just a dream (camren)

fifty seven

She'd laughed at that, imagining the world's reaction if she got hacked and those texts were leaked. Everyone would think she'd gone insane, and if she's being honest, Camila thinks she might've. It had to have been real, right? She couldn't have dreamed all of that in three hours.

But who the hell travels to alternate universes? Camila asks herself. That's just not possible, is it? She knows that at one point, she'd believed that it was, but that was because the girls were there, they remembered, they knew, and she hates that her own subconscious had tricked her, because people in a dream don't know they're in a dream, and if none of the girls remember, then it had to have been a dream.

But the things you felt, that part of her, the part that truly thinks it was real, pipes up, the things you felt were all too real for it to have been a dream. You can't have fallen in love with Lauren purely from a dream.

Lauren. Her heart aches at the mere thought of the name. She'd lost Lauren. If Lauren had really been there, she would've contacted her. She wouldn't have ignored the desperate texts Camila had sent, which she knows she has, because they say read underneath.

There's a part of her that still hopes that maybe it's still happening, and that's because of Lucy, and in part, Dinah. Lucy didn't go to the other world until Lauren had cheated on her, and Lauren had cheated because she was empty, most of everything that makes her herself stuck in the other world. That means that Lauren can't be back here, at least not until Lucy leaves. It would explain why Dinah wouldn't remember, because she won't have been there yet.

But everything reset for you on December 18th, Camila taunts herself, surely, it'd be the same for Lauren. Surely, it'd reset on the night she was outed. It'll be like Lauren said; you left Timeline A, and now you're in Timeline B.

Or none of it ever really happened, Camila sighs sadly, resting her head on her pillows and trying to ignore the dull ache in her chest. That too.

"Merry Christmas, Kaki," the door to her bedroom opens and Sofi grins at her, "Come on, I want to open presents, and mami won't do it until everyone is downstairs."

Camila lets out a half-hearted hum. She couldn't care less about Christmas and present opening, because she knows that there's nothing under that tree that could make her feel any better. You know, unless her parents kidnapped Lauren and wrapped her up, but she finds that highly unlikely.

Either way, she wants to make her sister happy, so she drags herself out of bed. She hasn't bothered leaving the house since she'd woken up, and since it'd become even more apparent that none of the girls remembered. Even Lucy had ignored her Instagram message, and Lucy didn't have any reason to be angry at her. She traipses down the stairs, following her hyper little sister, and flops down on the couch, mumbling a thanks as her mother passes her a present.

"Mija," Sinu warns her, "why are you so upset? You've been this way since the eighteenth, but you've wanted to leave that group for a long time, and you know it was the best decision."

"It's nothing," Camila waves her mother's concerns away and plasters on a smile; after the last few years, she's been good at faking happy. "I promise. Merry Christmas, mami."

Sinu watches her carefully, as if waiting for Camila's façade to crack, but eventually smiles back. "Merry Christmas, mija."

Camila rips open her presents, appreciating every single one, but it hurts to know that there's nothing from Lauren, or any of the other girls, because it wasn't real. When they finish unwrapping presents, Sofi asks her to watch a movie with her, and Camila obliges, but not even Elf can cheer her up.