EMBRACE winrina

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I was convinced that I had really done it this time.

I didn't see Karina for the rest of the day that Saturday. I suppose she trusted me with Addy, even if I'd pissed her off by mentioning her mom, because she had stayed in her bedroom and only came out to feed her niece dinner. Even then, she didn't give me a second, or even a first glance for that matter, and her expression had been completely and utterly emotionless.

Lavender picked up her daughter the following day, and after Addy was gone, Karina left the apartment and didn't come back until a little after eleven at night. Most of the week passed by similarly, and I was starting to believe that she'd never talk to me again. She was even colder in class, and I felt bad because she was taking out her frustration- or whatever she was feeling- on some of her students, and it was my fault. She was fine while she was teaching, but the little bit of patience that she'd had before for the seniors who misbehaved was completely gone.

I was so confused. I had never seen anyone act like this, and death was something that I'd had to deal with a lot. Not only had my own family passed, but I had known quite a few kids in the system that lost one or both of their parents and none of them had dealt with it the way that Karina seemed to be. All I'd done was simply mention her mother. It was clear that her mom's death was a touchy subject for her, as a death would be for a lot of people. I had known quite a few people that tried to block out their emotions instead of dealing with them. Hell, I did that more often than not, especially with my sister.

But I had never seen it like this.

I had detention today, and I wasn't at all looking forward to an hour with Karina in a confined space where she could possibly bite my head off, or even worse, let us sit in a painfully uncomfortable silence. We hadn't yet been in a situation where we were alone and forced to talk to each other, so I was convinced that this afternoon would be an interesting one. I lingered outside of her door for a while, as I tended to do, before opening it and walking in.

She didn't even look up.

I sat down in the desk closest to her, only interested in getting her attention. She ignored me like she had been for the past week or so, and I sighed. Even though I felt for her, because I was familiar with what she could be going through, I was still growing frustrated. Was she going to do this every time I did something wrong? I couldn't take being shut out again, and to make matters even worse, my nightmares were back. It seemed to me that on the one night that Karina had made me really, really happy, I had actually slept well.

Was the fact that I couldn't sleep again just a coincidence?

I looked up, trying something that I hadn't yet done since Halloween- talking to her. "My intention last week was not to make you upset, Karina."

"I'm not upset," she said, never raising her eyes from the papers on her desk.

"Seriously? Come on, you can't lie right now, especially not about how you're feeling."

This time, for probably the first time in a week, she met my eyes. "I'm not lying, and I'm not upset. I'm pissed off at you."

"For what?"

She barely looked up. "You invaded my privacy Winter, and I'm not okay with that. I really don't want to talk to you right now."

I sat up in my seat, shaking my head. I was beyond confused because she was taking this to a bit of an extreme. "All I did was ask you a question... I didn't realize that your mom is a touchy subject for you, and I'm sorry for bringing her up. But do you want to explain to me how the hell I invaded your privacy?"