Your Love Is My Drug (Camren)

5. There's Someone In My Head (It's Not Me)

Lauren nodded. She was in a good mood and she didn't want to approach this situation in a way that would have Camila miserable or spiteful the entire morning, so she used caution. "Well, we don't have to run, we can jog. What do you say?"

"I'm not your master," Camila said neutrally. "If you want to take yourself for a run, you don't have to ask my permission. It's a nice day."

"But I want you to come with me."

Camila's face was being blocked by her bed covers as she held them up, trying to pull the duvet case all of the way off. "I can't, I'm doing this."

Lauren saw light at the end of the tunnel and zeroed on it. She picked up one of Camila's pillows and pulled the case off, throwing it to the floor with the growing pile of laundry. "I can help."

"That's all right," Camila said, dropping the stripped covers onto the mattress where they sat in an untidy pile. She looked up in time to see Lauren pulling off the case to her second pillow and jumped across the bed, her hands flying out to seize the pillow at once. Lauren raised hers in surrender and Camila looked close to embarrassed. "I can change my own sheets," she said quietly, filling a strained silence.

"Okay," Lauren shook her head, bewildered. "So, will you come out with me? I have so much energy this morning. That mixed with cabin fever isn't going to be pretty for either of us, so I really think it's best if we get out of here." There was no verbal rejection so she took it as agreement a few moments later. "I'll get us water and something to eat," she said, leaving Camila to finish changing the sheets.

Lauren was halfway across the room before Camila turned to her. "I don't want to eat yet." It was the first time she had said that without an attitude, so she figured that was why Lauren stopped and offered her a small smile.

"I'm not cooking, it's just fruit."

Camila nodded. "Okay."

X

Save for some stilted conversation on why Lauren even had work-out clothes and a small gym bag with her (by Camila), and the abominable state of the sidewalks (by Lauren), it had been an uneventful thirty minutes. Lauren thought there were too many potholes to run properly and was therefore unacceptable to sprint down so they had to find a park that Camila deemed suitable. It took longer than Lauren would have liked. She thought Camila was just trying to stall, to keep her away from seeing any of her friends.

"I don't know anybody who does this," Camila denied as they entered the park, sounding bored already as Lauren was bent over at the waist holding her ankles, stretching her legs to warm up. "It's just early."

"So? People exercise early in the morning," Lauren said, adjusting the sweatband on her head. "They walk the dog or they run; go the gym. Or they just have sex."

Camila's only response was a slight lift of her eyebrows. People who were in the park late at night were also the type to still be there early in the morning. She looked around but all she could see was people walking their dogs and a man passing through with coffee in one hand and a phone in the other, an unopened newspaper tucked under his arm.

There was a bench a short distance away. She wondered if Lauren would let her wait there but decided against asking. She didn't like to give her an excuse to say no. Besides, it looked like Lauren had enough to contend with without considering giving her a tiny drop of independence; she stood there stoically, stretching her arms and legs like she was going for a cross-country run instead of a simple fifteen-minute sprint around the park.

"Ready, Camila?"

"Sure."

Lauren took off like a starting pistol had been fired.