"Hello?" Nicole said, standing outside on the busy road in front of her flat, just as she was loading the very last box of her things into her car. Her lips were shivering from the chilly afternoon in an early November and she should probably get in her car right about now, but she froze upon hearing the voice on the other end of the call:
"Nicole?"
It's Waverly Earp.
"Waverly!" She smiled and chortled, and then took a deep breath to contain herself from a sudden feeling of tremendous joy that ignited inside her gut. Waverly's straight, stop acting like a moron, Haught. "Hi. Hi. How are you doing? What's the occassion?"
"I'm okay." She muttered. "I don't know why I called-- gosh I feel ridiculous."
"N-n-no, don't be."
"How are you doing? Are you alright? I haven't seen you out and about in a while."
Nicole bit her lip and looked up to the polluted sky above, purple and gray and murky. She thought about what to say but found nothing good. "Yeah, life caught up with me."
"Are you okay, though?"
Nicole's not sure how to answer that. "Yeah, I guess." Her voice was quieter when she said it.
Waverly went silent on the other line. Nicole waited for her to say something, but she didn't. Even after Nicole climbed into her car and placed the phone on the dashboard, it stayed silent. Waverly's not hanging up, though.
"Waverly?" Nicole finally asked.
"Yeah?"
"Say something."
"I don't know what to say."
Nicole took a deep breath. "But you're not hanging up."
"Do you want me to?" She sounded a bit sad there.
"No."
"Good, because I don't want to either."
"Well," Nicole weighed on her options for a moment, wanting to choose her words carefully. "What, do you want to see me?"
"I don't know."
Nicole scoffed confusedly. "How can you not know?"
"Because I don't know how I would react."
"What's the worst thing that can happen?"
Waverly paused a moment before she replied. "More than last time."
Nicole had to adjust her posture where she sat as she pondered about what she thought she just heard. "Waverly." She muttered in concern. "Have you been drinking?"
"No, I'm perfectly sober. I just-- I've been keeping this in for a while, Nicole. I need to talk to someone about it, and there's just... no one. And I know I sound super desperate and pathetic, but--"
"You're not pathetic."
Waverly dissappeared in a moment of silence again. Nicole leaned back in her seat, not knowing what to say either.
"I'm cheerleading at the game this Friday. Will you be there?"
"Uh...I don't think so. I'm sorry."
"I hope it's not because of me."
"No! No, it's not you. I would love to see you--I mean, not that way-- just, you know, to meet you. It's just there's stuff I need to take care of and I can't make it. I'm so sorry."
"Oh. Okay then."
"Yeah."
Waverly went silent again. "So... you told my sister that Champ left."
"I'm a terrible liar. Hope I didn't get you in trouble."
"She just lectured me. It's fine."
When Waverly went silent again, this time it's Nicole who decided to speak up first. "You said you need to talk about something? About-- what happened."
Waverly sighed on the other line. "Should we talk about it, though?"
"Only if you feel like it."
"I feel weird."
"Weird how?"
"Like I can't stop--" Waverly paused, leaving Nicole dreading for her next words. "Nevermind. I gotta-- I gotta go. I'm sorry to bother you."
"Waverly, it's okay--" Nicole stopped when she heard her hang up. The redhead recollected her breathing and sat up. She switched on the ignition and drove off, a pitiful effort to distract her mind from the conversation that just took place. She thought about calling Waverly back, but held back the idea. What am I to her, really? Are we friends? Are we more than that? Or are we less?
Hours later, as she laid down on a sleeping bag that she placed on the couch over at the station late at night, she stared up at the ceiling and couldn't shake the thought of Waverly Earp from her head-- Nicole took herself back to the moment when she sat next to her by the curb, kissed her back at the car, saw her curled up on the floor at her apartment, and the conversation they just shared on the phone earlier today.
Waverly Earp, why can't you get out of my head?
YOU ARE READING
Polaroid - A Wayhaught Fanfiction
Romance"You're straight, Waverly. You like boys." She said to herself as she looked into the mirror on the bathroom sink. "You like boys. You really do like them. You like them a lot." She blinked and found herself recounting every single romantic and sexu...
