The Fall (Camren)

Reasons Wretched and Divine

She was so done with vomiting into hotel room toilets. Lauren’s head had been down too many toilet bowls on this tour for it to be acceptable.

‘Could you die a little quieter please, I’m trying to sleep in here?’ Camila asked from the adjoining bedroom.

The only response she could muster was a groan which echoed through the tiled bathroom, she had accidentally left the bathroom door open in her haste to make it to the toilet in time and so Camila had unintentionally been hearing her hangover happen for the past thirty minutes. But the door was just. So. Far. Away.

Lauren had made a solemn vow ten minutes into this bathroom excursion never to drink ever again. The hangover had kicked in so thick and fast and she was currently cursed with a pounding headache, upset stomach and an entirely unsympathetic girlfriend.

Even through her self-inflicted misery a smile creeped upon her face at the thought of Camila being her girlfriend. The concept still felt odd to her, foreign, like this was some kind of elaborate prank or something. But, oxymoronically it felt right, meant to be almost, and she knew it was cliché but they were like puzzle pieces that fit together. Or two puzzle pieces, from separate puzzles, that probably shouldn’t be put together but for some reason they fit, even if they shouldn’t.

Another wave of sickness washed over her and she heaved into the white toilet bowl, her body sagging against the porcelain. This was all Brad’s fault, Lauren decided, he dragged her to the party, he gave her her first drink and yes, okay she was the one that decided to do shots but he was the cause of the whole night, therefore he was to blame. Cause and effect or something.

She remembered the last thing Brad said to her when the taxi dropped her off and she immediately felt guilty for not contacting him last night.

‘Camzi?’ Lauren croaked her voice raspy from lack of use.

‘No way, I’m not holding your hair back Lauren, you brought this on yourself.’

Lauren rolled her eyes at Camila’s response. ‘That’s not what I was going to ask but thank you for being such a caring girlfriend.’ There was that pesky smile again. Girlfriend.

‘Oh, good ‘cause I’m not coming in there, pukey Lauren is my least favourite type of Lauren.’

‘Can you at least just come to the doorway, I need my phone?’

There was no verbal answer but Lauren could hear bed sheets rustling and the sound of Camila’s footsteps padding around the room.

‘It might be on the floor,’ Lauren offered, the hazy and disjointed memory of last night flickered behind her closed eyelids, she remembered her phone slipping from the bed, her leg sliding easily over Camila’s hip, the press of their bodies.  Lauren’s face reddened as the memories played like a flipbook in her head.

‘I put in on charge for you earlier.’ Camila interrupted her thoughts; she stood at the threshold of the bathroom holding out Lauren’s iPhone, a bottle of water and some Advil. Lauren smiled gratefully, taking them gratefully with shaking hands. Maybe she was a little hasty earlier with the whole unsympathetic thing.

Unlocking her phone, she checked to see if Brad had contacted her.

‘You’re not calling an ambulance are you?’

‘It’s tempting,’ She said, popping two tablets in her mouth and gulping down some water, ‘I’m texting Brad, he asked me to text him when I was safe in bed but obviously I got a little…distracted.’

Lauren sent the text and looked up from her phone to see the blush coat Camila’s cheeks and with startling clarity she remembered the whispered, ‘okay’ that seeped from Camila’s lips into her consciousness before sleep took over last night. A promise that they would try their hardest to make this work, a vocal declaration that this was what they both wanted. Lauren decided to act on that promise, she propped herself up on the toilet seat.