Chapter Text

“Chels?” Lola called out, as she kicked the front door shut behind her, wrestling with the mass amount of shopping bags cradled in her arms. Within seconds, their puppy Bubbles bounded down the hall, his tiny stumpy legs flailing along the sanded wood floor. “Hey buddy, where’s Chelsea?” Of course, he just yapped in response licking at her ankles, his tail trembling with excitement.

Readjusting the bags in her arms, Lola began making her way down the hall, adorned with an abundance of inspirational quotes. She stopped to pause at her favourite one reading ‘let the party be-gin’ in sparkly pink cursive and smiled. Turning into the living she found Chelsea dressed in paint spattered overalls. She was halfway up a ladder, paintbrush in hand, headphones blaring. Lola surveyed the scene, the wall was covered in various shades of pink, it looked like a dulux colour chart. One of the paint cans had fallen on its side, a bright fuchsia puddle spilling out onto the plastic sheet. “Chelsea!” She yelled, louder this time, attempting to juggle the shopping whilst scooping up Bubbles just before he reached the paint spill.

“Huh, what?” Chelsea tuned around surprised, lowering the headphones from her ears and resting them around her neck. A large grin crept onto her face when she spotted Lola. “Oh! Hey babe! Did you pick up the bubbly?”

Lola could do nothing but chuckle, Chelsea truly was oblivious, but it was one of the many reasons she loved her. “I thought we decided on the colour scheme weeks ago?” Lola sighed releasing a squirming Bubbles into the hall and closing the door to the living room.

“I know but then I was, totally, like, just scrolling Instagram, and the cutest embroidered pillow popped up, and I had to buy it, but like, of course that meant the whole plan for the living room had to change. Trust me babe, I have a vision.” Chelsea’s eyes twinkled, turning back to face the wall behind her, smiling triumphantly.

“Okay, well can your vision involve being a teeny bit tidier? We nearly had tiny pink pug paw prints all over the wood floors we took weeks to decide on.” Lola stuck out her tongue to show her best friend she was only teasing.

“Okay, but actually, how totally cute would that be?!” Chelsea stepped down from the ladder, abandoning her paintbrush. The two girls met in the middle of the room, greeting each other with their secret villa handshake. “Hey, did you see that Blake and Jakub were seen going into his flat last night, like, together!” Chelsea squealed picking up her phone.

“Oh?” was all the response Lola could muster, she was hardly interested in the newest episode of the ‘affairs of Blake’, there had been plenty, and Lola was sick to death of them. Chelsea quickly caught on to Lola’s forlorn attitude and clamped her hand over her mouth.

“Shit, sorry, aggh I can’t believe my big mouth sometimes. Sorry Lola, I completely forgot.”

“Don’t worry, I’m doing fine. I’ve got you, haven’t I?” She wrapped her arm around Chelsea’s petite frame and gave it a squeeze. “Now, you tidy up the fuchsia massacre in here, and I’ll get to putting away the shopping and put the bubbly on ice, deal?” Chelsea’s face instantly lit up.

“Defo!” She jumped to it, grabbing some rags to mop up the spilled paint.

“So, is Carl coming around tonight?” Lola smirked. Not even the press had caught wind of Chelsea and Carl’s relationship yet, it was quite miraculous really considering Chelsea’s complete inability to keep anything to herself. It would still be unknown to Lola had she not caught Carl sneaking out of their flat in the early hours of the morning.

****

“Well, well. What do we have here?” Lola called emerging from the dark kitchen. Carl spun on his heels, hair tousled, carrying his shoes.

“Lola! Hey… um, it’s- well you see-“he sighed, hanging his head. “There’s no point lying to you is there?”

“Nope.” Lola chirped, grinning from ear to ear. “Night Carl, get home safe.” She winked mischievously, opening the front door for him.

“N-night.” He went to leave, but turned back around to add “Hey, Lola? You won’t tell anyone about this right? I mean, you know how Hannah is and we only ended things recently…” Lola nodded, she did know what Hannah was like, she’d experienced her frosty attitude more times than she would have liked.

“Don’t worry Carl, it’s hush hush.” She raised her finger to her lips, “I’m happy for you guys, Chelsea’s been waiting for this for a long time.” It was true, Chelsea made her feelings for Carl when in the villa no secret. When Hannah picked him at the final recoupling, it was the one and only time Lola had ever seen Chelsea angry.

Carl headed down the corridor and into the lift, giving Lola a friendly smile, she closed the door behind him, chuckling to herself before returning to bed herself, plotting how to have a little fun with Chelsea regarding this news.

***

Chelsea responded cheerfully, “No, I’m going to go to his.” Lola waited for the penny to drop. Sure enough a few seconds later, Chelsea’s blonde head came bobbing around the living room door, shock plastered on her face. “Wait, no, I didn’t mean that, like, what, why would I go to Carl’s?” She tried to look innocent, but she was an awful liar.

“Maybe because the two of you are dating?” Lola asked calmly, complete poker face. Chelsea’s face on the other hand had turned as pink as the spilled paint.

“How do you know that?!” She demanded, pouting.

“Lottie saw it in her tea leaves.” Lola teased.

“Lottie knows too?!” Lola couldn’t contain herself anymore, she burst into fits of giggles. “I saw him sneaking out last night, naughty naughty.” Lola tutted, still grinning. “In all seriousness, I’m happy for you, and my lips are sealed, pinky promise.” Lola said, extending out her pinky. Chelsea locked her pinky in Lola’s grinning back.

“Agh! I’m so happy you know; you don’t know how hard it was keeping it from you!”

“Why didn’t you tell me? You know I would keep it a secret, especially from Hannah.” Lola grimaced at her name.

“I didn’t want to, you know, rub it in, what with everything that happened with Blake and-.“ Lola cut her off. “Thanks, hon, but I always want to celebrate you being happy, okay?” She pulled Chelsea into a tight embrace. “Now, you need to go get ready for your date.” Chelsea returned the embrace, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Thanks babe, you’re the best. Are you sure you’ll be alright alone, is anyone else free for you to go out with, like Lottie or Hope? Or I can always cancel, I’m sure Carl won’t mind!”

“I’ll be fine,” Lola smiled weakly, pulling two bottles of bubbly out of the shopping, “it’s Friday night, you should go out and have fun. I’ll put on some crap romantic comedy and cuddle up with Bubbles.” Chelsea wasn’t convinced, but she left to go and get ready all the same.

Lola poured two glasses of fizz and entered the bathroom, popping the glass over the top of the shower and handing it to Chelsea. “Delivery.” Lola chirped, giggling at Chelsea’s exclamation of glee. “Don’t use all of the conditioner!” Lola called, leaving Chelsea to her off key shower karaoke.

Pulling the dust sheet off the sofa, Lola flopped down onto it, rearranging the mountain of pillows in order to get comfortable. She began nursing her own glass exhaling deeply. For the first time that day she pulled out her phone, peeking at it cautiously as if it might explode. Sure enough, grainy shots of Blake and Jakub littered her social feed. She let out a groan of disgust throwing the phone down next to her, downing the remainder of her drink.

A few seconds later, the phone started to vibrate, causing her to jump. She rolled her eyes when she saw the caller ID, debating whether or not to answer, against her better judgement she hit the accept button. “Stop calling.” She growled, before ending the call – although deep down, she hoped he’d never stop calling. “I think I’m going to need more booze, what’s say you Bubbles?” He just cocked his head to the side, panting furiously. “Come on then, boy.”

Lola wasn’t surprised to find Chelsea already refilling her own glass, wrapped in her white plush dressing gown. “Hey babe! Ready for a top up?”

“Always.” Lola beamed extending out her empty glass.

“Does my makeup look alright? Like, it’s not too intense right? I thought I should go for a dark smoky eye but then I was like, no, Carl prefers it when I wear softer colours...” Chelsea continued to chatter on, without taking a breath. She didn’t even notice she was spilling fizz on the floor.

“You look stunning babe, Carl’s a lucky guy.” Lola interjected, pushing the neck of the bottle upwards. Chelsea squealed and enveloped Lola in a tight embrace.

“I’m so excited, you know, I never felt this way in the villa.” Lola took advantage of the fact her face was hidden from Chelsea, and she let it fall. She knew all too well the feeling Chelsea was describing, she'd felt it inside the villa and out of it; but a lot of good it had done her.

“Go get him tiger.” Lola squeezed her back tightly, watching as Chelsea scurried off excitedly to get dressed. Before heading back to sulk on the sofa, Lola grabbed the bottle off the counter, taking a swig and taking it with her “What?” She asked Bubbles who was watching her from the corridor. “It’s more time efficient, don’t judge me.”

***

Two hours later, Chelsea finally emerged, dressed head to toe in blush pink. Lola imitated holding an imaginary camera. “Gorgeous! Who are you wearing? Give us a spin!” Chelsea giggled and quickly finished off her glass.

“Right I’m off, don’t wait up.” She winked, gave Bubbles a pet, planted a glossy kiss on Lola's cheek before teetering down the hall. “Love ya!” She yelled, closing the front door behind her.

“Love ya.”