Afternoon Run (Camren)

seventeen; ❝the plan❞

The next day, I'm at Lauren's house and we're sitting next to each other on her couch.

"You're such a liar!" Lauren yells at me.

"But I—"

"Don't! I can't believe anything you say anymore!"

"What's going on?" Lauren's mom yells when she comes into the living room.

Her dad and Ally follow behind her, clearly confused at what's happening.

"She's lying to me! She keeps saying that Ally threatened her! I can't believe it! After she threatened Ally and now she has the guts to say it was Ally!"

  Ally nearly stumbles onto the floor in surprise, which causes her parents to stare at her questioningly.

"Well, Camila, tell the truth!" Lauren screams.

"Calm down, honey," her mom tells her but she sends me a glare. "Camila, just accept that you can't lie your way out of this one."

"I'm not—"

"Damn right you're lying!" Lauren yells.

Her dad seems to not know what to do and he goes over to his wife, whispering something in her ear. Ally seems very upset, probably upset at the mess she's caused but she doesn't do anything yet which means our plan is failing.

I send a certain look to Lauren and she seems to get the message, then yelling, "you know what?! I can't trust you when you lie about something like this! We're done!"

Ally covers her mouth with her hand and screams, "STOP!"

Lauren and I shoot each other a smile, satisfied that our plan worked.

"I admit it now! I told Camila not to say anything and she didn't!"

"Ally!?" Her mom remarks, shocked at the actual truth.

"I'm sorry! Ok? I'm sorry! Don't break up with her, L! She kept the secret and I'm sorry."

Lauren begins laughing and says, "finally you admit it, bitch."

"Excuse me?"

"You wouldn't admit the truth so we put on this little skit to get you to admit it! It worked," Lauren tells her.

Allu seems angry at first but her features soften, "well played. I'm sorry to all of you. I shouldn't have lied and mom, dad, I'm sorry that I got married without you knowing. It just felt so right and I didn't want all of the judgement."

Her dad sighs and says, "in the end, we want you to be happy. Camila, we are so, so sorry for thinking that you lied."

"It's okay—"

"No, actually it's not okay," Lauren tells them. "You accused my girlfriend of being a liar instead of realizing that Ally is the liar! This isn't the first time that Ally has lied like that but each time, you guys fall for it!"

"It's okay. They just don't know me that well and maybe that's my fault— I haven't tried to spend time with your family."

"This isn't your fault," she says.

"Lauren's right," her mom comments. "We should have tried to reach out to you so I'm proposing a meal together, all of us every Friday from now on."

"I can do that," I say and Lauren nods her head, then laying her head against my shoulder.

"Fine," Ally says. "I'll try. I just have a lot of—"

"Not work again," Lauren groans.

"I'm going to try to cut my hours a bit so that I can spend more time with you guys. I miss you guys and I also want you guys to get to know Liam better."

Lauren tenses up beside me and it's obvious that she doesn't want to talk to Liam.

"Alright!" Her mom declares. "Now, this meeting is done.

"It never started...?" Ally asks, trailing off into silence.

Lauren's parents leave and so does Ally, leaving us alone.

"What's so bad about Liam?" I ask Lauren.

"He's broken up with Ally and gotten back together with her, like 5 times already and he gets Ally into things she shouldn't."

"Things like..?"

"She once went to jail because of him, for a short time but nonetheless, she went to jail for something that he did."

"Wow," I say, because I don't know what else to tell her.

"I know. Let's go up to my bedroom and watch some Netflix."

"Netflix and chill?"

Lauren laughs and says, "I'm tired today, babe. I actually mean watching Netflix this time."

"Hm, that's what you said like, the last 3 times when you suggested watching Netflix," I remark.

Lauren rolls her eyes and she leads me up the stairs, telling me, "I actually mean it this time!"

Surprisingly, we actually watch some shows on Netflix and that night, I sleep beside her on her bed, cuddling her.