The Axis My World Turns On

Storm

She yawned, arms over her head as she cracked her back in just the right place. Her head lay back against the softness of the pillows. And then she frowned. These pillows were too soft to be the pillows from the couch. Carmilla's couch pillows were soft enough to sleep on, but not this soft. Not unless they were enchanted overnight.

She opened her eyes to find herself in Carmilla's room. There were no ruffled sheets on the opposite side of the bed, and she was tucked into her side. The room was empty. It was quiet, not like other nights she'd slept over and Carmilla had an acoustic playlist on repeat until after breakfast- if anyone would call toast and eggs at 10 a.m. breakfast. Now that she was awake enough to pay attention, not only was she in one of Carmilla's shirts and pajama shorts, but the entire house was quiet, which meant Carmilla could not be there. Carmilla had never left Laura alone in her room for anything other than to cook breakfast; and there was no scent of near-burning toast.

Laura could only guess why she would be sitting in Carmilla's house alone. Clearly, she was so angry with Laura that she couldn't bear to sleep in the same house. The pain of Laura's stupid decisions was too much to handle and she skipped town. Probably ran into the arms of her date from last night for solace. They could be in Mexico right now feeding each other fruit in a white blanketed hotel bed listening to the waves crash on the beach outside while her best friend took comfort in the chest of another person! At least she cleaned before she left Laura alone forever.

.

Making her way downstairs, the smell of cleaning liquids grew stronger. Even the stairs smelled sterilized. Once she stepped into the foyer, her eyes landed on raven-black hair positioned in front of the paint splattered canvas. Her back was straight where she sat on her stool, shoulders tense. There was a paint brush in her hand, a new color was being swiped and splashed across the piece. Green. It went well with the pinks, purples, orange, and blues; and the golden specks in the brown eyes that looked far too familiar.

"You're here." She breathed a sigh of relief as what she really meant was, 'You're here and not in Mexico feeding chocolate covered strawberries to a freckle faced, blue-haired girl who is probably much prettier than me and didn't majorly piss you off'.

"Been here a while." There was more rasp in Carmilla's voice than normal. She really had been there a while. Probably doing more than just painting. Probably wiping tears from her eyes with the back of her hand while she tried to keep it steady with the paintbrush.

Laura nodded, stepping closer without getting to close. Not wanting to invade her personal space in case Carmilla was still too upset for close interaction.

"How did you get me undressed and up to your room without waking me? And why?" She asked. Her nose started to burn like it does when she enters the hospital. "And have you been cleaning?"

"Perry likes to come over and clean when she's upset and runs out of things at the restaurant to clean. She saves her own house for last so she can rest afterwards. It's either let her in when she blows up my phone or get even more annoyed when she bangs on my door." Carmilla shrugged, never taking her eyes off her canvas. Laura looked behind her to see her friend aggressively scrubbing away underneath the kitchen sink. She thought she was the only one that had to deal with Perry and her cleaning supplies on a random basis. Why did they never talk about this? "We can discuss everything else when Curly Sue is gone."

"Why is she upset? Did Lafontaine blow up beakers in the kitchen again?" Laura opted to sit on the arm of the couch. At least she got to see half of Carmilla's face.

"No, she's upset about our little agreement. To be more specific, she's mad at you. And at me. Mostly you." Carmilla drawled. "Not that I blame her."