Butterfly Effect

24: Meet me in the pouring rain

Carina’s Pov

It was a rainy Saturday morning, and I was helping with the clinic at the station while Lia was upstairs reading a book. Manon and her were still avoiding each other and it was so difficult for me seeing her so sad.
She seemed like the shell of herself, like the girl who stumbled through the doors of the station a few months ago…
At one point of the day, she came downstairs to be near us without being in the way, so she sat at the front desk, when a boy that was probably her age entered the station with a bloody nose.
“Mamma” she called me “Can you come here?”.
I finished quickly with my current patient and I rushed to my daughter, staring at the kid that looked like a kitten who had just lost a fight with an alley cat.
“Hey, I’m here to help” I said to the boy “Can you sit down, please? Bambina, let him sit on the desk chair”.
He did as he was told, and Hailee looked at him with a scared and confused expression while I put on a pair of latex gloves.
“I’m doctor Deluca. What’s your name?” I asked as I started to take a look at his injuries.
“I’m Jasper McAllister” he answered “Jaz…”.
“Okay Jasper, I think that your nose might be broken. Can you explain to me what happened?”.
“Why don’t you ask that bitch over there?” he spatted, looking at Hailee in the eyes “Your dumb friend thought that I was her punchball. I guess that you made her a dyke now… Because that’s your little secret, right? The worthless foster child is a dyke… Think about what others will say at school. It would be so fun if they knew what you are… And imagine what would happen if they knew that the hottest girl in school is like you. At least she was still normal when I fucked her last year”.
“Enough!” I yelled “You will not talk about my daughter or Manon like that, because the next time you say a single word about them, I’ll be the one to break your nose. are we clear, Jasper?”.
My stare was locked in his eyes, and I could feel that he was taken by surprise at the deadly sound of my voice. He remained silent, still looking at Hailee.
“I said. Are. We. Clear. Jasper” I repeated, and with the corner of my eye I could see Lia with a small grin on her face.
“Y… Y-yes Ma’am. We-W-We are clear” he stuttered and I called Ben from the barn.
“What do you need, Carina?” my friend asked, staring at the terrified expression on the kid’s face.
“His name is Jasper McAllister and he’s sixteen. He has a broken nose and a couple of bruises. Can you treat him?” I asked and Ben looked at me with concern.
“Are you okay? Do I have to call Maya?” he seemed preoccupied.
“Yes I’m fine. There’s no need to call her. This kid has strong opinions about my daughter and Manon… I don’t think that a “dyke”, as he said, should treat him” I explained and Ben understood right away the reason why I couldn’t treat this kid. Just a couple of moments later, Ben took Jasper away from the entrance of the station, and Hailee threw herself into my arms, hugging me tightly.
“Are you okay, Bambina?” I questioned and she nodded against my chest.
“Yeah, I’m okay now… But I really need to do something. Can I go out?” she whispered in my shirt and I stared at the rain outside.
“Lia, it’s raining…” I tried to reason with my stubborn teenager.
“Please mamma. I have to talk with Manon. Please” she begged, and I thought that maybe she needed to see with her own eyes what had happened to her best friend. To her person…
“Fine. But if you get sick, you’ll be the one explaining that to your mother” she started to laugh and she answered with a simple nod, moving swiftly toward the door.
“Ti voglio bene mamma (I love you mamma)” she said with a cute accent. My heart stopped and I started to think about what would have happened if I’d never given her up for adoption. Would she speak Italian more than English? Would we live here? Would we have Maya in our lives?
“Ti voglio bene anch'io Bambina. I love you to the moon and back…” I answered.
“To the moon and to saturn…” she said and I stared at her with confusion.
“Did I say the idiom wrong?” I questioned my daughter as she let out a carefree giggle. It was so nice to see her laughing again…
“No mamma. Mine is a verse from a Taylor Swift song… You know what? Nevermind… I gotta go. Bye!” she explained, closing the door behind her back and I smiled at her. At my blessing…

Hailee’s Pov

The rain was falling on my head as I ran toward Manon’s house.
She’d stood up for me against Jasper after everything I’d done to her. After I had run away from her…
I didn’t deserve someone like that.
When I arrived in front of her house, I could see her from the kitchen’s window while she was icing her left hand and talking with her mother. I froze, thinking that maybe it was better for her if I were out of her life. I looked at her one last time, ready to walk back to the station, when her gaze met mine through the glass.
Shock was painted on her face as she stood up from the table and walked to the door.
“Lia? What are you doing here?” she asked calmly. She wasn’t pissed off with me. She sounded concerned…
“I’m here because…” I stopped, knowing in that moment that what I wanted to say was not enough. 
“I was at the station earlier, and I felt like a part of me was missing because you weren’t there with me…” I started “And then Jasper came in with a broken nose, saying that I turned you into a “dyke” and that you were normal when you two slept together… And even if I hated that he was saying awful things about me in front of Carina, the only thing I could think about was you and the fact that I didn’t know if you were okay or not… I didn’t want you to be hurt. I don’t want you to be hurt”.
I paused as she took a step in my direction, walking with her head held high in the pouring rain.
“When I’m not okay, you are able to make me feel better. When I’m happy, I want to share that feeling with you… And I know that I’d fucked up when I left you on that sidewalk, but I was afraid of my feelings for you. Because Manon, I like you in more than a friend way” I stopped and the blood rushed to my cheeks, turning them burning red.
“You didn’t” she said and her words started to dance in the rain around us “Fucked up, I mean…”.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You didn’t fucked up, Hailee. I don’t know everything that had happened in your past, but what you’d told me made me realize that maybe it was too much for a first kiss… I like you too Lia, in more than a friend way, and we can go as slow as you need, but I don’t want to pretend that my feelings for you aren’t what they really are” she explained and I walked closer to her, slightly touching her face with my fingertips.
“Will you be my girlfriend?” I asked in a whisper, letting the rain hide our conversation to the rest of the world. It was ours… Just ours.
“Let me think about it…” she joked “Of course Lia! I would love to be your girlfriend”.
With that answer, I leaned in and gave her a soft sweet kiss on the lips, enjoying the wonderful taste of roses and chocolate.
After a couple of seconds, I pulled back and she kissed both of my cheeks.
“Are you okay Lia?” she asked and I nodded swiftly.
“It was the moan that locked me…” I explained “It reminded me of my body’s reactions to his actions. I hated everything that he did to me, but mostly I hated that I didn’t have control over my own body…”.
She gave me a sad look and I tried to grab her hand for comfort, making her hiss in pain at my gesture.
“I’m sorry! I forgot about your hand. I’m so sorry…” I said, looking at her with guilt all over my face.
“It’s okay” she responded “Let’s go inside. I’ll give you a sweater so you can take off your wet clothes, they are soaked from the rain, and I’ll get more ice for my knuckles”.

A.N. Hi guys. Someone needed to make Jasper shut up, and who is better than Mama bear Carina for the job? Let me know what you think. See you on Wednesday.