One of the college student neighbors, Tabitha

Nicole quickly rushes downstairs to the door. She peeks through the blinds she always had closed and groans. Tabitha, one of the bitchy college girls who lived a door down was standing there blowing on her nails. Nicole disliked both of them, but Tabitha was typically the nicer of the two.

"Hey, what's up?" Nicole says as she opens the door.

"We need to talk," Tabitha says pushing past Nicole into the apartment. She starts looking around as if she's house hunting.

"Excuse me. You can't just walk..."

"Shh," Tabitha cuts her off. She pauses in front of the big living room window which still has the blinds drawn from yesterday's incident with the stranger. She ponders it like she's looking at a painting. "I'm so glad Kennedy and I don't have this view," she leans in and pulls the blinds all the way up so she can see into the parking lot.

Nicole shudders. Oh God, did she see something? "What do you want, Tabitha."

Tabitha continues "oh, well," she sighs as if annoyed, "remember six months ago when you came over at 1 a.m. banging on our door?"

Nicole releases a long sigh. It was the night when she had one of the biggest presentations of her life the next morning. Kennedy and Tabitha were having an obnoxiously loud party. "Yes, the Tuesday you had Post Malone on repeat all night so the entire complex could hear."

Tabitha laughs, "oh god, was it during my Post Malone phase. Weak. Anyway," she starts walking around the apartment again "we feel so truly awful about it. So awful. Like, we've been feeling bad for all of those months. Every single day." If Tabitha is trying to not sound sarcastic she's failing.

Nicole watches as Tabitha cocks her head and walks toward her dining table. Directly toward the bottle of lube she left out in the open yesterday. Nicole can't think of a thing to say, so she watches it all happen in slow motion.

A grin creeps across Tabitha's face. She reaches for the bottle as she continues, "anyway, I came over to apologize." Picking it up she holds it up for Nicole. "I'm impressed. I didn't think straight breeders knew about this brand."

It was the weirdest compliment Nicole had ever received. It was also her first true confirmation that Tabitha and Kennedy were an item. But she was also insulted that Tabitha called her a 'straight breeder.' "Thank you, I think. Um, but honestly, I'm more bi than straight," she says feeling the need to defend herself.

Tabitha makes a gagging face like she's going to throw up. Then starts to laugh as she puts the lube back on the table. "I'm sorry. You think you're bi?"

"Well, yeah, I mean -ish."

Tabitha pinches the bridge of her nose as if she's trying to resist saying something distasteful. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "That's cool. Bi-ish Nicole. Sure. Anyway, I'm here because Kennedy felt so bad about that night, but we appreciate that you didn't rat us out to the landlord. So, in an effort to not have a repeat she wants me to..." she sighs again "invite you over on Friday for a PowerPoint Party. We don't plan on blasting Post Malone all night, but one never knows."

Nicole was shocked by the offer. She didn't imagine they'd ever want anything to do with her. In fact, it sort of hurt because other than Marcus who was three years older than her, she was closer in age to them than anyone else. She always felt like they should get along. "Oh, I've heard of those! Um, is there a theme?"

Tabitha shakes her head. "Controversy. Guests should interpret that as they will. I'm doing the ethics of the Doja Cat Stranger Things leak." Nicole had no idea what that meant, but she nods her head trying to not seem out of touch. "Kennedy, who needs to make everything dumb and political, is presenting on" Tabitha looks squarely at Nicole and in a steely cold voice says "homophobes."

Nicole is confused why Tabitha suddenly went from aloof to seemingly shooting daggers. "Oh, those are both...great topics. Um. I'm sure I can come up with something. Yeah, I'd love to attend."

Once again, a mood change. Tabitha's dead serious face transforms into glee as she practically hops over to Nicole and gives her a hug. "Oh my god, we're going to have so much fun, Bi-cole, I'll see you Friday at 9 p.m."

"Oh bye..okay...uh..." Nicole closes the door after her and stands there staring at it. She doesn't understand what happened. And did she hear her right? Did Tabitha call her 'bi-cole'? Now she had two nights to throw together a fun presentation.

Nicole sits down at her laptop to start researching possible ideas. She wants something light and silly. However, barely 20 minutes after Tabitha left her apartment, a key unlocks the door and it opens. The man stumbles into her kitchen looking more ragged than usual. He throws a bag of Taco Bell and four-sixths of a PBR tall boy six-pack on the counter.