"How do you know so much about France?" Lorna asked as she looked up at Nicky who was sitting crosslegged in her bunk. She had been talking about spending her honeymoon in Paris before Nicky dropped some disturbing statistics about the city. Nicky paused and took a beat before deciding what to say.
"I uh... spent senior year of high school there." She said, looking at the Thomas Pynchon book in her lap, having read the same line over and over for the past 2 minutes that she had been talking to Lorna. But she was carefully watching Lorna from her peripherals.
"Like a foreign exhange program? We had a Swedish kid in our school, no one could understand a word he said. There was a rumour that he was sleeping with Mrs. Kelly, the English teacher but turns out he was gayer than George Michael." Nicky looked at Lorna and into her big brown eyes, she was still waiting for an answer.
"It wasn't really an exchange program, more like I was kicked out of so many private schools in Manhattan that my mother thought it was easier to ship me to a different country all together."
"Oh... that must've been nice." Lorna paused. "I wish I travelled. I've never even been on a plane."
"Really?" Nicky accidentally said it in an incredulous way that made Lorna slightly embarrassed. Nicky quickly bit her tongue and slid off the bed to sit next to her on the floor. "I mean, you will kid. You're young, you've got time to see the whole world." She put her arm over Lorna's shoulder and squeezed. Lorna looked to her with a genuine smile and nodded.
"So, you got any travelling tips for me?"
...
Nicky didn't like talking about her past. She learnt her lesson way before her time in the can, when a dealer found out she came from wealth and didn't hesitate to blackmail more money off of her. She never thought she could ever share about her life to anyone in prison, life was hard enough as it was.
It had been a week since she told Lorna about all the non-touristy stuff that she should do when she got to Europe. Lorna listened intently and wrote it down in a notebook full of ideas for her upcoming wedding and honeymoon. Which should've made Nicky jealous but at that point, she's just glad she's able to have an honest relationship with someone. The only other person who knew about her was Red, and even that was because she poured her heart and soul to her while she was detoxing, which Nicky didn't plan on doing ever again.
"So there are places in Amsterdam called coffeeshops and they only sell pot but not coffee?" Lorna asked, during lunch time.
"No, they have coffee too. But it's shit coffee for tourist stoners. If you want good coffee, you need to go to real cafe's."
"That's confusing."
"What are you kids talking about?" Big Boo said, sliding into the seat next to Nicky with Yoga Jones and Sister Ingalls behind her.
"Just talking about coffee." Lorna said simply, while scooping some mush into her mouth.
"Ugh, I'd give an arm for a real cappuccino in this joint." Boo sighed.
"Yeah, you'll be a hit with the ladies being a 200 pound, one armed dyke." Nicky said.
"Suck my dick, Nichols. It was rhetorical."
As Boo went on to talk about her latest conquest, Nicky saw Lorna smile at herself while writing something down in her notebook.
...
"Jesus Christ, kid..." Nicky said, her eyes still shut from post-coital bliss, her head on the cold floor of the chapel.
"Was that good?" Lorna whispered. When Nicky opened her eyes, there's a smug grin on Lorna's face.
"Come'ere." Nicky sighed, pulling Lorna by her shirt collar and she straddled her hips, bending down to kiss the blonde long and slow. "Wipe that smug look off your face." Nicky said, biting Lorna's bottom lip.
"You sure got a problem being a bottom, huh?"
"Where did you learn that phrase?" Nicky asked, running her hands up and down Lorna's thighs. Eventhough Lorna was fully dressed top-wise, she only had prison issued panties on.
"I'm not that clueless, Miss Nichols." Lorna took one of Nicky's hands and brought it closer to her centre. "Besides, you're always talking about that stuff with Boo."
"You were listening?" Nicky looked straight up into Lorna's eyes while slipping her hand inside her panties. Lorna gasped and bucked forward, gripping at her wrist tightly, egging her on.
"I'm always listening." Lorna said before moaning Nicky's name.
...
"So what got you expelled from school?" Lorna asked, out of the blue while they're playing cards in the rec room.
"Which time?"
"Whichever."
"The last time was... when I broke my debate coach's toe. It was all fine until he decided to sue the school. Fucking snitch. There was another time at Brearly when I was caught having sex with Cindy Pearson in the computer lab and her parents forced me to leave because i was a "bad influence". But I bet you Pearson ratted me out because I was gonna take Lisa Colton to the winter dance the week after."
"Can't remember what happened in Columbia but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the school mascot." Nicky thought for a bit. "I bet you were a riot back in the day."
"Only the cheering kind." Lorna said nonchalantly.
"Wait... you were a cheerleader?"
"Mmhmm."
"You continue to surprise me, Morello. I bet you were the one that they tossed around."
"Best flyer in Barton High. And if you're good, I'll let you see my splits, Nichols."
"I'll be so good for you, Morello." Nicky teases, brushing her calf with her foot under the table. Lorna giggled and pushed the foot away before any guards saw them.
...
"Kiss my ass." She heard Nicky spit from across the hallway, and that was when Lorna knew she was too late to stop what was happening.
"Alright inmate, it's time to take that attitude to the SHU." Donaldson said, grabbing Nicky by the arm and pushing her out.
Lorna stood there, stunned as she watched Nicky being escorted further away from her. She had heard Nicky was in an unpleasant mood after her comissary was taken away from her for the week. Lorna was just about to bring her a Mars bar from commisary, hoping to make her feel better.
Lorna had been in Litchfield for 6 months and it felt like a lifetime but Nicky had been in for almost 3 years. Red had mentioned how Nicky used to be thrown in the SHU every other month but it stopped ever since she started seeing Lorna. Red told her how good she was for Nicky and she believed it.
2 weeks went by slowly, Lorna tried to occupy her time with yoga and scrabble but she couldn't help but constantly thought about how she could have saved Nicky if she just came 5 minutes earlier. She cried one night. The next day, she went to the library and read as many travel books as she could.
On the 15th day, Lorna did her hair and makeup extra nice. She sat at her bunk, bouncing her feet until 9am when work duty started. She tried to contain her excitement but she's talking too much to O'Neill on the drive down to Max. Luckily O'Neill was one of the good ones because he let her ramble on about choosing between Berlin and Munich. She waited in the parking lot for half an hour and she couldn't even read her magazine right. Soon, a familar face appeared but she's shuffling and looking at the ground and was way too pale under the morning sun.
"Hey, Nichols..." Lorna said when Nicky got in the van. She didn't reply, didn't even look in her direction. O'Neill got in after her and they drove back.
Lorna continued to talk about the pros and cons of both German cities until even O'Neill tells her to shut up. From her rearview mirror she could only see Nicky looking out for the whole trip back to Gen Pop.
Lorna walked Nicky into the same room DeMarco and Miss Rosa had made permanent residence before pulling her into a hug.
"Are you okay, Nichols? Tell me you're okay." Lorna said in the embrace. Slowly but surely, Nicky wrapped her arms loosely around her.
"I'm okay kid." Nicky said, her voice too quiet compared to her regular, confident, charming one. When Lorna let go, there's a tear in her eye and Nicky finally looked at her. Nicky wiped the tear with her thumb before turning away and climbing on the bunk on top of DeMarco's. She curled into bed without even making it, facing the wall.
"She'll be alright, Morello. She's been through worse." DeMarco smiled sympathetically, patting Lorna on the shoulder. "You best get going now."
...
Nicky woke up and her head was swimming. She forgot where she was for a second before realising she's home, whatever fucked up version of home it was. She sat up and saw Miss Rosa reading a YA novel.
"You missed lunch." Rosa said, without even looking up.
"Not hungry anyway." Nicky said and saw a candy bar next to her pillow. She put it in her pocket and jumped off the bunk.
She went outside in the yard and sat in the sun while watching the black girls play basketball. She didn't acknowledge how some people were gawking at her. She took out the candy bar from her pocket and started eating it.
"You just couldn't help yourself, could you?" She heard someone say in a menacing Russian accent. Nicky saw Red looking at her, frowning.
"Save me the lecture, Red. I've already done my time." Nicky said and watched the court as Black Cindy got a free throw and missed. Red smacked her in the back of her head.
"Don't be rude, little girl." Red said while Nicky rubbed her head and glared at Red. "Why do you have this incessant need to get into trouble?" Nicky didn't say a word. Red sighed and pulled out a radio from her pocket.
"I saved this for you before someone else took it. You're going to have to look for the rest of your stuff. I suggest you start with the meth heads." Red handed it to her, with the earphones still attached and Nicky took it.
"Thanks, ma." Nicky said when Red turned around to leave.
"Don't forget to eat dinner. I don't like the thought of you having eaten that shit they have in Max." Red said. Nicky nodded and Red bent down to tuck her hair behind her ear, a gesture Nicky still hadn't gotten used to and it made her heart swell.
...
Nicky managed to get to the dining hall in time for dinner. Lorna, who was lining up, immediately saw her and bounced up and down to get Nicky's attention.
"Hey, there is a line!" Maritza said when Lorna pulled Nicky to stand in front of her.
"Back off, alright. She's been in the SHU for 2 weeks, she's starving." Lorna said, holding her hands out in a defensive position, which was funny with her being 5 feet tall. Maritza merely rolled her eyes and swore in Spanish with the other girls behind him.
"So you're my bodyguard now?" Nicky said, grinning.
"Just for the day, Nichols." Lorna said while giving her a pat on the butt. Gina proceeded to give her an extra pork chop and Red came out of the kitchen to put a bowl of chicken soup on her tray.
"Jesus, I'm not gonna finish this!"
"Lorna, make sure she does." Red warned and Lorna gave a salute before they head off to their regular table.
"You know, it's not like they didn't feed me over there." Nicky said, picking at her tray.
"Everyone just misses you, that's all." Lorna didn't take a beat before starting her meal.
"Including you?"
"Especially me." Lorna said, putting her hand on top of hers and squeezed.
Later that night, Nicky found out how much Lorna missed her in the showers and soon everything went back to normal. Until a week later an inmate named Chapman arrived in Litchfield.