Chapter Text
“So, Laura,” Danny grunted. “Where, exactly, did you find this couch?”
She took a step backward up the steps of the two-story house and groaned as the floral couch slipped from her hands. It was hideous.
“My pop’s old neighbor died, they had an estate sale for her stuff. Pretty cheap, too,” Laura heaved out, occupied enough by her box of books.
“I can’t imagine why,” muttered LaFontaine, who was holding the other end of the couch. “It looks like someone’s creativity took an inconvenient jump off of a bridge. Did the lady die on the couch, too?”
“Oh, goodness, I hope not,” Laura gasped, as Danny lifted the couch again and backed into the doorway.
“Would you hurry up?” called LaFontaine. “I haven’t even gotten up the first step of the porch and my arms are about to give out.”
“That’s because you aren’t doing this right!” Danny snapped back. Had LaFontaine never done this before? People don’t usually carry heavy things at chest height with elbows out.
“Susan, please don’t hurt yourself!” Perry shouted from inside the house.
LaFontaine sighed. “How do you suggest I do this, then?!”
“Lift with your legs!”
Danny and Laura exchanged an exasperated look as their friends bickered.
“If you know how to do this, then why aren’t you carrying the couch?” LaFontaine said brusquely.
Perry huffed and turned her annoyance to Danny. “Why exactly are we the ones lugging around your furniture? Where are your other two housemates?” Danny glared at her.
“Danny!” yelled LaFontaine. “Get your ass into the house!”
“Fine!” Danny responded with equal frustration. She dropped the couch, grabbed another box of books, and walked past a shocked-looking Perry and said, “They’re probably still on their way. Elsie lives in Waukesha.”
In all honesty, Danny had her suspicions of why her friend was late, but she wasn’t at any discretion to mention them.
Perry frowned at Danny. “I always end up doing all of this by myself!” she sighed and walked over to the couch, lifting it up.
“By yourself?” Danny heard LaFontaine say, exasperated. “Really? You’re doing this by yourself right now?”
Danny carried the box the steps and down the hall to the furthest upstairs bedroom, dropping it at the door. The room had a bay window overlooking Hackett Avenue, and she gazed down at the chaos unfolding in the yard. Frowning at the sight of LaFontaine throwing a small floral pillow towards the front door, presumably at Perry, she opened the window.
“Hey! Get back to work!” she shouted, and then sighed, wondering if asking Laura’s friends to help them move into their house was the wisest idea. She doubted the process went any faster than it would have if it had been only Laura and her. The last year of college was off to a rocky start.
Danny closed the window and headed back downstairs.
As she approached the front door, she regretted not staying in the room.
“So I guess now we can’t get in or out, then?” she said as she gestured to the couch wedged halfway through the front door. Laura and her friends had apparently opted to just start stacking boxes on the sofa instead of trying to get the hideous piece of furniture actually into the house.
She peeked around the couch and saw Perry sitting on the front steps with a tight-lipped smile. “I told them to just listen to me!” she whispered. “I told them, and now look where we are!”
“Shut up, Perr, if we’d done it your way, the three of us would be in the hospital,” LaFontaine snapped.
“Isn’t there a back door to this house?” Danny asked. “Maybe we could get it in that way.”
LaFontaine stared at her and exclaimed, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
~~~
Later that night, Laura was cooking dinner. “Set the table for four, Danny. Surely your friends will want dinner if they show up tonight.”
“Yeah,” Danny scoffed. “If.” Regardless, she placed four plates around the table. Danny’s friends had better get here quickly. This was one flipping good chicken pot pie. Actually, if they never showed up at all, maybe there would be seconds for tomorrow.
The two of them were halfway done with the dinner when two girls stumbled in through the door, obviously drunk. The dark-haired one, who had slammed the door open and was clearly the more inebriated of the two, had her arm around the blonde.
Laura was up in a heartbeat, her fork pointed at the intruders. “Excuse me, but who the hell are you?”
“Whoa, Laura, relax!” Danny put herself between Laura and the other girls. “It’s only Elsie and her friend, um…”
“Carmilla,” the brunette said, smirking. “I’m your new roommate, sweetheart.”
“ You? ” Laura blurted.
“Laura,” warned Danny. “Be nice.”
“Didn’t your mom teach you manners?” Carmilla snickered.
Laura gasped, glared at Carmilla, and spat, “Why you—!”
“ Laura ,” Danny stressed, grabbing Laura’s shoulder and patting her back to calm her down. “Calm down .”
Carmilla chuckled as Laura put her arm down, though Laura’s glare intensified.
“Please, sit down,” Danny said. “Laura made us some dinner.”
The blonde, Elsie, disentangled herself from her other friend and took a seat at the table. “Thanks,” she muttered. “I’m Elsie.” She giggled quietly.
“Nice to meet you, Elsie,” Laura said, still glaring at Carmilla.
“Relax and listen to your friend, cutie, I’m not going to murder your puppy,” Carmilla mocked as she, too, took a seat at the table and immediately started piling the pot pie onto her plate.
“I never said you were going to—and I don’t have a—!” Laura shouted.
“This is good,” Carmilla interrupted as she took a bite. “Possibly the best chicken pot pie I’ve had.”
Laura stared at Carmilla. She finally sighed and looked down at her food. “Thanks,” she mumbled, thinking to herself that perhaps this girl isn’t so bad after all. Carmilla couldn’t possibly know about her mother.
A silence fell on the room.
“So,” Laura tried, “What are your majors?”
Carmilla stopped chewing to stare at Laura, and eventually she said, “Mine is philosophy and Elsie’s is German,” and continued eating.
“Cool,” nodded Laura. “Mine is Journalism and Danny’s is English.”
“Oh,” Carmilla droned, allowing another silence to pass.
Laura tried again. “Where did you come from?”
Carmilla paused once more and stated, “Waukesha.”
“What were you doing there?”
Carmilla sighed loudly and said, “Don’t you ever just shut up ?”
“Hey!” Danny protested, standing abruptly. “Don’t you speak to her like that!”
“Danny, they’ve probably had a really long day,” Laura reasoned. “Calm down.”
“You were yelling at her as soon as she walked in, and now you’re defending her?!” Danny said, exasperated. “She just insulted you!”
“Like I said, they probably had a long day.” Laura grabbed Danny’s hand and tugged her back into her seat.
Elsie stood up. “I’m going to bed,” she said, and looked down at Carmilla.
“Way to condescend, Laurel ,” Carmilla sneered, paying no attention to Elsie. “Where’s Hardy, anyways? Or is that the ginger?”
“I’m surprised you know who Laurel and Hardy are, given your lack of—” Danny started.
“ Danny ,” Laura intoned.
“I’m going to bed ,” repeated Elsie, staring at Carmilla pointedly.
“Elsie, I’m trying to—Wait, what do you mean, you’re surprised?! You can barely even talk and move at the—” Carmilla argued.
“Fine!” yelled Elsie. “I get it! I’ll just sleep by myself then!”
The room was stunned into silence as Elsie stormed up the stairs. Laura and Danny glanced at each other and at Carmilla as Carmilla blinked in shock.
Carmilla sighed once again, set down her fork, and followed Elsie up the stairs.
As the footsteps faded and two consecutive door slams were heard, Laura cleared her throat.
“So, that was weird,” she remarked.
“I still can’t believe you sided with her,” Danny grumbled.
“She probably just had a long day, is all,” Laura replied.
“You’re just happy she loved your mom’s recipe, Laura,” retorted Danny.
Laura shrugged.
“And seriously, who meets their housemates drunk?!”
Laura shrugged again.
~~~
Laura had always found herself drawn to fiction. Reading always relaxed her after a stressful day, and that day was nothing if not stressful, and that called for extreme measures. She grabbed her mom’s old copy of The Hobbit and went outside to sit on the porch. This was a new beginning, so she decided to start right at Chapter One.
As she read about Bilbo’s morning and the wizard Gandalf’s arrival in Hobbiton, the front door swung open and Carmilla strolled out. She didn’t seem to notice Laura sitting on the bench as she leaned on the railing and lit a cigarette. Laura looked up from her book, her nose scrunching up in disgust as the smell of the smoke wafted over to her.
“Do you mind?” she spoke up.
Carmilla merely glanced at her through the corner of her eye. “No. You reading won’t bother me.” She took another drag and made a point of exhaling in Laura’s direction.
Laura flinched and coughed. Carmilla smirked at her and turned to face the street again. Laura sighed. Some people are just butts.
“That dinner was...something,” she said.
“Yes,” Carmilla stated. “It was a dinner.”
“Were you being serious about liking the pot pie?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know, you could just be saying it to…” she trailed off.
Laura saw Carmilla raise her eyebrows as she took a drag.
“I don’t know,” Laura finished.
“Exactly, buttercup,” Carmilla said, rolling her eyes. “Stop acting like a wet mop. Where’s that fire I saw earlier?”
“Excuse me?” Laura scoffed. “Why are you being so rude right now?”
“Well maybe it’s because I wanted to talk about something interesting instead of the inane drivel you insist on spouting.”
“I’m just trying to talk to you!” Laura exclaimed. “I barely know you! How am I supposed to know what you find interesting?! Also, that’s so rude!”
“Whatever, kitten.”
“ Kitten?! ”
“Yes, kitten.” Carmilla exhaled another puff of smoke at Laura.
“You’re such a butt! And could you please stop smoking?! It makes you smell like crap!”
Carmilla laughed. “Language, cutie.” She dropped the remains of her cigarette on the porch before putting it out with the toe of her boot.
“ Thank you!” Laura said, exasperated.
“I didn’t do it for you. Goodnight.” And with that, she walked back inside, leaving Laura on the porch.
Laura sighed. What was that conversation? Her confusion mounted as she stared at the pile of ash on the porch. Kitten? I didn’t do it for you?! What on Earth…?
She opened her book back up, hoping that perhaps Middle Earth would help her make sense of the day, as it always had. The Hobbit , her faithful companion.
“What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
Of course, that clarified nothing.