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Carmilla’s not a bad driver.
In fact, she takes pride in her spotless record because she’s never got a ticket, never ran over anybody, and never crashed her car.
Until now.
Carmilla’s sitting behind the wheel, eyes wide with disbelief as she surveys the scene in front of her. Her neighbor, Perry’s very brand new BMW (she knows it’s new because it still had the plastic covers in the seats) is in front of her with a huge dent in the bumper, courtesy of Carmilla’s Audi.
Carmilla takes a deep breath and looks around her surroundings. There was nobody there. Nobody saw anything. She could fix this before Perry found out. She slowly parks her car in the space next to the BMW and goes out. Looking at her surroundings one more time, Carmilla dashes in their building and runs to her apartment.
The door opens with a loud bang and Carmilla quickly shuffles inside, going straight for her laptop in the coffee table. She almost drops it and curses under her breath, hands shaking as she opens up Google and types How to fix a large dent in car FAST. Several options pops up and Carmilla clicks a few of them. She opens the first one and scans the materials, hot glue, dry ice- Carmilla quickly closes the tab because what the hell is dry ice?! She opens the second tab and this one involves taking out the bumper, so no, she is not taking out the bumper of a car that probably costs more than what she makes in a year. She closes the tab and goes to the last one, a YouTube tutorial. This method only involves a hammer and a hair blower, and it looks pretty simple.
Carmilla puts her laptop back in the table and runs a hand across her hair, she has a blower but where the hell would she get a hammer? She goes to her room and grabs her blower. Carmilla walks back to the living room and scans the area hoping that a hammer would magically appear in front of her. After a few seconds of staring into space she remembers something. There’s a supply closet at the end of the hall, maybe there’s a hammer inside. With blower still in hand, Carmilla walks out of her apartment, she closes the door behind her, and quickly jogs to the supply closet. Luckily the hall is empty so she doesn’t need to explain to anyone why she’s running with a fucking hair dryer in her hand. She reaches the door to the closet and quickly turns the knob, but it doesn’t open.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Of course it’s locked. Carmilla’s getting agitated now, Perry could be back any minute, hell she doesn’t even know if Perry’s home or not, maybe her neighbor is in her apartment, cleaning or something. Carmilla looks around the hall, Perry’s door is closed. She walks slowly to the door, trying to listen to any noise behind it, but she was met with silence. Okay, Perry isn’t home. This is good, I still have time. Maybe I can get Will to fix it, or maybe I could just leave it and pretend that I didn’t do it.
Carmilla’s conversation with herself is interrupted when the door next to Perry’s swings open, and Laura Hollis comes out. Laura Hollis, the girl who was the reason why Carmilla hit Perry’s car in the first place. Because Carmilla has a huge fucking crush on her and when Laura passed by in front her earlier, she got distracted and forgot that her foot was still in the pedal. She glances at Carmilla and she stops at her tracks, her eyebrows raising.
Holy shit. She knows. She probably saw me hit the car earlier. Carmilla fidgets with the wire of the blower that she’s holding while trying to look at anywhere but Laura. Laura just stares at her, expression unreadable. This goes on for about a minute until Carmilla can’t take it anymore.
“What?” She snaps, and Laura immediately shakes her head.
“I’m sorry,” She says, holding her hands up. “It’s just that, I didn’t expect to see you in front of Perry’s door, well I don’t expect to see you in front of anyone’s door actually. Not that I’m expecting you in my door. Heh. That would be silly.” Laura rambles, her cheeks turning red.
Carmilla lets out a sigh of relief because she’s safe, Laura doesn’t know anything.
“So,” Laura says. “Do you, uh, need anything from Perr? She’s at work but I can call her if yo-“
“No!” Carmilla cringes at how loud her voice is and she runs a hand through her hair. “No, don’t call her, it’s okay. Really.”
Laura is taken aback at the tone of Carmilla’s voice but she covers it up with a smile. “Uhm, okay. If you don’t need her then I’ll just be going. See you later.” She brushes by Carmilla and heads to the elevators. Carmilla stares at her back and suddenly she got an idea.
“Wait!”
Laura quickly turns around, “Yeah?”
“Do you have a hammer?”
Laura’s brows furrow at the question and if Carmilla wasn’t so stressed right now she would have thought that it was cute. “I’m sorry, a what? A hammer?”
Carmilla nods and Laura walks towards her. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
Camrilla raises her eyebrows and Laura chuckles as she fishes her keys out of her bag. “Don’t act so surprised, everyone should have basic tools in their home.” She opens the door and disappears inside her apartment, Carmilla hovers outside the door awkwardly. After a few minutes Laura comes out and hands her a hammer. “You’ll never know when you’ll need it, like now.” Then she smiles at Carmilla and holy crap she’s cuter up close. Carmilla snaps out of it and shakes her head. “Uhm, thanks.” She mumbles, holding up the hammer. “I’ll, uh, give it back later.”
Laura nods. “I’m a journalist so I’m nosy by nature and I want to ask you what the heck you’re gonna do with a hair dryer and a hammer but I have a feeling you probably won’t tell me.”
“No, I’m not.”
Laura laughs. “Knew it, as long as you won’t kill somebody.” Her eyes narrow at Carmilla. “You’re not going to kill somebody aren’t you?”
Carmilla glares at her. “Yeah I’m totally going to kill someone. Whack them with a hammer and make sure that their hair looks amazing before I dump their body in the river.”
Laura puts her hands up in defense. “Just making sure.” She glances at her watch. “Anyway, I have to go now, I’ll see you later.” Laura runs towards the elevator and goes in, not before giving Carmilla another wave.
Carmilla looks at the items in her hand and lets out a long sigh. This is going to be a long day.
\\
The girl in the tutorial made it looks so easy. Aim the blower at the dent for a while, hammer it, and ta-da! Good as new. Carmilla wants to go find her and strangle her because this is far from easy. This is torture.
Just 15 minutes into holding the blower, Carmilla’s arms feel like they’re going to fall off, she’s sweating from sitting in the fucking parking lot under the blistering sun, and her heart feels like it’s going to come out of her chest every time she hears a noise because it could be someone.
Another 15 minutes has passed and Carmilla couldn’t take it anymore. She’s been hitting the underside of the dent and it still looks the same. She doesn’t want to hit it too hard because she knows it will activate the alarm, and that is the last thing that she wants to happen. She drops the blower beside her and stretches her arms. Great, she wasted 30 minutes with what could be used as time to find a professional to fix this stupid dent for a relatively lower price.
“Oh my god.”
Carmilla stiffens at the sound of the voice behind her. She knows that voice, she just heard it over an hour ago. She stands up, slowly turns around and is met with a very angry Laura.
Laura’s eyes glance at the dent in the bumper and to Carmilla. She opens her mouth a few times but doesn’t say anything. Carmilla also keeps her mouth shut because honestly, what could she say? Sorry for denting your friend’s expensive car and using your hammer to try and make it better but in reality it looks like I’m just making it worse?
“Carmilla, what did you do to Perry’s car?”
Carmilla just shrugs. Laura grabs her phone from her bag. “We have to tell Perry.” She’s about to press the call button when her phone is snatched from her hand.
“Hey!” Laura turns to Carmilla who is now holding her phone. “Give that back!”
“You are not going to call her!” Carmilla says, her eyes narrowing.
Laura matches her glare and puts her hands on her hips. “Why the heck not?! You friggin dented her car! She has a right to know!”
“I can fix this!”
“How?! With a hair dryer? That’s only going to make it worse! If you’re not a terrible person you would tell Perry the truth and let her take it to the professionals.”
“Hey! I didn’t fucking leave it right? If I was a terrible person I would’ve left it there the moment I dented it!” Laura opens her mouth to say something but is cut off when Carmilla quickly blurts out “And besides, it’s your fault that I dented this stupid car anyway!” Carmilla realizes what she’s just said and clamps a hand over her mouth.
Laura takes a step back, her eyes filling with anger. “What do you mean it’s my fault? I didn’t do anything! I just gave you the hammer, if I would’ve known that you’d be using it to hit Perry’s car I would have never lent it to you.”
Carmilla looks away and shuffles her feet. “Nothing, I-just, nevermind.” She hands the phone back to Laura. “You can call Perry now. Just tell her I’ll shoulder the payment and that I’m sorry.” Carmilla says quietly, looking down her shoes.
Laura doesn’t make a move. She steps forward and puts her hand in Carmilla’s arm. “Carmilla.”
“What?” Carmilla answers, still not looking at her.
“What do you mean it’s my fault?”
“Nothing.”
Laura sighs. She takes her hand off Carmilla’s arm. “Let’s make a deal.”
Carmilla’s head snap back up to look at her. “A what?”
“A deal,” Laura shrugs and put her hands behind her back, her eyes glinting like she’s got some sort of plan. “You tell me why it was my fault and I, will help you fix the dent without Perry knowing.”
Carmilla raises her eyebrow and crosses her arms over her chest. “You’re going to help me go behind your friend’s back just so you can get information on something I said that might not even be true?”
Laura grins at her. “I told you, I’m nosy.”
Carmilla takes a deep breath. She puts her hands on her hips and looks at the car. The dent is still there, now even more noticeable with the sunlight shining on it. Carmilla glares at it like it holds the answers to her current situation. She looks back at Laura who’s staring at her expectantly.
“No.”
Laura’s face falls, clearly not expecting the answer. “What do you mean no?”
“No, I don’t accept your deal. Now are you going to call Perry or should I be the one to do it?” Carmilla says dryly. There is no way in hell is she going to admit to Laura that she has a crush on her.
“Jesus Carmilla, I’m already helping you here.” Laura insists, determination in her voice.
“Why are you so damn nosy?”
“Why are you so damn stubborn?”
“Because it would be fucking awkward to admit that I dented this fucking car because I was checking you out earlier!” Carmilla’s eyes go wide when she realized what she had just said. Oh boy, I just can’t keep my mouth shut today.
Laura mirrors Carmilla’s expression, eyes wide, mouth open. “You were checking me out?” She murmurs.
Carmilla looks away and nods, her face turning pink. All her dignity went down the drain when she admitted she liked Laura so she might as well go all out.
“Earlier,” Laura mumbles to herself, her brows furrowing. “Earlier when I got home from the grocery. That’s when you saw me?” She looks at Carmilla for confirmation and Carmilla just nods her head, still not looking at her. “And when you saw me you got distracted?” There’s a hint of teasing in her voice and Carmilla feels her face turn redder. Laura doesn’t say anything and Carmilla just looks at the ground, wishing that it would open up and swallow her.
“Carmilla.”
“What?” Carmilla says, eyes glued to the floor. She’s determined not to look at Laura for maybe, forever?
“Look at me.”
Carmilla sighs. Well that forever lasted for about five seconds. She slowly looks up and sees Laura looking at her with an unreadable expression on her face.
“Carmilla, I-“
“Oh my god my car!”
They both turn towards the direction of the voice, they see Perry standing a few feet away from them staring at her car. Carmilla debates if she should call 911 because Perry seriously looks like she’s about to have a heart attack right now.
Carmilla sighs. Time to get this over with. “Perry, it was-“
“It was my fault.” Carmilla whips her head to look at Laura who’s looking at Perry with a straight face. She leans towards Laura and mumbles. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Laura doesn’t look take her eyes off Perry. “Shut up for one second, I got this.”
Perry walks towards her car, the look of pure horror in her face. Carmilla watches as Laura walks towards Perry slowly.
“Perr, it was my fault.” Perry looks at Laura and tilts her head, gesturing for her to continue. Laura takes a deep breath. “I asked Carmilla to teach my how to drive and I accidentally hit your car.”
Holy shit what the fuck is she doing? Carmilla stares at the back of Laura’s head, her mind swimming with questions like why the fuck is Laura helping her? What’s Perry going to do? Are they going to jail?
“Are you mad?” Laura asks softly.
Perry shakes her head and puts her hands on her hips. “Laura, you know I could never be mad at you. And I don’t blame you for wanting to learn how to drive. It’s just.” She gestures to the car. “I wish you could’ve been more careful.”
Laura bows her head. “I know.” Carmilla slowly walks towards them. Perry glances at her and looks back at Laura. “And dragging poor Carmilla into trying to fix this mess.” She says, gesturing to Carmilla.
“I know.” Laura says again. “I’m really sorry again. Please tell me how can I make it up to you?”
“Laura you don’t have to do anything I already forgive you.” Perry says, smiling a bit. “Now I just need to call LaFontaine so we could get this in the shop-“
“We could do that.” Carmilla quickly says. The two looks at her and Perry shakes her head.
“You don’t have to do that Carmilla, you just got mixed up in this whole situation.” Perry says with a wave of her wand.
“No, seriously.” Carmilla’s feeling like total shit right now. Laura took the heat for the mess that she created and the least that she could do is help get the car fixed.
“Well,” Perry purses her lips and thinks for a moment. She opens her bag and takes out the keys. She hands them to Carmilla. “Alright, thank you. I have to up now so just text me when you get to the shop?” Laura nods and Perry smiles at her. “Great, I’ll see you two later then.”
\\
Carmilla hears Laura sigh for what she thinks is the twentieth time for the whole five minutes they’ve been in the car. She thinks it probably due to the fact that she was driving at a snail’s pace because she’s scared that she might hit something again.
“Carmilla, can I ask you a question?”
“Hm?” Carmilla doesn’t take her eyes of the road.
“Who died?”
Carmilla furrows her brows. “What?”
“Who died?” Laura repeats. “Because it kinda feels like we’re in a funeral procession. I mean with the speed of the car and your all black outfit.”
Carmilla frowns. “Are you mocking my driving?”
“No, but you know, I just wanna get to the shop before I’m 80 or something.”
Carmilla sighs and puts a small amount of pressure in the gas pedal. The speed goes from 10kph to 20kph. “There, happy?”
Laura laughs and Carmilla wants to look at her but she knows that if she did she’d probably get distracted with those brown eyes and they’d hit a tree and die.
“Quite, but the minimum speed is 40. Can you at least go until 30?”
“No.”
\\
“So what happened to this baby?” The mechanic asks. He’s tall and Carmilla thinks that he looks like a puppy.
“Well, uh” Laura squints her eyes to look at is name tag. “Kirsch, my friend here was, distracted.” Carmilla looks at Laura. She has a smirk in her face and Carmilla feels her own face heat up.
“Oh man, what a bummer this car is a beauty. But no worries, I can get this fixed in no time.” Kirsch says, looking at the car like he wants to make love to it making Carmilla want to gag.
Laura grins at him. “Awesome! We’ll just come back for it later.” But Kirsch doesn’t seem to her as he was already distracted by the car. “C’mon.” Laura tugs the sleeve of Carmilla’s shirt, beckoning her to follow Laura outside.
Once they’re outside Carmilla turns to Laura. “Listen, thanks. For taking the heat, you didn’t have to do that”
Laura smiles at her. “It’s not a big deal. I did say I’d help you if you answered my question. And besides, I know you didn’t mean it, you were just distracted.” She says with a glint in her eye.
Carmilla huffs as her cheeks turn pink. “You’re never going to live that one down, aren’t you?”
“Never.” Laura says, sticking her tongue out. “But for the record,” She says, sliding closer to Carmilla. “If the roles had been reversed, I would have hit Perry’s car too.”
Carmilla feels her heart through her chest and she grins as she also shuffles closer to Laura. They’re so close she can smell her perfume and see the golden flecks in her eyes. “Is this the part where I kiss you?” She teases.
Laura laughs, and Carmilla decides that she likes making Laura laugh. “At least take me out on a date first you jerk.”
Carmilla looks around and spots a café on the other side of the street, Laura following her line of gaze. “So, coffee?”
“Absolutely.” They start walking and Carmilla asks.
“Then I’ll get my kiss?”
Laura laughs again. She grabs Carmilla’s hand and laces their fingers together.
“We’ll see.”