Chapter Text
Tuesday.
Perry opens her notebook and starts reviewing her chemistry homework for the tenth time. Still, she finds herself looking at the door most of the time, waiting for LaFontaine to arrive. They hadn't called her or texted her all weekend, and she's pretty sure they had been ignoring her on Monday. Actually, pretty sure is an understatement. It's clear to her that they'd been ignoring her, and she doesn't know why.
Suddenly she realizes she's been staring at the door for almost a full minute and looks back at her homework feeling pathetic. She's finally focusing on it when someone sits down next to her. She doesn't bother looking at who it is. She knows she'll probably end up looking at the door again if she does, and she doesn't want to risk it.
"Hey," the person greets her after a few minutes of silence.
She finally looks up to see Kirsch staring at her with a weird look.
"Oh, hi, honey," Perry replies. She feels kind of guilty for not paying attention. "I didn't realize it was you, I'm sorry."
He shrugs it off and casually tries to take a look at her homework. She shifts her notebook so he can't see it and looks at the door again. Ugh. She's being ridiculous.
"What happened to you yesterday?" She asks, trying to get her mind off of how pathetic she's being. "Why didn't you come to school?"
"Oh, it was nothing," he waves it off. "Just some family stuff."
Perry nods. She probably would've noticed there was more to that story if she wasn't so focused on her LaFontaine problem, and she probably would've asked Kirsch if there's something wrong. But she is focused on her LaFontaine problem. So she doesn't notice there's more to the story, and she doesn't ask Kirsch if something is wrong.
Instead, she looks at the door for the hundredth time just in time to see LaFontaine arrive with that broody girl they always hang out with at lunch. They look at her and she's about to wave at them but they look away and sit down before she can do anything. She feels embarrassed and tries going back to reviewing, but Kirsch closes her notebook and makes her look at him.
"So?" He asks, raising his eyebrows with a questioning look.
"So what?" She replies, trying to avoid the conversation at all costs.
Kirsch gives her an are you being serious right now look, but Perry doesn't say anything.
"How'd it go on Saturday?" He insists.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she keeps trying.
Kirsch rolls his eyes.
"Perry."
She sighs and looks at Laf again, knowing there's no way to avoid it anymore. They're laughing at whatever the girl is saying. She looks away before they catch her behaving like a stalker.
"It was going great," she starts. And it's true. It was going great that day. Sure, Laf had had a nightmare and cried, but they got over it. And they joked around with her. And they were going to help her with her biology homework (which they both knew she didn't need help with, and it was just an excuse to hang out, but they were helping her anyway.) "They were even going to help me with something. But their mom called them and after that they just asked me to leave. I know it probably has nothing to do with me, but I'm just worried... I told them to text me or call me or whatever but they didn't. And then I tried talking to them yesterday at lunch and they just made up a really stupid excuse and left. I think they're avoiding me."
"Dude," Kirsch says. Perry's eyebrows furrow at the nickname, but she doesn't say anything. There are more important things to focus on right now. "That sucks..."
Perry scoffs.
"No, bro, just hear me out." Perry rolls her eyes at the bro thing, but lets it slide once more. "It sucks, but maybe they have a problem or something personal, you know? But they can't avoid you forever. I mean maybe they can, but they won't. You wanna know how I know that?" Perry nods. "Because they like you. They li-i-ike you. They like you so much they text you constantly and ask for your help in stupid assignments we all know they could do by themselves. And they like you so much they probably won't last much not talking to you." She chuckles and hits him playfully in the arm. He pretends to be hurt for a second before talking again. "I'm just saying, sometimes people have problems they have to face alone before they can tell someone. And you just have to give them some time to sort it out, and just be there when the moment comes."
When Kirsch is done talking she takes a moment to take in his advise. She realizes then there's more to the just family stuff story. He's not just talking about being there for LaFontaine, even if he doesn't know it. He's talking about himself, too. She stops worrying about LaFontaine ignoring her for a moment and focuses on her friend.
"Thanks, Kirsch," she pats him in the shoulder and gives him a meaningful look. "When the moment comes I'll be here."
She hopes he notices what she's really saying, but Kirsch's never been good at finding a deeper meaning to people's words. She'll just have to be there, like she said.
Perry takes one last look at Laf. They're looking at her, but when their eyes meet, they look away.
-
Carmilla's sitting at the end of the class reading, like she always is. She doesn't pay attention to most of her classes, Math included. She doesn't know why but she looks up from her book and is surprised to see Laura entering the classroom. She never knew she had this class with her. Laura puts her books over the desk in front of the teacher's and yeah, maybe that's why she didn't know they shared this class. After all, Laura's really tiny and there's a sea of heads covering hers. Also, she just really doesn't pay attention in Math.
Laura looks up to see Carmilla and her face lights up. Carmilla tries not to notice, but it doesn't last long because she can't contain her smile when Laura starts waving at her. She waves back and mumbles a hey with her lips. She's sure Laura's just going to take a sit on the first row, but she surprises her by taking her notebooks back from the desk and reaching the one beside her.
"What are you doing, cupcake?" Carmilla asks amused.
"You are not going to stop it with the nicknames, are you?" Laura chuckles.
"Nope," she smirks. "Sorry, sweetheart."
Laura rolls her eyes and Carmilla can't help but think it's cute. Laura looks down at her notebook filled with Math stuff, but Carmilla doesn't look away from her face. She suddenly wishes she hadn't skipped school yesterday. She'd missed that little scrunched up face Laura makes so often. She shakes that thought out of her mind and looks back at her book. She's going to start reading when Laura talks again.
"Anyway," Laura breaks the silence. She has a tendency to do that. "Hi."
"Hey," Carmilla repeats.
"I, um..." Laura bites her lips, but doesn't break eye contact. "Didn't see you yesterday."
Carmilla's playful smirk takes place on her face once more. She debates just telling Laura she'd skipped school, but decides teasing her would definitely be more amusing. She makes sure to use her sultry voice.
"Were you looking for me, cutie?"
It works, because Laura blushes and looks away.
"Yeah," she says. "Kind of."
"What for?" Carmilla continues.
Laura's blush deepens. Carmilla doesn't know why she's enjoying this so much, but she is. It's fun.
"Uh..." Laura mumbles. "Nothing, uh, in particular."
Carmilla smirks at Laura's stuttering. She's about to say something but the Math teacher comes in.
"Well," he says. "Where were we?"
Laura raises her hand, eager to answer. Carmilla thinks it's kind of cute. She's been thinking this a lot lately. How is everything Laura does cute? It can't be. She needs to stop thinking about this now. She tries to focus on her surroundings instead. She notices the teacher looks kind of surprised that Laura's sitting so far away from her desk. Actually, the whole class is surprised she's sitting on the last row. Specially because she's sitting with her, the broody book reader who doesn't pay attention in class but still manages to have decent grades.
"Yeah, Laura?" Mrs. Turner gives her permission to talk.
She then proceeds to say a bunch of words Carmilla doesn't really understand. No one seems shocked by this but her, though. The teacher thanks Laura and takes it from there.
"Wow, cupcake," Carmilla whispers after a while. "You're smart. I like it."
Surprisingly, Laura doesn't react to this. Carmilla frowns a bit. Maybe this is how Laura feels when she doesn't answer. But why is she ignoring her? Perhaps she just didn't hear her. She gets a bit closer.
"I like smart girls," she tries.
She gets nothing but silence as a response. Oh, well. Apparently Laura isn't going to react to anything she says. Carmilla smirks at all of the inappropriate teasing possibilities she has. How many would it take to make Laura crack?
"Hey, smart girl," she starts. Of course, this doesn't get a reaction. Not that Carmilla thought it'd be that easy. "I bet you could teach me a thing or two."
Laura moves around her desk but doesn't look at her.
"Cupcake," Carmilla calls out for her again. Laura puts her index finger against her lips for two seconds, never looking away from the board. "Oh, am I not supposed to be talking?" Laura shakes her head, but still doesn't look at her. "I guess I'm being a bad girl, huh?" Laura's face looks like it's burning but still nothing. Carmilla notices she's about to crack. Just a little push... "Maybe you should punish me."
And she was right. Laura finally turns to look at her, even the tip of her ears is bright red.
"Oh my God, Carmilla," she says. Carmilla smirks at how scandalized she sounds, but that doesn't seem the right thing to do. When Laura realizes this is what she wanted all along, she takes a moment to calm down and looks at her with her best poker face. "You should really pay attention, we have a test on Friday."
She looks away from her and goes back to paying attention to the class. Carmilla stops teasing, but she doesn't even make an effort to pay attention, too. She's too busy staring at Laura.
-
Danny is so caught up in the conversation she's having with SJ she doesn't notice when Mel shows up for lunch at the Summer Society table. That is, of course, until she starts talking.
"Lawrence," she calls out for her, ignoring the fact that she's talking with somebody else. She moves Danny's lunch away and, before she can protest, she puts some papers in front of her. "You have to sign these so we can have the auditorium tomorrow."
Danny takes a look at the papers in front of her, but doesn't touch them. She looks back at Mel.
"And what exactly do we need the auditorium for?" She asks, even though she already knows what Mel's answer is going to be.
"For the gathering, of course."
Danny tries not to focus on the way Mel talks to her like she's a kid and she's teaching her how to tie her shoes. That'll only rile her up, and she can't be angry right now. She doesn't want another Meeting Fiasco.
"We already talked about this, Mel," she says in the calmest tone she can manage.
"Maybe you talked about it with your little girlfriend here," Mel points at SJ and turns to look at her. "Has Danny presented you to her boyfriend yet? Or maybe her other girlfriend? Maybe even a tree? Who knows what this girl is into."
SJ's hand reaches hers under the table. She gives it a squeeze and takes a deep breath, and she doesn't have the need to count down from ten like last time.
"You do know that's not how bisexuality works, right?" SJ asks. "Danny likes girls and boys. It's no different from you liking blonds and brunets. It doesn't mean you date the two at the same time, it just means you're attracted to bo-"
"I'm going to stop you right there," Mel cuts her off. "I don't give a fuck about all that shit, what I do give a fuck about is the Summer Society. We need this gathering. And if Lawrence here is too busy making out with the whole population of this school to schedule it, then I will."
Danny's anger goes away with a squeeze of SJ's hand, but she's still unable to speak. It doesn't seem to matter, though, because SJ's handling it pretty well on her own.
"If you don't give a fuck about it, then why do you keep bringing it up?"
By this time, they already had the full attention of the whole Summer Society (plus a few other noisy students.) Danny swears she hears one of them say 'burn.' She smiles. It kind of was a burn.
Mel seems to be taken aback by this. Her face is bright red and she's trying to mumble something but SJ doesn't let her.
"Is it because you're jealous she's not making out with you?"
The people listening make 'oooh' sounds. It's pretty obvious SJ is taking Mel down, and Mel is not happy about that. She ignores SJ's questions and looks at Danny.
"Will you just sign the papers?" She says.
Danny swears she sees a hint of begging in her eyes. She almost pities her. Almost.
"No, Mel," she finally speaks up. "We've talked about this, and we're not having a gathering. SJ and I already made the posters and we're putting them up today. We had a vote, and your idea lost. It's how the world works."
Mel glares at her and takes the papers. She's about to leave when Danny realizes there's one thing left she has to say.
"Oh, and Mel?" The girl turns around and quirks her eyebrows. "You need to stop. If you keep saying that kind of stuff, we can kick you out. And I don't think you want that, do you?"
Danny watches as a desperate look crosses Mel's face. It disappears almost right away and leaves Mel's poker face right back where it belongs.
"You can't do that."
"Yes, we can," she replies. "I don't think Mr. Bennet, our dear principal, condones biphobia."
"Or bullying in general," SJ adds.
Mel doesn't even try to mumble words. She just glares at them one last time, and leaves enraged.
"SJ, that was amazing," Danny turns to look at the girl beside her.
SJ smiles at her and gives her hand a squeeze. That's when Danny realizes they're still holding hands. She doesn't know how to let go of it gracefully. She doesn't even know if she wants to let go of it, but she knows she has to. So she takes her hand out of SJ's grip and puts it up in the air. SJ looks a bit hurt but high five's her anyway.
They go back to eating as the Summer Society girls fall back into their conversations.
"Hey, have you noticed she always ends up leaving?" SJ asks after a while, taking a bite of her sandwich.
"I hadn't noticed," Danny smiles. "I guess I just don't really care."
-
They leave their tray of food in front of them before sitting down next to Carmilla. They expect her to remain quiet, as always. Actually, they could do with a bit of quiet right now. But that's not what they get.
"I think you should apologize to Perry," Carmilla suddenly says. LaFontaine chokes on their sandwich and looks straight at her, but she's looking at her food. "You're being a dick and she doesn't deserve it."
"I... tell her..." they find themselves unable to form a coherent sentence. They clear their throat and try again. "I just don't want to tell her."
"Then don't," Carmilla reasons. "I can tell she's not the kind of person who'll try to force it out of you." She does have a point, that's not at all what Perry had tried to do the day before, but Laf had blown her away either way. "Just talk to her. Apologize. Don't be stupid."
LaFontaine looks over at the table Perry's sitting at. It's not too far away. They're about to go when they realize she's with Kirsch again today.
"I'll do it," they assure their friend. "When she's alone."
Carmilla doesn't look away from them, like she's trying to decipher if they're just saying that to get her off their back.
"I promise I'll do it, okay?"
She rolls her eyes.
"Okay."
"Okay."
"..."
"So, how was Math?" They try changing the subject.
They expect her to say something like 'pretty uneventful' and start eating again without any other word, but apparently today Carmilla is full of surprises.
"Pretty good," Carmilla replies. "Laura was there. She sat next to me. I guess that was cool."
LaFontaine knows she's more excited about it than she's letting on. They're almost sure they saw a glint on her eyes when she had said Laura's name. They make a quick decision to leave the teasing for later. There's actually something else that's been bugging them since Wednesday.
"So did she tell you?" They ask.
"Tell me what?"
They roll their eyes (a habit they got from Carmilla.)
"Why she did it."
"Oh, yeah," Carmilla starts eating again. "She told me at detention."
Laf looks up from their food with an eyebrow raised.
"Why haven't I heard of this before?"
"It was no big deal," Carmilla waves it off. "You had bigger problems."
They ignore the last part, like they've been ignoring the bigger problem altogether.
"So?"
"..."
"Why did she do it?"
Carmilla remains silent.
"Come on."
"It's private," she finally says. "I can't tell you."
"Oh," they stop themselves before asking again. They definitely understand things being private. And they know Carmilla won't tell them if it is. It's one of the many things they like about being her friend, they know she doesn't go around telling other people's secrets, so they know they can trust her. "It's fine."
They're about to start talking about how North Korea's nuclear tests could trigger a volcanic eruption when Laura herself gets to their table. They feel a sudden change in Carmilla's behaviour as she turns around to look at Laura.
"Hey, guys," Laura greets them (well, she's mostly looking at Carmilla, but she still said guys as in plural, so Laf takes it as a greeting). "Can I sit with you?"
"Sure, cutie," Carmilla responds almost instantly.
Laf grins and kicks her under the table as Laura sits down next to her. Carmilla glares at them.
"So what were you talking about?" Laura asks.
LaFontaine smiles and thinks about answering something among the lines of oh, we were just talking about you and how Carmilla is smitten as a kitten.
"Urine chargers," Carmilla replies quickly, looking at them angrily, like she'd read their mind and was trying to avoid them telling that to Laura at all costs. It was still nice to know she remembered the urine chargers.
They laugh at Carmilla's look and turn to look at Laura. She seems confused at first, but then she looks pretty interested.
"Is that real?" She questions. Laf nods. "How do they work?"
Carmilla groans at having to hear this again, but Laf gives her a you got yourself into this look and then turns to Laura and smiles.
"Okay," they start. "So you don't pee on the thing you're charging, because, you know, gross. But the thing is... urine passes through a cascade of microbial fuel cells and this harnesses power and scientists have actually managed to charge a Samsung phone this way." They look at Laura and how she seems super into this. It feels amazing. Not that Carmilla's not interested in their crazy science stories, it's just she doesn't demonstrate it as much as Laura is doing right now. "So like, think about it. What if we were able to put these things in like public bathrooms? We could power the lights and showers with urine."
"And since everyone has to pee, it would be a renewable source!" Laura chimes in. Laf nods excitedly. "Wow, that's amazing."
"It is!" They agree. "So, in a completely unrelated topic, I read yesterday that North Korea's nucl-"
"Not to ruin your science fun," Carmilla cuts them off. Laf glares at her. "But Ginger 2 is alone. And you promised."
Laf looks over at the table where Perry's sitting alone. Apparently Kirsch had left already. They look at Carmilla and they know they don't stand a chance. They have to do it.
"We'll continue this conversation later," they say looking at a confused Laura.
They gulp and stand up. And with one last look at Carmilla (they can practically hear her voice telling them not to fuck up), they make their way to Perry's table.
-
Will greets him with a high five when he gets to the Zeta table. He didn't really want to leave Perry alone but he had promised Will he'd be there that day. He hadn't been to the Zeta table as much as he used to, because he couldn't do much of the stuff the guys planned anyway and that made him kind of sad.
There was a time when he'd sit with the Zetas everyday, went to parties every Friday and watched every football game eating hot-dogs at some Zeta guy's house. But those days were over the moment his dad saw his grades and decided he needed to dedicate all of himself to swimming if he wanted to do something with his life.
"You know," Will says putting a hand over his shoulder. "When you said you'd come I was hoping you'd bring your mind, too."
"Sorry," Kirsch mumbles.
He looks over at the table he left Perry at and is glad to see Laf is sitting there with her. He feels a bit better after that.
"So what's up with you?" Will asks. "It's been a while since we talked."
"We talked this morning."
"You know what I mean," Will sighs. He looks genuinely worried. Kirsch feels even worse when he realizes he's been neglecting his bro. "What's on your mind?"
He takes a long breath. Could he tell Will? He knows he won't say anything. What he's worried about is making it real. As long as he doesn't tell anyone, he can pretend none of this is happening, but the second he does...
"I'm just tired," he says. "Yesterday my coach made me train all day."
And when I tried telling him I had school he told me I didn't need school because I wouldn't learn anything anyway. He said I was stupid. He said my only way in is through swimming. He's right.
His train of thought is interrupted by Will swinging his hands in front of his face, trying to get back his attention.
"Kirsch," he starts. "This needs to stop."
"What?"
"Your dad is pushing you too hard," he continues. "If he keeps doing it you'll break. You need to tell him he's gone too far. You need to train, okay. But you also need to study. You need to sleep. You need to have some time for yourself. And if you don't tell him, I will. I won't stand here and watch you fall apart."
Kirsch's hands are sweating and he feels like he'd been standing near a construction and a brick fell on his head. He stands up and starts to walk around the table. He stops next to Will.
"You mean my coach," he says. "Not my dad."
"No, Kirsch," Will shakes his head. "Seriously, look how traumatized you are. You even have to call him something else so you won't feel bad. He's your dad. Your dad is doing this to you. And you need to tell him to stop."
Kirsch falls back on his seat and puts his face on his hands. He feels desperate. He wants to tell Will he's wrong. It's his coach the one treating him like that, not his dad. But at the same time, he knows it's not like that. He knows Will is right. About everything.
"I just don't know how to do it."
He feels Will pull his hands away from his face.
"So I'll help you." He opens his eyes and looks at Will, who's giving him a sad smile. "Isn't that what bros are for?"
Kirsch gives him a sad smile. With Will's help, he thinks maybe he can do it. Maybe he can stand up to his coach. No. Maybe he can stand up to his dad.
-
After LaFontaine leaves, Laura and Carmilla fall into silence. Carmilla seems to be more than fine with it, but Laura's never been much of a fan of silence. And she hates it even more since her mom died, because it seems like it's all her dad was left with. So she's used to filling it.
"So Laf likes science."
She expects at least an answer to work with, but apparently that's not very Carmilla-like.
"Yeah, they do."
Laura stops herself from face-palming.
"Do you um..." she starts. "Do you make it a habit of bothering people when they're trying to pay attention in Math class?"
"No, that's more of a sitting with Laf at Biology kind of thing," Carmilla replies. "On Math I read."
She quirks her eyebrows in confusion.
"But you did it at Math today..."
"I made an exception," she smirks. "Just for you."
Carmilla winks at her and Laura can feel herself blushing. She hates blushing at everything Carmilla does or says, but it's kind of inevitable. She's already accepted that. She can feel Carmilla staring at her like she did during the Math class. She smiles and lets silence fall upon them again while she finishes eating her lunch. And this time she doesn't try to fill it.
-
They take a moment just to look at her, with her yellow turtleneck and her beautiful long curly red hair. She's sitting there, playing with her food (they notice she does that a lot) and looking kind of sad. They're about to say something when she looks back and sees them. They try not to make much of how when she sees them her face lights up.
She opens her mouth as if to say something, but not a sound comes out of it. It hits LaFontaine that maybe she's scared they'll go away again. Their face softens and they gesture towards the chair next to Perry's with a questioning look. She nods.
"Um..." Laf starts mumbling and they suddenly realize that they don't have a clue what they're going to say to Perry. They hadn't planned anything. They take a few seconds before going with the simplest thing that crosses their mind. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I've been acting like a jerk."
Perry looks at them straight in the eyes and smiles and a warm sensation overcomes them. It gives them the last push they needed to keep going. Maybe telling Perry is not a bad idea after all.
"Remember when you were at my house and my mom called me?" Perry nods. "Okay, so... um..." Making the decision of telling her was one thing, but actually telling her seemed way harder. They take a long breath and speak as fast as they can. "So-my-mom-called-me-to-tell-me-my-grandma-is-coming-home-for-a-while-and-I-have-to-be-Susan-again-because-my-dad-thinks-she-won't-react-well-to-me-being-gender-neutral-and-so-I-"
"Whoa, whoa," Perry stops them. "Um... so from what I could understand your parents want to throw you back in the closet because your grandma is coming to your house for a while?"
Laf looks down to their hands that are over the table. They start fidgeting with their fingers before nodding. Perry's hand takes theirs and makes them stop and look at her.
"Then you had every right to be a jerk."
"No," Laf says shaking their head. "I did not. You didn't do anything wrong and I took it out on you. You just wanted to help and I was an asshole and please forgive me, I'm so sorry."
"Calm down, sweetie," Perry smiles at them and caresses their cheek. "I forgive you. And I'm here for you."
Laf doesn't fight the smile that spreads through their face, but they do fight the tears that scream to come out every time they remember what their parents want them to do.
-
Carmilla shoves her notebooks and books on her locker and leaves a single philosophy book on her backpack. She takes it out and reads a random page. She smiles. She had made the right decision when taking that book from the library.
She closes her locker and almost lets the book fall when she sees Laura waiting for her there. She looks kind of nervous, so she rules out teasing her about creepily waiting for her behind a locker.
"What is it, cutie?" She asks instead.
"I just..." Laura mumbles. "Um..."
Carmilla smirks and raises an eyebrow.
"I just kind of..." Laura tries again. Carmilla thinks about teasing her again, but decides against it. She'll let Laura say whatever she has to say first. "I just wanted to give you this."
She hands her a piece of paper, which Carmilla moves to take with a confused look on her face. Their fingers brush and she pretends not to notice the electricity that runs through her arm after they do. Although she does not ignore Laura's blushing.
"Okay, bye!" Laura says before she can open the paper or say anything.
She runs off through the sea of people that are Silas High's hallways after class. She's out of Carmilla's sight after just a few seconds.
Carmilla plays with the paper on her hands before finally deciding to open it.
She smiles and leans on her locker while staring at Laura's number.
-
She's thinking about how this is the last year she's going to participate in the Adonis Triathlon, how this is her last year in the Summer Society, how this is her last year in high school in general, when she finishes putting up her stack of posters. She looks at it one last time (it reads Free Homecoming? Sign up for the Adonis Triathlon! Best three go in for free.) before leaving to look for SJ.
She finds her fighting with a ladder.
"Do you need help?" Danny asks.
SJ turns to look at her with relief written on her face.
"Yes, please."
Danny smiles and helps her put it up against a wall. Their fingers brush and SJ quickly takes her hand away. Danny holds the ladder still with a weird look on her face as SJ climbs it with her last Adonis poster.
"I'm sorry about the whole hand holding thing at lunch," she suddenly blurts.
So that's what the whole taking her hand away thing was about.
"Don't be," Danny says with the most reassuring tone she can manage. "You kept me calm, and I needed that."
SJ stops in the middle of the ladder and looks down at Danny, she feels like she's searching her for some kind of clue. She makes sure to keep her face as emotionless as possible.
"Yeah," SJ answers. "I just think I overdid it a bit."
Danny pretends there's a problem with holding the ladder so she can look away from SJ's eyes.
"Nah, it's fine." She looks back up. "Thank you for not letting me lose control and for handling Mel."
"It was a team effort," SJ waves off and finally starts climbing again. She quickly puts up the poster.
"It really wasn't," Danny admits as SJ starts to make her way back down. "You took her down on your own. And you calmed me. Thank you."
"You're wel-" SJ begins to say, but she doesn't get to finish because in that moment she falls down. Danny is quick to catch her, but they both end up on the floor.
SJ looks at her with a meaningful look Danny can't ignore anymore, mostly because the girl is on top of her and her eyes are just a few inches away. She just lays there, unable to move a single muscle, while SJ puts a stray of her hair behind her ear. She doesn't find her words until SJ looks down at her lips.
"So, was that your last poster?" She blurts out.
A part of her hates herself, another hates herself even more. Why couldn't she just shut up? SJ's meaningful look goes away as she stands up and offers her hand to Danny.
"Yeah, it was." She looks at Danny one last time. "Okay, I guess I'll go now. See you around."
Danny finds herself unable to speak once again, and just stands there, feeling really stupid, as she watches SJ walk away from her.
-
When Carmilla gets to her house, she tries to be as quiet as possible. She does this sometimes, when she just doesn't feel like eating with her family. Her mom never seems to notice. She goes straight upstairs and takes her philosophy book out of her backpack.
She doesn't even try to hide the fact that she didn't take it out to read it. She shakes it until she finds what she was looking for, looks at the number written on the paper Laura gave her and saves it on her phone.
And then she sits there, on her bed, staring at it.
She doesn't get it. She's not the kind of girl who gets nervous when texting another girl. She really isn't. At least she never was. She can't explain it, not even to herself, but the thought of texting Laura does make her nervous. Specially because she doesn't know what the hell to write.
She decides to go simple.
Unknown (8:34pm): hey, cupcake
She leaves the phone by her side and gets her book, but Laura's reply doesn't take that long. She's barely opened her book when her phone chimes.
Laura (8:37pm): who is this?
Is this girl for real?
Carm (8:38pm): do you just go around giving people your number?
Laura (8:38pm): shut up :P
Laura (8:39pm): it was a joke
Carmilla actually laughs, but she will not put the dreaded lol. She still has some self respect.
Carm (8:40pm): heads up, cupcake, jokes are supposed to be funny
Laura (8:40pm): oh, come on
Laura (8:40pm): don't get all broody on me now
Laura (8:42pm): anyways what's up
After that, Carmilla just lets Laura lead the conversation (because apparently her texting skills can not be trusted when talking to this particular girl.)
-
Kirsch takes a deep breath before entering his house.
"Hi, honey," his mom smiles at him from the kitchen. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he lies. "Yeah, I'm fine."
He walks over to his dad's office. He tries to remember the things Will had said as he walks, the scenarios they had practiced, but it's all fading away.
"Wilson," his dad acknowledges him.
He goes back to reading some papers right after that. Kirsch awkwardly stands there for a while, trying to remember the words he had been practicing for hours with Will. But with his dad sitting in front of him, he can't seem to get them out.
"Wilson," his dad looks up to him and quirks his eyebrow. "Is there something you want to talk about?"
In this moment, Kirsch knows nothing but fear. What is he doing? Why is he doing this? His da-coach. His coach is right. Swimming is his only way into college. He only wants the best for him, why should he complain?
"No," he answers. "Nothing. Good night."
He runs up to his bedroom and throws himself over his bed feeling useless and ungrateful and just so fucking stupid.