Page 30 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

Cara tried to listen to the lecturer at the front of the hall, but her gaze kept drifting back to the time on her laptop. It wasn’t that the lecture was boring—the effects of mental health driven on or exacerbated by addiction and the statistics for the children growing up in those situations, was a particular subject Cara had great interest in. If for no other reason, to help better understand her own childhood and parents.

For whatever reason, she couldn’t concentrate long enough on the lecturer’s words to keep track of where the guy was, or what he was currently discussing. That was probably caused by the fact this was her last thing to get done at school, and then she had the weekend free.

Cara had been doing well.

Two weeks, no missed days.

She hadn’t even missed study halls or the specific lectures that were not considered required attendance for her grades.

Given her track record over the last few months of missing more time than she actually attended, Cara was going to take that as a win. It was one lecture—the current one—that she probably could have afforded to give herself off to relax, but she had refused. Seems she should have skipped it and downloaded it later off the university’s online portal, because she wasn’t getting a damn thing out of it anyway.

While it wasn’t good form on a student to leave a closed lecture hall, Cara considered doing just that and grabbing a bite to eat on her way to the bus stop. She ended up pushing through those last ten minutes or so, taking the time to close down her laptop and pack her things away. Some lecturers went far over their time, but thankfully, this one was done the second the clock hit four.

Cara was done, too.

Normalcy, she told herself as she walked out of the lecture hall. You’re trying to get back to some kind of normal here.

So far, she was succeeding.

Or it seemed so.

She hadn’t stayed in bed for hours on end. She went out and did things, grabbed groceries, paid bills, and whatever else needed done. It wasn’t like she was a social butterfly, but she made it a point to grab coffee with a couple of friends, and have lunch with her aunt, too. Which was a hell of a lot more than she had been doing before.

Cara hadn’t realized how deep her head had been stuck in the sand for all those months. To an extent, she had liked the darkness of being alone, even if the loneliness felt like it might kill her.

She figured, what did it matter?

No one would be able to understand her grief, anyhow.

Cara was right on that end.

No one did understand.

But they sympathized.

Maybe it was that the hardest part of her grief was finally waning enough to let her breathe. Maybe she had somehow managed to survive the depression that had sank its dirty claws into her mind for so long. Or maybe forcing herself to do normal things and actually see what was happening around her had been enough to wake her the hell up.

Maybe it was none of those things.

She did know that whatever it was, she was grateful. There was nothing to life, if a person wasn’t living it. Lea would have understood that better than anyone else.

“Hey, Cara!”

She had opened the main doors to Hall Three to leave, but turned to face the familiar girl running up to her. Lynn had been one of the few mutual friends that Cara and Lea had shared together, who had come from them attending the university.

“What’s up, Lynn?”

The girl smiled widely. “Just wondered if maybe you might want to hang out this weekend? We’re all thinking of heading to the new club that opened up in Niagara Falls.”

“That club is supposed to be crazy popular right now, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

“So, four hours of waiting in line to get inside a club that is so full, you can barely see what’s happening five feet in front of you?” Cara asked, slightly amused.

Lynn shrugged. “I guess. You interested?”

“Not this weekend, but thanks.”