Me Without You

"She made me who I am right now."

Dinah sat at the table with a beaming smile and a whole load of gloating for finally graduating. She was the last of the group to do so and so everyone felt she was well within her rights to go a little overboard.

They were all seated in a little cafe for lunch, most of them tuned into Dinah's ramblings but others lost in their partners. Like Lucy was sort of just staring at Vero like she put the sun in the sky, hanging off of her girl's every word and when Lucy couldn't fight the temptation anymore, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the inviting lips.

"I was talking." Vero pouted but even she couldn't deny the onslaught of feelings she felt when Lucy kissed her.

Lauren was kind of the same with Keana, but Keana was being a little distant. Lauren noticed that right after her chat with Camila, Keana had been pulling away a little.

"You okay?" Lauren reached over to her girlfriend and took her hand, rubbing the back of it softly with her thumb. "You're quiet."

"Am I ever loud?" Keana offered the green-eyed girl a halfhearted smile before dropping her gaze to the table. "Camila's back."

"I'm aware," Lauren smiled softly. "I was there, remember?"

"It's just...its Camila."

"And you're Keana and I'm Lauren, babe, I'm waiting for a point here?"

"You loved her. Like...a lot."

"That's true, but I was also sixteen with a whole shit load of baggage that I had to get over. She helped a lot with that, she made me who I am right now." Lauren knew Keana was a bit unsettled with her ex-girlfriend's return, any girl would be. No one was fond of their partner's ex and if Keana's were to show up right this second, Lauren would probably lose her mind with worries, so she wasn't about to put blame on Keana for feeling a little hesitant. "You know I'm with you, right? I've been with you for, like, a year."

"I didn't know-"

"That I counted?" Lauren dropped her arm behind her girlfriend's chair and leaned closer to her. "This isn't casual to me, Keana, and if it is for you then you gotta tell me right now."

"It's not," The light-haired girl shot out quickly. "I want this, I want you. I'm just...scared, because-"

"It's Camila." Lauren rolled her eyes. "I know. And I get it. But I talked to her and we agreed that what we had is over, it was over the second we ended things. I'm happy with you, Keana, and she's happy doing her thing too. This is good."

"Okay," Keana nodded slowly, lifting her eyes to meet Lauren and leaning in to press a soft kiss to those plump lips. "Okay, we're good."

"Good," Lauren smiled, pecking her lips one more time before tuning back into the conversation...which just happened to be about her ex.

"How long do you think Mila's back for?" Ally wondered out loud.

"Probably just, like, a week," Dinah shrugged, not really wanting to focus on Camila leaving again but glad she was actually in town. "Which totally sucks."

A chorus of 'Yeah' followed and Lauren sat back in her seat dejected.

As good as it was that Camila was back, Lauren didn't really want to have constant conversation about her ex-girlfriend. She was sure she'd moved on, but talking about Camila brought back memories she'd prefer to repress, especially since the girl's return was already stirring a bit of unrest in her current relationship.

To Lauren; she sort of hoped Camila only stayed a week and then left again, so she could have that bit of confusion out of her life again. So she could reassure Keana that she had nothing to worry about.