Chances

Chapter 45

Carina places her hand over her thumping heart as blood pounds deafeningly in her ears. She can't seem to control her short, shallow breaths and she feels like she's on the verge of a full-fledged panic attack.

Something happened to Lily tonight, and she has no fucking idea whether she is okay or not.

Burning tears are spewing out of her eyes furiously and her legs feel like jelly as she finally gets control over her body again. Carina was paralyzed with shock throughout the entire duration of the phone call, but now she's moving too quickly for her mind to even keep up.

She's flying out of the door with her car keys digging into the palm of her hand before she can even take another gasping breath.

Everything is a blur. She hears no sounds as she sprints faster than she ever has across campus towards her car, nor does she see anything except what is directly in front of her. Her body is moving without her mind telling it to, almost as if it's been programmed to focus solely on Lily.

But right when Carina is 30 feet away from her car, she accidentally runs directly against someone's chest, practically knocking the wind out of her on impact. Long, strong arms reach out and grab her before she falls backwards and the familiar scent of a cologne fills up her nose.

Carina looks up at Daniel's face, and she sees his lips moving and she feels him starting to shake her shoulders, but she can't make out what exactly he is saying. His voice is muffled, but as it progressively gets louder and louder, everything comes back into focus.

"Carina!"

The girl tenses up in his arms and tries to break free, but his firm grip won't allow it. "Get the hell off of me!" she cries through an unsteady, tense voice. "Let me go! I have to get to Lily!"

She thrashes violently, and her fist even collides with his face before she can stop herself. He groans and winces, but doesn't let her go. "Oh, fuck ," he grimaces sharply, his left eye tearing. "God, would you calm down and tell me what's going on! Why aren't you wearing a jacket? Why are you crying? Where's Lily?"

Carina, through sheer luck and by some miracle, finally was able to break free from Daniel's grasp and her legs run hastily towards her car. She can hear Daniel calling her name from behind her, but she doesn't stop.

Carina unlocks the door and gets inside of the driver's seat, slamming the car door shut. With quavering hands, it's impossible to get the fucking key in the ignition, and by that point, Daniel has already opened the door and is sitting in the passenger seat.

"Carina!" Daniel shouts, reaching over to grab her shaking wrist. Her head shoots towards him, her breathing heavy and labored. "You're scaring the shit out me, Carina, please tell me what's wrong so I can help you."

Daniel's worried and distressed face is blurred behind her tears, but not enough for her to not be able to see a slight bruise forming under his eye from where she punched him a second ago. But she can't think about him right now. The only thing she is thinking about is Lily lying on the fucking ground of the parking lot, beaten and unconscious and alone.

So with that, she rips her hand away from his grasp, successfully injects the key into the ignition, and whips the car out of its parking spot so abruptly that Daniel slams against the dashboard. He pulls himself upright again and fumbles around to put his seatbelt on, but not before he reaches across and puts Carina's on for her.

She holds the steering wheel with such a strong grip that her knuckles turn white and she loses feelings in her fingers, but she easily pushes that aside. She can hear the muffled sound of Daniel's voice asking her questions and telling her to slow down, but she pushes that aside as well. Her mind refuses to pay attention to anything else except getting to Lily.