My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose

Chapter Fourteen

"So, we need to talk," Camila said, setting her groceries on the countertop. She turned around to find Lauren a lot closer than she was expecting, and she felt her breath catch in her throat slightly.

"We could talk," Lauren's eyes flicked down to Camila's lips, "or..."

"Or we could talk," Camila said firmly, mustering all of her self-control and walking away from Lauren. She sat herself down on the couch and gestured for Lauren to join her.

The other girl groaned and sat down next to Camila on the couch, putting her feet up on the coffee table.

"So..."

"So."

Camila realised that she should probably actually say something. They hadn't seen each other in months, there was a lot to say and Camila wasn't sure where to start.

At the same time, she kind of wanted to skip all the talking and go back to kissing Lauren.

"I'm sorry."

There we go. Begin with the obvious.

"What for?"

"For digging around in your past. LaF warned me, I should have listened to them. If you wanted me to know, you would have told me. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Lauren said, offering a small smile to Camila. "How much did you find out?"

"Just that you two were close in high school. And she died."

Lauren seemed to visibly relax at that.

"Oh, good," she sighed out. "I thought you found out about the rest of it from some untrustworthy lackwit. I kind of panicked."

"I noticed," Camila snorted. Then she realised Lauren's face was serious.

"Look, I'm only telling you this because I don't want you to hear some twisted version of the truth from Owen or LaF or," her nose wrinkled in disgust, "my family. So buckle up, Camzie. We're in for a long night. Or, you know, Wednesday afternoon."

"Me and Luce were best friends ever since we were kids. We were even born in the same hospital room, three hours apart. People used to say we didn't even have a choice, we were born to be friends," she smiled slightly at the memory, "But even if that wasn't true, I would have chosen her. No matter what, I would always have chosen her. As we grew older, we became closer. Inseparable. Eventually we both realised that our feelings went past the platonic. I still remember our first kiss."

She was smiling, but Camila could tell that her words were tinged with sorrow. She took the other girl's hand, and Lauren gave her a grateful look.

"Anyway, we grew up in a small town. You know what that's like. People aren't the most... accepting. Our parents included. So we decided we'd keep it a secret. Everyone knew how close we were anyway, so who cared if we had to kiss behind closed doors? That was only a tiny fraction of our relationship. We thought we could manage it."

Camila winced. That sounded an awfully lot like her and Alex.

"And we did. For years we were together. We helped each other, whenever our parents were being shitty. I'd call her or she'd call me and we'd make some excuse to get out of the house. We made plans. After graduation we were going to leave this hellhole, make a life for ourselves together somewhere completely new, our families be damned. It was comforting to have someone who understood, I guess. Someone constant. Except..." she took a deep breath, "I got cocky. No, that's not the right word. I got... naive. I believed that maybe my mother would be more understanding, after all, she loved me and she loved Luce like a daughter. I told her."