Bully in Love

Chapter Nine

Lauren looked at the brunette confused. Wait for what?

"Oh, my God!" Sinu bellow from down the hall.

"And there it is," Camila smirked. She knew her mother would dramatically freak out. The brunette headed down the rest of the steps and Lauren followed. They met Sinu by the bathroom doorway as the older woman looked on in shock.

"We cleaned it up the best we could, Mami."

"I can see. And with some of my good towels!"

"It was an emergency!" Camila defended.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Cabello," Lauren said. "I only wanted to wash my hands and then..."

"Oh, Lauren it's not your fault sweetie," Sinu said, placing a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder.

"I would have warned her Mami but..."

"I don't blame you either, Cammy. It's your father's fault," she grumbled. She stormed past the girls and headed towards the kitchen.

"Mami, Papi said it was only a temporary fix," Camila said, following her mother.

"Temporary," Sinu repeated. "It's been temporary for two weeks now!" She picked up the house phone and began to dial. "Cammy, can you grab the rest of the groceries? I have to call your father."

"Alright, Mami," Camila said in defeat. There was no stopping the impending argument between her parents.

She turned to Lauren and the raven-haired girl gave her a small smile of understanding. "I'll help with the groceries."

"Thanks."

Camila and Lauren hauled in the last of the groceries and Camila suggested they study out on the back porch. Sinu was on the phone with Alejandro and there was no way they would be able to concentrate while hearing all that fuss. Camila felt embarrassed that Lauren had to witness that.

The two of them sat in a large porch swing that fits up to three people and had their math books in their lap. Lauren noticed throughout their study session, that Camila seemed to zone out at times. Lauren would ask her a simple question and the brunette seemed and distracted and would have Lauren repeat. The raven-haired girl also noticed that when she would be working out a problem, she could feel Camila staring at her, but when she would look up, the brunette would avert her eyes. Lauren was beginning to feel like this study session was for another purpose. What? She was not sure. The eerie part about the whole thing was they actually worked well together... when Camila was paying attention that is. Lauren still could not get over the fact that Camila was not discouraging her presence nor bickering with her. It was... different.

Camila's cell phone had rung and she excused herself, standing on the other side of the porch from Lauren. "What's up, Mendes?"

"Hey. How's the sexy studying going?" He teased.

"I'm hanging up now."

"No, wait!" Camila smiled as Mendes believed her bluff. "I'm calling for a good reason."

"And that would be?"

"Hailey and I are going to play miniature golf tomorrow around 1. Hailey wanted to know if you wanted to come with."

"And be a third wheel. No way."

"Well, there's an easy solution to that, Camila."

"Which is?"

Mendes scoffed. "Don't play dumb. You already know."

Camila's eyes ventured over to Lauren who was busy at work, solving out a math problem. She bit her lip.