Your Love Is My Drug (Camren)

10. Spiral

One thing to mention in this chapter is that parts of it made me uncomfortable to write and it will be triggery for some of you to read, so read with caution.

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Chapter 10

Camila didn't keep turning to look behind as they walked away, but she also didn't let go of Lauren's hand. She waited until they were far enough away to ask if Lauren was okay but the positive response did little to ease her worry. Camila felt wound tight, like the next time she had to rein it in and suppress how she was really feeling she would unravel at an alarming speed. But she would manage for now, ignoring Lauren's pleas to slow down. There was no way. She fired off a quick text message, or as quick as she could using only one hand.

Lauren looked up at Camila's building. They were walking past it.

"Camila, you're going past it."

"I know where I'm going."

"Well, I don't. Care to enlighten me?"

"No."

Lauren glanced behind them, failing wholeheartedly in her attempt to make it surreptitious. They stepped into the road and she stumbled at the unexpectedness of it but Camila still did not slow or look back at her, just held tight as ever to her hand and continued on. "He's not here," Lauren said softly. "He hasn't followed us, Camila. We can stop now."

"There's no 'we' here, Lauren. It's just me, and I say what we do next."

"That's not fair. God, stop treating me like I'm made of glass."

"I'm not," Camila denied, stepping back up to the opposite sidewalk. "You don't know Francis."

Lauren sounded inordinately naive when she let out a puff of air and said, "I'm pretty sure I do." They were getting further away from Camila's apartment and she couldn't help but think that it was the wrong move to make. The best thing to do would be to go and collect Camila's things and demand for her to stay with her temporarily until they find her a new apartment, but she knew that wasn't going to happen when Camila was this wound up. "What good is going to come of us walking around the city at this time of night?" she asked. "We should go back to your place before we're kidnapped for ransom, or murdered."

"Who's going to kidnap us?" Camila asked cynically.

"I don't know. Freaks are everywhere. I'm very valuable." Camila clamped her mouth shut and Lauren's insides twisted for several minutes, looking over to her more than their surroundings. Lauren waited until she could no longer stand it. "Where are we going?"

A question had also been on the tip of Camila's tongue. "How did you find me?"

"I followed you," Lauren admitted sheepishly. Then with a burst of conviction, she added, "And it's a good job I did."

"You did what?"

"I followed you. It took a while for me to build up the courage to walk inside, and I couldn't find you right away, but..." She watched her process that and surmised that the reason Camila looked so angry was because she hadn't listened to her. "I know you're mad." There was a light scoff. "You can be mad at me; just don't think that I'd do anything differently because of it."