The perfect storm in a quiet room

Chapter 8

"What do you wanna talk about?" I ask her once we're both seated at the table in the kitchen, facing each other, after a few minutes of pure silence.

She doesn't answer me. Her eyes meet mine for a few seconds but then, she looks away. She starts playing with her hair, nervously. Now I have no doubt: that's a tic she has frequently, especially when she's nervous.

She looks at me again but this time smiling. She stops playing with her hair, tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and starts talking:

"First of all I want you to know how sorry I am for this morning's incident. I'm sure you must be in pain for all those hits. And your forehead... the bruise there is starting to show up... is purple... Oh this is all my fault! I'm really sorry." She says showing how truly regretful she is.

Instinctively I touch my forehead. As soon as I came home I went straight to my room, so I didn't get a chance to look in the mirror. I'm sure I must be awful.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Besides, you told you're sorry like a hundred times and I've already forgiven you. Now let's get to the really important thing: What did you have to tell me?" I say laughing.

She gives me a shy smile and her tongue licks her dry lips. She stares at the ceiling, thoughtful.

"Well... I... Well, I wanted to apologize to you, again, for walking out of the bar like that. It wasn't okay to leave you there all alone after you told me you didn't like my friends... I don't know, it was very rude of me to do that." She says, her gaze fixed on the floor, sadly.

"Don't worry Casy, I get it, Leo was bothering you and it's normal for you to react badly. Don't worry about me." I tell her with a big smile, showing her how much her apology means to me.

"Thanks Hannah, you're a great girl. You don't deserve what you've been through today because of me," She says at the same time that she stops looking at the floor and focuses her gaze on my eyes.

"It's not that big of a deal, just some bruises on my body and a hangout that ended up being a disaster. At least we've met each other. That's something good, right?"

She just stares unblinkingly at me and doesn't answer. Her steady gaze is making me nervous so I look away and step back from her. She does just the opposite, though, and gets up from her seat to sit in the chair next to me to get closer. Oh and that worked, because now we're close, very close. We're so close that suddenly I feel this heat coming from inside of me. I feel nervous, dizzy and suffocated. I don't know what's happening... I mean, I like spending time with Casy and we seem to get along, but what the hell is happening?!

She comes even closer to me and I can smell a strong scent of alcohol mixed with a touch of mint coming from her breath, something I hadn't noticed before. Is she drunk? That's why she's been acting so... weird? Honestly, meeting this girl is getting more and more complicated. I have millions of questions about her and no answers.

"Your eyes are beautiful, you know that, don't you?" she says smiling while caressing my hair. "I think I've never told you that, but now that I'm staring at your eyes this close I can tell how charming they are... They're light blue with a bit of yellow in the center and just a pinch of grey, right?

"Yeah... that's...correct. Thanks Casy... em, okay... anything else you want to tell me?" I say, shocked, (how is it possible that she can notice those tiny little details?) at the same time I move away from her; this is getting really weird and her breath is making me dizzy. 

"I think I've said everything, but sure..."

The sound of a door creaking open interrupts Casy. I'm sure that's my mom. Fuck. If she enters here and sees Casy reeking of alcohol...she will cause a fuss. I have to get Casy out of the kitchen now.

I start making gestures towards Casy trying to tell her not to make any noise and to follow me to my bedroom. At first she doesn't get what I'm trying to say, but then she follows me quietly. I turn off the kitchen lights and we go straight to my bedroom. Once we are there, I remind her not to make any noise and to quietly and slowly hide under my bed. The last thing I need right now is mum seeing us together in my bedroom.

Two minutes later she's hidden under the bed and I'm laying on the bed facing down with the bedsheets covered up to my neck, trying to look like I'm asleep. We are both silent, waiting for my mum to enter the room to check on me and then walk away.

While I wait for that to happen, questions about this girl keep popping up in my mind. Why is she friends with those people? What was Leo referring to with what he said about Casy? Why did she get so upset about he calling her a lesbian? If she lives with her aunt, what happened to her parents? Where are they? Why was Leo holding hands with Valentina and Dilara at the same time if apparently he's Dilara's boyfriend? Why Casy's drunk at this late at night and on a Monday? Did she go to a party? Does she have an alcohol problem or was this just a one-time thing? What the hell happened sooner in the kitchen? Was she... flirting...with...me? Well, now that's impossible. Casy flirting with a girl seems as unreal as a sunny afternoon on a winter day in London.