Cannonball

Prologue

Lauren's POV

April 19th 2013.

Friday 10:12pm.

Miami, Florida.

I sit anxiously in the drivers seat, my hands gripping the steering wheel tightly as the rain pounds furiously against the windows and the hood of the car, nothing more than a few centimeters can be seen ahead of me in this dark night in Miami and I let out a bitter laugh at the irony before raising my hand and slamming it down against the wheel in frustration, trying to fight the sting in my eyes as I think about what I'm about to do.

The door opens and a strong gust of wind overtakes me for a moment before the passenger door is slammed shut again and I turn to the side to see a breathless looking Camila staring at me, her eyes red like she's been crying, her hair dripping wet from the rain outside, but her face is anything but weak.

"Who's car is this?" her voice is raspy and puzzled and I can tell already just from the tone of her voice that she had in fact been crying.

"It doesn't matter." I shake my head dismissing the question immediately. A stolen car is the last of our problems right now.

"What's going on Lauren?" she asks with a hint of fear in her voice. "Sofi, she said...she said that..." she trails off shakily and I know what she was going to say.

"It's not true, Camila. I swear." I shake my head furiously, desperately, needing her to believe me. That no matter what I've done in the past, I haven't done this.

She nods her head and places her hands on my face. "I know." she says firmly. "I know you're innocent. I believe you."

"If only your father had the same belief." I grunt sadly. "A warrant has been sent out for my arrest, Camila, I'm a wanted woman."

"No." she gasps, shaking her head. "No, this isn't right, you've been set up! You're innocent!"

"No one will believe me, Camz. My finger prints were on the damn gun!"

"That doesn't mean that you shot someone with it!" Her eyes start to water. "God!" she raises her voice in frustration and turns away, her eyes filling up with angry tears. "What are we going to do, Lauren?"

"WE are not going to do anything, Camila." I tell her sternly. "This is my mess, not yours."

"Now isn't the time for your stubborn strong willed annoying tendencies to come out to play." she glares at me. "So I'm going to ask you again, what are we going to do?"

I sigh and look down guiltily, this isn't fair, Camila doesn't deserve to be involved in something like this, she deserves so much better. "Cami-"

"Don't." she cuts me off with a warning tone to her voice. "We don't have time to argue. If my Dad is going to arrest you, he'll be no doubt looking for you right now as we speak and I'm sure it won't take him long to figure out that you could be here with me."

"Which is why you need to get out of this car and go home, Camila! I'm not getting you involved in this!"

"Too late for that!" she argues back, not backing down. "You're an idiot if you think I'm just going to walk away from this, walk away from you." she shuffles back around in her seat and places her hands back on my cheeks. "I love you, Lauren." Her eyes water again and I can feel mine doing the same. "I love you so much, and I'm not going to lose you, ok?"

"I don't think you have a choice." I tell her quietly, a lump in my throat. "You're Dad is powerful with the law in this town, Camila, do you really think that he's going to allow you to visit me? To see me? To even speak to me?" she stays silent for a moment, her hands still on either side of my face, her dark brown eyes looking deep in thought.