Chances

Chapter 18

Carina stares at her in the darkness for a moment, feeling her eyes swell up with tears. She doesn't quite know what she was expecting when she sent her the message, but she wasn't expecting her to just blatantly ignore her like that.

Now not seeing much reason to stay up anymore, she follows after Lily's lead and pulls the blanket up over her head as well. She buries her face in her pillow, trying her best to silence her soft crying.

It's getting hard to fight for someone who doesn't want to be fought for.

--

Carina is reverting back to her old habits of staying out late and spending less and less time in her dorm. Lily evidently doesn't want to have anything to do with her, so why should she be in a place where she is unwanted?

She's been going out and partying more often the past week with Daniel offering to be her "date", which, in other words, meant he was her babysitter. He made sure she got home safe and sound, especially if she decided to drink. And she has been deciding to drink.

How does Lily seem to be just fine while Carina's practically miserable? The more she tries to distract herself from Lily, the more impossible it seems. She could be drunk out of her mind and forget her own name, but she would still remember Lily's. The thought of her has been following around Carina like a shadow ever since their fight, which was the start of their ongoing silence.

Now Carina is in Naomi's dorm with Naomi this early Sunday afternoon. Last night, she had her date with Desi and Carina was curious enough to head on over to personally ask her about it herself. Where else was she going to be? Plus it might be nice to have some good and pleasant news for once to distract her from her own issues.

"It was perfect," Naomi gushes, a face-splitting grin plastered on her face. "She was perfect. I couldn't have asked or thought of a better night with a better girl. She was shy at the beginning, like I was, but as the night went along, we got more comfortable with each other. I took her out to this fancy-shmancy Italian restaurant and she was so cute. She kept on bouncing her leg a bit and it was hard for her to look me in the eyes without blushing because she was so nervous, but I found it endearing as hell.

"Then we took a walk around town together afterwards and we just held hands and talked for a while about like our lives before college and our families and how much she misses hers and how much I miss mine and she's just amazing. I wanted to talk to her for the rest of the night. But of course, we couldn't, so we drove back to campus and I walked her to her dorm and then she-" Carina didn't think it were possible, but Naomi starts to smile even harder than before, "-and then she kissed me."

Carina's eyes widen in excitement and she clasps a hand over her mouth. Usually it's Naomi who is the one to be making all of the first moves, especially in this relationship considering Desi is as timid as can be. "Oh my god. She kissed you ?"

Naomi nods her head enthusiastically before letting out an excited squeal. "Yes! She was the one who initiated the kiss. We hugged goodbye for a while before I pulled away just a little bit for her to place a hand on my cheek and I froze right then and there. I could feel her hand trembling with nerves and her eyes kept flickering down at my lips and before I knew it, she leaned in and kissed me with so much gentleness, but it still left me breathless. She pulled away after a couple of seconds and then started to like apologize and ramble on because she thought she was crossing the line or something - God only knows why - but then I just kissed her again and told her to shut up."

Carina grins excitedly throws her arms around her friend and gives her a tight, congratulatory hug. She's genuinely so happy for Naomi and for Desi for finally getting together. Right?