EMBRACE winrina

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Karina's eye's snapped to meet mine, and I could tell that she was biting her tongue to refrain from responding with anything. Lia widened her eyes and looked at me, whispering, "There is some pretty serious tension in the room Win, and it isn't coming from me.. what's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said, speaking loud enough for Karina to hear. "I'm just a little upset with someone at the moment."

"Someone?" Lia asked knowingly, lowering her voice so that Karina wouldn't be able to hear her from the front of the room. "Why are you mad at her?"

"Because she can be a real bitch sometimes, and it's really hard to deal with," I responded, not looking up even though I knew Karina was watching me.

"Well that's not a bad reason, but uh, unless you want more detention than you already have, you might want to lower your voice."

I shrugged. "Let her hear me."

Karina gritted her teeth, standing up. "I need to speak with you in the hall, Winter."

I looked up. It'd been a considerable amount of time since she'd called me Winter, and I took it upon myself to assume that I was either in a load of shit, or she was just making it seem that way in front of Lia.

"I told you," Lia whispered, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Good luck."

I eyed her hand and tried to smile. "Yeah, thanks. I'll be fine."

Karina's voice cut through the air again. "Let's go."

Lia raised her eyebrows in my direction as I walked away, mouthing, "I'm not so sure about that."

I shrugged and walked through the door that Karina was holding open, looking at Lia one more time before turning around to face Karina. She closed the door, narrowing her eyes at me. "I'm sorry you feel that way about me, but you're not going to go around talking about me like that to other students and expect me not to do anything about it. I think sometimes you forget that I'm your teacher-"

"Oh, shit, you're right, I'm sorry. I was stupid to think that we could be friends."

She met my eyes and sighed, leaning against the wall and folding her arms across her chest. "We can be, but that doesn't mean you can forget that I do have authority over you in school, and you need to respect me."

"I do Karina, but I'm pretty sure I don't deserve to be treated the way that you're treating me right now, and I can't help but to lose a bit of respect for you when you do this."

She looked down at me, biting her lip. I noticed she did that a lot when she was thinking, probably unintentionally. "I'm sorry." She paused and sighed. "I.... I didn't want to assume the worst of you Win, but Addy escaped my mind and I couldn't think of another way that you could have found out about my mom."

"Why are you so worried about me... knowing? I've told you so much about myself, and even if it doesn't necessarily seem that way to you, I think I can say that you know me better than anyone else does. Which is sad, because there's a lot I haven't told you."

She eyed me, shaking her head. "Because I don't want you to ask questions. I don't want to talk about my mom, and I don't think I ever will."

"And that means you have to turn into a bitch just because I mentioned her? Without knowing it bothered you so much?"

"No, you just... you reminded me about something that I didn't want to think about, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I still can't, and I'm sorry that that turns me into a different person but I can't do anything about it."

I shook my head. "You're... being really vague. It's a little confusing."

"I'm sure it is. Come on, we need to go back inside. I can't leave Lia in there alone for too long."