Don't Touch Me

"I'm not fucking losing her again."

Camila still wasn't exactly on speaking terms to Lucy and it wasn't for the lack of trying on the other Latina's part. Lucy wanted to be Camila's friend again. She wanted everything to go back to how it was before Lauren left.

She missed the simplicity that came with aimlessly flirting with her friends and causing a vein to swell on Lauren's forehead. She missed those things. She missed their laughter and bickering but she knew that was going to be hard to get back.

Lucy fucked up and she was certainly suffering the repercussions now. That came with sleepless nights and cold sweats that had her moods playing up. For the first time in her life she was sort of glad her mother worked ungodly hours and her father disappeared for days on end, she didn't want either of them to see her the way she was. Hell, she barely let Alessia see the way she was. When she felt a wave of withdrawal creep up on her, more often than not she'd find a way to steer Alessia out of her front door then submerge herself in an ice-cold bath that still felt like fire on her skin.

Everything itched. Lucy's skin had been scratched raw at one point and she'd had to hide it under a jacket on an insanely heated day. She played it off as wanted to look badass, but she knew she hadn't convinced her girlfriend. Alessia had a keen eyes for catching her lies.

Lucy could deal with those though...sort of.

What she couldn't deal with was Camila's silence. At school Camila stuck to Dinah or Ally like glue, avoiding any interaction with Lucy.

Lauren was sent home from the hospital after four days of observation and was deemed fit to be bed ridden for another week. Alejandro had taken that very week off to keep an eye on the green-eyed girl because he was certain she'd be trying to slip out of the house. Lauren wasn't exactly known for following the rules.

Michael Jauregui had stuck around just long enough to see that his daughter was going to make a full recovery before he jetted off to sort things out with Camila's record label and make up whatever excuse necessary for her radio silence following Lauren's hospitalisation. It was why Alejandro took on the role of being the father figure for the Jauregui delinquent again.

So while Lauren was home in bed, Camila was at school and Lucy knew if Lauren were around, it would be a lot harder for the younger girl to ignore her but Lauren wasn't around so Camila kept her eyes anywhere that wasn't Lucy.

It was awkward. For Lucy, visiting her best friend was like entering the lion's den. Camila always gathered Sofi up and retreated into the lounge room to watch some kids' movie that she didn't particularly like, but she didn't particularly like the feelings she got around Lucy either. The older Latina always watched her disappear with so much...regret.

Camila was still upset with Lucy. She couldn't help it. Every time she locked eyes with the girl she heard Lauren flatline or saw Lauren's paler than usual face. It was like a nightmare replaying in her head over and over again. So Camila stayed away from Lucy as much as possible.

She sort of lied to Lauren as well, telling her that Lucy was fine, that she seemed to be getting on well. She didn't want her girlfriend stressing about tension between herself and her best friend.

"She looks like shit today," Dinah commented as her eyes lingered on Lucy's dejected frame leaning on a locker beside Alessia's.

Camila glanced over briefly, fighting the urge to physically flinch back from what she saw. Dinah was right, Lucy looked awful. Her skin was so pale it almost tinged on green and her hair was a knotted mess on her head. It was shocking to Camila that someone could start to look so painfully frail but then she remembered how frail Lucy had begun to look prior to Lauren getting shot.