Chances

Chapter 20

Lily looks at her skeptically, but gives her the benefit of the doubt and settles back down. "As I was saying..."

Carina was almost bored to tears as she listened to Lily drone on about statistics and probability, but at the same time, there's no place she would rather be.

--

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

Lily looks up and over at Desi. They just finished their classes for the day and are now in the library, working on their history assignment together. "What's up?"

"Have you spoken to Amanda recently?" Desi asks curiously. "Or have you hung out with her or anything?"

Lily purses her lips in thought. "Uh... I have been texting her, as usual, and I've spoken to her a bit, but now that I think about it, I don't think I've actually spent the day with her or anything in a couple of weeks now. Why do you ask?"

Desi drops her pen down on the table and leans over across the table towards Lily a bit more. This seems serious. "Because that's how it is with me and her, too. Is she okay? Like I'll talk to her and stuff, but then it kind of seems like her head is somewhere else and she seems a bit down. I'm not sure whether I'm thinking about it too much or not, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit worried."

Lily knits her eyebrows, reflecting on Desi's words. When they do speak, Amanda does appear to be halfhearted, which is not her usual self. She could be having a couple of bad days or maybe she's stressed, but it's still concerning and she's more than glad that Desi has brought it to her attention. Why didn't she notice this earlier?

"Huh. Now I'm a little concerned as well. Do you think we should go talk to her now and see if she's alright?" Lily suggests. "Just to make sure if things actually are okay?"

"Good idea."

The two girls pack all of their stuff up and lug it on their backs as they make their way towards Amanda's dorm. Lily hopes that they are just overthinking things because she would never want her friends to be upset in any way. And for the entire few months that Lily has known Amanda this school year, she hasn't seen her with anything but a smile on her face. But she's still human and she does have bad days, just like everyone else does.

Desi knocks on Amanda's door once they reach it and they wait patiently for a couple of seconds before it opens, revealing Amanda herself.

"Oh! Hi, guys," she smiles, slightly surprised at the sight of them at her door. "What's going on?"

Lily and Desi exchange a quick look before Lily asks, "uhm, well, we were wondering if we could talk to you about something?"

Amanda tilts her head a bit to the side in puzzlement, but she nevertheless allows them in. Her side of the room is like Lily's: clean and tidy. Lily then sits on the edge of the bed beside Amanda while Desi pulls up a chair from the desk.

"Okay," Amanda claps her hands once, "what would you like to talk about?"

Once again, Lily glances over at Desi and gives her a small nod, silently directing her to go ahead and speak. Desi shifts a bit, folding her hands in her lap.

"So..." she begins, "Lily and I were wondering if you're okay? Like is there anything that's been on your mind or something lately?"

Amanda blinks a few times. "Why do you ask that?"

"Well, because we've noticed that you haven't necessarily been acting like yourself and we just wanted to swing by and see whether we're just looking too far into things or not."