EMBRACE winrina

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Our relationship was strained. There was always tension between Karina and I, and though it wasn't necessarily worse after Addy's birthday party, it certainly hadn't gone away. At the same time, however, it felt like we were both trying. I didn't know what had gotten into me at Lavender's house, but I had wanted Karina so badly and I couldn't stop myself from doing something about it. But since then, it seemed as though both of us had more control over ourselves.

Though I still wasn't exactly sure why we had to have control over ourselves in the first place- why all we ever seemed to be able to do was kiss and then go back to being friends.

The school bell rang and I trudged out of my last class, heading to Karina's classroom for detention. I didn't get very far however because she stopped me in the hall and wordlessly ushered me toward the back of the school, where unfortunately, it seemed as though we were being forced into our routine from those few weeks in October.

"You know what you could do, don't you?"

Karina looked over at me, furrowing her eyebrows as she started taking things down from the board. "Huh?"

I sat on the table and swung my legs back and forth. "You could use the fact that Mr. Lee Lee over there," I said, nodding down the hall towards where he was speaking with another teacher, "has a crush on you to our advantage."

She shook her head, but her expression seemed to brighten. "I predict that a load of nonsense is about to come out of your mouth right now."

"Hear me out," I responded. "A little harmless flirting never hurt anyone."

"That's probably one of the falsest statements you could ever make," she said, shaking her head. "I'm not flirting with my boss just so I don't have to his bidding." She paused. "Emphasis on the I because you haven't actually helped me with this since the first time we did it."

"The first time we did it, we weren't in school. It was the week before if I remember correctly--"

She shoved me, "Lower your voice damnit, seriously? Lee is right there," she bit, leaning closer to me. "And I'm positive there's a camera in this lobby somewhere. Please don't joke about that here."

"Damn, okay, I'm sorry." I paused, picking up a piece of paper and stapling it to the board. "I don't know what you're talking about anyway, I help."

She pulled down the paper I had just stapled and narrowed her eyes. "Not very well. That doesn't go there."

My afternoon continued to unfold much the same, with me sitting on the table making pointless conversation, occasionally helping only to have her tell me I wasn't doing it right. The hour eventually came to an end, but I stayed where I was on the table because I had to wait for Karina, seeing as I didn't have to work today.

"When can I stop coming to detention?" I spoke up, more or less out of the blue.

She turned to look at me. "When I say so."

"Do you have guidelines that you're following for the amount of my Thursday afternoons that you're stealing or are you just making it up as you go?"

Karina rolled her eyes. "I'm stealing your afternoon of doing nothing? I'm such a terrible person."

"Maybe I'd plan something to do if I didn't have to be in detention with you."

"Yeah I bet you would," she said sarcastically. "Anyway, it may be up to me but Lee explained to me the usual protocol for this type of thing, so I'm following it. You've got a few months left, Win."

"I think you just like my company," I murmured. I heard the scuffle of shoes and voices in the hallway next to me, so I let my own voice die. Not ten seconds later, Lia emerged, only she was running down the hallway with Principal Lee chasing after her.