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19

A/N: The picture displays Camila's halloween outfit (without the make up) and Lauren's outfit a few hours before that. Enjoy, pervs.

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Once again Lauren felt that familiar pang of loneliness as the days passed without any interaction from Camila. It was starting to become a robotic routine. Lauren would wake up, eat breakfast without any sign of Camila around, avoid Charlie at all costs, get to school, be ignored by Camila and treated just like any other student, then make an excuse to go over to Normani or Dinah's house.

Unfortunately, both Normani and Dinah were busy right now. So when Lauren returned home Friday afternoon, she wished that she would have just begged her friends to hang with her.

Charlie stood in the kitchen in front of the oven, about to pull something out. He heard Lauren's fast footsteps and caught her before she disappeared inside her room.

"Hey Lauren, want to help me with dinner?"

Lauren was entirely confused because they hadn't had their usual dinners together since before Charlie went away. And why was he all of a sudden striking up a conversation with her?

"Sure," she mumbled. In silence she set the table and placed the already prepared food in the centre. She purposely didn't put a third plate down for herself because she was going to be taking whatever was left of dinner to her room.

There was absolutely no way she was going to sit across from Camila and Charlie and act as though everything was fine.

Just as she went to leave, Charlie called her name. "Do you think we could talk for a minute?"

Lauren held back a groan and just stood by the dining table with her arms folded. The man looked completely forlorn, as though the life was drained from him. He looked tired. His skin also had a strange yellow tinge to it, but Lauren wasn't going to make the guy feel worse about himself.

"How are you?"

"Fine. Is that it?" She didn't mean to sound cold.

Charlie shook his head and bit his lip almost nervously. "Have I done something wrong by you Lauren?"

Lauren didn't answer.

"I feel like you've been very distant and indifferent towards me..."

"I've been busy," Lauren stated.

"I-I know and I'm sorry about what happened to you at school —"

Lauren frowned. "What?"

Charlie stared at her like it was obvious. "You got jumped? That's why you have those bruises..."

Lauren frowned even harder and she uncrossed her arms, placing her hands on her waist. "Did Camila tell you that?"

"Yeah," he responded, "she told me you didn't want to talk about it so I left you alone..."

"Wow," Lauren breathed, a fake smile gracing her lips. "And here I thought you were ignoring me because—" Lauren cut herself off before she said something she would most definitely hate herself for the rest of her life for saying.

Charlie waited for her to finish, but she shook her head and walked to her room. She couldn't believe Camila would lie to him like that. Camila obviously didn't care about her as much as Lauren thought she did.

After an hour or so of sitting in her room, she emerged, slowly creeping towards the kitchen. She was desperate to avoid both her roommates, but her hunger was becoming unmanageable.