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Carmilla Karnstein wasn't exactly the kind of person who is happy all the time, or at least she never shows it. But today of all days, she was really grumpy. Which, okay, doesn't really say much since the girl is always grumpy. But today she was in a specially bad mood. Everything had gone wrong, from the moment she woke up, late of course. Then in just a few hours the universe decided Carmilla would be the subject of a few bad jokes. She got chewed out by the principal of the school she works at for being late. The computer in her classroom decided it just wouldn't work, so she had to come up with a new lesson plan on the go. And the annoying teenagers were especially annoying today, Carmilla decided. No way they were like this everyday, she would have gone insane aleady.
When the bell rang announcing it was time to go home, Carmilla was more than glad to pick up her bike and go home. She was so eager to end this day soon, she was almost reckless on her bike, cutting through a couple of cars now and then, receiving a few angry horns in return. Whatever.
She was very relieved when she finally got to her apartment, and on the elevator ride up to the third floor she was daydreaming about throwing herself at her bed. She would pick up a book. Whichever was closest. She just wanted to get lost in some book. That daydream ended the minute she opened the door to her apartment though.
"Kitty!" Her brother, Will, greeted her, with the nickname she hated. "You're early."
"What the hell are you doing here, WIlliam?"
"Oh I was just in the neighborhood. I'm supposed to meet my bros Kirsch and Theo in a few, so I thought I'd drop by to see my favorite sister"
Carmilla scoffed and rolled her eyes. "What do you want now?"
"What, can't a guy just visit his sister? Without wanting anything?"
"A guy can, but I know you well enough to know you didn't just miss me." Carmilla replied as she made the way to the fridge and grabbed a beer.
"Well okay, since you're asking... The Zetas are throwing a party tonight, I was wondering if you'd like to come?" Will's tone indicated he knew some convincing would be necessary.
"No."
"Oh, come one kitty, it'll be fun!"
"What makes you think I would want to go to a Zeta party?"
"Because your favorite brother is gonna be there?" Carmilla laughed. "Okay, fine, laugh away, no worries about hurting my feelings or whatever."
"Oh stop it kid, you know you're my favorite brother. I mean, I'm not saying the fact that you're my only brother is a big factor to that fact, but still..."
Will rolled his eyes.
"Okay, I'll take what I can get..." He shrugged. "But seriously, kitty, you haven't gone out in ages, I can see you're not in the best mood... Come with me to the party, we'll have some fun! Or, at least we'll get you drunk, and then you can forget all about whatever it is that put you in a bad mood in the first place."
"William, no offence to you and your bros, but I'm really not in the mood."
"Yeah, well, that's too bad for you. Cause I am not taking no for an answer."
Carmilla sighed.
________________________________________
Bzz bzz
Laura sighed as she pressed pause in the middle of Today 4 U. She picked up her phone to see a message from LaFontaine.
*Hey frosh, what u up to tonight?*
Laura rolled her eyes. She'd met Laf in her first year of college and even now, after she graduated and started working on the local newspaper, LaFontaine still called her frosh.
*Watching Rent on Netflix. Why?*
Laura pressed play again and the answer came just a few minutes after that.
*Change of plans.*
*what?*
*You and I and Perry are going to a party*
*What party?*
Laura didn't even need to wait for the answer to know she didn't want to go.
*The zetas are throwing a party. we r going.*
Zeta party. Laura's interest in going dropped about 750% as soon as she read the words.
*No, thank you.*
*Come on L, it's not like you're doing anything better*
*Actually, Netflix is a much better plan than anything involving Zetas*
*L, as much as I agree with you on that, we have to go. We don't do anything anymore, we need to get out of the house. Please?*
Laura sighs. They’ve got a point. She looks at the TV and now Mimi Marquez is singing that she wants to go Out Tonight.
*Fine. What the hell, why not.*
*That’s the spirit! We’ll drop by your house in an hour, u better b ready*
Laura turns the TV off and goes to change. I better not regret this.
_________________________
"Our minds are battle zones
And we’re all pretty far from winning
This world is not our own
But we’ve clung to every bit of hope since the beginning
And I’m not finished yet
Won’t take me down,
Won’t take me out, oh no
We’re not finished yet
We’ll be the start of the progress they’ve always worried about"
The music was loud, but Carmilla had to give it to the zetas, the band playing there was good. She made a mental note to google them when she got home. Carmilla was sitting on a couch enjoying the music when Will and Kirsch dropped on the couch, one on each side of her, Will handing her a drink.
“Hey kitty, enjoying the party?”
“I like the band.”
“For The Fire? They’re really good, right?” Kirsch was the one who replied. “Addison, the cute lead singer there, is in one of my classes. The other day I was starting to freak out cause the band that was gonna play cancelled on us, when I went to Taco Bell cause hey, a dude’s gotta eat right? Anyway, so Addison was there and she told me she’s in a band and they could play. Pretty cool, yeah?”
“Yeah, the band’s pretty cool.” Will agreed. “But other than the music, are you liking the party? Seen any hot girls you wanna take home yet?”
Carmilla scoffed.
“Hot girls, maybe. Any that I wanna take home? Hardly.”
“Oh come on, kitty. Don’t be such a grumpy cat” Will said, finishing his drink.
“I’m not grumpy, I’m just saying… The girls here aren’t really my type.” She defended herself.
“What, you don’t like any girl here?” Will raised an eyebrow. “What about the cute blondie over there with the ginger squad?”
“Yes, she’s cute, but not really my type William.”
“Fine, whatever. Wanna play some beer pong?”
Carmilla let out a long sigh as she got up from the couch.
“Yeah, sure.”
Will and kirsch got up from the couch right after her, Kirsch running to get to the table like the overly excited puppy he always is. Will was right behind. Carmilla turned around to tell him something along the lines of “hurry up slow poke” when she saw the look on his face. Uh oh. That is not a good look. He looks like he just had an idea. That’s never good news.
“I have an idea.” Will announced just as Carmilla completed her thoughts.
“William, whatever you’re about to say, my answer is no.”
“That’s not fair, you don’t even know what I’m going to say!”
“I know it can’t be good.”
“No, just hear me out, okay?”
“Fine, what do you want?” Carmilla replied, despite everything in her body telling her to not listen to her brother.
“How about we make a bet?”
“A bet?” Carmilla’s brain was now begging her to run, run now.
“Yeah, a bet.” Will replied. “We play one round of beer pong. If I win, you have to say yes to everything for the rest of the night.”
“Why would I ever agree to that?”
“Because you always say no to everything and I want that to change.”
“What do I get when I win?”
“If you win… I guess I can say yes to everything for the rest of the night.”
Carmilla raised an eyebrow… Oh what the hell. It’s not like he’s gonna beat her at beer pong anyway, right?
__________________________________
When Laura agreed to go to a Zeta party, she honestly didn’t think she’d have as much fun as she was having. Sure, a lot of it was due to her finally hanging out with her friends again rather than the actual party. But with Laura working in the newspaper, LaF always in the middle of some weird scientific experiment, Perry working hard in the law firm and Danny always busy with the girls basketball team she was coaching, this was the first chance in a long time they had to catch up and just have fun. Laura hadn’t realized how much she missed just hanging out with her friends.
“So, L, what’s going on in your life?” Laf asked, handing her a red cup with some questionable liquid inside.
“Um… not much.” The blonde girl answered. “I’ve been working on an article for the paper for a while now, about corruption in the Silas board of governors. It’s pretty big, and it’s taking all of my time, and it will hopefully give me a promotion, so there’s that.”
“I knew there was something going on there.” Danny said. “I was a student rep in the board for a while and I always thought there was some weird shit going on.”
“Oh, that’s interesting.” Perry replied, and she genuinely sounded interested. “What’s the story, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry, but if I tell you I’ll have to kill you.” Laura joked. She wasn’t sure Perry got the joke, though. “It should be out sometime in the next week, though, and then you can read all about it.”
“Frosh, as interesting as that sounds” said LaFontaine. “I meant, what’s going on in your life? What have you been up to?”
“Yeah, Laur, any news from your world? Met anyone interesting lately?” Danny asked, curiously. Laura had had a huge crush on Danny on her freshman year, and she was almost certain the tall redheaded liked her back, but it never got anywhere. They were better off as just friends.
“Nope. No one at all. I mean, I’ve been so busy lately with the paper that I don’t even have the time to go out and meet anyone anyway.”
“Well, what about a co-worker? No office romance?” Laf wiggled their eyebrows, as if they knew something the others didn’t.
“No! No office romance. No romance at all.” Laura replied. She was starting to get annoyed. She just wanted to have a night out with her friends, not discuss her love life. Or, you know, lack thereof.
“Well then, that needs to change, doesn’t it?” Danny replied. “And oh look, we’re at a party, a perfect place to meet strangers!”
Laura looked at her friends in exasperation. LaFontaine was nodding like they agreed with Danny. Perry was slowly drinking from her cup, looking uncomfortable with the conversation.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
“Come on L, who knows, the love of your life might be right here!”
You can’t seriously be saying that I’m going to meet the love of my life at a Zeta party?”
“Not with that attitude, you won’t.” Danny replied.
“What about that girl over there?” LaFontaine pointed to a beautiful girl with long black hair that was playing (and from the looks of it, losing) beer pong.
“What about her?”
“She’s hot.”
“Yes, she is. What’s your point?”
“My point is” LaFontaine said, like someone explaining something to a five year-old. “Ask her out.”
“Are you kidding me? No way!”
“Why not?”
“Look at her! She’s way out of my league!”
“What do you mean she’s out of your league?” Danny said. “Look at you, you’re hot! She’s out of your league!”
“Ha-ha. Funny.” Laura said, with no humor.
“It’s true L! I don’t see why you don’t just go talk to her. And, I mean, the worst thing that could happen is she says no, right?”
“
“Which she won’t do.” Danny looked at LaFontaine. “Because, who would say no to you?”
“That’s not even the point. I am not going to ask her out.”
“Why not?” Danny asked.
“Because I don’t wanna talk to her! I wanna catch up with my friends, listen to the music, have a few drinks, then go home, finish watching Rent and sleep. That’s all.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s good and all” LaF replied. “But Laura, you have to do something. You just work and watch Netflix these days, you haven’t dated anyone in forever. You need to have some fun.”
“You know, Laura, as much as I wish this conversation wasn’t happening right now, I kinda do have to agree with LaFontaine here. You have been working so hard lately, it couldn’t hurt to have some fun.”
“Wow, even you, Perr?” Laura looked at Perry, who looked embarrassed to have said anything at all.
“Sorry.” She looked apologetic.
“Now, go talk to that girl.”
“Laf, no.”
“Laura, yes.”
“Are you too chicken to do it?” Danny said, in a mocking tone.
“I’m not, I just don’t wanna do it”
“Aw, scared to be turned down by the hot girl?” Laf joined in on the mocking.
Laura knew what her friends were doing. She knew they were just trying to get her to prove them wrong or whatever. Which was totally not working. Laura wasn’t scared to go talk to the, okay, very attractive, woman. But Laura’s friends wouldn’t get her to go talk to her. No way. Definitely not happening.
__________________________________
“Ok, what the fuck?” said a very angry - and pretty drunk - Carmilla.
Will laughed. Carmilla could not fucking believe it. How the hell had William beat her at beer pong? Not to mention that losing to Will at anything was humiliating enough, but she had lost a bet as well.
“Well, this was fun while it lasted” Carmilla said as soon as the game was over. “ But I’m going home now.”
“Not so fast kitty.” Will called after her. “We had a bet. You lost.”
“Yes, and now I am going home.”
“No, don’t go. Stay a while longer.”
“I don’t think so.”
Will raised an eyebrow. Carmilla knew she would have to stay, and she hated it. Lord knows what her brother would make her do now.
Carmilla gave a long sigh.
“Fine.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear you’ll be staying. I do feel like we’ll have a lot of fun tonight.” Will said with a grin. “Hey, Kirsch and I are little thirsty, why don’t you go get us a drink?”
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?” Carmilla replied with a smile that couldn’t be more sarcastic if she tried.
“Now, kitty, what kind of manners is that? Need I remind you that we had a deal?”
Carmilla flipped him off as she made her way to the table where someone was handing out drinks. As she got there, a small girl with honey blonde hair, who Carmilla recognized as the girl Will pointed out to her earlier on in the night, walked up to her.
“Hey!” The girl sounded nervous. “You uh… want a drink?”
Carmilla looked at the girl. She was maybe a couple of inches smaller than herself, and now that she saw the other girl from closer Carmilla noted that the girl was very pretty. Her soft features suited her very well, and despite looking nervous to be talking to Carmilla, she looked like she was made of actual sunshine.
“Yes.” Carmilla replied simply.
The girl’s expression went from nervous to a mixture of surprised and relieved. She just stared at Carmilla without moving.
“So…” Carmilla prompted.
“Yeah. Right. Drink.” The girl said with a little jump and seemed to get back on track. She handed Carmilla a red cup with something in it. “Here, have this. I’m not sue what’s in it but it’s the least disgusting one I’ve had yet.”
Carmilla took a sip and was pleased to know the girl was right.
“Thanks, Cupcake”
“Oh, I’m Laura.” She introduced herself “Laura Hollis.”
“Carmilla”
“Nice to meet you, Carmilla.”
“Nice to meet you too, cupcake.”
___________________________________
Laura couldn’t believe it. She was actually talking to this girl. And she was actually pretty cool too, Laura soon found out. Carmilla kept calling her “cupcake” and other sugary things, but Laura figured it was probably because the music was loud and Carmilla didn’t understand her name and was embarrassed to ask it again. Yeah, that’s probably it.
“So, what brings you to this party?”
“My brother is a Zeta and very annoying.” Carmilla replied. “He asked me to come and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Oh, yeah, I can understand that. I mean, not the brother part, cause I’m an only child, but the not taking no for an answer, cause my friends really wanted to come to this party and at first I didn’t cause I don’t usually go to these kind of parties, but my friends were very persistent and I ended up deciding to come, obviously, cause I’m here now and-“
“Creampuff, breathe.” Carmilla interrupted.
“Sorry, I was rambling wasn’t I?” Laura sighed. “ I tend to do that when I’m nervous. Not that I’m nervous right now. I mean, I guess I kind of am a little bit cause, you know, I’m talking to you. Not that you are making me nervous, just that I’m usually very awkward and…” Laura paused when she saw Carmilla chuckling. “And I’m doing it again. Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“Right. Sorry about that.”
“Cupcake?”
“Yeah?”
“Stop apologizing.”
________________________________
So this turned out to be not as bad as Carmilla thought it would be. This girl was fun to talk to.
“So what do you do?”
“I’m a reporter at the Daily News.” Laura replied, and she seemed really proud of that. “Investigative journalism”
“That sounds interesting.”
“Yeah, it is. A lot of work, a lot of headaches, but I love it. What about you, what do you do?”
“It’s not as interesting.”
“Oh come on, I bet it is interesting, tell me.”
“I’m a philosophy teacher at a high school.”
“Wow! That’s really cool!” Laura replied enthusiastically, and Carmilla was 80% sure the girl was faking it.
“It’s really not though.”
“You don’t like it?”
“I like the philosophy part.” Carmilla replied. “The whole ‘dealing with teenagers everyday’ part though… Not so much”
Laura laughed at that.
“Yeah, I can imagine why.”
“You think you get a lot of headaches as a reporter? You have no idea what I go through” Carmilla said with a smile.
“Where do you teach?”
“Well, I have to keep some of my secrets. Otherwise I’ll lose my air of mystery, won’t I?”
___________________________
“Tell me!”
“No.”
“Tell me!”
“No”
“Come on, Carm, why won’t you tell me what’s your favorite movie?”
The use of the nickname wasn’t lost on Carmilla, even if the little girl seemed to not have noticed. For some reason, Carmilla didn’t really mind it, though.
“Because you seem so desperate to find out”
“Ugh!” Laura seemed very frustrated. It was kinda cute. “You’re very frustrating, you know.”
“That bunched up little face you make when you’re angry is hilarious, buttercup.”
_____________________________
“Ooh, I love this song!”
“It is a good song…” Carmilla replied. She knew what was coming. And Carmilla didn’t really feel like dancing right now.
“Come dance with me.” Laura said, taking Carmilla’s hand.
Okay, maybe dancing’s not the worst thing in the world.
______________________________
They danced for a while. One song turned to two, that turned to three, that turned to many more. Carmilla was a great dancer, and Laura was just trying to not seem like a human disaster. The song changed into a slow one that Laura didn’t recognize and she was ready to leave the dance floor when Carmilla surprised her by taking her hand and pulling her close. Laura looked at the dar haired girl with a questioning look, and Carmilla just shrugged.
The song was nice and the two girls danced together, Laura very aware of how fast her heart was beating. At first she dismissed it for being tired from dancing, but as the song went on she realized maybe it wasn’t so much about the dancing and more about the girl she was dancing with.
Laura looked up at Carmilla and as the taller girl smiled at her, Laura’s heart skipped a beat or two. The song ended and Laura quickly let go of Carmilla. Who looked at her curiously.
“Everything okay?” Carmilla asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I just um… I’m a bit thirsty.” Laura replied. “Think I’ll go see if I can get some water or something in the kitchen.”
Carmilla nodded, but she still looked like she was trying to figure out what went wrong. Great job, Hollis.
“Wanna come with me?” Laura said, in hopes Carmilla would stop worrying. It seemed to have worked, because the other girl smiled a little as she followed Laura to the kitchen.
They got to the kitchen, and Laura closed the door. A movement she realized a too late may not have been the best one. The girls were now alone in the kitchen, and Carmilla was staring at Laura.
“Think there’s something without any alcohol in here?”
“I doubt it” Carmilla replied, with a little cute laugh. “ There should be some water somewhere around here, though.”
Laura found water and as she turned to look for a glass, Carmilla was standing behind her, a bit too close for Laura to function properly, with a glass in her hand, which she handed to Laura, who was now paralyzed. She couldn’t help but just look at Carmilla, taking her in. Laura looked at the girl standing before her, really looked. From her dark hair, to her beautiful dark eyes, taking a specially long pause to look at her lips.
“See something you like, creampuff?” Carmilla said with a smirk.
And then Laura kissed her. She didn’t think, she just went for it. Carmilla was taken by surprise, but it didn’t take too long for her to kiss Laura back. Laura was the one to pull back.
“Oh god, sorry. I don’t know why I kissed you. I mean, I shouldn’t have done that, I don’t know if you wanted me to kiss you, you probably didn’t and then I just kissed without even thinking about, it’s just that you were standing there and you looked so good and I really wanted to kiss you and-“
Laura was interrupted by Carmilla giving a quick kiss to her lips.
“You really need to learn to stop rambling, cupcake.” And she kissed her again. And again. And again.
Carmilla tasted of cheap beer and vodka. The kiss was deep and passionate, and Laura could only think about why hadn’t she kissed Carmilla sooner. I mean, this was so good, it felt so right.
It was so unlike Laura, to meet people at parties, and make out in the kitchen with a girl she had just met. Oh god, they were in the Zeta’s kitchen. They needed to get out of there.
Someone kicked the kitchen door open. Laura recognized her as Addison, the lead singer in the band that was playing a while ago. The blue haired singer screamed something neither of the girls completely understood and ran away, leaving both Laura and Carmilla completely confused.
“I hate frat parties so much” Carmilla complained.
“Do you uh… wanna get out of here?” She said while Carmilla kissed her neck.
Carmilla smiled at Laura. She didn’t need to remember the bet she lost to know what her answer was going to be.
“Yes.”