For You ... -Camren

**CHAPTER 05**

"Go figure, though. Camila loved you first."

"Mrs. Cabello..."

"I'm just saying. Maybe it's not time to give up?"

"You're trying to help your granddaughter—"

"On the contrary, I'm trying to help you, bud. Camila's a lost cause, but you? You can be helped."

"I can't tell if that's a compliment or not."

(Three truths: Falling for her, falling for her was an inevitability...except, it wasn't. Because Camila had pushed her, Camila had dragged her down to the depths and then had abandoned her there.)

"Lauren. My sweet, beautiful, naïve honorary granddaughter. There is so much you've yet to learn."

(Three truths: They were all a lie.)

//

Carol stuck her head out into the hallway for a moment then gave Lauren a thumbs up. Lauren merely rolled her eyes and picked up the first box she saw, ripping the tape off.

"The albums are at the bottom," Carol said, still at her lookout spot.

"All this artwork is Camila's?" Lauren asked, taking out one of the drawings. Carol stepped away from the door and took the drawing from Lauren, smiling softly.

"Oh, I remember this. She was seven, and James was sick, so she drew him this when they visited, to 'light him up.'" Lauren felt her heart thud in her chest, felt fondness erupt, felt something in her overflow with affection, but she stamped it all down, taking back the drawing and resuming digging through the box. "Camila was always a cute kid."

"I can imagine," Lauren muttered.

"Funny, witty, she could do no wrong."

"I know."

"Too bad she also breaks her best friend's heart."

"I kno—hey."

"I got you. You're upset 'cause I got you."

"We have a mission, Mrs. Cabello."

"Yeah, to knock some sense into my granddaughter before you give up for real."

"I have given up." Carol raised her eyebrow in disbelief and Lauren groaned. "I have," she reiterated. Carol merely nodded.

"Sure you have, hon. And pigs fly, and the sun revolves around the Earth, and there's no such thing as evolution."

"I have no idea why, but I'm getting the feeling you're being sarcastic."

"Stop wasting time and find those albums," Carol berated her, as if she'd been the one to digress.

"Why do we need them anyway?"

"I need to prove to Elizabeth that we all remember that terrible haircut she had about seven years ago. Can't have my own daughter believing we've forgotten her ridiculous choices."

"It's good to know I'm not the only one you make fun of, Mrs. Cabello. But if you want your own albums, why are we hiding?"

"Are you kidding? Camila packed this stuff up. If she saw us with it, she'd throw a fit." Lauren pulled her hands out of the box, staring at Carol in confusion.

"I don't—"

"It's Alejandro's," she said with a shrug. "It's all Alejandro's."

"Mrs. Cabello—"

"I've made my peace with it," she interrupted, smiling softly at Lauren, looking far more calm and serene than she had any reason to be. "But Camila would never have set foot here again if she didn't hide away every last trace of him."