Chapter Text
Genesis
"God Nicole, why the fuck did you drag me into this?"
"Yeah I think 'God' is the point."
"You know that's not what I meant."
The two girls in the middle row stuffed with people whispered a lot louder than they thought they were.
"Hush!" The girl next to them whispered.
"Jecka, do you think Megan's a huge bitch?"
"Uh yeah totally like come one Megan you're being really loud right now."
Megan rolled her eyes, and the people sitting around the stuffy pew shot dirty looks towards the two girls. The people that sandwiched the three together were visibly uncomfortable, and tried to scoot away from them to avoid any guilt by association.
"You two promised you would behave!" Megan whisper-shouted towards them.
Behind the girls an older man hushed them loudly. Nicole turned around, mouth open ready to hurl insults at anyone in that general direction. Jecka tugged at her jacket in an attempt to quiet her down. Of all things, a very public outburst at a church was the last thing any of them needed.
"Can you chill out for like, five seconds Nicole?"
"Yeah I can actually, Jecka, but this has been way longer than five seconds."
Megan joined in with the others and tried to scoot away from the most misbehaved teenagers the church had seen in forever.
"Oh my god I cannot do this." Jecka complained.
A woman beside her shot her head around, mouth agape.
"You're not supposed to use the Lord's name in vain." Nicole said.
"Vein? Like those things you cut into every night?" Jecka shot back.
"Wow no need to get personal, Jesus, you act like I shot your dog."
"Nice one Nicole, I thought you weren't supposed to say the Lord's name in veins."
Megan buried her head in her hands. "Can you both please just shut up."
Both girls rolled their eyes and sighed loudly. The next few minutes passed quietly. For the first time all sermon, Megan seemed to relax and be able to listen to whatever the pastor was saying. Nicole, on the other hand, was lost in thought about how easy it would be to sneak a gun in. She contemplated whispering this thought to Megan, but for once decided against it. That wouldn't make it fun anyways, Megan was too trained to freak out the way Nicole wanted in the middle of all this.
Jecka tapped on Nicole's shoulder. She looked visibly uncomfortable, and dug around her jacket pocket. Well, it wasn't her jacket, it was Nicole's. Megan had insisted that whatever Jecka was planning on wearing would be inappropriate, and made her throw on whatever jacket was handy, which just so happened to be one of Nicole's. Much to everyone's dismay, except for Jecka and Nicole, the only jacket available was the one with the gun plastered on the front.
"What."
"Don't even start right now. Let's bail and go to the bathroom." Jecka furrowed her brows.
"And what if I'm actually enjoying this, huh?"
They both snickered. Before either of them could even start to rise, Megan's head snapped over.
"Where do you two think you're going?"
"What are you? My mom? Lay off dude."
"You promised you would stay for the whole thing."
"It's just the bathroom, what does Jesus not want us to pee or something?" Nicole leaned forward to see the stupid look on Megan's face.
"Yeah it'll take like five minutes." Jecka added.
"Okay but why do you both need to go?"
"Uh, it's girl code? Come on Megan even you know this. Girls have to go in pairs. What if some creepy fuck follows me in there?" Jecka said.
Megan just crossed her arms, huffed, and turned her attention back to the pastor.
It took a few minutes for the pair to even make it out of the sanctuary with how crowded it was. It really astounded Nicole just how many people still went to church. It was 2008 and not even the bible belt so why the crowd?
"Oh my god that was so boring."
"Tell me about it, I couldn't pay attention even if I tried."
The halls of the giant church surprisingly still had people milling about. Including a few cops. And old people with nothing better to do. The bathrooms were right across the hall from the sanctuary, but Jecka stopped Nicole as she was about to enter ahead of her.
"No, come this way, that one will have people in it."
"Oh yeah, that makes sense. What, are you an expert in this now?"
"Ugh no, I had to come here a lot as a kid." Jecka folded her arms across her chest.
"Wow, I never took you as a church girl."
"I wasn't but my mom basically was. It sucked. Sunday School here is like prison."
"Yeah, it makes sense. Explains why Megan is like that. Where are we going, by the way?" Nicole didn't feel like spending the rest of their time here getting gawked at by the cops standing all around the building.
"It's just right here. Fuck all these cops being here really freaks me out."
"Why? Not like we're doing anything crazy."
Jecka smirked. "You really think I wanted you to come with me just to keep me safe? These men here are ancient. I could break them by looking at them wrong."
"Wow okay hotshot, I'd love to see that." Nicole raised an eyebrow.
"Bet you would. Anyways, no, I got a cig. Wanna split it?"
"Oh thank god. I can always count on you."
"Yeah I know." Jecka beamed.
Jecka led the way into the bathroom. Nicole was shocked to see the bathroom door didn't lead directly into a bathroom, but into a sitting area, complete with cushioned chairs, a coffee table, and carpet.
"Dude what the fuck is this?"
"I know, isn't it crazy. Like who puts fucking carpet in a bathroom?"
"It's not even the bathroom yet like, why do they have a sitting room in here?"
"I dunno. Old people have nothing better to do than sit in these weird chairs and read magazines about Jesus. In a bathroom."
"How do people stand these stupid chairs? Just feel them, ew." Nicole dragged her hand across the weird felt chair. "It feels like carpet."
"I wouldn't touch that. Do you know how many people here don't wash their hands?"
"Oh gross."
"Yeah I know. Anyways, let's go to the back to smoke this shit."
"Wow back of the bathroom, what are we gonna make out or something?"
"W-what? Nicole stop, let's just smoke this shit before anyone shows up."
Weird that Jecka got flustered at that.
"Don't have to tell me twice, I've been waiting."
Jecka fished a lighter from who-knows-where and opened a toilet stall. She motioned for Nicole to enter, then closed the door. The two were cramped in the tiny stall, which Nicole kept her complaints to herself, and watched as Jecka climbed onto the closed toilet and reached over for something on the wall.
"What are you doing?" Nicole asked.
"Just opening a window, calm down."
There was a 'thud' and Jecka hopped back down, almost knocking Nicole into the wall. Not that she complained, obviously. Jecka struggled with the lighter for a few moments. Nicole sighed and rolled her eyes before taking it.
"Put the cig in your mouth."
"What?"
"Just do it. It'll be cool."
"Ugh, fine." She mumbled as she did as she was told.
Nicole leaned close and held the lighter up to her face. The tiny flame lit up her face, and she slowly moved it to the cig that went slack in Jecka's mouth. Nicole held the side of her hand to Jecka's chin.
"Hold it still."
Jecka's face flushed red. She was cute when that happened.
The cig was finally lit, but Nicole didn't pull back her face. She was close enough she could feel the trace heat from the cig. Jecka sucked a breath in and held it.
"Well? Breathe out."
Jecka let the smoke trickle out from the side of her mouth, her eyes never left Nicole's.
"Cool." Nicole said as she pulled back. "Now let me hit."
"Yeah…" Jecka seemed as if she wasn't in the room any longer.
Nicole took a quick drag and blew the smoke up into the air.
"Cool…" Jecka whispered.
A few minutes drifted by as the pair shared a cig, and Jecka's attention was never moved from Nicole.
"Hey I had a good idea."
"Yeah?" Jecka asked with the cig hanging from her mouth.
"They have a lounge built into this bathroom, let's go use it."
"Well…" Jecka thought for a moment.
"Oh come on, no one's gonna walk in. This bathroom's like a twenty minute walk for these people."
"Yeah ok, you're right."
The two left their little stall and looked around the weird lounge.
"Holy shit look at all of this junk." Nicole said as she approached a large painting on the wall opposite her.
"Who the fuck has a nativity scene in a bathroom waiting room?" Jecka wondered, cig hung loosely from her lips.
"What that's not a Jesus painting. Come here, look at this."
"Yeah, that's George Washington crossing the Delaware."
"Wow you really do pay attention in your classes. What's a painting like this doing in a church bathroom anyways?"
"Of course I pay attention in classes, I don't wanna end up doing some bullshit job for the rest of my life. Like Dave and Busters. And yeah, of course they'd have a big ass painting like this in a church. They're Methodists, Nicole, they vote for McCain and lobby for Israel."
"You really know a lot huh, shows how much I pay attention."
"Whatever it's nothing. Just don't bring up the separation of church and state here." Jecka took another short puff and blew the smoke towards the floor.
"Why?" Nicole looked back at Jecka.
"Bitch I JUST said don't bring it up."
"You brought it up first? Ugh whatever."
The distinct flash of Nicole having an idea flashed across her face.
"Wait dude come here." She said as she collapsed onto the weird carpet chair.
Then Nicole slapped her thighs, motioning for Jecka to sit on them. Face completely red, she tried to stammer out a 'what', but nothing ever came out. Nicole of course laughed at her, then pulled her in close. Jecka fell on top of the other girl, bits of ash fell like snow onto the chair. Nicole wrapped her arm around Jecka's waist, and she yelped.
The cig slipped out of her mouth, but as it was about to tumble to the floor, Nicole skillfully caught it, and in an instant it was back in her mouth. She took a long drag and blew the smoke back in Jecka's face.
"Ew!" She coughed.
"This feels pretty good, actually." Nicole went for another drag.
"If I start breaking out because you blew smoke in my face, I'm going to fucking kill you."
"Stop, you're turning me on." Nicole deadpanned.
Jecka couldn't muster a response to that and could only stumble with her words. When Nicole laughed at her, she couldn't do much but sink down onto the chair, onto Nicole. For once, Nicole found herself feeling an emotion, but the name of which was completely lost on her. Something about having Jecka's fake tanned skin squished against her own made her feel… something? That was more than what most things did.
Then the door swung open.
In the chaos, Jecka threw herself off the chair, Nicole made some horrid noise that was a mix between 'surprise', 'confusion', and 'anger'. An old woman let out a wail. And the cig fell straight onto the floor. Face down, ass up.
Within minutes a crowd had formed, and whatever mystery emotion Nicole had felt was swiftly replaced with an intense desire to find a noose. Business as usual. Megan had managed to shove her way to the front, and proceed to scream at her two hostages.
"Well this wouldn't have happened if you didn't force us here!" Nicole shouted.
"This wouldn't have happened if you weren't addicts!" Megan retaliated.
The crowd didn't like that one.
'Those poor girls.' 'Aren't they high school students.' 'Their parents must be so disappointed.'
Meanwhile Jecka was a complete mess, frantically trying to apologize for the damage to the weird chair and carpet. With all of that in the bathroom, what were they even expecting? Seriously this place was full of freaks, and if Nicole had to stay in this building for one more minu-
"I have a wonderful idea." The head pastor had said, who had arrived at some point while Nicole wasn't looking.
"Please don't send us to jail." Jecka pleaded, tears formed at the corners of her eyes.
The pastor laughed. He was wearing a suit too bright to be considered straight. "No, of course not. Accidents happen and we must be understanding of that. With that being said, however, that chair and part of the carpet has been damaged. And the most appropriate thing to do would be to pay to replace it."
"Here we go." Nicole said.
"We're just teenagers, how are we supposed to pay for that?" Jecka asked.
"And that leads me to my point! How about you two young ladies work at the cafe in the church?" He seemed happy with himself at the idea.
"Yeah how about."
"Great! Glad to see you on board already!" The pastor beamed.
"What? No that's no-"
"Nicole!"
"Yeah. Fine. Whatever."
And the two were swiftly brought to the cafe to fill out an application.