Chloe Beale awoke with a wide smile. She was excited.
"Morning sleepy-head." Aubrey peered over the top of the book she was reading to see her room-mate reaching her arms above her head in a full-body stretch.
"Merry Christmas Bree!" Chloe exclaimed gleefully as she leaped out of bed towards where the blonde was sat in her own. Barrelling onto the bed on the other side of the room, she pulled Aubrey into a tight hug and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. "Do you want to swap presents now or after breakfast?"
"I don't mind, which would you prefer?"
"Presents now!" Came the quick response and before Aubrey knew it Chloe had bounded back over to the other side of the room and was rummaging around at the bottom of her closet.
Aubrey didn't have a great relationship with either of her parents and hadn't given a second thought to staying in Barden over the holidays. Chloe, however, adored her family and the holidays but had chosen to stay too because she hated the thought of her best friend being alone on Christmas day. Her parents hadn't been very happy to hear that their daughter wouldn't be joining them but they understood Chloe's caring nature and knew, from the many phone conversations they'd had over the past few months, how much she clearly cared about her room-mate.
After a few minutes the pair had resettled themselves back onto Aubrey's bed, each with a small pile of presents next to them.
"Here, open this one first." Aubrey pushed a small rectangular present into Chloe's hands.
Three months ago
"Hi, I'm Chloe. You must be Aubrey, right?" Aubrey looked up from the boxes she was currently unpacking to see a gorgeous redhead striding towards her. She had a dazzling smile that caused Aubrey's words to become stuck in her throat. She was entranced by the tall girl's graceful movement and when their eyes locked she became frozen, rooted to the spot.
The red-head had now reached Aubrey and was looking at her expectantly. Not wanting to seem rude but still apparently unable to form any words, Aubrey smiled and stuck out her hand for the other girl to shake. The handshake wasn't returned though as Chloe grabbed the offered hand and used it to pull Aubrey into a tight hug. "I'm super excited about being here and I think we're going to have lots of fun." Chloe enthused.
Aubrey was experiencing a sensory overload. With her body pressed fully against that of her stunning new room-mate's, she could feel the curve of Chloe's breasts resting against her own, her toned arms wrapped around her body with her hands coming to rest on the small of her back. All Aubrey could see was the soft auburn of Chloe's hair which was now surrounding her face and as she breathed she took in the fruity fragrance of the girl. Wow, she smells good.
Chloe was talking fast and Aubrey wasn't taking in much of what she was saying - she did catch something about 'jiggle-juice' but had no idea what it meant. Eventually, Aubrey managed to extract herself from the grasp of her new room-mate and sighed in relief as she tried to calm her thoughts. Chloe didn't move to step away from Aubrey as she released her from the hug and so she remained in the blonde's personal space as she continued her mile-a-minute talking.
"You smell good." Before Aubrey realised what was happening the thought had rushed out of her mouth. "Sorry" She apologised quickly, bowing her head in an attempt to hide her furious blushing.
"Thanks!" If Chloe had noticed the other girl's embarrassment, she didn't let it show. "It's my perfume, it's called Eyes For You. It was a birthday present from one of my aunts who lives in Scotland. I went over to visit her during the summer, it's such a beautiful country - have you ever been? You should definitely go if you haven't. The foods great too, did you know they deep-fry pizza over there?"
Chloe continued with her monologue, bouncing quickly between topics but Aubrey was no longer paying attention. She was paying plenty of attention to the beautiful woman stood in front of her, just not so much to the words coming out of her mouth. That mouth, those lips, what it would be like to kiss them. Oh god, I'm doomed.
"Thank you so much Aubrey, you really didn't have to." Chloe enveloped Aubrey in another bone-crushing hug.
"You haven't even opened it yet." Aubrey chuckled nervously as she struggled to maintain composure with her gorgeous friend's body pushed up against her own. Finally, she was released and watched in anticipation as the gift was unwrapped. As she pulled away the last of the wrapping paper to reveal the small bottle of perfume, Chloe's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she looked up at her friend, a disbelieving expression on her face.
"How did you know?"
"Our first day here. When we first met you told me the name of your perfume." Aubrey shrugged in an attempt at nonchalance.
"I did?" Chloe scrunched her face up adorably, trying to remember. "But how did you know that I'd run out though? And how did you find it? I've been trying to find more of it for ages."
"Just a lucky guess I suppose." Aubrey lied. She wasn't going to admit that within days of first arriving at Barden, the intoxicating scent had quickly become her favourite smell nor how she hadn't stopped thinking of how good it smelt on Chloe in the months following. She'd noticed instantly the first day that her best friend, and now object of her affection, hadn't worn the perfume and was disappointed each day afterwards without it. When Chloe had first mentioned Christmas presents, Aubrey had instantly thought of a way to rectify the situation. "And it wasn't so hard to find." She mumbled, lying again. Chloe definitely didn't need to know about the painstaking number of hours she'd spent trawling through the internet, trying to find somewhere that stocked the allusive perfume.
"Thank you Bree." Chloe responded earnestly. "I can't believe you remembered after all this time."