Never Let Me Go (Camren/Norminah)

Chapter 27: He Died Every Night to Let Her Breathe

"Man, that boy is getting better and better with his witty comebacks." Ally admired, leaning back against the table and shaking her head. "I love it so much." 
"We don't even need to ask where he gets it." Dinah added. "And I see you've been promoted from mother to garbage can there Lauren."

"Very funny." The girl set the empty cones down on the table and wiped her hands. Camila and Normani were emerging from the building with a white container filled with fried food in one hand and a cold drink in the other, both women heading straight for the field. Unfortunately, Cameron had taken notice that there was the potential of more food in the equation, and had intercepted them before they could get very far. Lauren laughed, watching as Normani scooted around the kids leaving them to cling onto Camila and reach for the fries before she could do as much as move.

The brunette ended up with Cameron hanging around her waist, Lucas up on her back and reaching over her shoulder, and Emily simply standing a foot away happily eating what she had already managed to steal. Normani arrived at the bench, breathing hard.

"And that's why I don't have children." She panted, setting the food down as Dinah lunged for a fry.

"Did you just leave her out there?" Lauren questioned, turning back to the scene to see Camila now lying on the grass. Cameron sat on her stomach licking his fingers while Lucas and Emily were nearby sniffing curiously at the drink.

"What, you think I was going to fight through that? They outnumber us." Normani shrugged, swiping up a fry. "She aint my wife."

Laughing softly, Lauren got up and jogged over to the mayhem, lifting Cameron off Camila and setting him on his butt in the grass. "I see you guys had a little treat before lunch." She smiled at the two older children, who were content in polishing off what looked like soda.

"We need more of these." Lucas held the container up, which was half devoured. Lauren took the chance to swipe it back and shoo him away, grinning when he rolled backwards on the grass with a laugh. "Come get us Cam!" He shouted, waving his arms and taking off across the field with Emily hard on his heels. The five year old jumped to his feet, briefly wiping his greasy hands off on Lauren's bare thigh before zipping after the other two.

"Wow." Lauren blinked, looking between the half devoured serving of fast food, diet soda and a very deflated Camila. "When we were here ten years ago sitting on this very field and pondering what it would be like to have kids, is this really what you had in mind?"

"Just leave me to die." Camila turned on her side, head cradled in her hands. "Go meet someone. Fall in love and run away with them. You can even go chase your dreams in France. Italy. Spain. I think Canada's coasts are lovely this time of the year. Ugh I feel like I'm gonna throw up." 


"No you're not, come on." Lauren knelt down, tucking her arms around the brunette and helping her to her feet. "And I'm not going anywhere. See, this would be a lot more fun if you at least remembered half of what happened last night. That way we could be reminiscing about singing show tunes in the hotel room rather than just feeling sorry for ourselves."

"Lauren." Camila murmured, draped heavily on her wife's shoulder. "Lauren Jauregui."

"Yeah love?"

"I need you so bad right now."

Lauren laughed, balancing the food in one hand and Camila under the other arm in order to bring her back to the bench. Needless to say she spent the next fifteen minutes with her head down, groaning every once and a while as Lauren enjoyed the rest of the fries.

From there, the group picked up a bit of a proper lunch and headed off through the warm and nostalgic neighbourhood. Lauren ended up lifting Cam onto her shoulders so he didn't have to walk the whole way, noting that despite his upbeat and sunny attitude, he was getting tired. As they walked, the girls retold some stories about times they had trekked home through the snow, or raced via two different bus routes to figure out which was fastest.