Serendepia

Lilith kept her gaze straight ahead as she walked, the rain suddenly stopped and only the cold wind was left hitting her face; as she looked up, she found a sky full of dark clouds that didn’t look like they were going to go away anytime soon, which seemed strange to her.

When she found herself in front of the frat party she had just left, she stopped at the beginning of the path to the front yard of the house and considered for a couple of seconds going back inside to punch Crimson in the face.

She could go in there and do it, she really wanted to, and this time she wouldn’t let Adriel stop her with his strange charm to persuade the others, but Lilith couldn’t blame it on the alcohol because she hadn’t been drinking and being the one to throw the first punch would get her in trouble with Coach Suzanne; besides, if she did, she would end up having another phone conversation with her mother and at that moment that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

Lilith takes one last look at the frat party and continues on her way to her car parked a couple of houses down the road.

Once she was inside the car, sitting in front of the steering wheel, she pulled her phone out of her right jacket pocket and concentrated on checking the notifications on the lock screen.

She had four messages from Beatrice, which coming from her was more than usual; her best friend summarized her responses in her single message for each topic, in several paragraphs if necessary, so receiving more than two was an anomaly, especially if they were sent at different times.

«Are you ok?»

The first message was unnecessary, her best friend knew her better than anyone and she should know that Lilith would never answer directly to a question like that; something that Beatrice seemed to realize after three minutes because that was when she sent the second message.

«Where are you?»

That was a question Lilith could have answered, but she hadn’t felt her phone vibrate in her jacket pocket or checked her notifications in the last few hours.

«Are you coming home tonight?»

«If you were drinking, don’t drive your car back until you sober up»

The third and fourth messages were sent more than two hours apart.

Beatrice knew her well, she knew that Lilith didn’t drink when she was angry because she had had too many experiences with her angry and drunk mother that had taught her that it was better not to mix the tow to avoid making the situation even worse, so the last message had only been a precaution.

Remembering her mother, and the fight they’d had that morning, made Lilith feel anger turn her stomach again, so she took a deep breath to calm herself.

Lilith closed her eyes and leaned her head on the top of the seat, a second later she managed to detect a flash of with light even with her eyelids closed.

She opened her eyes again just at the same time she heard the unmistakable sound of thunder coming from the distance and a couple of seconds later a heavy rain came from outside her car.

“It was peace before the storm” Lilith muttered to herself before reaching into her jacket pockets for her cigarette pack and lighter.

The fingertips of her left hand quickly found the pack, but the fingers of the right hand met the cold plastic of the small pouch Adriel had given her half an hour earlier.

Meeting Adriel at the party was no surprise, he had invited her during one of the classes they shared on Fridays and Lilith hadn’t actually planned to attend until she found herself sitting at the desk in her room trying to read a book for another of her classes, but her brain wasn’t able to register any of the words because she kept repeating everything her mother had said during their fight that morning.

It was a last minute decision that she didn’t bother to analyze in detail before doing it, just like the sex in the bathroom in the middle of the party.

Adriel had a silver tongue, he had a charm that could captivate anyone if he put his mind to it, she had seen him use it on some of her teachers; he had also tried to seduce her on more than one occasion, but Lilith had a rule not to interact that way with her classmate so as not to make things awkward, although she just broke her own rule that night.

The sex with Adriel was decent considering where they did it; Lilith had needed a distraction, he had noticed and had happily volunteered to help her, nothing more.

However, it was nothing extraordinary or memorable either, so when they were interrupted Adriel handed her the small bag of weed saying that if she need to calm her mind the weed would be her real solution.

Lilith had taken the bag without thinking too much about it, she wasn’t sure if that was true, but she didn’t want to argue about it at that moment either; now, on the other hand, she was actually considering following Adriel’s advice.

She looked at the bag between her fingers for a couple more second before returning her hand to the inside of her right jacket pocket to grab her lighter, but found nothing else.

Confused, Lilith plunged her left hand into her other pocket and found only the cigarette pack, so she started to look in every pocket of her clothes, but she had no luck in finding it either.

“You’ve got to be kidding me” Lilith complained to herself.

She had no more electric lighters in the car or at home, the lighter she had just lost was her spare because she had left her favorite lighter next to her cigarette case in the leather jacket she had lent to Camila two nights ago.

That made her remember that the last time she had held her spare lighter was just before Camila found her sitting on the bench while smoking a few minutes ago, so she found it reasonable to have left it forgotten there.

Lilith started the engine of her car and stepped on the accelerator to go back to the bench where she had wet her butt before in search of her lighter.

She stopped in front of the place and got out of the car without caring about the heavy rain that was falling on her, she ran to the bench hoping that the electric lighter had not been ruined by the rain water by that point.

Unfortunately for Lilith, she couldn’t find her lighter anywhere, neither on the bench nor underneath, so she turned around ready to return to her car parked a couple of meters away.

However, she noticed the silhouettes of some people standing in the rain a dew streetlights ahead and stopped to get a better look at them.

There were four male silhouettes and a fifth female one, considerably smaller and thinner than the others; for a second, Lilith could have sworn she recognized the female silhouette as Camila, but it was impossible to be sure of that with the distance that separated them.

Lilith was about to return to her car when she noticed something strange, the female silhouette seemed to want to move away, but the others prevented her, even one of the male silhouette grabbed the girl and started an awkward struggle.

Without hesitating for a single second, and keeping in mind how much the female silhouette resembled Camila, Lilith started running towards them having the feeling of a bad premonition pressing on her chest.

She finally recognized Camila’s face with the help of the little and partial illumination provided by the streetlight near them; the shorter girl seemed to be trying hard not to look scared or vulnerable, but that one of the boys was firmly holding her arm to restrain her didn’t help her to keep up her façade.

The rain helped Lilith to approach without being heard, so it was a surprise for everyone else when she stopped in front of the boy who was holding Camila.

“Let her go” Lilith commanded, grabbing the boy’s forearm very close to the wrist and applying enough force to partially stop the blood circulation.

“Lilith?” Camila called, as confused as she was happy to see her.

“You…” the boy shook off the taller girl’s grip. “You’re the bitch who broke my nose” he said giving her a strong push to push her away.

Lilith took a step back to keep her balance after being pushed, then extender her right arm to place it in front of Camila and finally took a second to look at the boy in front of her.

Yeah, the idiot in front of her was the one Lilith had beaten up outside the bar two nights ago.

“Get out of here before a broken nose is the last of your doctors’ worries” Lilith warned.

“Oh, I won’t be the one visiting a doctor tonight” the boy replied, stepping forward. “You’ll be lucky if you get to see one”

Lilith was not intimidated, she knew perfectly well that she could beat four drunk idiots, but she didn’t want Camila to end up in the middle of everything and maybe she could get hurt.

“Cam, stay behind me and don’t come any closer” Lilith ordered without turning to look at the curly haired girl behind her, though her tone of voice was considerably softer and gentler.

“But…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this”

“Listen to your girlfriend, honey” the boy interrupted, looking behind Lilith. “Or you’ll end up just like her”

That threat ended with the last bit of Lilith’s patience, she didn’t wait a second longer to strike the first blow and start the inevitable fight.

The four boys outnumbered her in numbers and size, but Lilith, unlike them, was completely sober and skilled in more than one martial art; moreover, to those idiots’ misfortune, she also had pent-up anger that she was ready to take out on them.

Unlike the aikido training with Beatrice that they both had from time to time, Lilith didn’t bother to restrain the force of her blows nor did she try not to make any moves that could cause real damage.

The first boy, who had dared to threaten Camila, ended up with a least two broken fingers on his right hand, plus another nosebleed that would remind him for a few more days that his nose was broken.

Lilith dislocated the second boy’s left shoulder; she side-kicked the third one right in his left side, which would surely cause him to have a big, dark bruise in the morning; and the fourth and last boy had to get help from the second and third ones to run away from there because he couldn’t support all his weight on his right knee.

After taking a few seconds to calm down and watch the four boys walk away, and one she was sure they weren’t coming back, Lilith turned around and walked quickly over to Camila to make sure she was okay.

“Cam, are you okay?” Lilith asked, placing both hands on either side of the curly-haired girl’s face. “Did they do something to you?” she gently turned the shorter girl’s face in both directions to try to see better in the darkness with the little light they had around them.

“I’m fine” Camila replied, still looking puzzled. “They didn’t…”

“Hey, take it easy” Lilith interrupted as she heard the curly-haired girl’s voice begin to tremble slightly. “I’m here and I won’t let anything happen to you”

Camila nodded silently and finally allowed herself to feel everything that was overwhelming her at that moment; she hid her face in Lilith’s chest and began to cry.

Lilith wrapped her arms around Camila and squeezed her tightly as she whispered over and over again that everything was okay now and that she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her.

They stayed like that for more than a minute until a flash of lightning lit up the sky again for less than a second.

“Let’s go to my car, I’ll take you to your bedroom” Lilith commented, separating herself a Little from the other girl.

“No” Camila exclaimed, gripping the top of the taller girl’s blouse tightly at her shoulders. “Ava won’t be there and I don’t want to be alone”

“Okay, all right…” Lilith nodded, trying to think quickly of an alternative. “Let’s go to my apartment, you can spend as much time there as you need” she added, earning a surprised expression from the shorter girl. “Are you okay with that?”

“Yes, but you don’t have to”

“But I want to” he reaffirmed without hesitation. “I’ll do anything you want”

“I…”

Lilith took off her jacket with a quick movement and hurried to place it over Camila’s shoulders to at least cover her from the could night breeze that came along with the rain that had already wet them completely.

Camila let Lilith guide her as the taller girl draped an arm over the curly-haired girl’s shoulders and pushed her lightly as they began to walk.

Both remained silent as hey walked forward on the sidewalk and were soaked even more by the rain that seemed far from ending or abating.

Lilith didn’t remember that she had left the keys inside the car, with the engine running and all the doors unlocked, although it was something she was grateful for because it made it easier to help Camila get comfortable in the passenger seat.

After helping the curly-haired girl put on her seatbelt, Lilith circled her car and opened the driver’s door to finally sit down in front of the steering wheel.

The taller girl wan her hand through her wet hair to get rid of the small stray strands clinging to her face and gave one last glance at the curly-haired girl sitting next to her before placing her hands on the steering wheel and starting to drive.

Camila was completely silent as she watched the raindrops slide down the window, her hands clasped together on her lap and her left leg unconsciously moving up and down in a nervous motion.

Lilith placed her right hand on Camila0s left knee to stop her movement, earning an embarrassed look from the shorter girl.

“Everything is fine now” Lilith commented with a small smile on her lips before looking ahead again and concentrating on the road.

Camila was silent for a couple more seconds until she slid one of her hands down her leg and placed it on the brunette’s hand resting on her knee.

“Thanks” whispered the curly-haired girl. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t…”

Lilith gave Camila’s knee a light squeeze to make her stop. “You have nothing to be thankful for” she assured her without hesitation. “And we don’t have to talk about that, we can talk about anything else you want”

Camila slid her thumb cross the knuckles of the taller girl’s hand and finally decided to answer. “Your tattoos”

“What?” Lilith asked, looking away from the road for a second and showing her confused expression.

“Sorry, it was the first thing I thought of, but you don’t have to…”

“No, it’s okay, I don’t mind” Lilith interrupted, giving another quick glace at the girl beside her. “It’s just that I didn’t expect it; I don’t think anyone has ever asked me about my tattoos before”

“Maybe because you always hide them under long sleeves, even when you play volleyball”

A small laugh came from Lilith’s lips. “Yeah, maybe that’s why” she looked at Camila, taking advantage of the fact that she had just stopped at a red light. “So, what do you want to know?”

“They’re not bad, they look good on you, so I don’t understand why you’re hiding them”

“I’m expected to maintain a certain image before the rest of the world” Lilith declared before looking straight ahead again. “My mother would kill me if she ever found out, though she’d take my name out of the family first so as not to disgrace her entire legacy”

“That’s…”

“Something stupid?” Lilith interrupted as she turned the steering wheel to enter the subway parking garage of her building. “I know it sounds stupid”

“Yeah, something like that” Camila admitted with a smile on her lips.

“Mary and Shannon always tell us, they don’t understand how Beatrice and I follow out parents’ rules, but everything is… complicated, especially with Beatrice’s family”

“Ava says Bea always avoids talking about her family”

“Yes, she’s not the biggest fan of her parents…” Lilith answered before parking the car. “I’m even less so” she added as she turned off the engine and then turned to look at the girl next to her. “Come on, you need fry clothes or you’ll get sick.”

Lilith is not the type of person to initiate a conversation both for lack of interest and true lack of social skills, so she hoped that the silence between the two would not be something too awkward for Camila as she guided her to the elevator and subsequently to the door of her apartment.

Luckily, she didn’t need a key to open the door, her fingerprint was enough to give them access, although Beatrice sometimes preferred to place her passcode on the small screen above the lock just to make sure she didn’t forget it.

“Won’t this bother Bea?” Camila asked once she was inside the apartment.

“Of course not” Lilith looked around for any sing of her best friend. “I doubt she even notices we’re here, she doesn’t leave her room at this hour, she studies with music playing or goes to sleep early.

“Yeah, that sounds like Beatrice”

Lilith smiled and made a small signal for the curly-haired girl to follow her down the hallway to her room; she felt Camila’s gaze on her back as she searched her closet for a change of clean, dry clothes for each of them.

“You can change here” Lilith commented, leaving a change of clothes and towel on the bed. “Let me know if you need anything else” she added walking towards the door with a towel and clothes for herself.

“Lilith” Camila called just before the taller girl could close the door, “thank you” she said with a smile as the brunette looked over her shoulder to see her.

“I told you, you don’t have to thank me for anything”

Lilith closed the bedroom door to give the other girl privacy and then walked to the bathroom to change her own wet clothes.

She let about ten minutes pass before she went back to her room, stopped in front of the door, knocked gently with her knuckles and waited for an answer.

“It’s your room, Lilith, you don’t have to knock” said Camila from the other side.

Lilith smiled and opened the door. “I just wanted to make sure you were dressed” she commented before heading back to the closet. “I’ll be on the couch, you can call me if you need anything” she said as she grabbed an old blanket.

“Wait” Camila replied, wrapping her hand around the taller girl’s wrist, “you don’t have to do that”

“It’s okay, the couch is comfortable; besides, I can always break into Beatrice’s room”

“Or you could stay here… with me” Camila commented, avoiding Lilith’s gaze with a Lilith blush on her cheeks. “Your bed is big enough and…” she took a second, closed her eyes and when she opened them again she met directly the brunette’s gaze. “I don’t want to be alone”

No only that last statement had taken Lilith by surprise, but the way Camila was looking at her made something inside her shake and made it impossible for her to refuse anything she asked.

“Yes” she whispered in response, “whatever you want”

Lilith sat on the edge of the bed next to Camila, gave her warm smile and placed her free hand on the curly-haired girl’s hand that still held her other wrist.

Camila smiled back and quickly pulled her into a hug, burying her face between the taller girl’s torso and neck.

Slowly, Lilith wrapped her arms around Camila’s back and at was just then that the shorter girl broke down again, letting out the tears she had been holding back the whole time since they had hugged in the rain.

Lilith placed one of her hands on the back of Camila0’s head, on top of her curly hair, and left her vent.

After a few minutes, and amidst the whispers of her telling her that everything was okay now and that she wouldn’t lay back on the bed with Camila still clinging to her tightly as the sound of raindrops hitting the bedroom window was the only thing that accompanied them.

|||||||||||||||

Camila woke up to the sound of a phone receiving a call, but her body lacked any strength to move and do anything about it; however, Lilith growled less than a centimeter away from her ear and that made a shock of energy run down her spine and ended up spreading a shiver all over her body.

The taller girl must have sensed the little jump Camila gave in her arms because she hugged her tighter, pulling her closer against her chest and preventing her from asking to move away.

The phone kept ringing for three more rings, which made Camila identify it as Lilith’s phone and not hers.

“Maybe you should answer it” commented the curly-haired girl, with a tone of voice that slightly betrayed her nervousness.

“It must not be important” Lilith answered, in a hoarse voice. “Let’s go back to sleep” she said as the room fell completely silent again; however, the phone rang again a few seconds later. “Fuck” the taller girl muttered against Camila’s ear before letting out a small moan and finally pulling away from her.

Camila left the heat rise up her neck to her cheeks as Lilith got out of bed and walked to the source of the sound.

The phone was inside one of the pockets of Lilith’s jacket, which Camila had left on the back of the chair in front of the desk the night before.

The taller girl picked up the phone, looked at the screen with her eyes still half-closed and simply rejected the call before putting the phone on silent.

“Camila could have sworn she saw the word ‘Mother’ as the name of the caller’s contact.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to put it on mute last night” Lilith apologized.

“It’s okay, it’s not your…” Camila was silent as she noticed the amount of sunlight filtering through the dark curtains over the window. “Wait, what time is it?” she questioned as she sat down on the bed.

Lilith raised her hand and unlocked the screen of her phone before answering. “8:45”

“Shit!” exclaimed the curly-haired girl as she jumped out of bed. “My exam is in fifteen minutes” she declared as she began to put on her shoes as fast as she could. “I won’t make it in time, the university is…” she was silent again as she wasn’t sure exactly where she was. “Where in the city are we?” she asked, looking again at the brunette standing next to the desk.

“Relax, you can still make it in time” Lilith commented as she approached the restless curly-haired girl. “I can give you a ride in my car”

“Lilith, you’ve done enough for me” declared Camila as she stood up and faced the taller girl. “I won’t let you…”

“It’s no problem, I insist” Lilith interrupted before walking to her closet and taking a sport sweatshirt from the volleyball team and handing in to Camila. “Here, it must be cold outside after last night’s rain”

Camila accepted the sweatshirt and put it on under brunette’s watchful eye. “What?” she asked as Lilith’s face formed a thoughtful expression.

The taller girl didn’t respond, she simply walked back into the closet and started looking for something on one of the top shelves; and Camila couldn’t help but let her gaze fall on Lilith’s ass as the brunette stood on her tiptoes to manage to reach something on the topmost part.

Camila wanted to smack herself for seeing and thinking about Lilith in an undue way after all the taller girl had done for her in the last few hours.

“Here it is” Lilith commented before turning around and smiling as she placed a black sports cap on Camila’s head. “There”

“A very subtle way of telling me that my hair is a mess” said Camila with a smile as she adjusted the cap to fit better on her head.

“Your words, not mine” Lilith grabbed the cap’s visor and twirled it over the shorter girl’s head, making her hair a bigger mess. “That’s better”

Camila lightly slapped Lilith’s hand that was still on her head and rearranged the cap again amid shared giggles with the other girl.

“You’re not helping”

Camila thanked the brunette with a big smile before grabbing her small purse and following Lilith out of the room.

They left the apartment, rode the elevator down to the subway parking garage and got into Lilith’s car to head to the university.

After telling the taller girl the building where she had to report to take her exam, Camila pulled out her phone and concentrated on checking the notifications she had accumulated.

She had about 100 messages and 35 missed calls, half from Ava and half from JC; her two best friends were complaining about Camila’s habit of having her phone on vibrate, demanding to know where she was and begging for her to answer their calls, although the last few messages said they would call the police if they didn’t contact her by noon.

Camile wrote a quick apology and assured that she was fine, but Ava and JC demanded details after giving her a scolding about how she almost killed them with worry not knowing what had happened to her and not getting any response from them.

“We’re here” Lilith announced as she stopped the car.

Camila looked around in surprise, found the building she was supposed to be in at that moment and turned to look at the brunette sitting in front of the steering wheel. “I’m sorry, Ava and JC thought I was in a tub of ice with one less kidney” she apologized in embarrassment. “I had to explain to them that I was fine”

“It’s okay, I’m not used to talking while driving” the taller girl replied in a nonchalant tone, downplaying the situation.

The memory of Lilith chatting while driving to her apartment the night before came to Camila’s mind, but she decided not to comment on it.

After cursing under her breath as she saw the time on the screen on the dashboard of the car, Camila rushed over to Lilith and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you!” she exclaimed before pulling away and opening the door. “Sorry, I have to go” she said as she got out of the car and practically ran into the building after closing the car door and giving Lilith one last smile through the window.