Bound To You (camren au)

what i'm made of

trigger warning for eating disorders, homophobic slurs, and suicidal thoughts

-

"Lo, don't look at me like that. I'm only going to be gone for three days."

"Three days?" Lauren groans, flopping over on her couch. They're supposed to be playing Life is Strange but Lauren's too busy moping, and Camila won't let her take control of the game. Almost an an afterthought, Camila adds, "Don't touch this game while I'm gone because you'll mess up my progress and I'll kill you."

"Your progress?" Lauren is being dramatically whiny. She kicks her feet up into Camila's lap. "I thought it was our progress! I thought we were in this together!"

"Yeah, well. You thought wrong, bitch."

Lauren's pouty face breaks into a smile, because she can't help it, and she buries her face into the armrest of her couch as she dissolves into giggles. "I hate you," she says, and it comes out muffled. "I really do."

Camila grins over at her and squeezes one of Lauren's calves. "I know you do, Lolo."

Lauren peeks up at her from the couch with bright, mischievous eyes, and wriggles in her spot on the couch. "I like that nickname," she says happily. "I mean, it's no Camz, but..." She shrugs, shutting her eyes and rolling over at her side.

"Lauren." Camila slaps her leg, but Lauren stays resolutely still. "We're still in the middle of our game."

"Oh, it's our game now, is it?"

"Shut up," Camila grumbles, but she grabs Lauren's hand and pulls her to a sitting position, and Lauren happily curls up against Camila's side, like a cat.

"I'm gonna miss you," Lauren says softly, genuinely. Camila sighs and smiles and kisses Lauren's temple.

"Only three days, clingy," she reminds her, but she can't help saying, "I'm gonna miss you too."

-

Lauren leaves her a very sweet voicemail. Camila listens to it while she's waiting in the car for Hailee to get some snacks from Whole Foods before they really get started on their trip.

"Hey, pretty girl." She can practically see Lauren's beaming face, can hear the smile in her voice. "Miss you already. I'm covering for your opening slot tonight, by the way. Don't worry, I'm going to perform a very sweet song that goes in vivid detail about how much I miss you. You will make fun of me. But it will be very sweet and adorable, I promise you." A wheezy giggle, laughing at her own joke. "I'll get one of the girls to send a video. Hey, bring me back a souvenir from San Francisco, okay? It can be anything. Whatever it is, I'll love it because you gave it to me." The sound of talking in the background. "Okay, I'm about to get my ass beat for hiding in the bathroom instead of being on stage. Love you, Camzi. See you soon!"

Lauren makes a bunch of kissy noises into the phone before ending the message. Camila shuts her eyes and throws her head back against the car seat, laughing to herself as she clutches the phone to her chest. There's no one in this world like Lauren, truly.

When she looks back at her phone at her voicemails, her eyes fall on the name from the message just below Lauren's, the one next to 3/3/20, the one that came in like a bomb two months ago, on her birthday-

DAD

She stares at it. For a fleeting moment she considers listening to it, like how she replayed it half a dozen times when it first came in, but suddenly the driver's side door is swinging open and Hailee is wielding their snacks and she never gets the chance - probably for the best. Camila clicks her phone off and lets it drop into her lap, and rifles through the goods for the bag of SkinnyPop. "Thanks, babe."