Death of Me • Camren

Three

Warning: Drug abuse

For days now, Lauren has been unable to sleep at night. She could not stop thinking about the hurt on Camila's face when she practically told the girl her feelings weren't valid.

Of course she had the right to be upset with Lauren. She had the right to be angry and sad and not want to speak to her, but in a way, Lauren was selfish. She wanted Camila to talk to her, to look at her. She wanted them to be friends again. She wanted to pretend like they were still 17. With the same fire in their eyes as when they ran around New York City. Not a care in the world. When just having each other was enough.

"Are you ok?" A concerned voice asks, causing Lauren to jump a bit. She looks over at Julia, who she thought was sleeping. "I've been watching you for like 10 minutes and you haven't even noticed," she admits, and Lauren only stares at her.

Was she ok? Yes, but Camila obviously wasn't, and Julia had no idea. She couldn't just tell her that her former best friend worked at the place she was recently hired at. But why not? It's not like there was anything to hide. They've only ever been friends and nothing more, even if at times Lauren wished otherwise.

"I'm fine, just zoning out," Lauren explains. She feels bad lying to Julia, but what else was there to do? The girl didn't particularly like Camila, and Lauren didn't want to cause any problems.

It didn't even seem like they were going to be friends again based on the past events, and Lauren tried to be ok with that.

Even a month later, when Camila still refused to look at her unless she absolutely had to.

Lauren tried to be ok with only being co-workers, but she couldn't. It was selfish. She knew it was selfish, but she couldn't give up. Even Camila knew she couldn't give up easily.

She wouldn't.

The next morning, Lauren gets to work an hour early as she has done since been hired, and exactly 65 minutes later, the door chimes , signaling someone was entering, interrupting Lauren of her thoughts. "You're late," she announces without looking up from the desk. "Yeah, and you're an addict but I don't say anything about that," Camila retorts, also not looking up from the device in front of her. The comment only makes Lauren chuckle. It was nice to see some sort of acknowledgement, even if it was in a sarcastic manner. Although, it also made her realize that the two of them had a lot of things to discuss. That fact that Lauren has been sober for years, being one of them.

Lauren eventually looks up from the paper work, her eyes staring Camila up and down. She was wearing a simple outfit and doing nothing but playing on her phone, but just looking at her made Lauren smile. Being in the same room as Camila made Lauren's heart jump.

The doorbells chime again and Lauren is snapped out of her trance. She glances at the door, then her face falls, as if she was caught doing something she shouldn't be. "Julia?" she questions, swallowing a lump in her throat, causing Camila to look over at the woman. "Hey!" The girl greets, a big grin forming on her face. "What are you doing here?" Lauren asks, and the genuine concern in her voice makes Julia furrow her eyebrows. "Can't I visit my girlfriend at work?" Julia asks, pulling Lauren into an embrace. "Of course, I was just surprised," she pulls sways as and awkward smile forms, looking over at Camila once more before holding a hand out to gesture toward the girl. "This is Karla," she half lies, because Karla was Camila's actual first name. The surprise and hurt on Camila's face is obvious, but she plays along anyway. "Nice to finally meet you, Julia. I've heard so much about you!" She smiles shaking the girl's hand. "Are you ok?" Julia asks, "your hand is shaking."