Me Without You

"Anything for you, mi amor." (Epilogue)

Images of smiles, laughter and love are strewn on the mahogany table in the dead of night.

Everything is deathly quiet, even the crickets have succumbed to the endless abyss of sleep. The moon is her only companion, which she finds fitting because she was once told she was the embodiment it. So it's only right that the moon be with her as she reminisces.

The first picture she picks up is slightly faded, it's from a polaroid camera, the image quality is questionable but nevertheless, her smile is wide and cause the wrinkles around her eyes to crease just a little bit more.

There are two girls in photography, one is smiling brightly at the camera while the other has her face buried in the slender neck beside her. They're in love, it's clear in every element of the photo. The beaming, buck-toothed smile. The hint of a smile from the hidden girl. The gentle caress of the arm wrapped around the smiling girl's waist. The gleam in the green eyes peeking out at the camera from where they nestled against that neck.

And it is easy for her to be transported back to that moment, that time when the photo was taken. One girl was fifteen at the time, the other sixteen with the weight of her very existence weighing her down. Though unbeknownst to the smiling girl...the green-eyed girl always felt a little lighter when she was around her.

"Lauren, just one photo, mi amor, please?" And Camila was doing that annoying thing where she'd bat her eyes in hopes that it wouldn't soften Lauren up.

And sure, the green-eyed girl had such a soft spot for the girl, she'd already confessed that to herself, but she couldn't be swayed that easily.

"Fuck no," The raven-haired girl sneered and pushed the damn camera out of her face. "We're not some cute fucking couple that's gonna take photos for social media. For some fucking reason I can't get rid of you and you seem to like me, that's all this is."

But that was the wrong thing to say, Lauren knew that the second Camila placed the camera on the floor and fiddled with her fingers, her head downcast and Lauren was almost certain there'd be tear shining in those brown eyes that melted her heart in a way she'd never experienced before.

So Lauren felt guilty, because here sat Camila, so blissfully unaware of the struggles Lauren's everyday life entailed, but acting as the single thing that made the green-eyed girl want to wake up in the mornings. Camila didn't know it, but Lauren owed her.

"Hey, Cabello, come on," And awkward as the gesture might be coming from her, she placed her hand on Camila's knee. "Come on, don't be upset with me."

"I never asked for this, Lauren," The younger girl finally looked up and attacked the older with the sadness littered in her glistening brown eyes. "All I wanted was a normal high school experience, I never asked for you either, you know? But I'm here now and I can't let you go for some reason."

Lauren had no idea what bewildered her to proceed with her next actions but a second later her lips were firmly planted on Camila's and she was drowning in the ecstasy that was the young celebrity. Camila made all the darkness and bad thoughts go away and Lauren relished in the feel of that as she cupped the girl's cheeks and held her lips in placed for a few more seconds before finally releasing them.

"One picture." She spoke against those, now, swollen lips. She opened her eyes and were met with widened brown ones and Lauren decided that, yes, she'd lost all control.

And no, she didn't care. Because she had a feeling about Camila Cabello. Camila Cabello might just save her life.

It's a fond memory to look back on, the first picture they'd ever taken together. It surprises her how much things have changed from that moment until the present. The green-eyed girl opposed any show of vulnerability and now she very much wears her heart on her sleeve.