Love and Gymnastics
First Quarter
"Kelly!" eight year old Nicky Russo whined. "Give it back!"
Kelly Parker, her brown hair falling unattractively in her face and her red and black Christmas dress completely destroyed by a few rips and what looked like grape juice, stuck her tongue out at her friend and held his favorite teddy bear in his face tauntingly. Nicky reached for it, but Kelly quickly pulled it back out of his reach. "If you weren't such a baby, you wouldn't need it," Kelly teased.
"I don't need it," he pouted. "I just want it."
Kelly smirked at him, then she looked down at the party that was going on in the great room of her parents' vast mansion on the floor below them. Her parents had vanished her and Nicky, along with their plates of food, to the second floor landing after a few 'accidents'. "You know, if I drop this over the railing, you'll be in so much trouble," she said. Kelly dangled the object over the railing, watching Nicky's face change to a look of horror. "My parents and your parents told us we had to stay up here and not disturb the guests. I'm pretty sure a teddy bear randomly falling from the second floor onto someone's head would count as disturbing."
"Just give it back," Nicky said desperately, trying to keep himself from crying in front of the girl that was standing before him.
"I could do that." Kelly pulled the bear back to her body, away from the rail. "But then, what would be in it for me?" Then she dangled it back over the railing, farther from her body this time.
"I'll do anything you want," Nicky promised.
"Anything?" Kelly asked him with a devious smile.
"Yeah," he told her nervously.
"Then kiss me," she said simply.
Nicky gulped. "You want me to kiss you?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"So I can brag to all the other girls at the gym that I was the first one to get kissed, duh," she told him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Give me Mr. Bear first," Nicky said.
"You have to kiss me first."
"No! You'll throw him over after I do."
"Only if it's not a good kiss."
Nicky looked at her skeptically. "You've never been kissed before. How would you know if the kiss is good or not?"
"Just shut up and kiss me, okay?" she snapped at him.
Nicky nodded and walked over to her. He closed his eyes and leaned in.
Then he felt something all over his face. Nicky's eyes snapped open and he saw Kelly Parker grinning evilly at him. Nicky wiped a hand over his head and gasped when he pulled it away.
"You threw pudding at me!" he exclaimed.
Kelly nodded, still grinning. "Yeah. I can't believe you fell for that. You're supposed to be the smart one." She tossed his teddy bear to him and turned away from him in the direction of her bedroom. Nicky grabbed her hand before she could leave, and Kelly turned around quickly in surprise.
"When a girl is mean to a boy all the time," Nicky started.
"It means she likes him," she finished for him. Then she leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips.
...
"You're leaving?" Kelly asked Nicky in shock. She jumped down from the counter she was sitting on in the middle of his kitchen, knocking over her glass of iced tea as she did.
Nicky tossed her a towel to dry it up with, and Kelly threw it back at him, hitting him right in the face. He sighed. "Yeah, Parks. I'm going to train at the Rock." Nicky dropped the knife he was using to cut up an apple and turned to Kelly just as she started to yell at him.
"Why?" she exclaimed. "Denver Elite is one of the best gym in the country, Nick! National Champions, World Champions, even an Olympic gold medalist back in the 90s have trained here!"
"It's not about that-"
"Then what is it about? Hmm?"
Nicky grabbed Kelly's hands, lacing his fingers with hers. "It's about gymnastics. I need to be somewhere I can focus on nothing but making it to the Olympics. And I can't do that here, Parks."
Kelly jerked away from him, turning her back to him. "Why not?" she asked.
"Because I can't train here with you."
"What have I ever done to you?" she snapped at him.
Nicky actually laughed. "Should I make you a list? Let's see, we'll say one mean thing per day every day for twelve years. No, wait, you didn't really do anything until we were about three so 365 times 9. Got to add in two days for the two leap years-"
"You're really leaving because I'm so awful to you?" Kelly interrupted him with an emotion filling her voice that Nicky had never heard from her before. It almost sounded like guilt.
Nicky felt a pang in his heart and took a step closer to her, wrapping his arms around her slender waist. "No. I would have left a long time ago if it was because you're so awful to me. Honestly, Parks, I think you're the only think that keeps me from having an ego the size of yours," he said, trying to lighten the somber mood.
Kelly jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, but leaned back against him nonetheless. "Then why?" she whispered.
"I just think going to the Rock will be better for me. You understand, right?"
"No," Kelly said. She pulled away from his arms and turned to face him. "But I guess I can respect it."
"Good."
Nicky went back to cutting up the apple, while Kelly continued to stare at him sadly. Then her signature devious smile spread across her face and she walked over to the sink. Just as she was about to pick up the spray nozzle, Nicky, with his back to her, said, "Don't you dare."
"Dare what?" she asked him innocently.
Nicky turned back to face her, giving her a knowing look. Nicky walked back over to her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I wasn't going to do anything, Nick," she pouted. "It really hurts my feelings that you don't trust me."
"Have you ever given me even the slightest reason to trust you?" he asked her with a grin. Kelly laughed right before he pressed his lips against hers. With one hand on her hip, Nicky used the other one to reach for the spray nozzle on the sink. He was just inches away from grabbed it when Kelly pulled away from him and grabbed the nozzle instead.
"No, babe, I've never given you a reason to trust me," she told him with a smirk right before she drenched him and the entire kitchen with water.
...
Standing outside the house he grew up in holding Mr. Bear while movers carried boxes and furniture out to a white moving van was the second hardest thing Nicky had done in his entire twelve years, but it couldn't even hold a candle to the day he had to watch is mother's casket be lowered into the ground.
Nicky heard someone walking behind him, and he somehow knew who it was. Sure enough, he felt a familier hand grab hold of his free hand. "Were you really going to leave without saying goodbye?" Kelly asked him.
Nicky shook his head. "Of course not. If you didn't show up today, I was going to make my dad stop at your house on our way out of town."
"We've had so many good memories in this house," Kelly said as she stared at the front of the Russo house.
"Good?" he asked with a laugh. "I mainly remember you throwing things at me, taking my toys, mocking and teasing me. Oh, and there was that one time you threw my cat in the pool."
"It bit me."
"Because you pulled it's tail."
"Do you still have that cat?"
"No. It drowned."
"Sorry about that," Kelly said distractedly. She leaned her head against Nicky's shoulder, trying to savor their last moments together. Nicky didn't reply, simply pressing a kiss to the top of her head. They stood there in silence before Kelly spoke again. "Everything is going to change now, isn't it?"
"Somethings will."
"Not just somethings, Nick, everything. We can't just go home with each other after practice and play video games, we won't be spending every Christmas together trying to find something interesting to do while the adults gossip, and we won't be best friends anymore." Kelly hadn't realize she was crying until she felt the salty taste of tears creep into her mouth while she was talking. She quickly wiped them away before Nicky could see.
Nicky let go of her had and pulled her into a hug. Kelly buried her face in his chest, but she didn't cry anymore. Kelly Parker had far too much pride to cry in front of Nicky Russo. Nicky breathed in the smell of her hair, the sweet scent of cherry tickling his nose.
"We'll always be best friends, Parks," Nicky whispered.
"Always?" she asked. "Even when we're thirty-five, married, and have kids of our own, you and I will still be best friends?"
"Even when we're forty-five."
Kelly pulled away from him, taking in the look on his face to see if he was being genuine. "What if you meet someone else in Boulder?"
"I'm not your boyfriend," he reminded her.
"I know, but if you meet someone there, they probably won't want you to be friends with me. I don't exactly get along with the Rock girls. Keeler, especially," she said.
"I promise you I won't fall for any of the Rock girls. Keeler, especially," he mocked.
"And if you do?"
"I will never let anyone come between us, Parks."
"How do I know you're serious?"
Nicky grabbed Kelly's hand again with his free hand and flipped it over so that it was palm-side up. Then he placed his teddy bear in it. "I want you to have Mr. Bear. That way, we'll always have something linking us together."
"I can't take Mr. Bear, Nick. Your mom gave him to you right before she died."
"I know. She gave it to me before she left me, and I'm giving it to you before I leave you."
Kelly pulled him into another hug. They pulled back and were about to kiss, but Dr. Russo walked over to them. "Nicolas, we're ready," he said.
"Bye, Parks," Nicky said quietly.
Kelly glanced briefly at Dr. Russo before she stepped away from Nicky, Mr. Bear in her hand. Nicky cast her one last sad smile before he climbed into his dad's Jaguar. Kelly stood there as they backed out of the driveway and drove away.
The tears started to fall when she looked down at Mr. Bear and saw a note tied to his little arm. Kelly quickly pulled the note off his arm and unfolded it. She started to sob when she read the note in Nicky's crisp, clean handwriting.
Okay, so has anyone seen the movie 'Love and Basketball'? This story is kind of based on it, but you really don't have to have seen the movie to understand this story. I do recommend it, though, because it's an awesome movie.
Anyway, onto Nickelly. If you don't like the pairing, all I can tell you is to blame Love's Crash Test Dummy. My almost-complete obsession with this couple is entirely her fault. She just writes them so well in all her stories that I had to give it a try for myself. I also want to thank her for helping me brainstorm this story and for reading a few pieces of it after I wrote them.
I'll get the next three quarters of the story out as soon as I can, but it will probably take awhile.
PLEASE REVIEW!