*_*
They make no plans, no prior arrangements when to meet, or rather Lax doesn't but during these cold nights and sunny days,she still manages to snatch a moment or two to be with Carla each week.
Never by deliberate intention,or so she would have Carla think,catching her perhaps between her dorm and the dining hall and once,dangerous but immensely exciting to Lax,on the path to the hockey field,right behind the teachers' lounge.
*_*
Songs for the chapter:
No Respect -Nasty C
Let Me Live -Rudimental,Major Lazer,Anne Marie
A Different Way - DJ Snake.
CARLA:
My heart plunges like a nervous colt at the sight of her. I am ready to bolt into the teacher's lounge and ask a question, in pretence of seeking guidance, from any teacher. I turn towards the door then suddenly remember we are not allowed in if we are in sportswear and I freeze,my feet rooted to the ground. I should stop playing hockey for how can I avoid her when she's the captain?
"Carla,what luck," Lax says softly,her eyes filled with mischief and her teeth gleaming in a delighted smile.
She grabs my hand and pulls me away with her and we round a corner,to the side of the building. She winks wickedly,ready to sweep me into her arms and kiss my panic stricken face to smiles. She is, of course, enchanted with my apprehension, the way I look about me as if searching for a bolt hole down which to bolt.
"It's alright, everyone is about their business, we'll hardly be noticed." She whispers, coming to a stop before me,and when I try to dart around her,she steps to the side to prevent me. Her hand cups my breast and I moan half with delight, half with terror.
"Where has that girl got to? I could swear I saw her just a moment ago. Hey Lorna,take this pile to Mrs Omar's office and tell Carly to come at once..."
"Oh Lax,you need to let me go. Can't you hear Mr Juma looking for me? He's only just a metre away. If he should take it in his head to turn this corner..."my voice is a harsh urgent whisper deep in my throat.
"Carla...just let me..."
"Oh please,Lax...let me go..." I whisper back, affected by the proximity of her lips to mine. I feel my mind become effervescent like champagne, bubbling up unthinkably as flashes of her lips on my lady parts clouds it.
"Come with." She smiles,one hand on my left breast, the other pointing to the store room where she first had me.
"Please,Lax..." I am desperate in my effort to push away her demanding fingers which are undoing the buttons on my shirt as fast as I am doing them up. My hands tremble,not only with terror but with desire as strong as hers.
"Carla stop that,will you? I ache for you..."
"Lucky Mambo! For God's sake,stand aside."
"You have a temper then,Carla. Always before you have been so demure with your soft smoky eyes cast down,yes sometimes proud but now I can see you have kept your true spirit hidden. I do admire spirit in a girl tiny as you,Carla," but she smiles and stands aside and I quickly find my way back the dorm, to catch a nap for I can't stand her training me today and her teasing annoys me to the bone. Oh and Mr Juma can choose another girl to ran his errands,for once!
. . .
I quickly change into my weekend dress and join Zahra,my bedmate on her bed,the top of our double decker. I smile my exquisite smile, ready to hear whatever drama she has going on for God knows her life is a soap opera! My smile dies on my lips when I notice the scorn on her face.
"Don't do it,lass." She says,her eyes perceiving a high level of seriousness and I know exactly what she speaks of.
"Don't do what?" I say sharply,flinging open the window with such force several girls working on the lawn below raise their heads to stare.
"Dear God,whatever it is you're doing. You weren't on your own the other night,were you?"
"I may have been and then I may not but whether I was or wasn't it's got nothing to do with you." I speak through clenched teeth for really I have had quite enough of this already.
"I'll not cover for you again!"
"Cover for me? What in Hell's teeth do you speak of?"
"How did you find your bed when you came back from your...err...whatever it was you were doing?"
I remember when Lax had brought me back to bed and I had been quite amazed to find that my pillow had been laid down at the center of the bed,the sheet and blanket carefully tucked around it so that for a horrified moment I thought there was someone sleeping in it.
"I did not ask you and I'm not asking you to. I can manage my own life,thank you very much. I always have and I always will." My voice is more of snarl as I have grown impatient of this pointless chat. I cross my arms over my heaving chest and stare outside.
"Was it one of the workers or perhaps a teacher?" Zahra persists with her questioning and I subconsciously roll my eyes.
"Don't be daft." I chuckle.
"There is someone and I mean to find out,Carla Kindest. I covered for you last time but I will not do it again. It was a good damn job I went down first or you would have been noticed missing and you would be in deep trouble. Have you no sense,girl...?"
I choose to ignore the last question. "Thanks Zahra,but..."
"There's no buts about it. You will be suspended or worse,expelled if anyone finds out and not only that, you'll go without character. And there's him,whoever it is,he'll go too. I'm surprised at you,Carla. I thought you had more sense..." Zahra leans back on the wall,so aggrieved by what she sees as my madness she forgets to go on with her tucking on the piece of fabric on her hand, "I didn't even know you had your eye on one of them. You're a deep one..."
"I haven't! You must be out of your mind if you think I'd chance my academics for a teacher,or worse a worker!" I shut my mouth before the damage is done. I had almost given it away. In my contemptuous denial of a dalliance with a worker or a teacher has left Zahra with only one alternative,a boy from the neighboring school that has caught my attention and I must let her go on thinking that because if she really knows who it is....she must never know.
"Carla...I'm not trying to interfere in your life. We are friends aren't we? We've stuck together for...for months now. I'm not ready to watch your stubbornness be your unfolding when I can stop it." Zahra's voice is soft but the expression on her face says quite plainly that she believes I am to be somewhat artless and in need of a firm hand to guide me.
"You've ruined my spirits now so I'll be slipping down the back stairs tonight. It's your fault this time for I can't stay in a bad mood when it can be relieved,like a burden,off my shoulders." I say abruptly, meaning every word I say.
"Wha...oh no...?" Zahra's face is foolishly comical.
"Yes...I must, Zahra."
"I told you I am not covering for you again and I meant it!"
"You don't need to. If anyone comes here to look for me,which is unlikely, all you have to say is you don't know where I am. That when you went to sleep I was here."
"How can I do that? For God's sake,Carla, don't do this to me,or yourself." Zahra's face is anguished. "Dear God," she moans,"why was this bed you were shown the day you came? Why didn't one of the others get lumbered with you? Why did it have to be me? And all I want is to know who it is. It can't be one of the boys from the neighboring school for they hadn't come last weekend when you slipped out. Is it...someone...one of us perhaps...? "
It begins then. An expression of knowing stirs in Zahra's eyes. I watch her struggle with her new knowledge, not awfully sure she will figure out my lover but absolutely sure she won't stop still she places a name to my "misbehavior".
She tries one last time.
"Don't go, Carla. She's not worth it."
"She? Who?" I am frozen. I hadn't expected her to think I am a...I will my face to stay expressionless, cold and set.
"You know who I mean and so do I. Her, Mercy,your little friend..."
"Of course you couldn't know her!" I sigh loudly,ready to laugh at her but the expression on her face, that look in her eyes...
"Lucky. There's been talk about her,lass. A wicked womaniser, they call her. Creeping from one bed to another in her dormitory."
"Dear sweet Jesus...how dare you tarnish her name like that...?" I spring up from the bed just as the dinner bell rings. Good excuse to leave her.
In my frustration I run blindly to the kitchen to pick food for my table since I am the server today. Every girl has a day to serve food to a group of fourteen or so girls and today being Tuesday,it was my duty.
"Hurry up,will you?" A tall slender girl yells at me as I chuck a serving spoon full of rice onto her plate. I ignore her and keep about calmly sharing the food.
"God,she's so slow!" Again,from her. Say no more now stupid girl! I hold place two pieces of beef onto my plate,serve some soup then hold the bowl of stew up and pour it to her plate till all the white grains of the overcooked rice floats in it. Grabbing my plate,I leave as her angry shrills threaten to burst my ears. I even forget to pick my banana in my frustration. Great! I didn't have to be bitchy but she didn't have to push me either.
I walk out of the dining hall to the corner Lax and I take our supper from. My blood is boiling and she better have a word to say for herself. I notice Lax walk over and I clench my fists,ready to blacken both her eyes if what Zahra said is true. Yes,that will make the end our slowly budding "friendship" but I could care less at the moment.
. . .
"A good reputation precedes you,lover." I sarcastically say to her before she even sits but I take it my sarcasm is lost on her for she completely ignores me.
"You have chosen to make it a public affair Carla. I hear your little friends talk of it from every corner and I refuse to risk my academics at your unmanageable mouth for..."
"Shut up,will you? How could you possibly say something like that? Is it not you who apparently is a nightcrawler? Creeping from one bed of your lover to another?" I spring at her,my fingers aiming her face,my nails like claws ready to scratch her perfect skin and tear it to the bone.
She grabs my hands. Her eyes fierce. They become glossy, glowing with a moisture that is unmistakably tears and I smile to myself.
"And you chose to believe it? I have fancied you from the very first day,Carla. How could you believe that senseless talk? I care for you,damn you!" Her voice is loud, her face anguished,her anger consuming her pretty face. I can tell she wants to swing at me,slap the "senseless talk" off my head, shake me to submissiveness and perhaps clear my maddened head.
"Don't do it,lass. Remember our agreement? Goodbye without acrimony,Lax." I push her hands away,take my food and walk into the dark night.
"Slip out,Carla."