No Matter How Dark It May Be, There Is Redemption

Picture Perfect

The sun was setting when the van pulled up to the house’s driveway. The house was a towering three floored home, the upper floors consisting of two separate bathrooms, two bedrooms, and a guest room with its own bathroom. The first floor held the living room, kitchen, dining room, and pantry. There was also a basement.
“Whoa,” Laf said, the group having woken up an hour or so before and had since made polite small talk and including Richard whenever they could. Laura did not miss the tension between Carmilla and her father, but was not oblivious enough to bring it up now. She was currently chalking it up to “I’m her father”/”I’m her girlfriend” issues but knew that wasn’t it.

They entered the house, with Perry and Lafontaine unabashedly giggling over the pictures of Laura displayed around the house. Carmilla followed their path more quietly, but with a much larger grin plastered across her face. Richard was checking to make sure the guest bedroom/bathroom and Laura’s bedroom were up to spec.
“Wow, buttercup, can you say, ‘overestimate?’” Carmilla snickered at a picture of Laura as a toddler in an American football helmet clearly too large for her. “Did you not know how small your head was?”
Laura gave a giggle. “I was trying to help clean out the basement and I found my dad’s old football helmet and I ran around screaming HUP HUP and screaming out colors and numbers.” Carmilla laughed at the image that formed in her mind. The sound was so nice to hear and Laura loved the way Carmilla closed her eyes and threw her head back to make it, before opening them again and looking at her, her eyes softening and filled with warmth.

“Man, oh man, Laur, this one is hilarious!” Laura looked to see what Laf was referring to, and it was a picture of Laura holding a massive axe twice her size while near a pile of chopped wood. Little Laura totally thought she was strong enough to have been holding it up by herself, and was blissfully unaware that her father was behind her supporting a majority of the weight of the axe. Laura was laughing, too.
“Who took this picture? Your mother?” Perry was still chuckling at that look of sheer pride on Laura’s face, a look that persists to this day.
“Oh, uhm… no,” Laura replied. “She died giving birth to me.”
An awkward silence followed for a few seconds. “I’m sorry, Laura,” Perry finally said.
Laura clicked her tongue. “It’s fine, you didn’t know.” She added a chuckle to make sure Perry knew Laura was not upset by her friend’s question at all. “And to answer your other question, I think the picture was taken by one of my dad’s coworkers.”
“Speaking of your dad,” Laf said, “what does he do? Coz this house is,” they whistled to demonstrate how impressed they were.
“Private security,” Laura answered. “Hence all the protection and defense things.”

“Talking about me?” Richard was descending the stairs.
“Good things, good things,” Laura said jokingly.
“I should hope so.” He wrapped his arm around his daughter. “So I assume Lafontaine and Perry will be in the guest bedroom, and you and Carmilla will stay in yours?” Laura nodded. “I was going to instigate the open-door policy like we did when you were in high school—” he spoke over the beginning of Laura’s protests “but since you’re in college now, and you guys are already sharing a room at Silas, I’ll leave it to your own discretion.”
Laura turned to give her father a full hug and as he hugged her back, she felt the confusion as to what the problem between Carmilla and her father was, returning. Clearly he feels okay with us dating, so…?
“I’m going to get started on dinner, is that okay?” her father’s voice pulled Laura from her thoughts. A chorus of enthusiastic replies answered his question. “I’ll be making lasagna and mashed potatoes.”

After her father went to the kitchen, joined by Perry who insisted on helping, and by Lafontaine who insisted on bothering Perry while she was trying to help, Laura turned to Carmilla.
“Carm, is there something you need to tell me?” Laura kept her voice low.
“Yes,” Carmilla said, after a couple seconds of pondering. “I, too, cannot believe that’s not butter.”
Laura playfully smacked her. “About my dad!” she hissed.
Carmilla narrowed her eyes. “Ah, yes,” she said, lowering her voice, “he does believe that’s butter.”
Laura pouted at Carmilla. “Okay, Miss Butter-face, forget I asked.” She started to walk away before Carmilla grabbed her wrist and turned Laura around to face her.
She leaned in close and for a second Laura thought Carmilla was going to kiss her, but then Carmilla whispered, “I’ll tell you later, okay?” before planting a light kiss on Laura’s cheek. Okay, then, Laura thought, and agreed to drop the issue for now.
Carmilla walked towards the kitchen and Laura ran after her, asking, “Are you going to be a Perry or a Lafontaine?”
Carmilla turned around. “What?”
“Are you going to help my dad or are you going to annoy Perry?”
Laura giggled as Carmilla raised an eyebrow and asked, “What do you think?”