The Fall (Camren)

Aftermath - Part 2

When Lauren and Alex arrived back at the bus, the blonde quickly made herself scarce and Lauren was left staring at the closed doors of the bus. She stood there for long minutes, steadying herself and breathing deeply. Taking a final shuddery breath she entered.

Making her way to the back lounge she found Camila and Normani playing the Xbox. Camila was tapping the controller furiously and Normani was watching the screen with her head on Camila's lap, chewing a Twizzler.

'What're you doing?' Lauren asked, she had never seen any of the girls playing the Xbox before; she was genuinely surprised Camila was even holding the controller the right way around.

'Hey,' Camila smiled, glancing away from the game, 'you're back.'

'Yeah.'

'Did you get what you went for?'

'Not really.' Understatement of the fucking century. Lauren sighed, she tried not to let the heavy weight in her chest affect her but David's words swam in her mind. 'What are you playing?' she deflected.

'GTA.' Normani answered. 'It's pretty funny actually. Camila just got a lap dance.'

Camila spluttered, 'My character got a lap dance.' The Cuban corrected, back to tapping buttons.

Lauren felt the corners of her lips twitch in a smile, it was involuntary but she knew it didn't reach her eyes. Thankfully, neither girl noticed.

'You wanna watch?' Normani asked.

'No I'm pretty beat, think I'll just go to bed for a while.'

'You okay?' Camila asked, the game forgotten for the moment, her eyes shone with concern.

'Yeah.' Lauren smiled tightly and tuned back to the bunks. Lie. Big fucking lie.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren spent the better half of two hours staring up at the ceiling of her bunk. Coming up with idea after idea of ways to get around the predicament she was in. nothing stuck, everything led to the seemingly inevitable jeopardy she was putting Camila in.

She loved her, god she loved her, and that was the problem wasn't it? She was thinking with her heart and that was a bad idea. She needed to go with her instincts. Her instincts didn't have feelings, they couldn't cloud her judgment.

Suddenly, the curtain to her bunk opened and she knew Camila was the culprit without even turning her head. When she did turn she felt the familiar skip her heart always made when her eyes laid on Camila. She wanted to fall, silently, into the arms of the girl she loved.

'Are you going to mope in their all day because we're going out for dinner?'

'I'm not moping.' Lauren sulked, turning back to the ceiling so she didn't have to see Camila's bright eyes.

'Really? Cus you look like somebody just told you Lana Del Rey just died.'

Lauren rolled her eyes under Camila's glare.

Lauren huffed, 'okay, I'm not fine, but I don't want to talk about it.'

'Is it something I've done?' The younger girl asked, pushing Lauren's shoulder back silently telling Lauren to move so she could join her in the bed.

Lauren shimmied across to give her room. 'I said I don't want to talk about it Camz.'

'I just want to know if I've upset you.' Camila mumbled and Lauren wanted to punch herself in the face for making Camila feel guilty.

'You've done nothing wrong,' she reached over and tucked a lose tendril of hair behind Camila's ear, letting her thumb brush over her cheekbone slowly.

Camila wiggled under Lauren's blanket and pulled her phone from her pocket.

'What're you doing?'

'Texting the others to go without us.'

'You don't need to do that.' She said, watching Camila tap rapidly on her phone screen.

'I know I don't need to. I want to.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren woke with a gasp, panting quick desperate breaths into the dark of her bunk. The dream still clung to her, blurring the lines of reality and nightmare. She couldn't remember the dream, but she knew it was a bad one by the terror she still felt coursing through every cell of her body. Her heart pounded, her skin was damp and cold. She struggled to calm her breathing as each exhale shuddered through parted lips.

Steadily her heartrate slowed back down and she became conscious of someone else in her bunk. Camila's back was to her facing the separating curtain, undisturbed by Lauren's nightmare. And just like that Lauren was flung from one nightmare to another, much more real, one. The clawing, ice cold chill of dread crawled up her lower back.

She curled onto her side to spoon her girlfriend. Girlfriend. God, how much longer could she call her that? She let Camila's warmth seep into her cooled form. The presence of the younger girl calming her immediately.

The dark of her bunk suddenly glowed blue, it took a second to realise her phone was ringing on silent mode, lighting up the dark around them.

Flipping back onto her back, away from Camila, she grabbed her phone - unknown number – flashed on the screen. The time was 4:30am. She answered quietly. 'Hello?'

The male voice on the other side of the line was easily recognisable and filled her with a similar terror that her nightmare produced. 'Unless you've managed the most amicable break up in history, it seems you haven't done as I asked, Miss Jauregui.

Lauren swallowed the lump in her throat, and whispered 'I-I need time to-'

'I gave you time.'

'A day isn't enough-'

'It's plenty.' He interrupted. 'Do it tomorrow or I shall be calling Miss Cabello into my office for a little discussion. Are we clear?'

'Yes.' The words tumbled from her lips in a whispered sigh of defeat.

The line went dead and she let silent tears slip down her face. The light on her phone dimmed and she was plunged back into darkness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: Things will be getting a little but dark from this point on, but i promise there is light at the end of the tunnel.