off camera.

chapter ten

"You drive?" Camila asks, because she'd never learned, and it's not like Lauren has a car in LA. "When did you learn?"

"Summer between junior and senior year," Lauren says, and Camila hears the chime of keys in the background, "Get your stuff ready, I'll be there soon."

She guesses that Lauren pulls the phone away from her ear, because her husky voice is distant when she calls out to her mom that she's going out to pick up Camila. The younger girl starts stuffing the essentials into her backpack, "Thanks for coming to get me. I'll see you soon?"

"You bet," Lauren answers, "later, Camz."

Camila packs her things, deciding that it's a little too obvious if she conveniently forgets a shirt again, and as she heads into her bathroom to grab her toothbrush, Sinu walks right in without knocking and says, "If she's picking you up, she's coming in to say hello."

Camila knows that say hello is code for let me judge her accordingly, and she just laughs. "What happened to you're an adult and you can make your own judgements?"

"I changed my mind," Sinu says, and Camila had been expecting something like that. "She'll be coming in for a drink."

Camila nods, and finishes packing up her stuff, dumping it by the front door and sitting and watching an episode of Spongebob with her little sister, Thunder perched on the couch next to her, taking up most of her space. It's almost over when there's a knock in the door, and while Camila is really into the episode, she doesn't want Lauren to be immediately interrogated without Camila's moral support, so she forces herself off the couch and answers the front door as both dogs bark.

Like it's an automatic setting in Lauren, she falls into a hug immediately, nuzzling her face into Camila's neck. The younger girl sighs happily, hands wrapping around her waist, and she has a weird memory of doing this before, some other night, when they were both a little drunk, but it's too blurry to decipher.

Camila kisses the top of her head, and she suddenly becomes aware of her mother watching them and pulls away, sending Lauren a nervous smile. "Hi. You could've just texted to say you were outside."

"Yeah, but that's hardly polite, just pulling up and whisking you away," Lauren smiles, fingers weaving through Camila's, "I have these things called manners, Camz. Also, hello, puppies!"

Ignoring her for the dogs, Lauren pets Thunder first, and bends down to scratch behind Leo's ears. "They're so cute."

"The bigger one is Thunder, the little one is Leo," She announces as she shuts the front door, and that's when Sinu advances on them. "Mami, you remember Lauren."

"Yes," Sinu replies, ushering Lauren into the lounge. Camila squeezes her hand reassuringly, feeling just how tense she is. "So, what have you been up to since you and Camila had your little... argument?"

"Just... studying, really," Lauren shrugs, like she hadn't worked her ass off to get into the college she's in. "I graduated, and I got into UCLA, and that's where I've been ever since. I'm studying law and forensics, but I won't get into that, because I tend to nerd out and ramble and everyone else just finds it boring."

"I don't think it's boring," Camila says, even though she kind of does when it comes to all of the long legal documents she'd seen on Lauren's desk, "I mean, I like a good serial killer documentary."

"Yeah, but it's not all sitting back and watching serial killer documentaries. There's long legal documents and jargon we have to remember, and some of it makes my brain hurt, but it's all worth it." Lauren smiles, petting Leo affectionately, "How have you been?"