Imaginary Lover // Camren Fanfiction

Chapter 12

I found it easy to understand Lauren's upset over Luke's drawing, but that doesn't mean I agreed with it. Friends come in all different shapes and sizes, we all know that, so why should "imaginary" friends be any different? Lauren had it all wrong. In fact, Lauren had it completely wrong because as far as I could see she didn't have any friends. Maybe it was because she was only looking for thirty-four-year-old women that looked, dressed, and acted like she did. You could tell by the look on her face, that's what she thought Luke should have done when she looked at Luke's picture of me and him. And that's no way to make friends.

The important thing is not what we look like, but the role we play in our best friend's life. Friends choose certain friends because that's the kind of company they are looking for at that specific time, not because they're the correct height, age, or have the right hair color. I don't see any other "real" older females interacting with Luke in his life, do you? Maybe I'm exactly what he needs right now. It's not always the case, but often there's a reason why, for example, Luke will see me and not my colleague Luis, who looks six years old and constantly has a runny nose.

Just because you see one "imaginary" friend, it doesn't mean you see them all. You have the ability to see them all, but as humans only use 10 percent of the brain, you wouldn't believe the other abilities there are. There are so many other wonderful things that eyes could see if they really focused. Life's kind of like a painting. A really bizarre, abstract painting. You could look at it and think that all it is, is just a blur. And you could continue living your life thinking that all it is, is a blur. But if you really look at it, really see it, focus on it, and use your imagination, life can become so much more. That painting could be of the sea, the sky, people, buildings, a butterfly on a flower, or anything except the blur you were once convinced it was.

After the events in Lauren's office, I needed to call an emergency "What IF" meeting. I've been in this job for years and I thought I'd seen it all, but I obviously hadn't. Taylor seeing me and talking to me had really stumped me. I mean, that's completely unheard of. OK, so Luke could see me, that was normal. Lauren had some sort of a sense of me, which was weird enough, but I was beginning to get used to it. But Taylor seeing me? Of course, it's common to be seen by more than one person on a job, but never by an adult, and never by two adults. The only friend in the company who dealt with adults was Normani, and it wasn't any kind of a rule, just what seemed to be happening all the time. I was confused, I can tell you that, so I got "the boss" to round up all the usual suspects.

Our "What IF" meetings were set up to discuss everyone's current situations and to knock around some ideas and suggestions for people who are slightly stuck. I've never had to call one on my behalf, so I could tell the boss was shocked when I did. The name of the meeting has a double meaning. We were all tired of being labeled "imaginary friends," so we decided to call the meeting the What Imaginary Friends meeting. I made that up myself.

The six people that meet are the most senior people in the company. I arrived at the What IF room to the sound of everyone laughing and playing. I greeted them all and we sat around and waited for the boss. We don't meet around long conference tables with smelly leather chairs in a boardroom with no windows. We have a more relaxed approach to it and it really has a much more positive effect, because the more comfortable we all feel, the more we can contribute. We all sit around in a circle on more comfortable seats. Mine's a beanbag. Normani's is a rocking chair. She says it's easier for her to do her knitting that way.

The boss's not really bossy, we just call her that. She's really one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your whole entire life.

Now, she's really seen it all, she knows everything there is to know about being a best friend. She's patient and caring, listens and hears what people don't say more than anyone I know. Ally is her name and she's beautiful. She floated into the room just then in a purple robe, her hair tied back in a half ponytail away from her face, with the ends hanging down past her shoulders. She had tiny sparkling beads throughout her hair, which glistened when she moved. She had daisies nestled into her hair like a tiara, a daisy chain around her neck, and around her wrists. Round purple-tinted glasses sat on her nose and when she smiled, the beam was enough to guide ships into shore on a black night.