"Carina?" Lily asks, nudging her back a little bit.
Nothing.
"Hello?"
"Carinaaaaaa?"
Carina grumbles and throws a leg across Lily's lap, making the older girl's face immediately warm. "Sleep time," Carina mumbles hazily. "No talking."
Lily keeps her lips shut the rest of the night while Carina sleeps comfortably against her, apart from the many times where her lips break out into wide grins and she struggles to hold in her squeals of joy.
--
Lily stirs awake when she feels the comfortable and warm weight on top of her slowly lift off of her. She sluggishly opens her eyes to see Carina doing the same, her hair a wild mess and her eyes squinting against the light of the scattered flames of the candles.
"Hi," Carina greets warmly, her voice incredibly raspy from sleep. "Looks like it stopped raining finally." Whoever gets to wake up to that every morning better know how lucky they are. Only one morning and Lily sure as hell does. Her heart is fluttering at the fact that she actually just woke up beside her. All of this is so surreal right now and she's still so tired and delirious that she's worried that everything that just happened was all some sort of dream.
Lily sits up and stretches as she looks outside the window, listening intently. Its completely calm and peaceful now as if Zeus totally wasn't pissed the hell off and unleashed his godly wrath last night. The sun hasn't yet risen, indicating that they are awake at an absurd hour. She checks the time on her phone and that's definitely solidified. 4:16 A.M.
Oh, hell no. Lily groans and lies herself back down on Carina's snug bed, which smells exactly like her natural, intoxicating and sweet scent. "Goodnight again," Lily mumbles, rolling on her stomach. "Too early. We have another two hours."
"I feel perfectly fine," Carina chuckles. "We went to sleep at like 8 since there wasn't anything else to do. Why are you so tired?"
Lily probably got, at most, about two hours of sleep. She was too ecstatic at the fact that Carina was snoozing away in her arms to sleep herself so she was basically left alone with her screaming, joyous thoughts all night before they finally shut up and allowed her to go to rest for a little bit. But of course she couldn't tell Carina that the reason why she couldn't sleep was because of Carina herself.
"I'm still tired because your bed is comfy," Lily half-lies, her voice muffled by the pillow. Her bed is really cozy, but Lily also has a feeling that that has something to do with the simple fact that it's Carina's bed. If it were anyone else's, it wouldn't nearly feel so warm and nice.
Carina chuckles as she begins to stroke Lily's hair soothingly, the tips of her fingers occasionally grazing lightly against her neck and it feels so good. "Thanks again," the younger girl whispers sincerely. "I know you didn't sign up for babysitting yesterday but I appreciate you taking good care of me and helping me through a nightmare of a night. And to be honest, I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep at all if it weren't for you."
Lily can't say the same thing.
Lily smiles up at her lazily. "It was my pleasure," she sighs happily against Carina's touch. "No need to apologize. I'm glad I was able to help."
"You did a lot more than just help," Carina says honestly. "But go back to sleep. I can wake you in a bit."
She retracts her hand away and immediately Lily protests. "Hey," she whines a bit.
Carina's confused for only a second before she laughs to herself. "Do you want me to keep playing with your hair?"
"Please," Lily asks politely, her bottom lip jutting out and her eyes soft for extra emphasis. No one can resist her puppy-dog face. Her parents know the look all too well.
"Well I can't say no to that, can I?" Carina grins before she adjusts herself so her back is leaning against her headboard and the crown of Lily's head is just barely nudging against Carina's hip. The smaller girl's fingers reclaim its place in Lily's hair, leisurely combing through the long and luscious mane easily.
Lily's eyes immediately close again and she swears she just caught a glimpse of heaven. Everything is just perfect. She must have done something in her life to deserve this moment, right now, with this girl. It all just seems too good to be true- Carina seems too good to be true. It's still funny to think that a simple English assignment is what brought them together. Who knew homework would be able to create and spice up connections between two people? That'd be one hell of a story to tell to children.
"Oh hey," Carina speaks up suddenly, just when Lily was just about to feel sleep pull her under. "Our school just emailed us and said no homework is due today due to the city-wide power outage and that we would all get another day to do it."
"Thank God because I didn't touch that shit at all," Lily mumbles. Her backpack is still in the car because homework be damned. As if she was going to be worrying about standard deviations, the Bubonic plague, and the effect that friction has on the motion of objects while she was with Carina. And how was she going to write her letter to Carina in Carina's house? Damn, was yesterday even real? What an ironic mess.
"Me neither," Carina sighs. "I was too busy cowering in your arms in fear to even think about homework. I was just focused on surviving the night."
Lily smiles and lets out an airy laugh, eyes still closed in contentment. "Nothing was going to happen," she whispers sleepily, her words beginning to slur together a bit. "I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
Carina blushes deeply and struggles to contain the inevitable grin spreading across her face and she's glad Lily's faced away from her so she isn't able to see it. "Goodnight, Lily," she whispers after a few minutes as she continues to run her fingers through her hair.
But Lily's already fast asleep, relaxed and happy right beside Carina.
--
It was hard to get Lily to wake up a 6 A.M., to say the least. Carina tried everything she could ranging from pulling the covers off, repeatedly poking her in the shoulders and stomach and face, tugging at her arm and trying to hit her with pillows. She didn't budge. Carina even threatened to sit on top of her until she got up. Lily didn't even say a thing except smirk into the pillow idiotically.
Eventually after many futile attempts at waking up the stubborn bear-like human she called Lily, Carina just stormed off and went ahead to hop in the shower and get herself ready. Lily was going to have to get up sooner or later.
Carina first finds some clothes that Lily could wear for the day and throws it at her before getting some clothes for herself and heading into the bathroom. She takes a quick, relaxing shower as fast as she can because lord knows she would stay in there for hours if she could. Carina then wraps the towel around her body and walks out with her hair still dripping wet, the cool air in her room diffusing with the hot and humid air that the shower caused in the bathroom.
Lily still hasn't moved.
"LILY JOELLE WHAT THE HELL," Carina exclaims exasperatedly. She stomps over and holds her wet hair above Lily's face and wrings it out with her hands, watching the excess water fall and hit her face.
It works.
Lily shoots open her eyes and sits up, wiping it off frantically as if a few water drops resembled the lizards she feared oh so much crawling all over her face.
"Carina!" Lily shouts with a hint of irritation in her voice before she actually looks at her and sees her standing there. In nothing but a towel. She's definitely awake now.
"You are one willful little thing, you know that?" Carina chuckles as she runs her fingers through her damp hair. "But I guess I know what it takes to get you up now."
Lily has to avert her eyes to some lamp over behind Carina's shoulder to avoid increasing the warm blush in her cheeks. She silently thinks back to the past year or so to try to figure out what good deed she might have done to allow this to happen to her. She helped freshman find their class on the first day of school. Was that enough? Was that enough for the universe to bless her with a freshly-showered Carina Cabero standing in front of her with only a mere towel wrapped around her body? Unfortunately staring at the lamp doesn't help her hide her blush with her thoughts being horribly inappropriate.
Carina gives her an odd look, but disregards it. "Okay, weirdo, go get dressed," Carina orders with a faux tone of authority in her way-too-sweet voice before she turns back around and heads into the bathroom again.
Lily lets out the breath she was holding and scolds herself for being so flustered. She never knew just how bad she was at hiding her emotions until she met Carina. She's in a world of trouble if she doesn't get better at it soon.
Nevertheless, she begrudgingly gets up and strips herself out of Carina's mismatched clothing and puts on the new clothes she laid out for her, where she does a much better job at matching. It looks like something Lily would choose for herself to wear. The white V-neck and black skinny jeans fit snug and smells exactly like her.
Not that long after, Carina trots out of the bathroom and instead of a towel, she's now wearing white-washed jeans that hug her curves perfectly and a simple hoodie. Her average, everyday attire that still never fails to make her look amazing.
Carina looks at Lily up and down and grins proudly. "I did a good job with you," she says with a satisfied nod before she saunters up to Lily and turns her around, making her do a complete 360. "Huh, maybe a little too good. You look better than I do in those clothes."
Lily blushes and she smiles appreciatively. "You don't look too bad yourself," she replies.
Carina scrunches her nose up and smiles, just barely sticks her tongue out. "Thanks, sweets!" she beams right before Lily watches her practically skip out of her room.
Today is already a really good day.
--
Unfortunately, Lily's phone died overnight and since the power didn't come back on until around 5 am, she didn't have time to charge it. School was going to be long and miserable without it.
During the drive, Carina was quieter than usual, just peacefully staring out the window as Lily drove, the slow and steady rumbling of the car the only noise she could hear. Lily couldn't help but glance over a few times during stops simply to bask in her calm presence and the perfection that is her side profile. She was as hyper as a little rabbit this morning and now it's like she could fall asleep any second now. That's what she gets for waking up at such an ungodly hour. She could've went on and snoozed right alongside Lily for another couple of hours but nope.
Lily and Carina arrive at school at precisely 7 a.m., earlier than the majority of the rest of her schoolmates. The air is humid and muggy from last night's storm, which in Lily's mind, is probably the most uncomfortable weather possibly. She'd rather have freezing, dry weather than warm and sticky.
"Is Amanda feeling better?" Lily asks as they make their way up the school from the parking lot.
"Yeah, she's feeling a lot better," Carina answers. "It probably was just a one-time thing but she's back at school today."
They reach the front doors of the school and Lily opens it for Carina. "Thanks," she smiles gratefully once Lily reclaims her position walking beside her. "And I know I said this about a thousand times already, but thank you again for everything yesterday. It was really, really nice to spend time with you. Wouldn't want to have suffered through my deepest fears with anyone else," she grins cheekily right before nudging Lily against her shoulder with her own.
Lily playfully pushes her back but Carina's horrible lack of balance and center of gravity causes her to accidentally run into the lockers that line up against the walls. Lily laughs loudly while Carina pouts and scowls, crossing her arms across her chest. Even when she pretends to be upset, it only makes her all the more adorable.
Lily opens her arms and pulls Carina in her arms, cradling her head tenderly. "I am so sorry," she apologizes with her chin resting on the crown of Carina's head, her sides starting to hurt from laughing so much. "I keep forgetting you're kind of a lot smaller than I am!"
Carina just stands there, motionless, with the side of her grouching face pressed against Lily's chest as she gets coddled like a little child. "You suck," Carina grumbles against Lily's (Carina's) shirt.
"I know," Lily chuckles, rubbing her thumbs against the side of the younger girl's head, right above her ears. "I'm sorry. I promise to be more careful with you next time. I'm sorry."
After a few moments, Carina lets out a sigh of defeat and places her arms around Lily's waist. "Okay, you're forgiven," she mutters and Lily can just hear her eyes roll.
Lily smiles happily to herself when she sees, at the end of the hallway, Naomi and Desi staring with eyes wide and jaws practically on the floor. Oh no. Here comes the hoard.
Lily quickly lets go of Carina but it's too late. The damage is done and she can't turn back now. Naomi and Desi virtually come sprinting over to them and halts just a few feet away from Carina, who looks like a deer in headlights as she looks at Naomi and Desi's wide and creepy grins. Lily is already praying for Carina when her friends inevitably tease the two of them mercilessly.
"Hi!" Naomi greets excitedly. "I assume you're Carina?"
Carina simply nods, her comfortable demeanor now stripped away and replaced with slight intimidation. Lily makes a mental note to kill her friends later.
"Lily's told us quite a bit about you," Desi chimes in with a knowing wink. Actually, no, later is too long and Lily can just kill them both now.
Carina looks up at Lily, whose face is mixed with annoyance, embarrassment, and pure horror. "Really?" Carina asks, a hint of curiosity in her voice. Oh lord.
"I maybe mentioned you once or twice," Lily says nervously, scratching the back of her neck.
"And they were all really good things about you," Naomi says with a smug grin. "And she-"
"-ANYWAYS," Lily interrupts, terrified of what they could possibly say next. "What are you guys doing here so early? Don't you normally come strolling through the threshold of your classroom doors literally as the bell rings?"
"Well we know that you like to get here at the crack of dawn and considering you haven't replied to any of our texts or calls, we got worried especially after last night so we came here looking for you," Naomi explains.
Lily reaches over and squeezes her friend's hand. "Aw, that's sweet, Naomi. But yeah, sorry, my phone died and I couldn't charge it because there wasn't any power until really early this morning."
"I hear you," Desi nods before she turns to Carina, who impulsively takes a very small step closer to Lily. The poor thing is a little scared. Or freaked out. Or both. Desi and Naomi do tend to be a bit overwhelming and aggressive at times, but they mean well. Lily thinks of them exactly like those huge and strong dogs that excitedly greet you at the door when you get home but they tend to forget they're over 100 pounds so they think it's okay to jump up on you. Desi and Naomi are Lily's dogs and Carina's her guest in this case.
"Well, it was nice to finally meet you, Carina," Desi says kindly.
"Yeah, same," Naomi adds with a smirk, "it's great to actually put a face to who Lily's been talking so much about."
Lily steps in between Carina and her friends and shoos them away before their word vomit spills anything else. "Alright, bye," Lily orders as she turns them around and pushes them along forcefully while they snicker and laugh in satisfaction of completely embarrassing her in front of Carina.
Once they're finally gone, Lily turns to see Carina's cheeks flushed and head slightly ducked down. This is the same Carina that Lily first met and it actually makes her happy that she hasn't seen the shy and timid Carina in a while. It shows she's really growing comfortable with Lily.
"I am so sorry about my disastrous and persistent friends," Lily apologizes, "they're a mess, I know."
Carina shakes her head and smiles. "No, they seem sweet. Kind of hyper this morning, but sweet." She begins to walk again and motions for Lily to do the same. "So ... what have you been telling them about me?
Lily covers her warm face with her hand and shakes her head. "Oh god," she mutters under her breath. In her mind, her friends are already beaten to a bloody pulp on the ground.
Carina giggles sweetly, but luckily drops the topic. They walk into English class together to see Ms. Ashworth's smiling face already there to greet them. "Morning, girls," she says happily. "I don't know if you read the email this morning but no homework due today because of the lack of power so just do your letters tonight and bring them in tomorrow.
Carina and Lily nod politely before they sit in their seats. Carina turns herself around in the chair to face Lily and runs her fingers over a random carving of an initial that a previous student made on Lily's wooden desk. "Do you know when we'll stop with the letter assignment?" Carina asks.
Lily shakes her head. "Not at all. I'm assuming it has to be soon though because we've been going at it for a while."
Carina brings her eyes up and connects them with Lily's. Though she's actually able to maintain eye contact now, that doesn't mean Lily's heart ever stops beating just a little bit faster every single time she immerses herself in her orbs. "I don't really want it to end," she says longingly. "It's like I want to keep talking to my person but I'm afraid that if we ever met in person, things would be so different and they wouldn't voluntarily want to associate with me anymore since they're kind of forced to right now, does that make sense?"
Lily frowns slightly and places her finger on top of Carina's sympathetically. "You should give yourself more credit than that, Carina," Lily says firmly yet tenderly. "I know for a fact that they would adore you." It's upsetting for Lily to see the lack of self-confidence that Carina possesses. She's great in every way and she can't even see a fraction of it. Lily just wants her to be able to see that and she fully intends to help her realize it.
"How do you know that they would?" Carina asks.
"Because I do," Lily immediately answers without thinking. Her eyes widen slightly as she just realized what she said and tries to cover it up. "I-I mean, I completely adore you and I know wholeheartedly that they would too. How can they not?" Not as smooth as she hoped, but believable. She can't believe she almost totally blew her cover.
But luckily Carina doesn't notice and she just smiles down at the desk bashfully. "You're really sweet, you know that?"
Lily grins smugly. "I do, actually."
Carina chuckles and shakes her head happily at the green-eyed girl. "And you're funny. I told you you were practically perfect," she says with a small wink. Now it's Lily's turn to get bashful. "Oh wait!" Carina suddenly exclaims. "The presentation! Right, I need to tell you about that."
Carina explains to Lily that they are to write an essay about Huck and Jim's friendship, essentially, and whether or not Huck actually developed as a person or if he's still too victim to the grasp of the civilized society around him and he still has a racist nature coursing inside of him. Easy enough. Lily can knock it out in about an hour or less.
"And then we present on Friday," Carina adds. "Which I'm so worried about. I've never done well with presentations because I get so shy and nervous when I'm up there and all eyes are on me."
"And that's okay," Lily reassures her, "everyone gets nervous to some extent when they have to speak in front of others. If it helps, you could just pretend like you're talking to me and only me, since you seem to be comfortable with me. And I'll be rooting for you the entire time."
The bell rings, signifying the start of the school day. Carina's about to turn around in her seat but before she does, she looks Lily straight in the eyes. "I don't mean to get all corny and sappy, but I'm really glad we started talking," she whispers softly. "I wouldn't know how to manage things without you."
--
"DID SHE REALLY SAY THAT?" Desi and Naomi exclaim loudly as they sit together at lunch. A few heads turn towards them but they obviously don't seem to mind.
Lily nods her head enthusiastically. "I know! I know. Lately, Carina's just been saying things that are so damn cute and sweet and borderline flirty. I mean that may just be the type of person she is cause she's so affectionate and cuddly but she's still saying it, you know? It still means something to me."
"What the fuck, man, you guys are practically a couple right now," Desi says with a wide grin. "And this morning you guys were definitely looking very couple-y with each other."
"Oh yeah! Way to totally embarrass my ass in front of her," Lily scolds. "And you almost scared her shitless. She's very timid and you guys, well, aren't."
Naomi chuckles. "I'm sorry. Desi and I were just really excited," she apologizes right before her eyes land on something or someone behind Lily's shoulder, causing the green-eyed girl to turn around to follow her gaze. Amanda's on her way over to them. "Hey, Amanda!" Naomi greets happily as she gets up from her seat and stands beside her.
Naomi throws an arm across Amanda's shoulder and Lily can't help but smile at how short she is. Lily's only ever seen her from a distance so she never was able to see just how tiny she really is. And boy, was she tiny. Adorably little though.
"Amanda, these are my friends, Desi and Lily. Desi, Lily, this is Amanda," Naomi introduces.
They all exchange friendly smiles and waves before Amanda's eyes land on Lily's. "You're the one who took Carina home and stayed with her overnight right?" she asks politely.
"WHAT?!" Desi and Naomi scream. Now there are a lot more heads turning around to give them odd looks. Again, they don't seem to care.
Lily facepalms herself in embarrassment. She purposefully left the part out about how she and Carina spent basically the past 24 hours together to avoid Desi and Naomi's inevitable reactions. She was going to tell them eventually, but she preferred someplace a little bit more private where they could shout and scream at her as loud as they wanted.
"Yes, that's me," Lily answers, bracing herself to get clawed and slapped by her friends for not telling her.
Her instincts were correct. Desi leans across the table and grabs Lily by the shoulders and shakes her. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?"
"TO AVOID THIS CONFRONTATION IN PUBLIC," Lily throws back, starting to laugh at how ridiculous they must look in front of Amanda.
"Was that wrong of me to ask?" Amanda asks innocently and genuinely very confused.
Lily looks over and her and smiles reassuringly. "No, no. Sorry, Amanda, my friends like to be all extra sometimes," she says with a roll of the eyes. "But yeah, I watched over Carina last night."
"I just wanted to say thank you for that," Amanda says, with genuine kindness. Lily can already see that Carina and Naomi weren't exaggerating when they said she is incredibly sweet and harmless. "Seriously, it means a lot to know that you went out of your way to do everything that you did. Carina gets pretty scared during thunderstorms so I'm really happy that she had you."
Lily grins cheerfully. "Well I'm happy to have been there for her. She's really lovely and insanely sweet." She sees Naomi and Desi give each other knowing looks.
"Funny, that's exactly what she said about you earlier," Amanda chuckles. "She really likes you and I'm glad you both are friends. I haven't seen her this happy in a while and I'm willing to bet that it has something to do with you."
Lily can't hide the blush creeping up on her cheeks. "Aw, thank you! Wow, that's incredibly flattering. Give her a hug for me, would you?"
Amanda smiles kindly. "Will do. I'll let you guys be, but it was nice to meet you guys!"
"You too!" Desi and Lily say as they wave at Amanda before she heads back to wherever she came from.
Suddenly Lily feels Desi grab the collar of her shirt and balls the fabric around her fist and she leans in close to her face. "You piece of crap I expect full details about what happened yesterday."
Lily pries Desi's hands off of her. "Hey, now, this isn't even my shirt! It's Carina's. Jesus Christ, you guys are aggressive. But I took her home because she didn't have a ride and I'll be damned if I let her walk home and like Amanda said, she's just really scared of thunderstorms and she was going to be home alone and it was too dangerous to drive back home so she said it would be alright if I stayed over and I did." Lily smiles at the recollection. "And it was so amazing, guys," she excitedly begins, her entire demeanor changing in an instant, "she's better than I ever would have thought like she's this charming little thing and she's so affectionate and I just want to hold her and protect her from everything and-"
Naomi dramatically slaps her hand over her heart and shuts her eyes closed, actually taking a moment. "I'm sorry," she says, "don't mind me. My heart is just about to burst hearing about this. No big deal."
Lily laughs and shakes her had amusingly. "Carina's just perfect. I don't know, man, I feel like just those two syllables aren't even to do her justice but it's true. She makes me happy and I don't care if we're not together or if we never get together. I just know that now that I have her in my life, I don't want her out, even if we're just friends. She's so damn fascinating, you know? She's like a puzzle I want to figure out. I've gotten to know her through her letters and I fell for her mind through that but now I'm just falling harder for the real and physical version for her as well. She makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside and I don't want that feeling to ever go away. IF YOU GUYS DON'T SCARE HER OFF THAT IS."
Desi and Naomi look down like two guilty dogs that accidentally found their way into the garbage and Lily's the one scolding them. "Sorry," they mumble sheepishly.
"We really are happy for you," Desi says, more seriously this time, "despite our actions. You're our best friend, Lily, and it's our job to tease you mercilessly but we also want nothing but for you to be happy and since you've been talking to Carina, I haven't ever seen you quite this radiant before and it's really great to see. And I know that you're okay with just being friends with her and I think that's totally sweet, but just know that we're still rooting for you guys.
Lily smiles appreciatively. "Trust me, I am too."
--
Later that night, Carina is up in her room with Amanda, who's sitting on the bed beside her. She was feeling a lot better than she was yesterday and they decided to make up for lost time tonight. Besides, Carina has a lot that she wants to say to her best friend.
"So I talked to Lily and her friends for a bit today at lunch," Amanda says with a smile. "She's stunning-all of them are and they're all sweet."
"You did?"
Amanda nods. "Just wanted to thank her for treating you so well last night and making sure that you were okay. Now I can see why you've been so happy lately," she chuckles as she nudges Carina with her elbow teasingly.
Carina blushes deeply and playfully glares at the smaller girl. "Oh, shut up, Amanda. I mean can you blame me?"
"But what about the person who you've been writing too? What about them?"
Carina sighs. She's been feeling really conflicted lately in terms of her feelings. On one hand, she's definitely grown attached to the person she's been writing to and she still gets butterflies every time she reads their letters, but on the other hand, there's Lily Joelle, who is just about the cutest thing in the world. And especially after how kindly she's treated Carina yesterday, she now knows that she's developed a crush on the raven-haired girl with world's most enchanting eyes. Either way, it sounds silly to think about. Carina has a crush on someone who she hardly knows and she also has a crush on someone who she's never seen before and she doesn't even know their name.
"I don't know ... I mean, my writing partner knows a lot about me because I feel comfortable enough to tell her things and I anticipate talking to her every day like i have been the pst couple of months, but Lily is amazing in every single way and I actually can physically see and touch her. And she also makes me happy and she makes me feel better about myself and I feel safe around her. It's crazy to think that we just started talking and I've already grown to care for her so much. But Lily's so out of my league.
"She's everything I'm not like she's popular and so confident in herself and strong and she's drop-dead gorgeous. I've definitely liked my anonymous partner longer and I know them on a deeper level but with Lily, it might just be that initial like honeymoon stage where you're so enticed by them at first glance. I don't know. I feel kind of confused as to whom I really genuinely like more because they're both so great but it just sounds like wishful thinking either way because I don't think I have a chance with either," Carina explains as best as she can. It's hard to verbally convey feelings when she doesn't even know what the hell she even is feeling in the first place.
Amanda's quiet for a moment as she gathers her thoughts. "I'm just throwing in my two cents here," she begins, "but I think you and Lily definitely have something there. You may have only just recently gotten to know each other, but there's something physically special there that's already developed-something that your pen pal buddy won't be able to provide through just words. And I don't know if this means anything, but Naomi and Desi were teasing the poor girl about you so badly today at lunch and she was getting so embarrassed."
Carina shoots her attention straight up to Amanda and furrows her eyebrows as she thinks. "Actually, wait, Naomi and Desi were teasing Lily before school this morning too. I just thought they were just being playful and stuff but do you think that maybe..."
" ... maybe Lily could possibly be into you too?" Amanda finishes, a hopeful tone in her voice.
The corners of Carina's lips rise slowly as she thinks about that possibility. It may be far-fetched, but it's still a possibility. Carina always thought that maybe Lily was just extra friendly and warm with people and never really thought twice about it while they were basically cuddling last night. The thought of Lily ever liking her makes butterflies stir in her stomach.
"And also, don't let this influence you in any way," Amanda continues, "but I think you and Lily would be cute as hell together. I can actually see it right now."
Carina chuckles and says, "we are pretty cute together, if I do say so myself. You should've seen her with me last night. She's like my own personal teddy bear." Carina grins as she thinks back to how securely Lily held her when she was scared. She's never dealt with thunderstorms better than she did last night with Lily's arms wrapped protectively around her. "Actually now the more that I think about her, the more I'm convincing myself that I like Lily more. She's-" Carina giggles quietly to herself "-practically perfect."
--
Carina stands in Ms. Ashworth's class near the back where the filing cabinet is and she's the first one in class today again so it's completely silent. She chews on her bottom lip as she rereads the letter she wrote last night to make sure it's just right. Damn, she really needs to step it up in terms of her writing. She can read it just fine since it's her own, but God bless her partner's soul for probably spending hours deciphering the scribbled mess that is her handwriting.
Dear don't-insert-name-here,
Christ, that storm was horrible and I hope that you and your family were okay that night. I remember telling you a while ago that I have a big fear of thunderstorms so I bet you can totally imagine how fun that night must have been, huh. I was originally supposed to spend the night at my house alone but some serendipitous miracle happened along the way and I actually wound up spending it with someone so amazing. To say that they helped me through that scary ass night would be an understatement because they did so much more than that.
Forgive me for being a bit sappy in this letter, but have you ever met someone and immediately became taken with them? Like everything about them just makes your heart melt and you just feel so happy when you're around them? And you feel like you're capable of crossing rivers and climbing mountains if it means that you get to see them smile? Because that's definitely how I feel about them. They're just enchanting and magical and deserve everything good in this sometimes messed-up world. I sound like a lovesick fool because I don't really know them all that well, but I don't need to know every little thing about them to know that they're an extraordinary person. They've helped me in so many more ways than just one in such a short amount of time and I appreciate them so damn much for it. They make me feel really happy and safe and I want to be able to make them feel how they make me feel.
Anyways, I'm sorry about that unbelievably mushy speech. I guess it's safe to say that I was all up in my feelings tonight. But I hope you're doing well and I hope everything is good with you and the next storm won't happen again until I'm dead. Damn rain and damn thunder. But as always, I can't wait to read your letter :) have a lovely day!
Yours truly,
She-who-shall-not-be-named
Carina nods to herself, satisfied with what she wrote but also a little bit embarrassed at the same time. Who would've thought that she would wind up talking to someone she could potentially have feelings for about someone who she does have feelings for? This is like some messed up love triangle.
She slips the paper into her specific folder and turns around to see Lily walk right in with a beautiful smile painted on her face. "Hi, Carina," Lily greets happily.
"Hi, Lily," Carina smiles back, her heart thumping against her chest the way it does every single time she looks at her.