After Perry's entrance the atmosphere in the room has shifted. And it's not only because of the amazing smell that entered the room, when Perry opened the door. They all act like they weren't at each other's throats only moments ago. Carmilla hasn't said a word since, but her brother seems to have oh so suddenly realized that Laura is an actually living, breathing human being sitting in his dining room. And he hasn't stopped talking since that realization hit him.
He apologizes for his former behavior and is eager to engage Laura in conversation. Will seems to have taken Carmilla's word to heart, because he doesn't stop asking questions. Laura feels flattered, but she can't shake the feeling that has gripped her since Carmilla first talked to her. Something has changed, but Laura can't pinpoint what exactly it is.
It's an odd feeling to talk to a stranger without seeing him. She can't really tell when he's joking or when he's being serious. She's not able to spot small things like the wave of his hand or him nodding or shaking his head while talking. She can't to look him in the eye, see him smile or wrinkle his nose. She's never noticed before how important sight was in a conversation.
She isn't used to this. She isn't used to seeing with her ears and hands rather than her eyes. Everything feels different, hell even she feels different. She feels self-conscious – trying very hard to find the right words for the things she tries to say. She often catches herself only nodding in response to Will's question, realizing that he can't see her non verbal responses.
"What do you want to drink, Laura?" Perry is standing next to her. She is touching her shoulder gently.
"Just water, please."
"Alright. Here you go." She shuffles around next to Laura, and then hands her the bottle. It's a bit of a struggle since Laura can't see the bottle and grasps at nothing twice. When she finally has the bottle in her hand, she is uncertain what to do.
"I thought you were going to pour the water for me," she says.
"Nope."
"… but I don't even know where the glass is."
"It's right in front of you." Cautiously Laura lets her hands wander over the table. It's all laid out. The cutlery next to the dishes, a soup plate and a dinner plate. When her fingers finally touch the glass, she nearly knocks it down, but is luckily fast enough to catch it before it topples over.
She isn't sure what to do next. How is she supposed to pour the water into the glass and know when it's full? She opens the bottle and maneuvers it right over the glass she's holding in the other hand. Tentatively she pours the fluid.
"Before you make a mess, cutie..." Laura winces so hard that she is very close to creating the mess Carmilla is trying to warn her about. The other girl doesn't notice her struggle. "You put one finger on the top of the glass, so that you know feel when it's full." Laura stops pouring and turns her head slightly to the right. She feels stupid; if she had thought about it even for one second, she could've figured it out herself. If you can't see, you have to use your other senses. It was just so obvious. Laura puts her finger on the glass, just as Carmilla has told her.
"Way to spoil the fun, hottie!"
"Kirsch, I told you to stop calling my sister a hottie. It's just weird."
"But she's a hottie," the other guy says with utter conviction. Laura gets the feeling that this isn't the first time the guys have this conversation.
"Doesn't mean you have to say it every chance you get."
When she feels the cold water grazing her fingers, she stops pouring and puts the glass down. She wants to put the bottle down next to her, but can't find the cap. She's sure she has put it down somewhere in front of her… With only one hand, the other one still holding the bottle she searches for the cap. It takes her some time since she's trying not to knock anything down, but finally she finds it.
She sighs a breath of relief and puts the bottle down next to her chair.
"Well done, buttercup."
"Why do you keep on calling me that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Laura can almost hear the smile in the other girl's voice. Of course Carmilla knows exactly what she is talking about; the innocent act hasn't fooled Laura for a second.
"Sweetheart, cupcake, buttercup", she lists, "my name's Laura."
"I know, sweetie. Don't tell me you don't like the names, Laura," she punctuates her name.
"I…" Laura thinks about the tingly feeling she gets, when Carmilla calls her any one of those names. "I don't."
"But I do. I like them, cupcake."
"You're infuriating, you know that?"
"I know."
Perry starts moving around again. The smell that has been lingering in the room since she entered only intensifies. It's so good. She tries to remember the last time her own flat was filled with the delicious smell of home cooked food. Well, apart from warm up pizza or instant noodles. She didn't cook and neither did her roommate.
Being a full time student and trying to be good at it, she didn't have time for anything besides studying. And she had never been good at cooking. It shouldn't be so hard to follow a recipe, but somehow she still managed to fuck up most of the time. So it was take away food or eating at the canteen whenever she was hungry. The last time she ate a home cooked meal was probably when she visited her dad and - since he only knew two recipes - she was sure it was either broccoli casserole or spaghetti Bolognese.
"Everything's ready," Perry proclaims.
"You're not going to tell us what it is?"
"Nope, there are two bowls in middle of the table. The rest is up to you. Who wants to start?" She pauses for a second, but nobody answers. "How about you, Laura?"
"Me?"
"You have never done this before, so…" Perry moves around the table, her voice also drawing closer to where Laura sits. "Give me your hand." She is standing next to Laura, her voice just behind her. Laura stretches out her hand in the direction she presumes Perry to be. Perry hands her something.
It's long and round, like a twig or rod. but the texture is smooth. It must be some kind of kitchen utensil. Her fingers keep on exploring whatever it is she's holding.
It's a ladle.
"So, soup?"
"One hundred points to Gryffindor," a girl says.
"You knew?" Laura asks.
"Of course. Perry's a good cook, but she's not very creative."
"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that. Otherwise I'd have to find a new best friend." Perry is still standing behind her teasing the other girl.
"Oh shut up, Perry."
Laura is still frozen in place her knuckles probably turning white from her tight grip around the huge spoon. She can feel her blood circulating through her hand.
"I don't know guys; I'm only going to make a mess…"
"You got this, Laura," Perry says. If she is trying to make Laura feel better, she fails. Slowly Laura gets up, leaning over the table. She prays that she isn't going to knock anything over while she tries to find the bowl in the middle of the table.
"I'm starving over here," Carmilla says. "Just let me do it, buttercup, or we'll be stuck her until sunrise."
"Ok." Carmilla must think she was an incompetent fool, not being able to do anything on her own. Not able to pour herself a glass of water or to put soup on her plate. But at the same time she's thankful for Carmilla's intervention and she can't help the thought that maybe… maybe the mysterious girl next to her offered her help not only because she is hungry, but because she knows how queasy Laura feels trying to locate the bowl of soup on the table.
She sits back down, her fingers still tightly clasping the ladle.
"So… you want me use my hands to ladle the soup onto my plate?"
"Oh… no, of course not, sorry!" Laura turns to her quickly, holding out the ladle towards Carmilla. "Here you go."
"No need to stab me, cupcake." She feels a soft pull when Carmilla's finger grasp the scoop, Laura quickly lets go of the ladle. Laura wants to bury her face in her hands. She is such a klutz.
"Sorry," she mumbles.
Carmilla says nothing. Laura hears her moving around next to her. It doesn't take Carmilla long to find the bowl of soup. But then again, this was here home and she had done this before.
"Give me your plate, Laura."
"Umm, yeah sure." Laura is eager to oblige, finding the soup plate fast and holding it out to her right. When Carmilla takes the plate, their fingers touch for a second. Quickly Laura lets go. Moments later Carmilla is handing her the full plate, warning her to hold it steady and not soak herself in the hot soup.
Laura puts the plate down in front of her. When everybody has their food in front of them, Laura takes her spoon into her hand. She starts eating slowly. Leaning forward, so her head is over her soup plate she eats slowly, trying not to spill too much. Her long hair is always on the brink of falling over her shoulders and into the soup. She should've brought a hair tie.
"So Laura," one of the guys starts. He has a soothing voice. "I think you are in one of my Literature classes, the one about the Beobab guy…"
"Beowulf," Carmilla corrects him immediately. Laura tries very hard to keep from laughing.
"Yeah whatever. You're the little nerd hottie that always corrects me about Old English. I still don't understand why we have to learn it since nobody speaks like that anymore."
"That does sound like something I would do. And it's so interesting to find out about the roots of English and how it developed. Languages are so interesting; the way they are not as stable as you might think, but fluid and changing, merging with other languages or dialects, forming something complete new."
He laughs. "No doubt, you're definitely the lingo nerd hottie from class."
Laura tries to recall the class. She tries to remember the guy, but she has so many classes this year that she always mixes them up in her mind. She remembers this one guy that had also called her a hottie in front of the whole class and that kept talking about how hot Angelina Jolie was in the movie about Beowulf. He was unbelievably tall, with short dark hair and was always either wearing his letterman jacket or a tank top that showed off his muscles. She knew he was part of some kind of fraternity, because he kept on talking about his bros.
But that can't be him. His voice sounds nothing like the jock that annoyed the hell out of her in their Lit class. He rather sounds like somebody a jock like that would pick on.
"I'm Kirsch by the way," the guy says. She heard the name mentioned before, but wasn't able to match it to one of the voices. She would have never thought it would be so hard to tell the different voices apart.
"Shit, we really are a bunch of idiots. We didn't even introduce ourselves." It's a female voice she hasn't heard before. When Laura entered the room before, Perry introduced her to the group and they echoed their "hellos", but otherwise didn't introduce themselves.
"Hey Laura, I'm LaFontaine, but just call me LaF; everybody does," a girl starts, "I'm a biology major and if you ever need a free blood test just call me up. I'm all about the science."
"Umm, thank you."
"I'm J.P. Don't ask what it's short for, I'm protecting that information with my life. I already have my degree in Biochemistry and am currently working on a project about the differen…"
"Nobody cares," a girl interrupts him. Laura doesn't think she's heard her speak before. "Never admit you're interested in what he says, because he won't stop talking. Good thing you are dating them now, J.P. You finally found somebody who's not as stupid as me to..."
"We're not dating," both LaF and J.P. say at the same time.
"Yeah right… I don't care. Hi Laura," her voice changes abruptly, it's suddenly soft as velvet; so different from when she was talking to the guy. "I'm Natalie. Danny was my roommate when I first started university. She's really amazing, so I'm so happy you guys hit it off."
"Nice to meet you." Laura feels a pang of guilt. Natalie is right of course, Danny is amazing. And before this evening she wanted nothing more than for them to get over the whole awkward we-are-friends-but-we-could-be-more period and jump right into being-able-to-kiss-her-whenever-she-wants period. But now… something had changed. She catches herself feeling glad that Danny isn't here tonight. She turns slightly to her right. Even though she isn't able to see or hear the girl next to her, she is still painfully aware of her presence.
"Theo," another guy starts, but is interrupted by Carmilla.
"You honestly expect her to remember not only your names, but be able to match it to your voice, you buffoons? And you're supposed to be smart." She laughs crudely. "You're worse than a bunch of first-graders playing stupid icebreaker games."
A small discussion starts that ends quickly when Perry calls a stop to their banter.
"How about we postpone the introductions until dinner is over. Yes? Yes? Alright, because I spent hours in the kitchen preparing the food and it's getting cold while you moan around."