I Hate Myself but I Love You

Chapter 28

Laura's POV

"You'll just have to carry it over to the check-out, cutie." Carmilla says. There's a faint blush on her cheeks and she keeps raising her free hand to lightly touch one of her cheeks. I feel my face grow hot when I remember that I kissed her there. Real subtle, Hollis.

"I can carry them home with my new super muscles." I flex with a dorky smile on my face and Carm laughs.

"You're going to turn your pretzels to dust if you keep doing that."

I glance down to see that I broke some of the pretzel sticks. "Oops."

Carmilla shakes her head and herds me towards the check-out area. There's an old lady that bags our things and takes Carm's money, managing to look like she'd rather be eaten by a dinosaur than here the entire time.

"Have a good day." She says in a monotone voice.

"That woman looked as bored as I was when you made me binge-watch Disney movies." Carmilla snarks.

I stick out my tongue. "Oh, hush. I know you liked them. I saw you cry during Lion King."

Carmilla gasps sarcastically. "I did no such thing." I give her an unimpressed look and she relents. "You can't prove anything, creampuff."

"I think people will believe me. I wonder how LaF would react." I trail off, grinning at her.

"They would laugh so hard they'd blow up their experiment."

I nod. That probably would happen, though it might just blow up anyways.

"Hey, girls!" Dad yells.

I turn my attention to him and smile. He has his giant navy blue camping backpack (that's almost as big as me... I'm not tiny it's just big) and two bags hanging off of each arm.

"Hey, Dad."

"Did you get enough snacks?" He glances meaningfully at the large number of bags in my arms.

"I certainly hope so, sir." Carmilla says, holding out her free hand to offer to carry some of my father's bags.

"I can carry it all." Dad assures her.

Carmilla just raises an eyebrow. "No offense, but I'm a vampire with super strength. You'll tire quickly with that much stuff. Let me carry some of it."

Dad concedes, handing her one bag from each arm. "Thank you."

"No problem, sir."

We start walking, my dad and I following a few feet behind Carmilla.

"You don't have to call me sir, Carmilla."

Carm glances back, her eyes meeting mine for a moment before she looks at him. "It's an automatic habit, sir."

Dad smiles and I shake my head, grinning. Of course she has my dad wrapped around her finger within minutes of meeting him. "It's fine; I just want you to know that you don't have to call me that."

"Why is it an automatic habit?" I ask, my mind going a million miles an hour to try to figure it out. Was it something drilled into her in the 17th century? Did her Mother make her call everyone sir or ma'am?

"I recognize a fellow soldier."