Chances

Chapter 43

Carina rests her forehead on the steering wheel, shaky breaths slipping past her lips as an entire array of emotions overcome her. She can't specifically pinpoint how she's feeling, but what she does know is that she is so tired .

Yesterday had to have been the most taxing day she's had in a while, in every sense of the word. She didn't sleep as much as she would have liked, she spent hours driving at night to see her sick father, negative emotions associated with her hometown and parents came flooding back, and her mother disowned her because she came out with her sexuality. All of this happened in a matter of less than 12 hours.

She should feel terrible about her altercation with her mom, but it's not like Carina was ever close enough to her for it to hurt. She wasn't lying or being bitter when she said she never felt like she was a part of the family anyway. Can you blame her for not being affected by someone who practically means nothing to her?

The only thing that really is hurting her is knowing that her parents are those types of people and that they are not the only ones. They would place their own goddamn beliefs over their child, as if some mindset is more important than their own flesh and blood. They were that extreme to disown her and remove them from their lives completely. She will never understand why people still think in that way and maybe she never will.

Carina cranks up the heat in the car, not quite realizing just how cold it was until she started losing feeling in her fingers and toes. She glances at the clock. It was approaching 8 a.m., so if she leaves right now, she might be able to beat the morning traffic.

So, wiping the tears out from under her tired eyes, she takes a deep breath and composes herself for a second before backing out of the driveway. Carina then gives the house she grew up in one more look. After all, she's never going to see it again.

But there's no twinge of sadness or nostalgia. If anything, it makes her want to go back home all the more.

Carina then shifts the car in drive, turns her music on, and proceeds to go back to where she belongs.

--

Lily flutters her eyes open and blinks rapidly a few times, waiting for them to adjust to the light coming in through the windows. She frowns when she notices that the other bed in the room is untouched and still made. Carina started keeping her side of the room neat to be considerate of Lily when they started to become closer, but now it's habit. It's hard to imagine that Carina used to ever be World's Biggest Slob.

With thought of Carina comes the recollection of their late-night conversation last night. She reaches for her phone in the top corner of her mattress and sees that the call ended, meaning Carina woke up first. She checks the call history and sees that it lasted 5 hours and 17 minutes at around 7 a.m. And now it's a little past 11 a.m.

Lily still is curious as to what exactly happened last night that got Carina so upset. She was crying beforehand and she didn't want to discuss what had happened. It hurt Lily's heart to know that Carina was crying by herself and she wasn't there to comfort her. Hopefully she'll be okay.

After getting up to use the bathroom and to brush her teeth, she reads through her unread texts. There's a couple from Connor with him asking how everything is going and to break news that he just got his driver's license. There are some from Desi asking her 'whether a tomato is a fruit or vegetable" and that "her relationship with Naomi was at stake".

Lily giggles as she replies, stating that a tomato is, indeed, a fruit.

She was in the process of clicking send when she heard the door behind her open. Her head instinctively snaps back as she jumps in her spot, frightened.