XI
June 14th, 2003 – Albuquerque
She examined herself in the mirror one more time before tucking a strand of hair behind her ears. Felicity wore a light blue gown adorned with a gradient of crystals from the torso down. Her short hair had been twisted into an elegant bun and she wore a pink carnation on her wrist. Her parents had been coddling her for the past half hour, moving her into different poses with Emilio, who was dressed rather flashy as well.
Despite the obvious tension in the air, Felicity had managed to wrangle both her group of friends as well as Jesse's group of friends to assemble at her house prior to going off to their senior prom. The affluent surroundings provided a sophisticated backdrop for the dozens of photographs and Felicity's parents had covered the limo charges. It would've been idiotic to decline such an invitation.
Twenty people mulled about her large abode, laughing and enjoying the company of their respective groups while Felicity did her best to bounce between both of them. While Emilio happened to be a constant within Jesse's small circle, he, like Felicity, had been similarly clean cut. He was well liked by most people and did not share the same trouble making reputation that Jesse and his gang did. That was most likely why he and Felicity got along so well. He had been one of the only ones to be decently nice to her when they were kids and even now, treated her with a slightly larger modicum of respect in comparison to Jesse.
Finally, as the time ticked closer to six o'clock, her father rounded the two of them over. Just like any concerned parent, he gave Emilio a thorough once over. Just like the rest of Jesse's friends, Joseph Scott had known him since he was a small boy. Even though he did not especially approve of what most of them had grown up to become, he did acknowledge the fact that his daughter had grown up with them and therefore obviously was extremely attached. He valued his daughter's happiness above almost anything. The boys were always respectful of their family as well, which was a plus.
"Alright, you two have fun tonight. Emilio, I'm trusting you to take care of my little girl, understand?" he instructed, clapping the younger man on the shoulder.
"Of course, sir," he answered confidently as he shot Felicity a smile.
She giggled a bit, reaching out to give her father a tight hug.
"I'll see you tomorrow, dad," she said, pulling away. Felicity was going to an after party at her other friend's house after prom.
They exchanged their farewells before piling into a limo alongside Jesse, Pete, Christian and Brandon. Each of them had dates of their own, none of which Felicity was too familiar with. There was Victoria, Riley, Maria and Ashley, respectively. She really only knew anything about Victoria – but all of the information had strictly been from Jesse's mouth. He had been trying to hook up with her for the past three weeks and had finally decided to ask her to prom as a way to seal the deal. Riley and Pete both had the same piano teacher while Maria was one of Christian's cousin's friends. Brandon had asked Ashley last minute, not even thinking that she would agree.
Originally, none of the guys wanted to even go to prom until Jesse figured it would just be another excuse to party – that and he was really determined to get with Victoria. It was simply a convenient coincidence that Felicity was looking to have all of her friends go to prom.
"I've never been in a limo before," Brandon mumbled, looking around in awe.
"I was in a limo once – like for my cousin's Quinceanera but it wasn't even half as sick as this," Christian said as he nodded in approval. "Damn, fuckin' cool of your parents to do all this stuff tonight, Fissy."
She rolled her eyes.
"Don't call me that," she warned, "Also, yeah, it's no big deal, really!"
Jesse scoffed.
"I don't see why you needed to drag all your other ass kissing friends to your house too, though," he spat.
He was fully decked out in a suit and a dark red tie, matching Victoria's long red dress. Victoria had long brown hair that was curled into loose ringlets. Her complexion was slightly tanned and her eyes a brilliant green. She was one of the lesser known cheerleaders at their school but it was common knowledge that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend of three years. Jesse had taken that as a cue to dive in for the kill.
Felicity frowned.
"Don't be jealous that I have more friends than you," she jibbed, a small smirk appearing on her face.
A few of the guys as well as their dates snickered quietly as Jesse just shook his head, wrapping an arm around Victoria's shoulders.
"Whatever. Not that it matters anyway. Tonight is about you and me," he spoke smoothly, putting on his most debonair smile on.
As soon as they arrived, they had more photos taken before entering the main room. The banquet hall where the event was being held was large and pristine. Large chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the dance floor was made out of dark marble. There were towering pillars on each wall as well as a fully equipped stage. The tables were covered with dark blue cloth and decorated with silver vases filled with white lilies.
Felicity once again began bouncing back and forth between her other group of friends and the guys. She had often settled on leaving Emilio with them as to not just be dragging him around. It was a laborious effort but she wanted to spend as much time with all of her friends as possible. She had yet to tell anyone but her family was preparing to move right after graduation. Due to circumstances beyond her control, she wasn't allowed to tell anyone anything. Her father's job had called him back to Brooklyn and there was really nothing she could do about it.
The night went smoothly and dinner was served. There was salad, pasta, grilled chicken and potatoes followed by ice cream for dessert. Felicity had been having a good time, mostly just chatting with Emilio about other people that she had seen around the hall. When their plates were taken away and the emcee announced that the dance floor was officially open, Jesse and Victoria were the firt ones to get up and excuse themselves from the table. Christian and Maria also rose up and made their way to the dance floor while Brandon and Ashley seemed to be in a heated conversation about Star Wars. Suddenly, Riley began making pained groaning sounds. She excused herself from the table and made a dash for the washroom, threatening to throw up on whoever got in her way.
"Probably food poisoning," Brandon shrugged as he watched her run away.
Pete only frowned, saying he'd be right back as he also got up and walked in the opposite direction, disappearing into the crowd. When Riley didn't return for another ten minutes, Felicity volunteered to go check on her. She quickly made her way to the washroom, pushing through a sea of probably inebriated teens. The washroom was fraught with girls fixing their hair and touching up their makeup.
"Riley?" she called out.
"I-I'm here!" responded a voice from the very last stall.
"Are you okay?" Felicity asked, knocking on the door lightly.
"Y-Yeah, I'll be out in a bit," Riley replied, heaving again.
After a few more gruesome minutes of vomiting, the door finally opened. Riley stepped out, makeup slightly smudged and hair in a mess.
"Let me just get cleaned up a bit – I don't know what the hell was in that food but ugh… I can't believe it," she muttered as she touched up her lipstick and smoothed down her hair.
"As long as you're alright," Felicity chirped.
Eventually, they got out of the washroom only to find that the party was in full swing. Their entire table was empty. Felicity furrowed her brow. Where could Emilio have gone off to? Riley gave her a light tug by the elbow, offering her a friendly smile.
"Hey, we best go find our boys," she grinned.
Felicity, still confused, slowly nodded, dipping into the crowd.
Somewhere along the line, Riley had found Pete again, pulling him towards her. It was then when Felicity got separated from her. Figuring it was for the best, she continued slipping past people in search for Emilio.
It wasn't too long until she found him.
He was in a corner, hands practically down some random girl's dress, tongue shoved down her throat.
Felicity stood there stunned. It took her a few seconds to register what was going on before she finally shook her head, picked up her dress and left the hall entirely.
It was already dark out but the cool night breeze was a well needed change from the hot interior of the banquet hall. She could still hear the music pounding faintly in the background. She wasn't really sure how to feel. Felicity never had any actual romantic feelings for Emilio but it still hurt to see her date with someone else. She was more angry than sad, to be honest. Regardless, Felicity took off her heels and took a seat on a wooden bench outside of the hall. The smell of cigarettes wafted through the air and she angled her head to see around the corner of the building. To her surprise, one Jesse Pinkman stood lazily against the wall of the banquet hall, suit jacket over his shoulder and cigarette dangling from his lips.
"Jesse?" she asked quietly.
His eyes moved to look at her as he expelled a stream of smoke from his lips.
"Yo," he said, waving flippantly.
Felicity slowly got up, moving to get closer to him.
"What're you doing out here?"
"Victoria and her ex are back together," Jesse informed casually.
"Huh? Since when?"
"Since right now," he chuckled, craning his head over to reveal a rather painful looking black eye.
Felicity immediately was by his side, holding his face gingerly as she inspected his injury.
"Jesus fucking Christ, you got in a fight? Really?" she questioned. "For some reason I'm not surprised."
He rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. It's no big deal. I wasn't planning to go to school until graduation anyway," he shrugged.
"You're an idiot," Felicity whispered, a hint of amusement apparent in her voice.
"Who cares?" he mumbled as he took another long drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke up into the air. "Anyway, aren't you supposed to be with Emilio right now?"
"He's busy," she scoffed.
Jesse narrowed his good eye, a frown appearing on his face.
"So, what? Like… He fucking ditched you for another chick or…? 'Cause I could go in there right now and wreck his shit-" he began.
Felicity shushed him. While she was touched that Jesse was willing to go beat some sense into her prom date, there was no way she was going to let him get into two fights in one night. That and he and Emilio were good friends. She didn't want to compromise that. They had come a long way from when they were kids. Sure, they were still constantly making jabs at each other but it was obvious that they were close. Jesse knew how much Felicity hated when he smoked around her and Felicity knew when to and when not to baby him. They needed each other on a level that neither of them really understood.
"Don't worry about it, Jesse. I can't have you getting two black eyes in one night," she laughed, patting him on the shoulder.
He frowned again, knowing she was right. Even so, he was still angry about what Emilio had did. Maybe it was because it was so similar to what Victoria had done to him. Jesse dropped the cigarette onto the floor and stomped it out before pushing himself off the wall.
"How about you and I catch a cab out of here?" Jesse suddenly suggested.
Felicity shot him a look.
"You know I have a party to go to after this, right?" she reminded.
"Yeah, well fuck them. It's going to be shit and you know it," he chided. "C'mon, we can order some actual food and play Mario Kart."
She thought about it for a moment. While she was unsure whether or not the party would truly be bad, it would probably be a lot shittier considering all of her friends would probably be preoccupied with their dates.
"Ugh, you're probably right. Let's get the fuck out of here," she conceded, pulling out her cell phone from her purse.
They hopped in a cab, laughing out "fuck yous" as the vehicle pulled out of the banquet hall. Eventually, they found themselves in Jesse's room, booting up his Game Cube and popping in the newest Mario Kart game. They had settled on ordering Chinese with sides of Funyuns and gummy bears. Felicity had changed out of her gown and into an old set of Jesse's gym clothes. She had let her hair back down and washed the makeup off her face. Jesse, too, had changed out of his formal attire and donned red boxer shorts and a t-shirt.
"Yes! Yes! Fuck yeah!" Felicity exclaimed, slamming the controller against the bed.
She had just won the third race in a row and was triumphantly rubbing it in Jesse's face. He groaned loudly and set his controller on the table, scooping up a box of noodles and inhaling them quickly.
"You have to had cheated or something," he grumbled, mouth still full of food.
"Don't be a sore loser, Pinkman!" she laughed as she stuck her tongue out at him.
Jesse lived alone these days. His aunt had passed away two months prior, finally losing her battle with cancer. Yet, even so, Jesse still attempted to keep the house in proper order. The house had been paid off ages ago and his side business endeavours raked in enough cash to help pay for food and utilities. Regardless of this, Felicity often popped by bearing home cooked food and company when his other friends were busy.
"Me? Sore loser? Hell no!" he protested.
"Then just admit that I'm better at Mario Kart than you," Felicity encouraged.
He shook his head.
"No, no fucking way. Nope. No," Jesse refused.
"Ten years, Jesse! Ten years since I got you that damn SNES and you've only beaten me like… What? Three times?" she chortled, poking him in the side.
Jesse recoiled and glared at her, still shaking his head.
"C'mon, Jesse. It's easy. Just say that Felicity Scott is the superior Mario Kart racer and that's it! It'll be painless."
"Only in your wildest dreams, Fissy," he rebuked.
"What did I say about calling me that?" she chided, narrowing her eyes.
He shot her a challenging look.
"Oh, what? You mean… Fissy? Pissy Fissy, oh my god, why's she such big fat sissy?" he chimed, recalling an old verse that the boys used to chant when they were children.
"Shut up!" she groaned.
Jesse repeated the phrase, moving closer and closer to her. His fingers poked her sides and she struggled to defend herself, trying to deflect his pokes as well as the horrendous nickname.
"Jesse, Jesus Christ, fucking quit it!" she laughed, whacking at his arms as she fell back against the bed.
Before they had even realized it, Jesse was on top of her, straddling her legs, his face deathly close to hers. Her laughter had died down significantly as she froze under him, blue eyes as wide as plates. She could feel his breath on her face and could see the full extent of his swollen eye. Subconsciously, one of her hands reached out and placed it on his face, a thumb gently stroking his cheek. He gulped and slowly but surely, placed his lips on hers.
For a split second, he was afraid that he had fucked up severely. Jesse felt her tense up under him and almost retracted, preparing endless apologizes in advance – but before any of that could happen he suddenly felt her kissing him back. While it was true that he had some attraction towards her, it was more of just general male instinct. Felicity was not unattractive in the slightest so it made sense that he would feel that way. However, not once in his life did he ever feel anything but platonic feelings for her. She was a friend – a very close one at that – who just always happened to be there; and he figured she always would be.
In Felicity's mind, sirens and alarms were going off. Whatever was happening right now could only go two ways; it would happen and mess up their entire friendship or it would happen and they would just never speak of it again. She had never once seen Jesse as more of a friend – he was not the kind of person that she could see herself dating. He was too reckless and vulgar – he was messy and indulgent. He didn't care about what anyone thought about him. But then at the same time, those were all things that she knew him for – all the things that she liked about him. True, he was a handful at best but she couldn't imagine not being friends with him.
Her lips parted slightly as he snaked a hand into her hair, pulling her closer to him. He sucked on her tongue lightly, his other hand rubbing her arm softly. Felicity let out a small whimper, obviously not as experienced as him. Jesse had had his fair share of girls throughout high school while Felicity had one short term relationship in junior year. Soon he was kissing down her jaw and raking his teeth over her neck. She clamped a hand over her mouth as she moaned softly, tilting her head over for him. Her free hand combed through his hair and down his back, causing him to arch onto her, a deep grown escaping his lips.
"What the fuck are we doing?" he mumbled, going for her lips again.
She nipped on his lip, gigging.
"No clue," she admitted, squealing as she felt one of his hands go up her shirt.
"Should we stop?" he questioned, taking on a much more serious tone. "I mean y'know with all that other shit that happened-"
Felicity kissed him softly to shut him up.
"It's fine. I trust you."
A small smile appeared on his face as he nodded, taking off her shirt entirely.