Love Me (Normani)

Chapter 78

"Camz? I'm going now, I'll see you later. Maybe meet me for lunch?" Camila groaned tiredly and lifted her arm lazily to give a thumbs up. Lauren chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Good thing we have a key card each." "Bye Lauren." Camila mumbled into her pillow, dismissing her comment. "Bye." Lauren giggled and left for her new job. "Heyyy Lauren!" "Morning Mike." Lauren smiled as she slipped off her coat. "You can hang your coat up over there. Looking forward to your first day working over here?" Lauren smiled and nodded. "Yeah I am. How's business usually?" "Good, this place is pretty popular, which you can understand gets hectic for one person, but now I've got you." He patted Lauren's back. "Indeed you do." Lauren smiled. "So, can I do anything?" "You can tidy up the shelves a bit." "On it." Lauren smiled. "Great. I'll go sort some of the vinyls out in the back, people exchange things in here and they can be in the wrong cases occasionally." "Got it." "You know anything about pricing Lauren?" "I do actually, I'm very into music." "Yeah?" "I used to look into vinyls especially, and some auctions." "Great, it looks like you'll fit in just fine. I'll be out back if you need me." He said, pointing his thumb behind him. "Gotcha." Lauren held a thumbs up as she organised the CDs alphabetically in their original sections. That's one thing she hated about customers in any store, they put things back in the wrong place, or the wrong way round. "Excuse me? Do you work here?" Someone asked. Lauren turned around and smiled. "Yes, how can I help you?" "I'm looking for a present for my daughter, it's her birthday tomorrow and stupid me left it till the last minute." What an idiot. "What's she into?" "Records." Lauren nodded. "And what type of music is she into?" "The 1975." Lauren grinned. "Well she has good taste, follow me." "Their new album just came out, does she have it?" "What's it called?" "I like you when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it." "Long name, no she doesn't. How much is it?" "Uh," Lauren looked at the back for the price tag. "$15, sir." "I'll take it." "Brilliant. Let me just grab my manager. Mike! Customer at the till!" "Coming!" "I'll deal with this, wait for me in the back Lauren. I'll show you what I've been doing out there." "Okay." The green eyed girl smiled politely and went through. "There we are. Thank you very much, I hope your daughter enjoys the album." The man left and Mike went to the back to guide Lauren. "Okay, so in each of these boxes there's records that need to be checked to make sure they work, priced and put in the right packaging, then put on display. Simple enough. Think you can handle that while I man the till?" "Easy." Lauren grinned. "Great. The record player to check them is over here. Any problems, just give me a shout." "Got it." The day had passed by quickly, and Lauren didn't even realise it was time to clock off until Mike came into the back room and told her. "Thanks for your help today Lauren, you're a good'n." Lauren chuckled. "Thank you." "I'll see you tomorrow." "Bye." She waved simply and headed back to the hotel. "You ditched meeee!" Camila whined, hitting her best friend with a pillow as soon as the door opened. "Ow! Camila!" Camila huffed. "You said you'd meet me for lunch." "I'm sorry Camz, I didn't even eat myself. I got so caught up in work I didn't even realise I was done for the day until my boss came and told me." Camila sighed. "Okay. Can we order room service?" "Sure C. Just not stuff that's too expensive 'kay?" Camila nodded and went to look at the menu. "Do you want anything Lo?" She called our since Lauren had just gone into the bathroom to wash up. "Pizza please!" "Alright!" "Thanks Camz!" Camila ordered the food and jumped when Lauren launched herself on top of her. "Only me scaredy cat." Lauren giggled. Camila rolled her eyes and grabbed her, pinning her down on the bed. "I'm gonna tickle you to death for that." "No! Camz please, wait-oh my god!" Camila relentlessly tickled the Cuban girl until Lauren couldn't breathe and let her have mercy. "Okay okay, I've learnt my lesson." Lauren huffed, holding her stomach. "Lauren.." "Yeah?" "I miss Sofi." Lauren looked at Camila worriedly. "Camila we've talked about this." "I know, but it doesn't stop me missing my little sister." "If you want to go home, go home." "I want to stay here with you." "You can't have it both ways." "If I went home, would you hate me?" Lauren's eyes softened with a mix of sadness and hurt. "I could never hate you Camila, it's up to you." "Can't you come with me? Please?" Lauren slowly shook her head. "No, I'm sorry." "Lolo-" "You can come and visit me. When I get a place I'll text you my address." "Can you not visit me at home?" Lauren sighed. "I don't know. I'll see how things go." "I'm gonna uh, I'm gonna book a flight." Camila mumbled and watched as Lauren gave a slight nod and muttered something to herself that Camila couldn't make out. When Lauren came out of the shower she saw Camila packing up her things. "Going already?" "My flight's in half an hour, if I leave now I can just make it." Lauren nodded quietly and plopped herself down on the bed. Camila zipped up her suitcase and sat next to her best friend hesitantly. "I'll miss you Lauren." "Then don't go." Lauren said, without looking at her. "I'm sorry." Lauren scoffed and closed her eyes. "Just go." "Lauren." "Go." "I'll uh, I'll text you when I land." Lauren didn't answer, just waited for the slam of the door. She almost expected to turn around and Camila still be there, but she was gone, Lauren was alone in their room, her room.