A Breath of Fresh Air - e.w.

21

TRIGGER WARNING: talk of sexual assault and abuse. Mostly in an implied context.

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"You mind if I ask why you've been picking up extra shifts?" Kate asked Lia who was sticking up one of the fellow residents, "Not that I don't love having you here-"

"Just want to help," Lia shrugged.

"Really?" Kate questioned the girl who nodded, "Because I heard from Sadie, that she, Dina, Jesse, Leo, Marley, Cat and Ellie were having a picnic by the water. Seemed fun."

"Yeah, I was invited," Lia mumbled, "Just didn't want to go."

"Okay," Kate said slowly, "Did something happ-"

"Kate," Lia sighed, "Please, no questions. Everything is fine but I really don't want to talk about it."

"Alright," Kate said hesitantly, keeping an eye on the girl. She went back to her work, but Lia could feel her eyes.

Once Lia had finished up the stitches, she smiled to the woman and sent her off while she cleaned up the area. Her eyes wandered over to Cassie who was doing her homework just across from the girl. Cassie's eyes were scrunched as she was trying to read something from the page, "You doing good, Cass?"

"What's this word?"

Lia walked over to the girl, looking over her shoulder, "trombone."

"What's that?"

"A musical instrument. I've never seen one, but maybe when you're older, I can take you to the music store to see if one is there."

Cassie looked at the girl with a confused frown, "How would you know what it is if you've never seen one?"

"Well, I have lots of time to research," Lia chuckled, "Plus, I'm sure your mom knows that they look like."

Kate smiled at the duo, walking over to Lia and placing a hand on the girls shoulder, "Come on, Lia, I'm sending you home. You've been here since sunrise. Go home, rest - I think you've avoided your friends for long enough."

Lia went to protest, but knew it was no use. She just nodded her head and grabbed her stuff. Lia said goodbye briefly before walking out of the medical wing and back towards the house. She was really fucking tired anyways.

As she walked back, Lia said hi to a few of the members of the community. Now, her and Leo were regular faces here. She knew everyone that lived here and had made an effort to be polite to them all. Most people reciprocated it well. And, even though she tried to avoid people sometimes, it was a small town. So it wasn't a coincidence when she ran into Ellie and the others coming back from the picnic: "Hey, thought you were working?" Ellie questioned, "It's why you said you couldn't come."

Ellie frowned as she watched Lia with slight anger. Ellie knew why she was first avoiding Lia - she liked the girl and didn't want to be rejected because she was sure Lia isn't like that. Lia wasn't someone who wanted a relationship (reasonably so), and Ellie wasn't going to ruin their friendship. Ellie has questioned if Lia could ever be into her, but she doesn't have the confidence to find out.

After Cat kissed her, and Ellie didn't infect her, Ellie was so happy that she could even be with someone. She didn't want to fuck it up with Cat by spending all her time with Lia. Or thinking about her. She intended to hang out with Lia again once the girl knew about her and Cat, once she felt more settled in the relationship, but Lia instead ignored her.

Now that Lia knew about her and Cat, Ellie found herself angry. Ellie never asked Lia to feel the same as her. She just never thought that Lia would disagree with who she was.