Serendepia

Camila managed to rescue Beatrice’s essay and send it to her even before the British girl had finished her volleyball practice the day before; however, getting the laptop up and running again as if nothing had happened proved to be an impossible task, so she spent much of the night retrieving the files from her friend’s laptop and saving each of them on a USB stick so she could give it to her later. 

She texted her the next day’s trade to arrange a place to meet Beatrice so she could give her the flash drive and laptop, even though the latter was not working. 

Ava insisted on accompanying her best friend as soon as she found out that Camila would be picking Beatrice up after her volleyball practice that day, which led her to change her clothes at least four times because she wasn’t sure if her style was hot enough. 

Luckily the curly-haired girl knew her best friend well and told her that they would be picking up Beatrice half an hour before the actual time she had agreed to meet the British girl, so despite Ava’s delay, they were actually going to be right on time. 

It was hard for Ava to concentrate on anything other than seeing Beatrice, she hadn’t seen her all day and it was too much for her; so much was her concentration on the British girl that she hadn’t even noticed the extra travel bag Camila was carrying in addition to the bag with the laptop. 

After spending much of the previous day, and also part of the night, thinking about Lilith half-naked made her remember that she had not returned her belongings to the brunette, the jacket she had lent her outside the bar and the change of clothes when she stayed over at her apartment; so Camila had made sure to wash and dry the clothes earlier that evening so she could return them. 

She was not able to follow her best friend’s conversation, usually Ava went from one topic of conversation to another very easily, it was only enough that both topics were slightly related and that was enough to move from one to the other and completely forget what she wanted to say at the beginning. 

Although it wasn’t Ava’s fault, most of the time Camila had no problem following the threads of conversation, it just took a little more concentration than she had to have on a linear topic, but she was having a little trouble concentrating at the moment because she was a little nervous seeing Lilith again when the last time she did the brunette was semi-naked. 

The two entered the gym just as Beatrice, Shannon and Mary were about to leave the gym wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts with the college colors and logo. 

“Hey, kids” Mary greeted them, holding her girlfriend’s hand. “What are you doing here?” 

“We came to give Bea her new paperweight” said Camila, picking up the British girl’s bag. 

“Didn’t it work?” questioned Beatrice, taking her bag. 

“That rolled down some stairs” Shannon pointed out. 

“Good point...” muttered the British girl. “I guess I’m lucky Lilith isn’t too optimistic, took my credit card and has already ordered a laptop for me.” 

“What’s in the other bag?” Mary asked with genuine curiosity. “Something illegal, but fun?” 

“Oh...” Camila muttered, looking at her own travel bag hanging from her shoulder. “It’s just clothes” she answered after a second’s thought, there was no sign of Lilith anywhere inside the gym. 

“Ava kicked you out of her dorm on campus?” Shannon asked as a joke. “If I had to bet, I’d think it would be the other way around.” 

“Hey!” Ava complained. “I’m a great dorm roommate.” 

“Yes, she is; sort of” said Camila following the little joke. “In fact, these aren’t even my clothes” she clarified, although she didn’t give the other girls time to comment or ask anything because their curiosity to know where the other British girl. “Where is Lilith?” 

“There was a small incident yesterday” Shannon reported. “Lilith had a fall during a training match and sprained her wrist.” 

“She didn’t fall, Crimson pushed her” added Mary, noticeably annoyed. 

“Don’t worry, she’s fine, she’ll recover in a few more days” said Beatrice quickly, perhaps reading the cocern on Camila’s face. “Did you need something from her?” 

“Not really, I just wanted to return her clothes” answered the curly-haired girl. 

“Why a whole bag?” asked Mary. “She only lent you a jacket.” 

“Well yes, it’s the jacket she lent me outside the bar and also the change of clothes she lent me when I slept over at her apartment.” 

“Wow, wait a second, Lilith invited you to sleep at her apartment?” 

“When did that happen?” Ava added. 

“Three nights ago” Camila answered, “after the party.” 

“You told us you had slept over with a friend.” 

“Lilith is my friend.” 

“She’s never invited us to sleep over” Mary remarked, notoriously offended. “I’m sure she wouldn’t even let us sleep in the hallway outside her apartment.” 

“You have stayed over many times” said Beatrice. 

“Because you invited us to sleep over or because we just fell asleep on your couch.” 

“Relax, love, don’t be jealous” said Shannon. “Let Lilith have more friends, I’m sure she’ll keep playing with you.” 

“I’m not jealous” Mary replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s just weird, it took us so much longer to get her to accept the fact that we’re her friends and we practically forced her to do it.” 

“Maybe she’s grown up.” 

“Or maybe she just couldn’t resist Cam’s charms” Ava interrupted, putting one of her arms around her best friend’s shoulders. “You’d be surprised what she can accomplish when she puts her mind to it.” 

“What? No, I wasn’t, I wasn’t trying to...” 

The stuttering and the intense blush that painted her cheeks made Mary smile in a mocking and somewhat frightening way, possibly having deduced the reason for her nervousness. 

“I can take her clothes to her” Beatrice proposed with a friendly smile, evidently trying to save her from the situation. 

“I’d appreciate it” Camila replied with a small smile and unhooking the travel bag from her shoulder, though she stopped before handing it over when she realized that the British girl was already carrying two bags. “I doubt Ava would want to say goodbye before escorting the three of you out, anyway.” 

“I’m sure she doesn’t give a shit about the two of us” Mary muttered more to herself and her girlfriend. 

Shannon lightly smacked the brunette for her comment, although the smile on her lips gave away that she agreed: while Ava and Beatrice blushed and looked away from each other. 

“Let’s go” Shannon ordered, taking her girlfriend’s hand and starting to walk back towards the gym door. “I’m starving.” 

Camila hurried to follow the cute couple already established to let the potential new couple have a little moment of privacy and talk after not seeing each other all day. 

Shannon and Mary were kind enough to slow their steps a bit so that curly-haired young woman could catch up with them easily and not have to talk alone feeling like a fifth wheel. 

“So, Cam...” Mary began with a slightly evil grin. 

“Babe” Shannon called with a warning tone, keeping her gaze straight as she walked between the two girls. 

“Ava mentioned a guy, a friend of JC’s” the brunette continued, ignoring her girlfriend. “What was his name? Tom?” 

“Todd” corrected Camila, not knowing what her friend was getting at and not suspecting anything about it. 

“Yes, that boy” Mary replied with a suspicious level of enthusiasm. “She said there could possibly be something going on between you; so tell us more about him.” 

Shannon looked at her girlfriend disapprovingly for a second, but then immediately, the next second, she looked at Camila expectantly for her answer. 

“Oh, well, actually, I...” said Camila a little nervous about the unexpected topic of conversation. “I don’t think that... you know.” 

“Why? Is he an idiot? Did he do something?” Mary interjected in rapid succession, not giving the curly-haired girl time to answer. “Because I can hit him.” 

“No one is going to hit someone” Shannon scolded in a firm tone toward her girlfriend, though her expression and tone relaxed as she looked at the shorter girl. “Unless he really deserves it, in which case we could make an exception.” 

“No, he’s not a idiot and he didn’t do anything wrong” Camila clarified. “He’s actually very sweet and nice, it’s just... I don’t know, I also thought there might be something there, but now I don’t think so.” 

“Why?” Mary questioned with genuine curiosity, before a sly mile formed on her lips. “Do you like someone else?” 

“What?” 

“If you’re no longer attracted to the objectively cute and nice guy for no apparent reason, then it’s because you’re now attracted to someone else.” 

Camila wanted to deny her friend’s statement, even though she knew it made sense, but stopped herself for a second as she felt she would be lying if she did so. 

However, before the curly-haired girl could decide between lying to her friends, and maybe a little to herself, or admitting a possible truth she wasn’t entirely sure of, someone spun at full speed at the intersection of the hallways, which was only two steps away, and ended up crashing into her, with considerable force and speed as she didn’t have enough time to be able to stop. 

All her attention was on her left, on her two friends with whom she was having a conversation, so Camila could only see the person who practically appeared out of nowhere through her peripheral vision on her right side and had no time to react. 

The impact was less than Camila expected, the other person had slowed down, but still had enough force to make her lose her balance and throw her backwards. 

Ending up on the ground seemed inevitable in the curly-haired girl’s mind, so she braced herself to take the hit against the ground; however, an arm wrapped around her waist and held her tightly, preventing her from falling any further. 

Camila’s hands went straight to the other person’s upper torso so she could grab onto the clothes and hold on to something, which kept her just inches away from the other person’s face. 

It took a couple of seconds for her brain to catch up and when her gaze finally managed to focus on what was in front of her, she found Lilith’s face just inches away from her own face. 

Lilith’s breathing was a little rapid, barely above normal, as if she had run  not-so-long distance before coming to an abrupt halt as she crashed into Camila. 

“Are you okay?” questioned the taller girl with a tone of voice that detonated concern and an expression of surprise still exhibited on her face. 

Camila was still a bit taken aback, the unexpectedness of the small accident and Lilith’s sudden presence so close to her made it take her a second or two to be able to react and at least nod her head in response. 

Concern did not leave the features of Lilith’s face and instead a hint of bewilderment mingled with her expression, but she still concentrated on regaining an upright posture, straightening her back and standing properly again, pulling Camila with her as she kept her left arm firmly around the curly-haired girl’s waist. 

Lilith had had to hold on to Shannon’s shoulder, the closest person at that moment, with her right hand to manage to keep some balance after crashing into Camila to keep them both from falling to the ground. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Mary questioned before Lilith either let go of Shannon’s shoulder or unwrapped her arm from Camila’s waist and walked away. “Coach will suspend you from the next game if she sees you near Crimson.” 

As her girlfriend scolded her friend, Shannon moved her face closer to Lilith’s hand on her right shoulder and sniffed deeply, then took a couple of seconds to process the information she had just acquired and finally decided to act quickly by placing her hand on the top of Lilith’s sternum to push her forcefully back. 

Camila’s hands still hadn’t completely let go of Lilith’s black sweatshirt and she definitely hadn’t pulled back an inch, so Shannon’s hand touched hers as she settled on Lilith’s upper chest and began to push. 

Puzzled, Camila finally let go of Lilith and left the taller girl’s arm unwrap from her waist as she quickly stepped back with a confused expression on her face. 

As soon as there was enough space between Camila and Lilith, Shannon stepped forward, placing herself between the two of them and facing the brown-skinned girl, so she could get a better push and handle on the direction she wanted to steer her friend in. 

An expression of confusion spread across Lilith’s face as she allowed Shannon to keep pushing her back; she most likely had no idea why her friend was doing that, but she trusted her enough to not put up a resistance even though the force Shannon was exerting against her torso and the way she held her hoodie wasn’t a bit aggressive. 

The others began to follow Shannon as soon as she and Lilith turned at the intersection through which the taller brunette had appeared a moment before and were all bewildered and shocked in equal measure to see the volleyball team Captain push her teammate against the wall while looking visibly very angry. 

“Hi?” said Lilith, still confused, still calm and unconcerned despite the intense stare she was receiving from her friend. 

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Shannon questioned bluntly and with a tone of voice that further emphasized her anger. 

“I don’t seem to be privy to this conversation, so I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.” 

“I’m not kidding, Lilith” Shannon declared, putting more pressure on the taller brunette’s sternum as soon as she saw the slightest hint of a smile on her friend’s lips. “Seriously? Coach Suzanne will kick you off the team if she sees you high.” 

The smile and amused expression on Lilith’s face quickly disappeared from one instant to the next, as did the rest of her body language; she looked like she wanted to back away from her friend’s touch, but the wall already pressing against her back prevented her from doing so. 

“What?” Beatrice asked, stepping forward to get closer to her best friend so she could get a better look at her. 

Lilith deliberately turned her head away from Beatrice, trying to avoid eye contact and possibly any hint that would confirm the accusation Shannon had just made. 

It took her a second to pull herself together and stop avoiding her friend’s gaze, putting a serious and neutral expression back on her face. “Well, that will save me from having to finish writing my resignation letter” she finally stated in a slightly annoyed tone of voice. 

“Wait, what?” Mary questioned, taking a couple more steps forward. 

“This is a waste of time” Lilith muttered more to herself. “That’s not the reason I’m here” she added before making a single fluid motion with her forearm that pushed Shannon’s arms to the side and made the grip against her sweatshirt snap, though perhaps with a little more force than necessary. 

“So why did you come?” the captain of the volleyball team asked. 

Lilith didn’t answer her directly, instead she looked to her left and paused her gaze on her best friend. “Why don’t you answer your damn phone?” she asked in a not very aggressive way, though still not entirely calm. 

“Language” Beatrice answered automatically, then took a second to process the question she’d just been asked. “My phone has been on silent inside my bag since the start of training. Why?” 

“Ben called.” 

“Did he call you?” questioned the British girl with freckles on her cheeks, visibly confused. “Ben never calls you” she muttered as a thought aloud as she connected the dots. “Something happened?” she questioned just before she urgently opened her bag and began frantically searching for her phone. “Is everyone okay?” 

All of Lilith’s anger and defensiveness instantly vanished as she saw her best friend’s concern and rushed over to her to try to calm her down. 

“Everyone is fine” that taller British girl said quickly, placing one of her hands on her best friend’s shoulder. “No one is hurt or dying.” 

Beatrice stopped her movements immediately, though she kept her hand buried in the clothes inside her bag. “But Ben wouldn’t call you for good news.” 

“I never said it was good news...” 

“Just a second” said Ava, interrupting the two British girls’ conversation. “Sorry, I got a little lost, who is Ben?” 

“What she said” supported Mary. 

“Ben is my older brother” Beatrice replied simply, as if it wasn’t relevant to mention at the moment; or at any previous moment, judging by the confused reactions on her faces of Shannon and her girlfriend. 

“Do you have an older brother?” questioned the captain of the volleyball team with surprise. 

Beatrice was about to answer, but her gaze was abruptly diverted to her hand which was still inside her bag; she dug her hand a little deeper into her clothes and finally pulled out her phone. 

The name ‘Ben’ was visible on the screen above the photograph of a boy with facial features very similar to those of the freckled British girl, who did not hesitate to answer the video call as quickly as possible. 

“Ben?” 

~Bea!~ a male voice shouted. ~Thank God you’re finally answering.~ 

“What’s going on? Why did you send Lilith to find me?” 

~Oh, she didn’t tell you...~ 

“I didn’t have time” Lilith admitted, standing next to her best friend so she could look at the screen of her phone. “But it seems fitting that you should be the one to tell her since you’re the one who fucked it.” 

“Language” Beatrice chided quickly before turning her attention back to her brother. “What are you talking about? You’re starting to freak me out.” 

~Don’t worry, it’s not that bad, though it’s bad; maybe a little more than bad. Are you sitting down? You should sit down to listen to this.~

The British-accented boy was nervous, which made him talk a little too much, just as Beatrice herself did. 

“Ben!” exclaimed freckled British girl to get her brother’s attention. “Just tell me.” 

~Mom and Dad are coming to visit you this Saturday~ Ben stated as if it was worse than it first appeared. ~They’re having a meeting in Washington on Monday morning, but they’ll fly out early and take a detour to see you first.~ 

“Oh...” Beatrice murmured a bit bewildered, taking in the information. “That’s not so bad.” 

“It’s not the worst part” Lilith commented. 

“Does it get worse?” 

~I may have had a little conversation, or discussion, with them about you and I may have also told them some things that aren’t true.~ 

Lilith sighed in exasperation at the way Ben was trying to soften the inevitable blow. “He lied and told them you have a boyfriend” she blurted out without warning. 

“WHAT?” Beatrice exclaimed, extremely worried. 

“And they want to meet him.” 

Beatrice remained silent, just staring at her best friend for a couple of long seconds in the hope that she would start laughing and reveal that it was all a very bad joke, until she ended up accepting that they were not playing and that she was definitely not asleep having a bad dream. 

“Oh, fuck...” 

~That’s bad~ said Ben as he heard his sister curse. 

“Hey, we’ll solve” Lilith added, keeping the calm that had deserted her best friend. “We’ll figure something out.” 

“Solve?” Beatrice questioned with a mixture of anger and concern. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, I never wanted a boyfriend, how am I going to get a boyfriend in less than three days?” 

“We don’t have to get you a boyfriend, there are other options” the taller British girl pointed out before grabbing her best friend’s phone to talk to Ben. “How hard does a blow to the head have to be to knock her unconscious for two days?” 

“You’re not going to put her in a coma to avoid her parents!” Shannon ordered. 

~They’ll still want to meet him at the hospital~ Ben replied, dismissing the idea, though not for the reason one would initially expect. ~Can you come up with a good excuse to get them both out of town for the weekend?~

“Not convincing enough not to arouse suspicion” Lilith admitted. 

“Why don’t you tell them that Beatrice’s fake Prince Charming is out of town?” proposed Mary. 

“Because then they’ll ask evidence and do an interrogation that Beatrice won’t approved of.” 

“And won’t they eventually do that anyway?” Camila questioned, speaking for the first time since Lilith’s arrival. 

“Yes, they will, but we’ll have more time to teach Beatrice how to lie decently or put together a good breakup story that isn’t so suspicious.” 

“Why is all this so important?” Ava interjected. “They could just say that Ben made a mistake.” 

Beatrice snapped out of her little trance as she listened to Ava. “Because if they get the slightest suspicion that I haven’t changed at all, they’ll send me to a convent in Switzerland.” 

Everyone was silent when they heard that statement, most of them surprised, except for the other two Britons, who seemed to know this information well beforehand. 

That truth suddenly hit Beatrice harder than she herself would have expected despite knowing it perfectly well, as if the weight of the consequence had not felt so real and so close until that moment. 

Lilith, who usually could keep her mask of calmness intact, looked frustrated to see the concern, which was very close to fear, in her best friend’s eyes. 

~My parents trust you~ Ben pointed out, speaking to his younger sister’s best friend, ~maybe it’ll be enough if you’re there with Beatrice to back up her story and keep her from stumbling over the important details.~ 

“That seems to be out best option so far” Lilith admitted, still looking unconvinced of that plan of action. “We can put together a convincing enough story and I can teach Beatrice how to lie decently, though I may have to get reinforcements.” 

The expression on Beatrice’s face turned to confusion at the last part of her friend’s answer, but before she could ask her exactly what she meant, Ava snapped out of her shock and had an idea in mind. 

“It won’t be necessary to lie” Av interrupted, looking proud of herself. “Well, yes, obviously, but not about where Bea’s new boyfriend is because he will meet her parents and they will love him.” 

Everyone looked at Ava in a state of complete confusion, as if she had just lost her mind and they expected her to come to her senses. 

“What are you talking about?” Camila questioned, externalizing the question that everyone else was asking at that moment. 

“We’ll lend JC!” announced her best friend enthusiastically, as if her friend was a feather or any other object that belonged to both. 

“Your ex?” Mary asked. 

"He’s my second best friend” Ava clarified, making sure to look at Camila to emphasize her answer. “And I’m sure he’ll have no problem helping us, right, Cam?” 

The attention of everyone present, including Beatrice’s brother who couldn’t see anything but his younger sister’s confused face, shifted from Ava to her best friend waiting for a answer from her. 

“She’s right” Camila said, “it could work.” 

“You see? Even if he refuses to help, we can bride him” Ava proposed. 

“We’d still have to make up a story for their relationship and get parents to believe it” Lilith commented, looking at Beatrice. 

“JC can handle most of it, he acted in all the plays during high school and has a charm to please other people’s parents; Randall’s mother still calls him ‘son’ and also invites him to all the family dinners.” 

Lilith looked at her best friend and waited for her opinion on the matter, though it was Ben who spoke first. 

~It’s a better plan than ours~ admitted the young Briton. 

Beatrice considered it for a couple more seconds, analyzing the possibilities of what could happen in both plan, until she finally looked back at her best friend and nodded silently. 

“Okay, then let’s talk to JC” said Lilith. 

“I’m already calling him” said Ava as she held her phone in her hands and moved her fingers rapidly over the screen. 

Once JC’s contact’s name was pressed, the call was placed on speaker and everyone remained quiet, listening to the ringing and waiting for the boy to answer. 

~Hey, gremlin~ JC greeted cheerfully. 

“Where are you?” his ex immediately asked. 

~At the football field, why?~ 

“Come to the old volleyball court.” 

~Is it important? Because I’m going out with some friends and their training is about to end.~ 

“We need to talk.” 

~Oh, it can’t be good, that’s how the conversation started when we broke up.~ 

“It’s a code red, we need you.” 

~Okay, give me fifteen minutes, I’ll tell my friend to leave without me as soon as training is over.~ 

“We’d better go over there, it’ll be faster. Don’t move.” 

Whatever JC may have wanted to respond was cut short when Ava abruptly ended the call without even saying goodbye. 

“You could have asked him on the phone” Mary commented. 

“It’s a code red, you don’t talk about that over the phone, it has to be in person” Ava pointed out with complete seriousness. “Let’s go.” 

The volleyball team players looked at each other and then looked at Camila, who simply nodded with a smile before following her best friend.