Kitty threw the morning paper down on the counter with a frustrated growl, "This is impossible. I am never going to find another job. Ever."
"So much drama, so early in the morning." Remy mumbled, pulling the paper out from under Kitty's elbow and leaving her the classifies, "I guess you've learned not to quit a job until you've got another one all set?"
"Oh, bite me." Kitty snapped, glaring down at the classifies as if it were somehow the papers fault there were no suitable jobs for her.
"What about that one." Remy pointed to an ad for a sales consultant needed at a used car dealership, "You'd be good at selling shit."
"It doesn't really matter what I'd be good at, I'm just looking for jobs I can get to by bus." Kitty put her plate down on top of the paper and dug into her omelet. "No license, remember?"
"You don't have a license?!" Pyro looked up from his plate of bacon with his eyebrows raised, "What the hell! Who doesn't have a license in this day an' age?! How do you get into bars, what if someone cards you?!"
Kitty rolled her eyes and looked back at the paper under her elbow, "It doesn't even matter if I had a license, I have no car. And I can't afford a car, because I don't have a job. And I don't have a job because I don't have a license, which I don't need, since I don't have a car."
They were all silent for a moment while Pyro crunched on his bacon before Remy offered her a smirk, "You don't have a job because you quit."
"Shut up." She muttered, shoveling some more omelet into her mouth, glowering down at the classifieds.
"Want some bacon?" Pyro held out a piece for Kitty with a smile, "Always makes me feel better."
Kitty looked up at him with a frown, "I don't eat bacon, Pyro."
"Well that's probably why you're so grouchy then." Pyro said, dropping the piece back onto his plate.
Kitty scrubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers, "I'm not grouchy, I'm stressed, and I didn't sleep well."
Pyro began to make a crack about Kitty's inability to hold her booze when he looked past her with a wide grin, "There you are! I never did hear how your night went, I spent most of my evening looking for a blindfold." He shot Kitty an icy look, "Thanks, by the way."
"It was fine." Piotr said with a shrug, looking down at the classifieds under Kitty's elbow, "Job hunting?"
"Ugh, trying." Kitty grumbled, stuffing some more omelet into her mouth.
"She can't get a job because she doesn't have a license, and she doesn't have a license because she doesn't have a car and she doesn't have a car because she doesn't have a job." Remy glanced at Kitty with smile, "Did I miss anything?"
"Seriously, who doesn't have a license these days?!" Pyro shook his head as he crunched on his bacon.
"Well, I was going to get my license, but nobody ever wanted to take me me out to learn. I don't know... apparently I'm too aggressive." Kitty rolled her eyes dramatically, "Which is so not true. If people would just learn to effing drive properly, then maybe I wouldn't appear to be so aggressive."
"I could take you. If you need to learn." Piotr offered, sitting down across from Kitty, "It is the least I could do for my wingman."
"Oh." Kitty looked up at him and pursed her lips together, "I don't really need to learn. Exactly. I mean," She chuckled and glanced at Remy, "I know the rules of the road. Stay in your lane, red means stop, signal when turning, lights on at dusk..."
"No. You need your license. You can't deliver pizza's without a license." Remy said with a grin, ignoring the way Kitty glowered at him, "Besides, Pete's right. He owes you one. You somehow managed to land him an amazing piece of tail."
"That's... disgusting." Kitty grimaced, "Don't ever say that again."
"I'm serious. She's at least a nine." Remy informed Pyro, holding his hands up at his chest to demonstrate the enormity of her best assets and Kitty snorted.
"She is not a nine. She's maybe a six, it's all smoke and mirrors guys."
Remy dropped his hands and went back to looking at his paper, "You're just saying that so you don't have to work your magic and get Pyro a girl."
Kitty's eyes fell to the classifieds once again and she anxiously chewed her lip. It would be nice to finally get her license, and she probably would need Piotr's help, borrowing his Tahoe for the test at the very least. But the last thing she wanted to do right now was be forced to try and focus on the road while sitting two feet away from Piotr, which would make it incredibly hard for her to focus on anything at all.
Especially after last night.
She rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand and shook her head, "Yeah. Alright... I guess I could freshen up a bit on the rules of the road, and it would be convenient to have a license..."
"Good." Pyro stated, going back to his bacon with a frown, "You look like you're 14, you need ID, Sheila."
Kitty finished up her breakfast before quickly throwing on some clothes, and by the time Piotr had finished his coffee the two of them were ready to go. They made their way down to the parking lot to Piotr's well worn SUV and Kitty climbed in behind the wheel. It took her a few minutes to adjust the seat so that her feet could comfortably reach the pedals, and once she was sure she'd gotten comfortable she gripped the wheel and let out a deep breath.
"I don't know about this, Pete."
"Well, first you want to adjust your mirrors-"
"Not that, smart ass." Kitty rolled her eyes and ignored the way his mouth curved up into a half smile, "I mean this situation. We're in clear violation of one of our rules. You know... close proximity."
"Oh." Piotr knit his brow and gave his head a shake, "Well... It is for a good cause, like last night, right? Besides, we made it through pretend flirting just fine, I am sure we can manage this."
"Yeah." Kitty pressed her lips into a thin line and shifted into drive. She didn't want to push the issue any further, so she decided instead to focus entirely on the road. No talking, no music, just driving. Her plan worked fairly well too, until Piotr turned to her with a smile,
"Well, you are not bad." He commented after a few minutes of driving in silence, "You could probably slow down a little, especially when you are taking corners, but it is not as... scary as I thought."
"See? I can totally drive, I just don't appreciate pansies on the road. Either drive like you mean it, or get out of my way. But I can do it, it's just that nobody wanted to take me out in their car." Kitty shrugged, glancing at her blind spot before signalling and calmly changing lanes, "Mostly Scott. He has this little red sports car, and I was always trying to convince him to let me take my driving test in it. I figured it'd give me extra confidence, you know?"
Piotr laughed, "Sure. I guess that is a good theory."
"It's like the vehicular equivalent of dress for the job you want. It's an interview with cars." Her smile quickly grew stale as she stared at the Impala in front of her which was steadily driving well under the speed limit. "Look at this idiot..."
"Well if that is the case then you should be fine as long as you have your interview bra." Piotr commented with a smile.
"Huh?" Kitty's foot slipped on the gas pedal, causing the SUV to lurch forward unexpectedly. Her face went bright pink and let out a quick breath, "Don't talk about my underwear right now, okay?"
"I was just- Sorry."
Kitty glanced in her mirror, determined to remain perfectly focused on the task at hand in spite of Piotr's ever present distraction. She sped up to the Impala, impatiently waiting for an opportunity to pass the driver.
"I have to get around this moron." She said, gripping the steering wheel tightly and chewing her lip, "Come on! Would you just drive?! This isn't a parade, you can go faster!"
She felt Piotr's eyes on her and forced out a breath, "Sorry." She said, through barred teeth, "I just- What is this persons problem?! Now he's got his brakes on! Oh GOD we must have gone down a small hill and his car sped up ever-so-slightly. Are you kidding me dude?! Are you kidding me?!"
Piotr's eyebrows perked up and Kitty's eyes flicked to him quickly before she set her mouth in a firm line, letting off the gas enough to back away form the slow Impala.
"Sorry." She apologized again.
"I think I understand what you meant when you said you were too aggressive."
"Yeah." Kitty frowned, forcing herself to ignore the two people who had just passed her and the slow Impala, "I'm sorry, Pete. I shouldn't have let you do this, I'm probably scaring you-"
"Katya, have you ever driven with Pyro?" Piotr asked with a wry grin, "You are not scaring me."
She glanced at him with a smile and nodded, her eyes returning to the road, "Okay."
"Besides, I do owe you. If it had not been for you, I might have had to listen to Pyro make up stories all evening with-"
"Ginger Spice clinging on you."
"Yes." He laughed. She glanced at him again, letting her eyes linger on his smiling profile longer than she had intended, admiring the way the sunlight seemed to frame his features perfectly, watching the way the muscles in his beautifully sculpted arm tensed up as the smile dropped from his face,
"Turn, Katya."
"Hmm?"
"Turn! Katya!"
She tore her eyes away to look back at the road just in time to see the SUV hurtling for a curb. She jerked the wheel to the left a second too late and the right front wheel of the car jumped over the curb directly into the path of a mailbox and two silver garbage cans, which she phased through without hesitation before steering back onto the road.
"Phew!" Kitty laughed nervously, glancing in her rear-view mirror, "That was close!"
"What-" Piotr looked over his shoulder out the back window at the unaffected objects behind them, "Why did you-"
"What, would you rather I hit them?"
"No, I would rather you avoid driving at them to begin with! Is it always your first instinct to just phase through an obstacle?!"
"Yes!" Kitty spat defensively, keeping her eyes fixed on the road in front of her, "Why do you think I get so pissed off when people are driving too slow?! My first instinct is to just hammer on the gas and drive right through them."
Piotr blinked at her, "But you know you shouldn't. That would be bad. You know that, right?"
Kitty rolled her eyes, "Oh geeze, now you just sound like Scott. Yes, of course I know that."
Piotr relaxed a little, with his right hand still firmly gripping the bar above the passenger side window, just in case.
"So... am I still not scaring you?"
"... A little bit." He cleared his throat and kept his eyes fixed on the road, "Pyro is still worse." The corner of her mouth tugged up a bit and he let out a breath, "Why don't we work on parking now?"
"Okay." Kitty nodded, directing the car back to the apartment parking lot.
"Start with backing into this spot here." Piotr instructed, pointing out a section of the lot, far away from any other vehicle, "We can try parallel parking next."
"Oh boy. Parallel parking isn't my strong suit." She commented shifting into reverse.
"You cannot phase through the parked cars-"
"I know." She clipped with a faint smile on her lips, "That being said, I hope you've got the next few days free, because it's definitely going to take a while." She said, placing a hand on the back of his headrest to twist her body, looking out the rear window.
Piotr chuckled, "I suppose you could just drive me to pick up my date tomorrow night then?"
"Ha, yeah right." She laughed as she reversed, guiding the car into the spot easily and shifting it into park. Her smile dropped away and she knit her brow, "Wait... what?"
"What?" Piotr repeated, unsure of where exactly he had lost Kitty.
"You have a date."
"Yes."
She gaped at him for a moment and furrowed her brow, "When did that happen?!"
"Last night, at the bar." He shrugged, "I thought Remy would have told you-"
"The bar slut?!" Kitty shook her head adamantly, "No, Pete. You can't date bar slut."
"I am not dating her, we are just going out-"
"Seriously, what kind of woman just swoops in and starts hitting on a guy like, seconds after he's been flirting with someone else?! That is one shady chick. That's not the kind of lady folk you should be after, Pete." Kitty knit her brow, "I mean it's one thing if it's an ego boost in a bar, but an actual date. She could be a serial killer."
Piotr furrowed his brow, "What?"
"She could be, you don't know. Plus, she wasn't even all that hot. Like I said, smoke and mirrors. Like okay, yeah sure, her legs are super long and she's mildly attractive in the dim bar lighting but you'll get bar slut out in daylight and realize that she's a troll-"
"Her name is Sarah." Piotr cut her off, "And we are just going out for coffee. It is not a big deal-"
"Oh Sarah." Kitty scoffed and rolled her eyes, "What a whorish name..."
Piotr frowned at her silently for a moment before giving his head a shake, "You helped get me this date."
Kitty closed her eyes and let out a sigh, "I know-"
"So then what is your problem?" He stared at her grimacing face as she chewed her lip when an idea sprang up in his head. His eyebrows lifted slowly and finally managed to catch her eye, "Do you not want me to go?"
"Ugh, I don't know." Kitty groaned, thumping her forehead down onto the steering wheel, causing the horn to let out a little beep! He turned his body to face her and waited for her to elaborate, "When I saw that leggy whore with you last night, I really wanted to smash her face into the bar and rub margarita salt in the wounds."
Piotr blinked at her, "So what does that mean?"
Kitty sat up and rubbed the back of her neck, "Well, I'm no Freud, but it was pretty violent-"
"Katya." He interrupted, "If you do not want me to go, I won't."
She turned to him, lifting her eyes up to his to meet his meaningful stare, understanding the weight behind this simple statement. The ball was in her court.
It was her move.
Eventually, her brow pinched together and she gave her head a slow shake, "We're friends, Pete. I don't... I don't want..." She trailed off.
He continued to stare at her silently, dipping his head forward slightly with his brow pinched together and lowering his deep voice in an attempt to soften the impact of his question.
"What do you want?"
She leaned towards him a tiny bit, her heart throbbing so hard that she could hear it pounding in her ears as she stared back into his bright blue eyes. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry as she attempted to force down a swallow, "We're roommates. That's- we can't- it can't be more than that." She managed to stutter, her eyes flicking down to his lips momentarily before fixing her stare back on his, "That's it."
Piotr inched closer to her and let his eyes scan her face, "That is what you want?"
Kitty cleared her throat and determinedly squared her shoulders, "Yeah." She lied, "I mean, I just finally memorized all my favorite channels on TV, you know? I don't want things to get weird with us. Plus I own one fourth of that couch, it'd be a shame to have to cut my section out." She attempted a light smile and gave him a shrug, "Just, go on your date. I want you to go. Okay?"
Piotr squared his jaw and nodded reluctantly, leaning back in the passenger seat, "Okay."
She sat back in the drivers seat and let out a breath, "Oh you know-" She gave her head a shake, "I just remembered that I've got... a thing I've got to go to. An... interview thing."
"Oh, yeah. Alright." Piotr nodded, playing along with her feeble lie she'd obviously come up with in order to escape.
"You know, it's just-" She shrugged and undid her seat belt, "I heard the hospital was looking to hire new doctors and I figured if I stood around long enough, maybe someone would offer me a job."
The corner of his mouth curved upwards and he gave her a nod, "Sounds promising."
"So we'll just, um... do parallel parking another day." She said, opening the driver side door and sliding out, "Even though you know, the doctors at the hospital are given their own spots, so... it's not like I'll actually need to know how to parallel park if I get a job offer."
"It is always a good skill to have, just in case." He smiled.
"Alright well... I'll see you." She said with a wave, closing the door behind her before spinning around and heading off in no direction in particular, desperate to get as far away from Piotr as she could in hopes that she could clear her head without his distraction.
The only thing that this so-called driving lesson had taught her, was that she was horribly and utterly screwed, which had nothing to do with her driving abilities.