Something New

Winter and Karina had known each other since middle school, but they were never fond of one another. Winter thought Karina was obnoxious and full of herself, and she had overheard that Karina thought Winter was arrogant and needed a massive attitude adjustment. Through glares and eye rolls, neither bothered to hide their obvious dislike for one another. They steered clear of each other's way, and never had the same circle of friends, but none of their friends understood the seemingly baseless hostility when neither of them really knew each other personally, having never had a proper conversation before. Nothing had changed in high school, and now (unfortunately) in the same college, they still couldn't stand the sight of each other.

That was until that one particular Friday night, at the bar just out of their campus.

Winter was with two of her closest college friends, Giselle and Ning Ning, who wanted to hang out and have a few drinks. She lost to their game of rock, paper and scissors, and was chosen as their designated driver. She didn't necessarily minded because she was a light weight and didn't really want to deal with the hangover she often had after a night out.

It was maybe past 9pm when Winter noticed Karina walking into the bar alone and rolled her eyes out of pure habit. She sighed and did her best to ignore the latter, expecting Karina's friends to show up soon, just as rowdy, just as obnoxious as they always were, just like Karina. She guessed maybe birds of a feather, really did flock together.

5 minutes had passed since Karina took a seat at an empty booth just within Winter's sight, and she subconsciously noted that the girl had already ordered a bottle of wine, probably white wine, again.

10 minutes, and Winter couldn't help but wonder if Karina's entourage were running late, and if the girl was thirsty because she had already downed two glasses and was already pouring herself another one.

20 minutes in and Winter was laughing with her friends when her eyes met Karina's for the first time that night. It was brief because Winter turned away almost instantly. Her laugh died in her throat and she lost her smile, not because she was repulsed by Karina looking at her (surprisingly), but because the latter genuinely didn't look like she was okay. Her friends noticed her sudden change of expression and asked if anything was wrong, so she smiled and waved it off. When they continued with their conversation, Winter found herself checking on Karina every so often.

An hour later, both Giselle and Ning Ning were pretty tipsy, slowing down their drinks. An hour in, and Karina was still alone, drinking steadily. Her body was already leaned forward, her head bowed down and she was holding her head up with her palm as her other hand tapped lightly against the almost finished glass. Winter wanted Karina to look at her again, because she hated to admit it but she wanted to know if the girl was okay.

At an hour and 30 minutes since Karina had walked in, Winter and her friends had settled the bill and were about to leave, and as she was about to walk past Karina, a man approaching the latter's table made her slow down. She continued to walk to the door and hesitated. Sighing, she had no idea what she was doing but she tossed Giselle her car keys and told them to wait by her car before turning on her heels and walking back to Karina's table.

She could see, even at a distance, that Karina was turning the man down and as she approached the table, the man, thankfully, had already walked away without making a fuss.

Without looking up from her glass, Karina heaved a sigh before saying, "I'm not interested."

Winter rolled her eyes at that, seriously wondering why she was bothering with her at all. She wanted to just forget about it but the words left her lips before she could register her thoughts. "I'm driving you back, let's go."