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Carmilla and Ell had been dating for two and a half years. And of course, as in every single relationship there were bound to be fights and arguments.
The couple had one about a week ago and Ell refused to talk to Carmilla ever since. At all. She wasn’t responding to Carmilla’s text, calls, ignored her on the street and at university. Carmilla was getting tired of that.
Ell’s outburst, yet again, was about Carmilla “flirting” with some girl.
Carmilla was even more fed up with that.
Her girlfriend was jealous for no reason. It wasn’t Carmilla’s fault that most of the time she got paired up with some girl or another. 'Cause there were only, like, seven guys in her class! And what was she supposed to do? Be rude and ignore the girls she was writing a paper with? She knew everyone in her class and was on good terms with all of them. Plus, everyone in her class and their mother knew she had a girlfriend. So, Ell being all angry and jealous of her and some girl talking, laughing and smiling was stupid and illogical.
Ell was so illogical sometimes. (Who was she kidding? Most of the time!)
But she still loved her. So, Carmilla came up with a plan of how to ask for forgiveness (which, she thought, she didn’t need because she didn’t do anything, wrong!)
Still, Carmilla grabbed her acoustic guitar and set out. Ell was still living with her parents, who didn’t really liked her, for some reason she didn’t know about. So, she was at Ell’s place a handful of times, but she was sure that she remembered where it was pretty well.
So, half an hour later she jumped over the fence and landed in Ell’s backyard. It was her lucky day (night, at that point), cause the light was on only in Ell’s room. She noticed the light itself was dim.
Probably the lamp on her nightstand or on her desk.
Carmilla smiled, also noticing that the window was slightly ajar. The nights were pleasantly cool for the middle of September and she herself and her roommate – Danny – slept with their window wide open.
Carmilla grabbed her acoustic guitar, checked the tuning and, after clearing her throat, she started singing, strumming the strings.
Girl, just let your hair down
Let's paint the whole town
Life is our playground, yeah
But I'm not a kid no more
So I must open doors and make you feel like the lady you are
My momma raised me to be classy, not flashy
I'm happy to please you
Though I can tell that's not what you're used to
Carmilla’s voice was loud enough for only Ell to hear her.
She couldn’t help but smile when she saw a silhouette moving behind see-through curtains.
And they say chivalry is dead
(Dead, Dead, Dead)
Girl, let a real man pick up the slack
And treat you with respect, yeah
Ell went over to the window and pushed curtains a little to the side, watching Carmilla. She couldn’t see the expression on her girlfriend’s face, but the thing that she was finally listening to her was a big victory for Carmilla.
And you don't have to love me
Love me, Love me
You don't have to love me
Love me, Love me
Just 'cause I'm a gentleman don't mean
I ain't taking you to bed
Ahhh, baby let me buy your meals
I see you're head over heels
I feel like you deserve it
There's no pressure
We can do whatever makes you comfortable, yeah
I could float your boat
If you're cold take my coat
I'll sing a music note from a song that I just wrote
Girl, just take my hand
And let me be your man
Though that's not what you're used to
Carmilla saw Ell lean on the wall, clearly listening. She always liked Carmilla’s singing. So she knew that serenading would be a good decision. So, she gave all of her for the rest of the song.
That's just how you treat a lady
Treat a lady, Treat a lady
Treat a lady, Treat a lady
Treat a lady
Dadadadadum
That's just how you treat a lady
Treat a lady, Treat a lady
Treat a lady, Treat a lady
Treat a lady
Dadadadadum
And they say chivalry is dead
(Dead, Dead, Dead)
Girl, let a real man pick up the slack
And treat you with respect, yeah
And you don't have to love me
Love me, Love me
You don't need have to love me
Love me, Love me
Just 'cause I'm a gentleman don't mean I ain't taking you to bed
And they say chivalry is dead
(Dead, dead, dead)
She strummed the guitar a few more times and took a few deep breaths, not taking her eyes out of the window.
With a relief and even bigger smile she noticed Ell pulling the curtains aside and opening the window completely. Carmilla opened her mouth to start on an apologizing speech she had prepared when the voice beat her to it.
“Not to be rude and ungrateful, I really liked the song and your voice, but… do I know you?”
Carmilla froze.
That wasn’t Ell’s voice at all. It was a little higher than Ell’s with some slight accent she couldn’t pinpoint.
Then, she took a closer look at the girl in the window. Oh, crap.
“Umm… Gaisbacherweg 35?” The girl chuckled.
“It’s 41, sorry.” Carmilla had a strong urge to hit her head against the tree she was standing by.
“Oops. Wrong house.” Carmilla said sheepishly, putting her guitar in the bag. “Sorry.” She said, zipping it up.
“Don’t worry about it.” The girl said, watching Carmilla, leaning with her hand on the window frame. “But really, do I know you?”
“If you attend Silas University, then maybe?”
“I do. So?”
“Carmilla. Carmilla Karnstein.”
“Ah! Yes, you’re the one-”
“With an abnormally jealous girlfriend. Yep. I’m the one.” That’s how people referred to her if someone was asking about her for the first time. She couldn’t say she enjoyed it. (The hint: she didn’t. At all.)
“I actually wanted to say that you were the one who was reading Goethe during the German Poetry Week.” Carmilla couldn’t help but think: Ell didn’t come to see my reading. “I especially liked your reading of Wer nie sein Brot.”
“That’s one of my favorites.” Carmilla smiled, looking up at the girl. “And what’s your name?”
“Oh- Oh! Sorry. I’m Laura. Laura Hollis.”
“Ah, the cupcake girl.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You were selling cupcakes with some other guys for a charity thing. You had a tag on.” The girl – Laura – laughed and suddenly, Carmilla felt her stomach do that flip-flap thing it hadn’t done in long time. Not since hers and Ell’s first date. But she tried to shake the feeling off.
“Yep, that’s me.”
The two were silent for a few moments before Carmilla cleared her throat, realizing that this wasn’t the best idea to just stay there and look at some other girl after she serenaded her, thinking it was her girlfriend.
“Okay, I, erm… I’ll go.”
“Y-yeah. Okay. Sure. I… will see you around?”
“Sure, cupcake.”
Laura closed the window and Carmilla jumped over the fence.
Three days later.
Carmilla, Ell, Danny and some other of their mutual friends were standing outside of one of the buildings on campus when Carmilla saw her. Laura was walking down the path, with some books in her hands. Probably heading to the library.
“Give me a sec.” She said to the group and jogging over to her. “Hey, Cupcake!” Laura stopped, smiling up at Carmilla.
“Hey, Carm! How are you doing?”
“Good. What about you?”
“I’m good. How’re you and your girlfriend?” Carmilla took a deep breath. “Still bad?”
“Rather hard than bad.” Laura casted a brief look to the side, looking back at Carmilla with some uneasiness. “She’s looking at us with murder written all over her face?”
“Yeah.” Another tired sigh. “I’ll go Carm. I don’t want you to fight with your girlfriend because of me.”
“Don’t worry. We fight about every girl I talk to.”
“Still. I’ll see you later?”
“Sure.”
“Bye, Carm.”
“Bye, Laura.”
“Who was that?” Ell asked, tone harsh. Carmilla fought the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose.
“A friend.”
“Why don’t I know her?”
“I don’t know every one of your friends either.” Ell was practically burning a hole in Carmilla with her glare. “Baby, look-” But she didn’t have time to finish. Ell turned on her heels and marched off.
Another tired sigh.
“It never was this bad.” Danny said, placing a hand on Carmilla’s shoulder. “How long are you going to put up with this?”
“D-Bear is right.” Kirsch piped in. “Later you’ve been exhausted rather than happy with her.”
Carmilla just stayed silent.
A week later.
“Why’s she so jealous of you? You’re not doing anything for her to be, right?”
“I don’t know what happened. This whole thing started about half a year ago. And I have no idea what I did wrong.”
“You do know you’re not obliged to stay in a relationship you’re not happy with?”
“Yeah, Cupcake, I know. But it’s hard to end up things that were lasting for so long.”
“I can’t say I fully understand, cause my longest relationship lasted for about four month, but I still kind of do. Am I making sense?”
“You do. Thanks for listening.”
“Don’t mention it. Oh, and here.”
“What is it?”
“My number. If you need someone to listen.”
“Thank you, Laura.”
Five days later.
“Hello?” Laura answered her phone, not even checking who it was.
“We broke up.” She was confused for a second, but after taking a quick glance on the name of the caller Laura became shocked.
“Really?” Carmilla just hummed. “Who initiated it?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“She’s angry. Said that it was my fault for our relationship to end and blah-blah-blah.”
“And you?”
There was a moment of silence before Laura heard Carmilla sigh contently.
“Haven’t felt this good in a long time.”
A month later.
“Hey, umm, Laura?” The girl in question was standing with some of her groupmates in a hallway. She turned around and smiled.
“Carm! Hey. How are you? What are you doing here?”
Carmilla could have sworn that her heart changed its location and now it was in her throat and, not sure about butterflies, but she was sure there was a bunch of elephants dancing can-can in her stomach.
“I’m good. Erm… Can I talk to you for a moment?”
The two walked over to one of the windows, away from Laura’s friends.
“You sure you are okay, Carm? You look… jumpy.”
“I’m cool. It’s just… remember that German Poetry week a few month ago?” Laura nodded. “Yeah. So, I was asked to represent our university on an Annual Poetry Reading next week-”
“Carm! That’s so cool!”
“Thanks. So, umm… I was wondering if you’d like to go with me there… as my… umm… as my date?”
The silence that hung between them was making Carmilla even more anxious than she already was.
“I’d love to, Carm.” She locked eyes with Laura and noticed the girl blushing lightly.
“Great!” Carmilla turned deep scarlet at her little outburst. “I umm… I’ll pick you up on Friday and six?”
“Sure.”
Two month later.
“Will you stop?”
“What if they don’t like me?”
“Carm, we’ve already had this talk.”
“But what if-”
“Carmilla Karnstein. Stop. Right now. Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then be sure when I say that everything is going to be fine, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good.”
Laura opened the door to her parents’ house.
“Mom, dad! We’re here!”
“Finally!” A deep voice beamed and a man, who was ten times Carmilla’s size stepped out into the hallway. “I thought she’d chicken out the last moment.”
“Dad!”
“John!”
Carmilla saw a woman join them and she was sure that that would be how Laura’d look in ten years.
“Honey, please, ignore him most of the time.”
“Better don’t ignore me, if you want to date my daughter. You told her I’m an ex-soldier and I know how to use a gun?”
“Dad!”
“John!” The man laughed. “Better go be useful and check the lasagna.”
Laura’s dad chuckled and put his hand out for Carmilla to shake.
“Carmilla, right?” She nodded, squeezing the man’s hand as hard as she could. “Ohh. She has something in her.” He said to Laura, smirking. “Call me John.” And with that he went into the house.
“Carmilla.” She looked at the woman before her. She shook her hand as well. “I’m Mary. And when I said ignore him, I wasn’t joking.” She smiled, and with a wink on both of the girls went to join her husband.
“So?” Laura asked, stepping before her.
“So?”
“Told you it’s gonna be fine.”
“Yeah.” Carmilla leaned forward, capturing Laura’s lips in a kiss.
“No snogging my daughter in this house!” John’s voice boomed from behind them and the two jerked apart. Laura laughed, resting her forehead against Carmilla’s.
“Welcome to the family.”
Carmilla couldn’t help but wonder how one song could change one’s life so much.