This, I Love

Chapter 12: Heaven

April 16th, 1985 - Paris, France

Paris was a charming city, that was undeniable. Camila could walk everywhere and pass up all the opportunities to catch a ride to any destination on her map, and she did—she and Brooke. They went sight seeing—going to as many places as they could without spending too much time there, since they had to be back at the hotel and ready to leave for Lyon in the early evening. The couple wasn't shy with their "love" in the streets, even if they did receive some stares and certain comments in the French language that could easily be interpreted as disgust and hatred. While they stopped in a boulangerie, the Louvre and the Notre Dame, even the garden at the Eiffel Tower to catch their breaths, they were followed by paparazzi documenting their cute moments (mostly initiated by Brooke), therefore creating this perfect little love story in the city of love despite missing one major detail that'd send that house of cards crumbling pitifully: Camila was miserable that it wasn't Lauren exploring Paris with her.

Any small detail on their journey, anything that they've encountered that made Camila, in particular smile, laugh, puzzled, or massively intrigued, she'd think to herself, 'wow, Lauren would love that' or 'I wonder what Lauren would say about this' and then get sad at the answers to her questions being unattainable. If she were caught moping by Brooke, she'd respond to her interrogations with the reassurance that she was fine and it was merely her hangover and jet lag that had her looking so down and out. That was partially true. Even if Camila wanted to lie, she ended up choosing honesty, keeping the deeper parts to herself—as was well within her right to.

She couldn't shake this feeling that she had done something wrong. She couldn't remember what happened last night or how she made it back to the hotel room—why she awoke on the bathroom floor with some of her clothes off, or why Lauren (since she was the only one awake when she woke up) didn't pay any mind to her as she freshened up in the bathroom and got ready to go out. Camila did try conversing with the frontman's girlfriend, but to no avail. Lauren gave very dry, one-worded responses and hardly looked at Camila. She refused to reveal where she was headed and she left without saying goodbye. When Camila racked her brain hard enough, she did recall Lauren's subtle invitation back to the hotel room last night, but she can't remember if she even made it there on time or not—and if she had, she definitely couldn't remember what they did or what she did to make Lauren act so cold.

"What do you think about taking the bus to this Bistro? My feet's getting kind of tired," said Brooke, stopping their walk by the Saint Michel Fountain that was crowded with tourists.

Camila, in an attempt to hide her dejection, offered Brooke a strained smile as she stepped aside to make way for the locals briskly walking by on the sidewalk. "You go ahead. I think I'm gonna go back to the hotel...get some more rest and stuff. I don't feel too good."

"Are you sure? What, do you feel sick? Like you're gonna throw up or your head still hurts—"

"Something like that, yeah," Camila steadied her gaze on her sneakers scuffing the ground beneath them, unresponsive to Brooke's gentle touch.

"I can go with you if you want—"

"No, baby...no," Camila squinted from the sun's glare when she quickly looked up, taking Brooke's hand in hers. "You're in Paris. Enjoy it as much as you can—it's not every day that you get to be here. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Go have fun, you can meet me later."

When Camila arrived at the hotel, the very last thing she expected to walk in on was Colt sitting there all alone in his bed, still shirtless in his pajama pants, hair looking like a bird's nest, holding a piece of foil with a lighter going underneath it as the glass pipe between his lips filled with smoke. He wasn't startled by her presence and he didn't seem to care that she had caught him smoking heroin. Camila simply shut the door and made a beeline for her suitcase so that she could undress herself and change back into her pajamas as well—which was just soft red pants with Elmo's face printed all over it and a black MTV t-shirt.