The best is yet to come

You better

Present time

"I'm sorry what?" Leslie asked as soon as Carina pulled her out of her thoughts asking her something she didn't understand at all.

"I said, do you want to go out for breakfast before school?" The italian woman was leaning against the wall of Leslie's room. She had attached something like threehundred pictures on the wall and some maps of cities she dreamed to go to.
At the end of the room the built crib was waiting for the little girl.

"Ehm...not really." She said looking back down at the floor.

Carina frowned and walked closer stumbling when the girl kicked a little in her belly.
She was upset when Leslie was upset and would move a lot everytime Carina was worried about Maya.
Feeling the other's feeling was something Carina knew that babies do during pregnancy but experiencing it somehow made it feel real.

"Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?" She asked softly while sitting on the bed next to her big daughter.

It was crazy knowing that a seventeen years old girl was their daughter. She was so smart and so beautiful that Maya used to say heaven sent her to them both when they needed her the most without knowing it.

Leslie shrugged her shoulders and moved to stand up when Carina's hand held hers to stop her.

"Please don't be your mother." She chuckled a little still being silent and careful not to exagerate.

Carina felt the girl shiver and going tense after that quote and let her hand go to softly grab the girl's chin in attempt to turn her towards herself.

"Tell me bella." Leslie's eyes were wet with tears that she was trying so hard to hold. Carina felt a sudden void seeing her like that.

The girl cleared her throat before opening her mouth to speak.

"It's...ehm...today it's the day of-" She managed to hold a sob by swallowing it down. "Of the accident." Was all she managed to say before her voice would fail her.

Carina frowned a little confused for a moment before she realized and remembered what the girl had told them on their first dinner together.

Leslie's mother had died in the accident that triggered her father's violent behavior.
The girl told Maya a little more the days later and her wife talked to her about how Leslie almost died due to a large piece of glass that cut through her back but she survived.

"I used to sneak out of the house to go to the cemetery every year. Dad didn't want me to but he was always so drunk and never noticed." She spoke fast enough to avoid that Carina could hear her cracking voice.

The woman held her head and caressed her wavy hair to soothe her but it only made her eventually burst into tears leaning on her legs.

 

It took the girl a few minutes to calm down, Carina's legs were aching a little for the weight of the girl, but she needed soft, she needed affection and so the italian didn't move an inch.

Leslie raised back up sitted and wiped the tears off her face before stocking a lock of hair behind her ear smiling a little.