Afternoon Run (Camren)

eight; ❝never gets old❞

"I'll give you two a few minutes alone," my mom says as she walks inside the house, lightly closing the door.

  Lauren smiles at me, her eyes flickering between my eyes and down to my lips before she slowly inches her face towards mine. Our lips meet in a slow but gentle kiss as Lauren brings a hand to my neck, pulling me in to to deepen the kiss.

Someone clears their throat from behind me and we both pull away from each other to look in the direction in which it came from.

"I said a few minutes! Not hours! You're both never going to get to that date at this pace," my mom says.

A tinge of a blush that I've grown to adore approaches Lauren's face and she says, "of course, Ms. Estrabao."

"You mean Sinuhe," my mom tells her. "Now get going!"

"My ca-"

"Car? Pah! The limousine will be here in a moment."

"Limousine? Mom! It's just a date at a local restaurant!"

"It is a very important date at a local restaurant," she corrects me.

"I'm not even going to complain," Lauren says.

I playfully smack her arm and she smirks, then handing me the bouquet of roses. I hold them tightly, afraid that I might let them fall if I don't. I can't let this moment escape me.

"Ah, thank you," I tell her with a smile.

"Only for you, my love."

Honestly, I start to realize how much of a lovesick idiot I am at her last few words. I had fallen for her in the matter of two months, and it seemed as if my feelings had never diminished. For what it's worth, I decide to not let my insecurities ruin the date so I focus my attention on her.

Before I know it, the luxurious limousine arrives at a halt, and the driver beeps at us before he gets out of the car. The man motions for us to sit inside and we find our seats inside the spacious limousine, though we choose to sit right next to each other.

"This is a nice ride," she notes.

"Even better with you," I add.

She pulls me closer to her, placing her hand on my side. I smile through the kiss, getting the taste of her strawberry lip gloss that I enjoy.

We both pull away though when the car hits a rough bump which brings us back from our kiss.

"That never gets old," I say.

"For your sake, I hope it never will because I'll be doing it a lot," she tells me and then adds a wink.

"I'll never get tired of it," I say.

We share a knowing smile and she winks again. The car comes to a stop and I look out the shaded window. The medium sized restaurant is there to greet us. Niall has good taste it seems, as it's grand with long brown walls and a large chandelier above the front doors.

The magical lights around the venue are shining brightly midst the darkness of the night. I know that Shawn and Niall are waiting for us inside.

"We're here!"

"Calm down, Camila," Lauren says with a laugh.

The driver opens the doors for us and we get out, hand in hand. He seems careless and obviously just wants us to leave, which I don't mind since I don't really want to see him either.

"I'll be parked over there—" he says, pointing at an empty car space, "when you're done."

I nod my head and he heads back into his car, disinterested in his clients as he drives to the space.

"Ready?" Lauren asks me.

"Of course."

We enter inside the grand restaurant and find Shawn sitting with Niall at the corner of the place. I look around the beauty of the place, finding glass walls and marble tables to be the signature mark of the place. I had never been to this place before, as it had always been known for being expensive, but my mom had given me permission to come here and spend what I wanted.

Niall and Shawn are wearing coordinating outfits, and I laugh a bit at the sight of that.

Niall stands up and says, "hey, Camila. Hey, Lauren, the girlfriend."

"I get the honor of saying I'm her girlfriend," Lauren brags to him.

Niall laughs and comments, "I get the honor of saying that Shawn is my boyfriend."

We sit down at the table with them and a waiter comes over, handing us our menus.

"Nice to see a group of friends out together," the waiter says.

"We're on a double date," Shawn corrects him.

"A double date? Which one of these girls are you dating? You should be sitting with your date, not your friend."

"No," Lauren cuts in. "It's them and my girlfriend and I."

"Girlfriend?" The waiter asks.

"Yes," she says, giving me a quick kiss.

The waiter seems to shudder and says, "I'll be right back with the manager."

The amount of class and extravagance present in the furniture and restaurant environment had spread to the employees, but not in the way you would expect. It made them believe that they were better than us, and give them a snotty attitude that contributed to their homophobia.

"What the hell?" Lauren asks as the man leaves.

"That's ridiculous," Niall mutters.

The waiter comes back a few minutes later with a disgusted manager in tow. The manager is as stuck up as the waiter, if not, then more. Wearing an expensive watch on the wrist, I can already sense the high class homophobic words that are about to come.

"I'm going to have to ask you all to leave," the manager tells us.

"What? This is fucking 2020. Grow up out of your stupid homophobia," Lauren snaps.

The manager looks taken aback and angrily says, "get out before I call security."

"Let's go, you guys," I tell them.

I would rather avoid the problem than feed into it. That was my tactic to solving things, as I wasn't a fan of offense and confrontation. Whether that's the right choice or not, I'm not sure.

"Fine," Lauren says, latching on to my arm.

Before we walk out of the building, Lauren forcefully crashes her lips onto mine and shoots out the middle finger at the manager.

"How appalling," the lady remarks.

"Fuck you."

Lauren and I walk out of the place with our heads held high while Shawn and Niall quickly follow.