Chapter 2 – Lightly Falling Through a Whisper

“Wow…”, Carmen murmured, entering Shane’s apartment, “…How can you live in here?”.

Behind her back, Shane shrugged.

“I don’t know. I just moved in. I’ve never lived alone. I used to share a house with a… a friend of mine…”.

Carmen didn’t turn around, but she smirked softly. Behind the specs, her eyes ran across the spare rooms. The walls, once painted in white, were slightly blackened. There were boxes stacked in piles in the corners, an old couch, a table with one single chair, a small TV, and basically nothing else.

“One of your friends with benefits?”, Carmen asked, softly. There was no judgment in her voice, there was no sarcasm, just a honest curiosity.

Shane pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a dull pain hammering against her temples. It happened all the time, in a mixture of pain and guilt, when Jenny was implicitly or explicitly mentioned.

“Sort of. But I messed up and now she hates me”.

The words came out quietly and hurriedly, and Shane found herself amazed. Normally, she wouldn’t say such a personal thing to someone she barely knew, but Carmen had something so disarming and crystalline in her and that made Shane feel so easy and open. So easy and open that it kind of scared her.

Carmen turned around to face her fully. In the dimly illuminated room, her white, white smile was even more blinding than usual.

“I can’t imagine how someone could hate you”, she considered, crossing her arms over her chest and shrugging.

Shane blushed, looking down. Suddenly, her boots were very, very interesting.

“You say so just because you don’t know me very well…”.

“…Yet”, Carmen ducked her head to a side and smirked one of her very innocent smirks.

Shane chuckled, rubbing her nose in a childish way. She wasn’t embarrassed and she didn’t feel any physical attraction for Carmen, nevertheless she always felt a sort of relaxed anxiety – a speech device, but Shane was indeed a living oxymoron – when she was around her.

Carmen moved a single step forward, bowing her head to intercept Shane’s eyes.

“What happened with your friend? You can tell me, if you want”, she whispered, gently.