Serendepia

Lilith entered the building Mary had indicated in her last text message and immediately felt like an outsider entering unknown territory; not only because of the nerdy appearance some of them had, but also because she didn’t know what most of technological objects she saw on the desks were or what they were for.

The place was large and crowded with students, Shannon was nowhere in sight and Lilith was about to grab her phone to ask her friend to meet her outside as soon as possible, but she recognized a newly familiar face partially hidden behind a computer monitor.

Curiosity led Lilith to walk until she was a couple of steps away from the girl and could see clearly what she was doing.

Camila was seated, her back leaned against the back of the chair with a slightly hunched posture towards the front, she was wearing glasses a metal frame that almost completely hid the lines of small wrinkles between her eyebrows due to her frown due to her state of concentration and in her hand, close to her face, she was holding a…

“Is that a rubber ducky?” Lilith questioned, looking at the small plastic object in confusion; besides letting the thought that the other girl looked cute pass her by before interrupting her.

Camila’s gaze strayed form the computer monitor and a huge smile appeared on her face as soon as she recognized who had spoked to her. “Lilith!” she greeted with genuine enthusiasm before processing the question she had asked and looking at the toy in her hand. “Oh, yes, sometimes it helps me with my homework” she said, earning an even more confused look from the girl in front of her. “What are you doing her? I’ve never see you in this place before” she added to continue the conversation.

“It’s the first time I’m here” Lilith clarified, taking another quick glance around. “Mary sent me to find her girlfriend”

“Admitting we’re friends won’t kill you” Shannon commented, taking both girls by surprise as she seemed to be behind Lilith. “Hey, Cam, you coming too?”

“I don’t know what they will do, but I have to finish this part of my project or I will really be in trouble” Camila replied.

“We’ll go to celebrate the other day’s victory, come with us, it will be fun; Mary has already convinced Ava and both of them will drag Beatrice there if necessary” Shannon could anticipate the refusal by the expression on the girl’s face, so she interrupted her with another attempt of persuasion. “Tomorrow I can help you with your project… or maybe the day after tomorrow, depends on my hangover”

Camila seemed to find that offer very tempting, her thoughtful expression returned. “I don’t know, I didn’t come dressed to go to a bar”

“Nonsense, you look beautiful, don’t you, Lilith?”

Lilith didn’t expect to join the conversation, especially not with a question like that, so she took a couple of seconds to react to the surprise. “You look good” she managed to answer, glancing briefly at Camila before feeling her cheeks heat up a little.

“You see?” Shannon insisted. “She’s always brutally honest, so you can take her word for it”

The ringing sound coming from Lilith’s jacket caught the attention of the three girls and made the brunette take her phone out her pocket. “A car will pick us up in two minutes” she announced after reading the notification on her screen.

“Camila…”

The girl with glasses gave in when she saw the puppy dog face her friend used against her as last resort. “Well, I guess someone needs to keep Ava from getting into a fight, again”

“That’s the attitude!” Shannon exclaimed victoriously. “Let’s put your stuff in a locker an get out of here”

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Going to a bar was not in Camila’s plans for what she would be doing that day, checking her phone as she left building accompanied by Shannon and Lilith, she noticed that Ava had texted her several times to meet her at a bar about ten minutes earlier, but she had been too focused on coding her project to notice the vibration of her phone on her desk.

A car pulled up next to the curb a few feet away and she dismissed the idea of responding to her best friend, after all she was already on her way.

Lilith’s gesture of walking past her, placing one of her hands perfunctorily on her arm and leaning forward to open the car door caused a small glitch in Camila’s brain.

Shannon got into the car as she continued to talk about something Camila stopped paying attention to when she looked at Lilith to thank her with a smile that she was sure made her nervousness more noticeable; to her surprise, Lilith’s lips formed a smaller, but sincere smile that conveyed more confidence.

The trip to the bar was a silent one for Lilith, who spent the while time just looking out the window, but Shannon was asking Camila question about her project and started to give ideas to solve the little problems she had and even made some suggestions on how to improve it.

Once they arrived at their destination and got out of the car, they walked to the entrance of the bar and Lilith opened the door for them again, something Shannon again downplayed, as if it wasn’t something out of the ordinary; this surprised Camila because, from what Ava had told her, kindness was not something characteristic of Lilith.

The bar was at half capacity and with the last of the sunlight quickly ending outside, it was clear that it would not continue like this for long and that it would soon be difficult to walk inside the place.

Ava was the first to see them and called out to them by raising one of her hands, she was standing by the bar accompanied by Beatrice and Mary.

“Are you having a drink with alcohol in it?” Lilith questioned in surprise when she saw the drink Beatrice was holding in her hand.

“We shouldn’t underestimate what Ava can convince her to do” Mary mentioned. “She barely put up a fight”

“I can’t believe she never had alcohol” said Ava, sounding really indignant.

“I’ve had wine” Beatrice argued.

Camila accepted the drink her best friend offered her as the conversation continued.

“It doesn’t count” Lilith pointed out. “We’ve had wine together at our parent’s events and you barely touch it”

Camila felt some of her dink enter her lungs when she turned her attention back to Lilith just in time to see her finish removing her black leather jacket, revealing her bare arms full of tattoos.

“Too much for you?” Ava questioned with a smile as she saw her best friend turn red as she looked like she was about to cough up one of her lungs.

“No, of course not” replied Camila hastily. “Wait, what do you mean?”

“The dink, is it too strong to begin with?” Ava clarified with a confused expression. “What did you think I was talking about?”

“Oh…”

“Lilith” called Beatrice with a clear tone of retaliation when she saw how her friend received the bottle with which the bartender had just filled six shots on the bar.

“You already agreed to drink with us tonight, so we’ll do it for real” declared Lilith with a smile.

“Amen, sister” Mary replied before taking one of the shots.

“Come on, Bea, it’ll be fun” Ava supported.

Camila smiled at how quickly Beatrice reconsidered her position at her best friend’s request, after that it only took Shannon to promise that she would stay sober enough to keep the others from making bad decisions.

They sat down at one of the tables in the place and Camila could confirm that Lilith was not a talkative person, just a Ava had told her, although she did intervene in the conversation to tease Mary, Shannon and, to a lesser extent, Beatrice; she even found it a quite amusing to tease Ava.

The pretzels on the table were finished at some point in Mary’s amusing anecdote she had been telling for the last five minutes, Ava had practically thrown herself on the table as soon as she saw her best friend was about to take the last one.

Camila was about to claim that last pretzel as hers when she noticed a third had sliding across the table to grab the small basket, she paused to took and realized it was Lilith.

Before Camila could think of what to do or say as she met Lilith’s gaze upon her; the brunette took one more shot and finally stood up with the small basket still in her hand to walk way from the table without saying a word.

Perhaps Camila could have blamed the alcohol for the way her attention had drifted and ended up looking at Lilith’s neck for a couple of seconds as she tilted her head back to drink that last shot before leaving on her way to the bar, but when she looked directly at Lilith’s ass for more than a couple of seconds as she walked away she couldn’t blame it on a sudden alcohol-influenced impulse to self-justify her actions.

The sensation of someone else’s gaze on her made Camila turn her attention away from Lilith ready before she disappeared behind a group of people walking towards the dance floor.

Camila could stand being caught by Ava, she knew it would bring ger a lot of teasing, but she counted on her best friend’s discretions, after all it had already taken JC a long time to tell him suspicions to his ex; however, who had actually caught her looking in a not at all innocent, let alone platonic, way at Lilith was Beatrice.

The half smile that Camila received from Beatrice was enough to make the heat rise up her neck and stagnate mainly in her cheeks and ears; she was sure that if the lighting in the bar was better everyone around her would have noticed the change in color of her face to a deep red.

Before Camila could decipher whether Beatrice’s smile was a good or bad sign, Mary interrupter her own story.

“And we started the betting” Mary exclaimed, looking toward the bar. “A week of doing your laundry in favor of the boy” she added, looking at her girlfriend.

“I don’t understand” declared Ava with a confused expression on her face.

“Mary and Shannon gamble every time someone approaches Lilith with clear flirtatious intentions” explained Beatrice.

“She usually dumps us for some stranger when we go out for a drink” Shannon mentioned, “so we at least try to have a little fun with that”

“Looks like fun to me” Ave replied before looking at the boy standing next to Lilith and analyzing him a bit. “He’s cute, I think he has a chance”

Camila could have sworn she saw a small expression of disgust on Beatrice’s face as she heard Ava’s opinion of the boy flirting with her friend.

“It takes more than being pleasing to the eye to get Lilith’s attention” Beatrice opined.

“Pleasing of the eye?” repeated Mary with a smile.

“Are you seventy years old now?” asked Ava in the same mocking tone.

“Bea is right, Lilith doesn’t seem very interested” interjected Shannon.

“Do you think she need helps to get him off her back?

“Don’t worry, Lilith has no problem with telling anyone to fuck off” commented Mary, “especially if she’s been drinking”

“Language” Beatrice complained, even though she had started slurring her words several minutes ago.

“I just earned a week of not doing my laundry” Shannon announced with a big smile looking at her girlfriend.

Camila looked over to the bar and saw Lilith leaving behind the boy who had been talking to her as she walked back to the table holding a basket of more pretzels.

Before Shannon finished celebrating her victory, Ava recognized the song just started and almost spit her drink on the table in excitement.

“Come on, Cam, it’s our song” Ava declared before grabbing Camila’s arm and pulling her up from her seat. “You’re coming too, Bea” she said before repeating the process with the girl sitting to her left.

“Wait, I don’t dance” Beatrice admitted a little embarrassed.

“Better yet, Cam and I will teach you”

Camila didn’t have time to support her best friend’s idea as she was dragged along with Beatrice to the dance floor.

Beatrice looked a little scared, but a relieved expression appeared on her face as soon as she realized that Lilith was a couple of meters away from them.

“Come with me” Beatrice asked as she clung to her friend’s arm.

Lilith shoved the basket of pretzels at the first person nearby and let herself be dragged by Beatrice even though she had no idea what was going on; she even looked ready to punch someone if necessary.

Camila smiled at the way Lilith tried to resist once she realized that the emergency was to go to the dance floor; however, it was too late, Mary and Shannon caught up with them and each held one of her friend’s arms to prevent her from escaping.

Ava wasn’t the best dancer, but she could teach Beatrice some good moves, especially if neither of them were completely sober.

Beatrice’s hair ended up completely loose somewhere between the songs she had danced to with Ava and Camila, but the latter decided to move away a bit when she noticed how the other two girls were dancing close together in laughter, she didn’t want to ruin the little moment.

Camila looked for Mary and Shannon in the crowd and joined them, she silently signaled them to look at Ava and Beatrice, who were still looking at each other like two idiots in love.

Mary grabbed her phone as fast as she could she started snapping pictures with a big evil grin on her face; on the other hand, Shannon looked confused as she looked around.

“Wait, Lilith wasn’t with you guys?” Shannon questioned, not looking worried, though a bit puzzled.

“I thought she was with you”

Camila was sure Shannon had cursed loudly, something she had never seen her do before, though her tone was loud enough to be heard above the music in the bar.

Shannon walked over to Beatrice, slipped a hand over her shoulder and began to slowly push her back to the table they had been occupying earlier while saying something close to her ear so she could hear her clearly.

“Lilith is fine” Beatrice assured her, she seemed to have passed the point of getting rid of her hangover in the morning. “She must be having coition with someone”

Camila smiled at the way Beatrice had referred to sex, even in a state of inebriation she couldn’t hide, even if she wanted to, she was still using old-fashioned terminology for her age.

“Yeah, the guy at the bar didn’t looked like a serial killer” Ava opined, following Beatrice.

“Usually serial killers don’t look like a serial killer” Mary pointed out.

“Her jacket is still here” commented Shannon once they were back at the table.

“Lilith has no problem leaving us here unannounced, but she would never leave her jacket with her cigarettes; that means she’s still at the bar”

“I doubt she’s want to leave with us if she’s with someone, but I’ll still go get her”

“Are we leaving now?” Beatrice questioned, making what appeared to be a little pout. “Why?”

“Because you’re light on alcohol and you’re one more drink away from smashing your pretty face into the ground”

“That’s not true”

“Shannon’s right, Bea, you need some rest, we can come back another day” Ava said before looking at her best friend. “Could you walk me to the bathrooms? Someone spilled their drink on my arm and now it’s sticky”

“Of course, let’s go” Camila agreed.

Ava led the way through the crowd of people inside the bar and guided Camila to the bathroom door, both entering just in time to see the door to one of the cubicles open.

Lilith’s figure stepped out from behind the door, arranging her tank top over her waist and looked up to see who had entered.

“Hey, Lilith” Ava greeted, ignoring the other girl’s confused expression. “Shannon’s looking for you, she said Bea has had enough to drink for the day”

“So your name is Lilith huh?”

Camila was startled by the unexpected voiced of a fourth woman in the bathroom, though it was more unexpected to see a second figure emerge from the same cubicle Lilith had emerged from seconds before.

“Zori?”

“Ava! Cam!” the blonde greeted before returning her attention back to Lilith. “Wait, none of the girls she mentioned is your girlfriend, right? Because this would get really awkward”

“No, they’re just my friends” Lilith clarified quickly.

“Great” Zori answered with a smile before looking at the brunette’s lips.

Ava faked a small fit to get the blonde’s attention and point out in a very unsubtle way that half the buttons on her blouse were still undone.

Lilith gave a quick glance at Zori’s half-dressed torso before looking away, turning away and approaching the sink to wash her hands.

“I think I’d better go help Shannon and Mary with Beatrice” Lilith commented as she turned off the water faucet and shook out her hands to remove the excess.

“Wait” Zori said, interrupting Lilith’s attempt to flee by grabbing her forearm to stop her had old her close, “you have some of my lipstick on her…” the blonde brought her thumb to her own mouth to lick it a bit before rubbing it to the edge of the cornet of the brunette’s lips to clean up what she had done. “There”

“Thanks” Lilith murmured with a slight blush tingeing her cheeks.

“Anytime” Zori replied with a flirtatious smile accompanied by a quick wink.

Lilith slowly and gently pulled away from the blind’s touch, turned toward the door and gave Ava and Camila an awkward smile before walking to her side and exiting the bathroom.

The three remaining girls were silent for a couple of seconds, until Ava took two steps forward and extended her hand towards Zori, who high-five her enthusiastically.

“I can assure you she wasn’t this shy two minutes ago” Zori commented with the same victorious smile on her face.

“You can tell” Ava teased, pointing to the lower part of the blonde’s face.

Zori looks to the side to see her reflection in the mirror. “Shit!” she exclaims as she approaches the sink. “Why didn’t you tell me my makeup was a mess?”

“You were too busy flirting, half naked, with Lilith”

“That was hot, but this is not” Zori pointed out, emphasizing the current state of her makeup.

Camila didn’t quite agree with that last statement of the blond, she was objectively attractive, even at that moment with that disheveled look she had an undeniable sexy touch.

So it made sense, two attractive people had a good chance of ending up together inside the cubicle of one of the bathrooms of a bar, doing whatever it was they wanted to do; perhaps what surprised Camila was to have found two people she knew in such a situation, expecting it and didn’t even know that one of them also liked girls.

“Right, Cam?”

Av’s voice calling out to her was enough to bring Camila out of her train of thought about Lilith and Zori, though she had no idea what her best friend was asking her about since she had missed the entire conversation.

“What?”

“Everything okay?” questioned the blonde girl with a tone of genuine concern. “You’re not usually this quiet”

“Oh, yeah, everything’s fine” Camila assured, even taking a more upright posture to detonate more confidence. “Just a little dizzy from the drinks”

“Okay, let’s find the other and go to sleep” said Ava, finishing drying her arm with some paper. “I don’t want to carry you to bed”

“I bet you’d carry Beatrice to her bed”

Camila smiled and high-fived Zori as she got her best friend to blush intensely at the comment.

Ava grabbed Camila’s arm and dragged her out of the bathroom, but not before saying bye to Zori and making her promise to be careful for the rest of the night.

“We’ve ordered a car to take Bea and Lilith to their apartment” Mary announced as soon as she saw the pair rejoin the group. “We’ll escort them outside to wait, are you coming?”

“Of course”

“Besides, they might need a little help with Bea” Ava pointed out as she watched Beatrice drape one of her arms over Lilith’s shoulders and put most of her weight on her to keep her upright.

Shannon picked up Beatrice’s sweater and Lilith’s jacket that were on the back of one of the chairs.

Camila smiled as Beatrice’s face lit up when Ava reached over to help her keep her balance, Lilith took advantage of the slight weight loss to snatch her jacket from Shannon and retrieve her belongings.

Mary held the door so they could all exit the bar, the cold night breeze hit them instantly and sent a shiver through Camila’s body, making her shiver for an instant before hugged herself to maintain her own body heat.

“Two minutes” Shannon announced, looking at the phone in her hand.

“Hey, Cam, can you take my phone ad order a car for us too?” asked Ava.

Camila nodded, walked over to her best friend and took the smart device from her back jeans pocket; she was about to unlock the phone screen when she was interrupted by Lilith’s hand holding her own jacket.

“Take it” Lilith ordered gently. “It will cover you from the cold”

“What?” Camila asked confused. “I can’t, what will happen to you?”

“I’ll be fine” the brunette assured, keeping her arm outstretched. “Besides, Beatrice is likely to throw up on me and I’d rather keep my jacket safe”

Camila knew from the look on Lilith’s face that she wasn’t going to give up and take no for an answer, so she reached out and took the jacket. “Thanks” she said with a nervous little smile.

Mary leaned closer to Shannon whispering something only she could hear, which earned her a chuckle and slight poke in her rib.

“That doesn’t give you permission to throw up on me” Lilith added, looking at Beatrice seriously. “If you do, I’m going to kick your hungover ass in an aikido session first thing in the morning”

Beatrice seemed genuinely offended by her friend’s threat, but she didn’t have time to respond to it before the bar door opened again and a group of at least eight loud, and very drunk, college boys exited the bar.

Camila put on Lilith’s jacket and continued with her task of calling for a car to take her and Ava back to their room on campus.

“Excuse me, ladies” interrupted one of the guys who was pushed and prodded by the other to come over and talk to them. “My friends and I will continue the party in one of our apartments and we wanted to invite you to join us for some fun”

The boy slurred his words as she spoke and even swayed slightly from side to side even though he was just standing without walking.

“No, we’re fine here” Mary replied with a forced smile. “We’ll pass this time”

“Oh, come on, don’t be a spoilsport. I promise you’ll enjoy it”

“She said no, you idiot” said Lilith without even looking at the boy. “Accept it and get the hell out of here”

“Wow, easy, darling…”

“Someone should be calling an ambulance” Mary muttered with a small smile on her lips.

“My friends and I just want to have good night with some nice girls like you” added the boy, genuinely convinced that he would chance their minds with his words. “Don’t tell me you’re all lesbians”

The dismissive tone of the boy’s words made Camila know right away that things were not going to end well; she didn’t listen to the boy’s next words for two main reason: the first was that she didn’t care what an idiot like him said and the second, and more important, was that she was quick to grab Ava’s arms so she wouldn’t go start a fight.

In the end, it wasn’t Ava she was supposed to take care of because just two seconds after grabbing her best friend’s arm, Lilith’s fist smashed into the boy’s face, probably because she had said something offensive.

“What the ell is wrong with you?!” exclaimed the boy from the ground, bringing both hands to his nose trying to stop the bleeding. “Fucking bitch”

The rest of the group of boys quickly approached their injured friend and pulled him to his feet.

“Get out of here before someone else gets hurt”

“You’re going to pay for that…”

Mary stood next to Lilith as soon as the boy with a face full of blood approached her with a threatening posture.

“I wouldn’t do that” Mary commented, ready to get into any fight for her friend.

Lilith didn’t seem to mind the threats the boys were saying as they walked off in the opposite direction, she let Mary keep an eye on them as they retreated while she approached Beatrice,

“Are you all right?” Lilith questioned with concern, placing her hand on her friend’s shoulder in a gesture of support.

“Yes, I’m fine” Beatrice replied, looking even worse than before. “I just want to go home” at first, as she left the bar, she looked like she might vomit, but now she looked like she might faint at any moment.

Just at that very moment, a car pulled up in front of them and waited patiently for one of them to approach.

“Okay, let’s get out of here”

Beatrice walked away from Ava without giving her one last look and leaned on Lilith to help her into the car that was waiting for them.

Shannon shouted Lilith’s name and when she turned to look at her, she tossed Beatrice’s phone to her.

Lilith smiled as she caught the phone and made a slight gesture of farewell before climbing into the back seat of the cart next to Beatrice.

“Is Bea all right?” Ava asked, looking as puzzled as she was worried.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine” said Mary, patting Ava’s shoulder lightly as they watched the car drive away. “Don’t worry, you’ll just have to give her a little time.

Camila didn’t understand what Mary was referring to and judging by the expression on Ava’s face, she wasn’t the only one with doubts.