Stay ✔︎

Chapter 30

a/n: there's only like four/five chapters left btw. also i binge-updated so make sure you're reading in order.

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CHAPTER 30
THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER ENTIRE LIFE, Luisa purposely was late. She had never done that before, not once. She had been late, yes, but it was always because she overslept or missed a train or bus; there would always be a reason for her tardiness.

This was the first time Luisa was late deliberately. And she expected to be fidgety, anxious, worried about the repercussions and what excuse she could give for her being late for work, but strangely enough she wasn't. She wasn't even anywhere near the region of being anxious, and that itself was an entirely another new territory for her.

Luisa had never not been anxious before.

Torrey had walked her to work, once they actually managed to get out of her apartment, that was. They could have gotten a cab since Torrey wanted to head back to her place anyways, but neither of them were in any hurry to leave each other. Luisa decided since she was going to be late anyways, adding another couple of minutes to it couldn't hurt her much.

It was a refreshing feeling, being not anxious and just enjoying the moment.

Luisa stepped into the office with a dreamy look on her face that day, smiling to herself and sighing softly as she settled on her chair and turned on her desktop. Ten minutes in and that's when Luisa noticed something strange.

Blake hadn't approached her yet. She spun her chair around and saw the said woman sitting in her own cubicle, one arm propped on the table, hand supporting her head up, while she typed with her free hand. Maybe she hadn't noticed Luisa come in.

Luisa stood up from her chair and approached her friend, "Hey,"

Blake jerked up, and relaxed when she spotted Luisa, "Hey, you're back," she exclaimed, standing up to hug Luisa.

Luisa patted her back, before breaking their hug, eyebrows furrowed, "Yeah, I texted you. Didn't you see?" thinking about it now, Luisa grew aware her friend hadn't actually been texting her as much as she usually would.

Luisa scanned Blake's face and found prominent bags under her eyes and the usual chirpiness to her features were somewhat dulled down, and she looked terribly tired.

"Are you okay? How is your mother?" last Luisa heard, she was slowly recovering.

Blake's eyes dropped, and she lifted her shoulders, bringing her hands to her eyes, rubbing them, "I'm okay. I just–," she blew air through her mouth, bringing her gaze back up, "Yeah, my ma's not doing so well,"

"What? What are you doing here then?"

Blake let out a loud breath, falling into her chair, slumping back, "My asshole brother is back, and I really can't deal with him and I needed to leave,"

"You have a brother?"

"And two sisters," she added, "All of them self-entitled assholes," she remarked with open scorn.

"Oh,"

Sometimes Luisa forgot that she had only started to get to know Blake and there were a lot of things that she still didn't know about her—this instance being a perfect example.

The same could be applied with her relationship to Torrey, but they had been spending quite some time together now and she liked to think she knew a little bit more about her girlfriend now.