"Ugh, get a room..." Carmilla snarled at a couple that were busy making out on the second floor landing. The teenagers were blocking the top of the stairs, making it impossible for her to slip past them without comment. It was the end of a very long week, and Carmilla wanted nothing more than to get in to her apartment, close the door behind her, and block out the rest of the world.
"Oh, hey Carmilla!" Her head snapped up as the young man greeted her by name. It was Laura's man-boy. Kirk? Kurt? Something like that. The girl he'd just been kissing though, was most definitely not Laura. The redhead had to be at least six foot tall, and she was nowhere near as friendly and bubbly as Carmilla's neighbour from across the hall
If anything, the redhead looked like she was trying her best not to scowl at Carmilla. "D-Bear, this is Carmilla. She just moved in across the hall from Laura. Carmilla, this is–" The exhausted older girl didn't wait around for the introductions. Ignoring Kirsch's protests, she pushed past him and the girl he'd referred to as 'D-Bear' and carried on her way.
She had no idea what a girl like Laura could possibly see in a lumbering Neanderthal like that. He hadn't even tried to hide the fact that he'd been kissing someone other than his girlfriend. Carmilla let out a frustrated groan as she reached the top of the fourth floor landing. "Jesus, does everyone in this building hang out on the stairs? Is that a thing?"
Despite her irritation at having her path blocked for a second time, Carmilla was much less hostile when it was her cute neighbour who was sitting at the top of the stairs. "You know, I just caught your boyfriend making out with Big Foot on the second floor. You should probably go do something about that."
It was hardly the most diplomatic way to bring it up, but Carmilla figured it was better that Laura knew her boyfriend was messing around right under her nose. "Boyfriend?" Laura looked up from the book that was resting on her lap and gave Carmilla a confused look.
Carmilla let out an exasperate sigh as she leaned against the handrail. "Yeah. Big guy. Looks like a throwback to the stone-age. You rode him out of here the other day. Ringing any bells, Cupcake?"
Laura's lips pursed as she made an, "Oh..." Carmilla half expected the tiny girl to fly down the stairs in a fit of rage, to go confront the big man-child. What she wasn't expecting, however, was for Laura to crack up laughing.
"Did I miss a punchline or something?" Carmilla frowned. Laura was showing no sign of stopping any time soon. It was hardly the normal reaction to finding out you were being cheated on.
"Sorry...Sorry..." Laura eventually apologised, struggling to catch her breath as she wiped away stray tears that had fallen down her cheeks. Even while trying to apologise, the younger girl was still laughing.
"I'm sorry. It's just... Kirsch isn't my boyfriend. I've known him since I was like ten! You probably saw him kissing Danny. They're dating... Sort of." Carmilla felt oddly conflicted by the revelation. On the one hand, she was miffed at being laughed at. On the other, she was pleased to hear Laura wasn't dating Captain Caveman after all.
Deciding not to dwell on her embarrassment, she quickly changed the subject. "What are you doing sitting out here on the stairs anyway?" It was Laura's turn to look a little sheepish.
"I forgot my keys this morning. My Dad's helping out at another building. It's on the other side of the city, so I've got a long wait for him to get back… At least I've got this to keep me busy!" Laura beamed, holding up her history textbook; Carmilla had never seen someone look so excited about assigned reading.
Rolling her eyes, and just knowing she was going to regret what she was about to do, she made a show of shifting her messenger bag on her shoulder as she searched for her keys. "Well you can't sit there all night. You're a fire hazard, Pumpkin. Come on, you can wait in my place."
"Really? Thanks!" Laura's eyes lit up at the offer. She quickly shoved her textbook back in to her own bag and followed after Carmilla.
The inside of her apartment looked much the same as it had when Laura had first been there. Clothes and moving boxes still littered the floor. "Tea?" Carmilla offered, playing the dutiful host as she set her heavy messenger bag down on the kitchen counter. She didn't wait for Laura's answer before she flipped the switch on the kettle.
It was mid-September and the familiar fall chill had already started to settle over the city. Rooming with Perry for so long had gotten Carmilla in the habit of making a pot of tea whenever it was cold out. "Sure. Thanks." Laura seemed unsure of what to do with herself as she stood just inside the door, wringing her hands together. She looked like just another piece of furniture that Carmilla hadn't quite found a place for.
"You can sit down you know." Carmilla pointed out, after glancing over her shoulder and finding her guest still standing. "Is chai tea okay?" Laura nodded back at her, her attention fixed on the books lying on the coffee table. Most of them looked old and weathered, and definitely well read. They were by authors like Kant, Dummett, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
Laura was intimidated just looking at them. "A little light reading?" She teased as Carmilla joined her on the couch.
"I'm a Philosophy major. Third year, that's as light as it gets." Carmilla handed over one of the cups she was holding. Laura didn't have the first clue what chai tea was, but she didn't want to admit that to her neighbour. She had never known tea to smell spicy.
Carmilla didn't miss the way the other girl cautiously raised the cup to her lips. "So, Short-stack, what's your major?" She remembered asking the same question the first time they'd met, but she hadn't gotten an answer.
"Oh, I... I don't have a major. I'm not in college. Yet." Carmilla almost choked on her tea at the revelation.
"Yet? As in, you're what… eighteen?"
"Seventeen. I don't turn eighteen until the spring."
"A spring baby, huh?" Carmilla tried to hide her disbelief as she sipped at her tea. She'd thought Laura was at least a freshman in college. "What are you planning on majoring in then?"
"Journalism, probably... or maybe English Literature. I haven't decided yet." Shrugged Laura. She picked up one of the books from the table and started to flip through it. She couldn't understand a word of it, and not just because the content was too advanced. It was written in German. "Wow, because reading philosophical texts in English is far too easy."
"Nietzsche's work is better read in his mother tongue; besides, I'm fluent in Deutsch… I was actually born in Austria." Carmilla took the book from her and placed it back down on the coffee table. "I also speak French and Latin."
"Wow. Most days I struggle with plain old English." Laura was in awe of the other girl, but Carmilla just shrugged it off.
"What can I say? I'm good with my tongue." She knew she was skating on thin ice, flirting with her seventeen year old neighbour, but Carmilla just couldn't help herself. The searing blush that appeared on Laura's cheeks was too damn cute.
"I'll bet." Said Laura, sheepishly ducking her head to sip at her tea.
An hour passed without any sign of Laura's dad coming back. Having the teenager over had put a kink in her plans for the night, but that wasn't exactly a bad thing. Laura was surprisingly good company. "Hey, have you eaten yet? I was going to order in." Carmilla made a show of stretching out as she reached for her phone.
Laura tried, and failed, to keep herself from staring at Carmilla's exposed midriff as her shirt rode up. "Uh, sure. I could eat..." They ended up ordering from an Italian place a few blocks over. Carmilla apparently ordered their often enough to be familiar with the woman on the other end of the phone. At least, Laura thought they seemed friendly. She couldn't understand a word Carmilla was saying as she spoke in rapid Italian.
Not that it mattered. Carmilla's husky voice sounded gorgeous when she was talking in English. It sounded down right adulterous when she was speaking in another language. She finally ended the conversation with, 'Ciao bella' and hung up.
"That was impressive. Can you order Thai?"
"I could, but you'd have to eat whatever showed up at your own peril." Carmilla answered in her usual teasing tone, making Laura crack up laughing.
The younger girl had a cute kind of laugh. It lit up her whole face, and made little dimples appear on her cheeks. Carmilla quickly looked away, trying not to dwell on just how cute her seventeen year old neighbour actually was. She could practically hear LaFontaine shouting jail bait at her in her head.
Carmilla was actually relieved when Laura's phone went off. It gave her an excuse to get up off the couch and head over to the fridge. She took out a beer for herself, and a soda for Laura. She popped the top off her beer using the side of the counter. The cheap wood split under the impact, leaving a pockmark on the counter top. Carmilla instantly dismissed it in favour of turning her attention back on her house guest.
"That was my Dad." She explained once she'd hung up. "He's back. Um... Is it still okay if I stay for dinner?" The teenager sounded self-conscious as she tucked her hair back behind her ear, like she expected Carmilla to kick her out the first chance she got. She sill couldn't quite believe Carmilla had invited her in in the first place.
"Sure, Cupcake. You can't expect me to eat the mountain of food I just ordered on my own, now can you?" Carmilla flashed her a smirk. Laura was instantly relieved, relaxing back against the couch again. It had been a long time since she'd had any real friends outside of Kirsch and Danny.
Carmilla joined her, tucking her feet underneath her legs as she made herself comfortable. "So, you and that Kirsch guy, you've never...?"
"Never? Oh... Ew! Eww!" Laura twisted her face as she realised what the other girl was asking. "No! Never! Kirsch and I aren't like that… Besides, he's hardly my type."
"So… What is your type then?" Asked Carmilla. She was just trying to make conversation, getting to know her new neighbour, but Laura suddenly looked like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"Actually, my 'type' is the complete opposite of Kirsch..." She admitted with a sheepish smile. Laura was quite comfortable in her own skin – or as comfortable as any seventeen year old girl could be – but she still found it hard to answer questions like the one Carmilla had asked. Laura had come out to exactly four people in the last year; including herself.
"What? Short, intelligent and well dressed?" Carmilla cracked, oblivious to Laura's discomfort.
The teenager still found it hard to approach the subject of her sexuality with people she didn't know very well. Especially when those people were extremely attractive women. Laura had already imagined Carmilla's disgust at her, several times over in her head, by the time she finally answered her question. "Actually, it's more like...female."
"Female?" Carmilla arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at the younger girl, and Laura felt the pit of her stomach dropping. That was it. That was the moment her new neighbour was going to see her as some kind of freak and kick her out. Laura was already rising to her feet when Carmilla let out a howl of laughter. "Wow, Cutie, that's real specific. How do you ever find a date with your standards set so high?" She was teasing Laura again.
Once the shock of Carmilla laughing at her had worn off, Laura realised that. She slowly sat back down on the couch, still looking vaguely wary. Carmilla's amusement gave way to sympathy as she fixed Laura a look that made her heart melt.
"You haven't come out to many people, have you, Cupcake?" The younger girl's unease over Carmilla's probing questions suddenly made a lot more sense to her. After all, Carmilla had been in her position; albeit a long time ago.
"No. Not many." Answered Laura. She was finding it hard to focus since Carmilla had placed a hand on her knee. It was meant to be reassuring but, more than anything, it was just distracting. Laura had expected her new nieghbour to shy away from her, not to move in closer.
"It gets easier." Carmilla spoke with absolute certainty. "People talk about coming out like it's something you do once, but it's not. You do it every time you meet somebody new. Every time you go somewhere new... It sucks, and you shouldn't have to do it; but it does get easier... Trust me."
Laura's heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that she almost missed that part. "You're... I mean, do you...Are you–" She gawked at the other girl, unsure of just how to phrase her question. Thankfully, Carmilla saw fit to put her out of her misery.
"Female is my type too, Cupcake." She said, breaking the rather serious mood that had settled over them. "Though I'm usually a little pickier than just female–"
"Okay, okay! I get it!" Laura laughed, swatting at the other girl with one of the couch cushions to get her to stop mocking her. She was grateful when the intercom went off, announcing the arrival of dinner.
Laura's reprieve was only temporary though. Carmilla went straight back to questioning her as soon as they were sat down with their food. "Are you seeing anybody?" Carmilla justified her interest in her neighbour's love life as mere curiosity.
The warning voice inside of her head - which now sounded a lot like Perry - had grown louder as soon as she'd figured out that Laura was gay; Carmilla, however, was ignoring it in favour of settling her curiosity.
"Not since me and Danny..." Laura started to answer. She abruptly stopped as Carmilla's eyes almost popped out of her head. It was easy to forget that not everyone in the building new about her, Danny and Kirsch; even if sometimes it felt like it.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back up, Sundance. I thought Danny was Kirsch's girlfriend?"
"She is...she was just mine first, that's all." Laura shrugged, like it wasn't that big of a deal that her girlfriend had gone off with her childhood best friend. There was a bitter note to her voice though, which she couldn't quite hide; even if she was trying to force a smile.
"It's a long story... and it's not even that interesting." Laura added when she looked over at the other girl, and found her staring expectantly, waiting for the rest. She made a show of taking a big bite out of a slice of pizza, trying to keep her mouth otherwise occupied.
Carmilla wasn't about to let her off the hook though. "It's still early, Creampuff. I've got bags of time...besides, I'll be the judge of whether it's interesting or not." Laura groaned with her mouthful of food. The last thing she wanted to do was tell her very gorgeous - and very gay - neighbour about her tragic, non-existent love life.
"Fine." She huffed out. "So, Kirsch and Danny have lived in the building since they were kids. Me and my Dad moved in, like, eight years ago? Anyway, we all hung out together here, then we ended up at the same high school. We were the best of friends, like the three musketeers, you know? Then puberty hit, and boy was that a time bomb..."
Carmilla tried not to laugh or smile at the younger girl when she went off on a tangent. She wore a solemn expression, nodding along in agreement when it was called for, but mostly sitting silent as she listened to Laura's tale.
"So I get really worked up about telling Danny I think I might be gay… and sort of in to her. I was a literal mess. I couldn't stop sobbing long enough to get the words out, and then, of course, I started having a panic attack! She had to sit me down with a paper bag for twenty minutes before I could finally tell her why I'd been avoiding her."
"What did she say?" Carmilla was sat curled up on the couch, her feet tucked underneath her and her head resting casually against her palm. Even when she was rambling, Laura lit up when she was speaking. Her hair kept falling in her eyes and the teenager ineffectively swatted it out of the way, or tucked it behind her ear, only to have it fall again. Carmilla was now completely ignoring the warning bells going off inside her head.
"I never got the chance to say anything. I started to, but then she just leaned right over and kissed me!" Laura was smiling, and biting down on her lip at the same time, as she thought back to that kiss.
Carmilla had to physically restrain herself from going in for a kiss of her own. She knew next to nothing about her neighbour, but the younger girl had been playing on Carmilla's mind all week. The sight of her biting at her lip was almost too much.
Her usual strategy for getting over a girl was to get under them, but Carmilla had a feeling that Laura wasn't a one-night stand kind of girl. Not to mention the fact that she lived right across the hall from her. The last thing she needed was to go making a mess in her own backyard; especially with some kid. Carmilla would just have to ignore the itch that was Laura Hollis, and hope it would go away on its own.
Laura was too busy with the next part of her story to notice the inner turmoil going on inside of Carmilla's head. "Her mom walked in on us when we were just about to...you know. I'd told my Dad about me and Danny, because he's really cool like that, but Danny's mom flipped!
She made a total big deal about it and wouldn't let me see Danny for a month! We tried to keep things going, but it just didn't work out. It was like her mom walking in on us made us miss our moment. It never seemed right after that, you know?"
"Moms are bitches." Carmilla sighed without thinking. Her face twisted up as she realised what she'd said. "Shit... Sorry, Cutie. I wasn't thinking–"
"It's okay." Laura reassured her. Despite everything she'd been through, including losing her mother at such an early age, Laura seemed to be able to bounce right back and keep on smiling through it all. Carmilla envied that.
She sipped at her beer, wishing it was something stronger, and asked, "How did Captain Caveman and Big Foot get together then?" Laura gave her a chiding look for the derogative nicknames, though she'd never once rolled her eyes when Carmilla had called her Cupcake, or Cutie, or some other variation of edible goodies.
"I guess they just realised they clicked. After Danny and I broke up, we kind of drifted apart. She spent a lot more time with Kirsch, and not me. I don't really know everything. They kept things pretty quiet when they first started fooling around. I guess they told me when it started getting serious." Laura was still smiling, but it was strained at the edges, and didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Fuck 'em, Creampuff. You can do better than the jolly green giant." Carmilla gave the younger girl a conspiratorial smirk, making Laura laugh.
"Thanks... And thanks for the food, and letting me bug you for the last...four hours." Laura seemed shocked by the time when she checked her watch. "I should probably head home. I've got about twenty minutes before Dad sends out a search party for me."
"No problem, Cutie. It was a pleasure." Carmilla rose from the couch with the slinking grace of an uncurling house cat. She followed Laura to the door, lounging against the frame as she saw her out. "We should do this again. Next time you won't even have to lock yourself out first."
Laura laughed again, a genuine smile returning to her face as she aimed it at her neighbour. "Thanks, Carm. I just might take you up on that. Good night."
"'Night." Carmilla called back, watching as Laura disappeared in to her own apartment.
The door had barely closed behind her before Carmilla was pulling out her cellphone and throwing her head back against the door, letting out a deep, dissatisfied groan. "...Hey. It's me. What are you doing tonight?"