A Light in the Dark

Chapter 30

The day had gone wrong in every possible way.

Camila didn't take her eyes off of the banana ice cream in front of her and wondered how her carefully thought out plan could have been ruined so easily. Had it been the question from the night before? Probably. Had she known that such a stupid question would bring her plan into jeopardy, she never would have asked...

"Hey, don't look so down, Mila. Lauren has only some weird stomach bug or something," Dinah tried to reassure her for the umpteenth time, but she merely shook her head.

"No, she doesn't."

Dinah snorted. "Of course she does. It's not gonna be life threatening. She was just feeling a little sick."

"No, she wasn't..." Camila sighed and finally looked up.

Instead of spending the Saturday with Lauren like she had planned, the green-eyed girl had rearranged everything and called Dinah over to take Camila out. She frowned. Lauren had said that she was feeling ill, but had shot down every attempt of her to stay by her side. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. She wanted to get rid of her.

"What do you mean?" Dinah furrowed her brows. The taller girl had tried everything in her book to make her feel better, but Camila knew that nothing would. Not until she had apologized to Lauren. For whatever it was that she did.

"I... Dinah, I think I screwed up," she admitted quietly. "I didn't mean to... I was being stupid. I was selfish and too curious for my own good..."

"Mila, you're not making any sense right now," Dinah gently interrupted her and reached out to take her hand. "What happened?"

"Well, we watched a movie after coming home and everything was fine," she started her explanation, "but it got me thinking on how I basically don't know anything about her... like, I know what her favorite color is and her favorite food, the music she listens to and stuff like that..."

Dinah nodded slowly, still looking confused. "So what? You got a lot of time to learn about that, don't you?"

"I was just... she knows already so many, like, personal things about me... things that no one knows besides my family and sometimes not even them, you know?" She paused for a moment and Dinah nodded.

"I know what you mean. Lauren doesn't really like to talk about things like that," she answered.

"Right." Camila nodded. "And... and I might have... pressured her or something..."

Dinah frowned. "What exactly did you say?"

"It didn't seem like that question was that big of a deal," she hurriedly explained. "I just wanted her to clarify, that's all. It didn't make sense. A while ago I made a stupid joke about dating, like Lauren and I dating... and she just looked really shocked before saying how ridiculous it would be for us to be lesbians. Like, I thought she was straight and borderline homophobic or something and then you tell me that she's not and... I was so confused, I just wanted an answer..."

The sad look in Dinah's eyes didn't really help to calm her nerves. What was it that she had done wrong?

"Oh Mila..." Dinah sighed deeply and shook her head. "It's not your fault. But yeah, I guess it would explain that sudden stomach bug..."

It wasn't her fault? So she was right, there was something going on... something that no one had told her about.

"I feel like I'm out of the loop," she admitted and carefully watched her friend. "Does this have anything to do with the other thing that you guys never elaborate on when you remember that I'm there?"