. She hates when Kelley is trivial like this, she can’t read it and it usually ends up in horseplay and a broken lamp or two, against Christen’s better judgement.
When she realizes the shorter girl isn’t going to move or give her motive, Christen gives in and obeys, laying down her fork and standing confidently.
An all out tickling war ensues as Christen retreats far down the hallway, swinging a left into Kelley’s room with Kelley hot on her trail. Christen leaps over Kelley’s bed only to be brought down in mid-air by a tackle from the freckled girl who had gained ground on her.
They’re in a fit of laughter when the faint holler of the freckled girl’s ringtone sounds from the kitchen where she left it.
“I was waiting for this call! Stay right here.” Kelley winks, as she hops off the bed and runs out of the room to retrieve the phone before the call ends.
Christen lies on Kelley’s bed laughing, looking around at the familiar blue of her walls, at the Polaroids of Kelley and her soccer friends plastered around, her training gear thrown about the room. She wonders how she got so lucky as to get this hilarious, pure-hearted little squirrel as a best friend. Even if she’s quite possibly the loudest, messiest roommate ever.
Just as she begins swimming in these thoughts, Kelley reenters slowly.
“Yeah. Yeah, we’ll be there obviously. Probably around midday. Is that okay? Tell Tobin I heard that, Alex. We’re both coming. Okay. Give me a shout when you get the tent situation figured out, and if you need me to take some stuff in my car, I’m down. Yeah, see you soon, trouble. Love you, Muah!” Kelley clicks the end button and tosses the phone on a pile of clothes to her right.
“Where were we, Ms. Press?” Kelley jokingly wags her eyebrows crawling onto her bed next to her best friend. Christen laughs genuinely and scoots in.
“So, what was that call about? I thought I heard you say something about tents? Going camping this weekend?” Christen inquires, in a taunting manner.
“I’ll have you know that I am in fact going camping this weekend. And, guess what? So are you! Surprise!” Kelley squeals enthusiastically, giving Christen a squeeze with all her strength, which Christen notes, is actually quite a bit.
“Good one.” Says christen blandly, pulling at Kelley’s toned freckled arms to break free, She succeeds in her mission to loosen Kelley’s grip and continues to provoke her.
“Where are you going, Ms. Outdoors? There’s no spot to camp around here for miles. And I’ve never known you to be a camper.” Christen states matter-of-factly, settling back in.
“A girl can branch out, okay?” the freckled girl says, leaning up on her elbow and feigning shock at Christen’s disbelief. “Alex knows a good spot on the lake, it’s like an hour long drive. I was there once. She’s camped there ‘like, a million times!’” Kelley says in a mock, high pitched voice before continuing.
Christen smirks and reaches back, elbowing Kelley gently. It’s a reminder to the freckled girl to stop mimicking Alex’s voice. Christen outwardly hates it when Kelley mocks people she’s friends with, and will never admit in a million years that she sometimes, just sometimes, finds it entertaining.
“Anyways, my point still stands.” States Kelley, smoothing loose strands that have fallen from her bun.
She sinks back down into the bed, throwing her arm lazily over her darker hair friend. "You’re coming, you need to get out. You’ve been in this house all week, what better way to shake the dust off of ya after exam week!” She says, nudging Christen playfully.
"Besides, I already told the girls you’re coming, they’ve included you in their meal portioning and the tent layout stuff. It’s already done. Can’t back out, I don’t make the rules ma’am.” Kelley gestures as if she’s tipping a hat.
Christen removes Kelley's arms from her waist and turns over to face her. She searches her eyes for a minute, waiting for the punchline. When she doesn’t find one, she begins to panic.
“Kel. Did you seriously tell them I’m coming?” Christen’s eyes are wider than a deer in headlights.
Kelley can see the poorly hidden, internal panic shining in her best friend’s pupils.
Christen has ditched essentially all of Kelley’s attempts to get her to join her soccer friends. She goes to the games, she’s gotten a few waves in the stands, and has even been in on a few conversations with Kelley’s friends. But, she doesn’t know them well enough to spend time with them, so she doesn’t. Even when they ask.
She cannot possibly ditch again without them thinking she’s even more awful than they probably already do, she thinks. Christen continues speaking, despite her hectic internal monologue.
"I have nothing prepared! I don’t think I even have a sleeping bag in this apartment. Or a fishing pole. I don’t even know how to turn on a barbecue Kelley! Or do whatever else you do at camping trips!” She adds.
“Chris, it’s not until next weekend. You’ll be fine, you can’t be fully prepared for every single thing in life, not realistic. I knew you’d back out if I asked you last week before the plans were finalized. You can meet all the girls this week. You’ve already interacted with a lot of them, anyway, and they love you! Plus, this is going to be the longest week ever. Stop being so dramatic. You’ll be thankful for this kind of break in a weeks time, I promise.” She says confidently, in a matter-of-fact way.
Christen lets her panic die down and drifts off for a hot minute. She does know a few of Kelley’s soccer friends, and those ones are okay. She kind of even likes some of them. Besides, Kelley will be there anyways. She continues to drift, thinking about exactly what a bunch of college soccer girls might do on a camping trip, and how she might actually know how to do a lot of it. She even thinks, for 0.2 seconds, that it might be kind of fun. She always did love camping as a kid, even as a teenager.
She laughs at the thought, looking at her friends angular, freckled face; eyes closed, sporting that famous huge toothy grin as a plea. She lets Kelley hang in suspense for a second longer.
“Okay… so I don’t know them that well… BUT. I’ll go, I’ll go. Not for you, for me. I have 5 exams this week. I will be aching for a break probably.” She gives in, hating to make Kelley feel as if it was okay to drag her into plans she knows nothing about.
“YES! Totally knew you would. Admit it Press, all my ideas are gold,” she grins triumphantly, squeezing Christen too tight once more.
Christen laughs as she feverishly disagrees with that statement, wrestling free and hopping up to head toward the shower.
She stops and leans against the doorway looking at Kelley once more.
“By the way," she starts. "I’m only going to meet that O'Hara 2.0 that ate breakfast here this morning. She might be better looking. Then I can replace your annoying butt so you’ll stop making plans without telling me.” She winks, finally satisfied now that she’s gotten a dig in at Kelley, and pushes off the door frame.
“Better looking than me? Not possible and you know it! Tobin would also drag you into this Chris! She plays dirty like me!” Kelley screams after Press.
“Ou, I like her already!” Press quips, as she closes the bathroom door and the sound of running water takes over the hallway.