Such Great Heights

Chapter 2

At the moment, she has three sole contacts: Ally, a help line created specifically for the test subjects, and Camila. Her social life is admittedly tragic. At this rate, her existence won't even be significant since no one will know that she is alive because she never leaves the house. She doesn't have any acquaintances besides the ones assigned to her. This is a decent opportunity to meet someone new.

It isn't that she's scared to go on a date. Her emotional numbness prohibits that anyway--it's more of a pride issue. During their last encounter, Lauren was unbelievably rude to Camila. Her attitude and harsh, stubborn behavior drove the poor girl to tears. She treated the concept of spending any more time with her as a barbaric idea that only a pure imbecile could have thought up. Texting her now to ask if the offer to go on a date is still valid would be a complete 180. But perhaps that would be the proper action to take. She does recognize that how she treated the other girl was a bit unfair. Yes, the girl should have never run into her car, but it was an accident that was definitely caused by the malfunctioning solar roadways. Lauren's anger was displaced and she owes Camila an apology.

She wanted to look Camila up on the Internet to see if she's secretly a convicted felon or something, but when the girl's contact information synced to her phone, she was only given her first name. However, she seemed relatively normal, so it's not like that's a huge concern.

As her finger continues to hover over her screen, she contemplates what her parents would advise her to do in this situation. Clara would probably slap Lauren on the arm for behaving so rudely to Camila and force her to apologize. Mike would probably agree that the smaller girl should have been more careful, but he would also chastise Lauren for her behavior. The thought of her deceased parents causes her to feel mixed emotions, mostly of which are dulled sadness and guilt.

After an eternity of indecisiveness, Lauren finally concludes that she is going to go through with this. If not for her own social well-being or redemption for her outlandish behavior, she will do it for her parents. She knows it's what they would want. She might not be able to turn back time and make them proud how she wants to, but she can do this at the very least.

"Call Camila," Lauren speaks to her phone that operates almost solely on voice recognition. A ringing tone resonates from the small device as the screen switches to the calling display. Her heart rate speeds up a bit; are these actual nerves? Is she experiencing an emotion from the mere action of calling the girl?

After four rings, the dialing tone stops and Camila's smooth voice emits from the speakers. "Hello?"

Contrary to the physical stress response that had been building up before she answered, her heart rate slows down and the sound of her voice soothes her body into equilibrium once again. For once, Lauren wishes that her heart was still pounding. She wishes that her palms would be clammy with anxious sweat. But it becomes obvious that this isn't going to be happening any time soon. Huffing a sigh, Lauren contemplates hanging up, then decides that she's already made it this far. She might as well follow through with it.

"Hey, is this Camila? It's Lauren."

Silence. She begins to wonder if the girl on the other side hung up, but she can vaguely make out the sound of her soft breathing. Then Lauren remembers that she never introduced herself to Camila- she was too busy yelling at her.

"Sorry, it's the girl you uh...from the accident the other day."

"Oh, yeah!" Camila exclaims. "You know, I thought that's who it was but I almost couldn't tell because your voice sounds a little different when you aren't yelling. I like it."

Lauren instinctively rolls her eyes at the somewhat backhanded compliment. From her short interaction with her the other day, she could tell that the girl was a bit socially awkward. She probably doesn't find anything wrong with what she just said; trying to avoid another fight, Lauren chooses to ignore it and get to the point of why she even called in the first place.