BLACK CRESCENT

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

"Every color looks good her especially red but her favorite color is teal."

"oh really Lauren , are you sure she's not your girlfriend" Taylor teased

Moments later, my phone's ringtone echoed within our tiny cabin space.

"Urgh," Camila groaned in her sleep, turning away from me.

I answered the phone before it could ring a second time. Getting up, I went to the window and whispered into the phone, "I texted you instead of calling for a reason Taylor."

"I need to meet her," she whined. "Zayn already knows her, and you obviously care about her. I need to get to meet her before you act like she's just some normal student at the party. Why are you being all weird about it?"

"I'll talk to her about it, okay?" I wasn't sure why I was being "weird." I was just worried about how Camila would react. She was still a flight risk.

"Talk quickly..." she said, then trailed off as a tiny, shrill cry rang out in the background. "Shit, I woke her up."

She hung up on me as her daughter's cry reached full volume.

Shaking my head, I turned back to the bed, only to find Camila sitting up, glaring at me. I laughed at the look on her face.

"Who's more important than sleep?" she demanded.

"Sorry. I was trying to get you a dress."

Her face softened, even though she pretended that she was still mad with me.

"You didn't need to do that. I'm sure I would be able to find something nice for myself. I have a few dresses back home that should be okay."

"Would you happen to have any dress made by Giorgio Armani, Stefano Gabbana, or Prada and Miu Miu?"

She looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"I have a Prada clutch?" she said slowly.

"At the risk of sounding like a materialistic ass—"

"A Jauregui Family party is for high society folk. Right."

She shook her head looking somewhat dazed and amused.

"My sister, Taylor knows people more than myself. She actually helped me many times when I am in need of dress because I can't do shopping I find it very boring, and at times she can even prove to be useful." I laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood for the bomb I was just about to drop on her. "She just wants to meet you first," I said, and waited for her reaction.

"Okay," she replied, laying back down.

"Okay?" I blinked.

"Okay. I'm going to meet your family anyway. I'd rather not do it in my dress from Macy's. Plus, if I meet them separately, it won't feel overwhelming and I won't panic."

"There's no need to panic. Taylor is loving the fact that we're together. Her big sister is finally breaking her own rules on life."

She didn't look like she believed me.

"You'll be fine, Camz" I smiled.

CAMILA

"I am not fine, Lauren" I said to her as we drove to her sister's condo.

We hadn't been able to leave the cabin until the following afternoon. The pipes had frozen over, which left us with ice cold water to shower with. To top it all off, I didn't have anything nice to wear. Just jeans, and a bright yellow sweater—which made me look like Big Bird. And to make matters even worse, we had been stuck in traffic for three hours, before we were finally able to get into the city, all because fallen trees had blocked the roadways at various points.

"I'm a mess. Please drop me off at my place so that I can change... please..." I pleaded.

"Camila babe you look really beautiful and please there's no time," she replied.

ugh Lauren didn't seem to get it.

"The party isn't for another five hours, there's still plenty of time."

She looked to me like she couldn't believe I had said that.

"How long does it take you to pick out an outfit in the morning? You change at least three times. On top of that, you flatiron your hair, and always manage to do one side of your make 'wrong' so that you have to end up redoing it. Let's not forget about your jewelry and accessories which is basically just you being frustrated with the fact that it doesn't match your outfit—"

"Okay, I get it. Excuse me for wanting to look Pretty."

"You always look pretty Camz, but my point is that we just don't have time for you to go home to change, so that you can meet my sister only for you to pick out a new outfit and change again. The issue really is that we only have five hours. Besides," I chuckled, "Taylor is the last person who will care. After all she wore black slacks and a cardigan to prom. Also, we're already here."

I looked up at the condo building, as she pulled up to the front doors and handed her keys to the valet.

All I could think about as she held open the door of the building for me was— Am I making a mistake? What was Taylor going to think about me? Lauren kept saying that there was no need to worry, but I couldn't help it. What did we look like from the outside? After all, I had met Taylor's husband because I'd wanted to get drunk at a bar... her bar. And now, I was sleeping/dating a woman, who happened to much older than me, oh, and I was also her student. I couldn't even tell her that I had a job other than interning at Lauren's office.

After college I had gotten a job, teaching English in a middle school. I had wanted to help Sofia pay for college when her time came, amongst other things. But after finding out about our father, I decided that I would use that money to pay for law school. And truthfully, that money wouldn't have gotten me anywhere, it was the scholarship that had saved my life. Because of it, I didn't need to continue working and I could just focus on school.

"She's having a panic attack," Lauren said to the woman, as she opened the door.

"You should be, you guys are late!" Taylor looked at me and frowned.

Her eyes were the same green as Lauren's and her hair was just as dark. The resemblance between them was almost uncanny.

"There was traffic Tay," Lauren said, as she made space to let us in.

"Tay-lor. It's just three extra letters, you don't have to abbreviate it," she snapped at her. "And, you haven't been answering any of my calls."

"Why would I bother answering you, if I knew that we would be having this argument anyways? Besides, Tay, Taytay, Taylor, does it matter?"

"Just because you're named after plant, doesn't mean you have to take it out on the rest of us with normal names."

"Ha!" I snickered out loud. They both turned to stare at me and I quickly shut my mouth. "It was kind of funny," I shrugged and smiled.

Taylor grinned. "See? Not nervous anymore."

Lauren smirked as well, and they did a little fist bump.

"Annoying, isn't it?" Zayn sighed, as he bounced a big-cheeked little girl in his arms. "They play fight like that all the time."

Taylor walked over, wiping the drool off her daughter's cheek. "We used to do it at parties when we were younger so that our parents would send us to our rooms early. Sorry about the place, it's a little bit of a mess," she said, motioning around the room. "This little one doesn't give anyone a break."

"Er—It's nice to meet you, I'm Camila."

"You ready to go Laur?" Zayn asked as he nodded to Lauren.

"Go?" I turned to her.

She nodded, "Zayn, Little Bellamy, and I, are heading out to office to see something about Case. If you need me for anything, call."

"Don't worry, everything will be fine, you guys get going," Taylor said, as she pulled me to her side before I could say another word.

Lauren came over to me and kissed my cheek.

"Aww..." Zayn and Taylor said at the same time, and she glared at them.

"Bye, Camila" Lauren whispered to me.

"Bye. Lauren"

Neither of us moved.

"Seriously? This isn't the Titanic, you'll see each other again," Taylor said to us.

Lauren finally managed to break away from me, and headed to the door, with Zayn and Bellamy in tow.

"Anything she says about me is a half-truth," Lauren added before Zayn pushed her out.

"Jeez, I've never seen her so attached to anyone," Taylor said as she exhaled deeply. Turning to me, she stretched out her hand and smiled warmly. "It's so nice to officially meet you Mila. Can I call you mila? I hope we haven't freaked you out too much."

"Yes you can call me Mila, everyone calls me that and No. It's... you're so lively, it's nice."

"Some people say crazy, but thank you. Would you like some wine?"

Yes.

"No, I'd rather not get buzzed before the party tonight."

"Oh, then we're completely different. I can only get through these things if I'm buzzed." She grabbed a bottle from her kitchen before walking towards the back of her condo. "The dresses are back here," she called.

The whole living room floor was covered with toys and baby items, but once we got to the hallway, I finally began to see how nice her place was. She had framed records of everything from the Beatles, to Led Zeppelin on her walls like photographs.

"Nice music," I said when we stopped at the door.

"Thanks, I'm sort of a fanatic... here we are, the room of dresses past," she said as she opened the door to a bedroom now doubling as a closet full of beautiful gowns.

Not just any dresses... dresses that I could not even fathom buying. When Lauren had asked if I had any Armani or Gabbana dresses laying around, I thought she was crazy. I even later Googled how much those gown would cost and the cheapest one was almost four thousand dollars? Who would have those just 'laying around'?

Apparently her little sister.

"My mother always wanted to see Lauren dresses up as my mother wants her to. but As you know Lauren Do whatever she likes to do and this is one of the reason why my mother forced her choices on me because Lauren doesn't listen to her, so before I got married my mom bought me dresses in the hopes of classing me up. I just don't have the heart to tell her that I've never worn any of them. Thank God you have more backside area, or none of these would fit."

These look like they cost much more than four thousand dollars...

"Taylor I can't—"

"Lauren said you'd be difficult," she sighed. "She also said to remind you that have no other choice and to say..." She pulled out her phone from her pocket, "...would you really want to miss an event where all of your classmates will be trying to make a name for themselves?"

"Ugh Lauren," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose, a habit that I had only recently acquired from a certain someone.

"She's in love, it's kind of cute," she laughed and my eyes widened at the word... unfortunately, she noticed. "Oh, you guys haven't dropped the L word yet."

I was going to have to get better at controlling my facial expressions.

"No did she say—"

"No, I just guessed. She's just really happy. I don't remember her being like this with her ex-wife. Which is why I just had to meet you."

"And?"

What did she think so far?

"If you aren't serious, don't stay," she said earnestly as she stood directly in front of me. "You're beautiful, Pretty smart enough to get into Harvard Law, and earn her respect. She wouldn't keep you as a student just because she was attracted to you. She's serious about that sort of thing.

"Zayn told me she tried putting you through the wringer and you still fought to make it. So you're strong to boot. Lauren doesn't have a chance in hell. She will stay with you to the end of time and back, it's just the type of girl she is... until she gets hurt."

"Like with her ex-wife."

She nodded. "She wasn't perfect, no one really is. But what her ex-wife did to Lauren crushed her. So, if you aren't serious... if you can't fight for her as much as she'd fight for you, then please end it before she gets in any deeper."

"I'm in deep too," I muttered, the back of my throat dry. "I've been with a lot of people. More than I'm proud of, really. Black, white, Hispanics it doesn't matter. They come, we have a good time, they go, and I move on. But with Lauren, it's like I'm rooted to the ground, and those roots grow stronger and deeper with each passing day.

"I don't know what will happen in the future, but I want to fight for her. Which is why I need a dress, because even if your parents don't yet know that we're together, I still want to make a good first impression. I want them to like me."

She grabbed a dress off one of the many racks. "Then let's get started Mila. When you walk into the room, no one will be able to forget you."

I liked Taylor.