"I want to hate him, I should hate him because he isn't my dad." Ally moaned and Lauren rolled her eyes as she took a bite of her sandwich.
"Why don't you then?" Lauren asked.
"Because he's just so nice! His daughter is weird though."
"Weird? Weird how?"
"She's just weird. She doesn't talk unless you ask her something and even then it's only one word answers."
"What's the matter with her?"
Lauren just rolled her eyes and nodded along, pretending she was actually listening.
"My mom said she's depressed, never got over her mom dying and I think the fact she was there when it happened and couldn't help is making it worse." Ally mumbled sympathetically.
"How'd she die?"
"Car accident about two years ago. Camila -that's the girls name- was in the passenger side and the car flipped over like five times and landed on its roof. Camila managed to get out but when she tried to help her mom she wouldn't wake up and her whole body was jammed against the dash. Camila isn't very tall now, never mind at fourteen years of age so no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get her mom out. She's lucky she didn't die, a bystander just managed to pull her away from the car before it blew up."
"Jesus. And this was only two years ago?" Lauren asked, leaning her elbows on the table and looking over at Ally.
"Yup. It's sad, really. She's so small and sad looking and I wanna help but I don't know how."
"It's only been two years, Ally. She watched her mother die, you can't expect her to get over that quickly. Plus her dad has just moved them out of their house and into your house, that's bound to mess with her head."
"I know." Ally agreed. "Are you still coming over tonight?"
"Of course. Are Normani and Dinah coming?"
"Yeah."
"What school is this girl going too?
"Camila?" Ally asked and Lauren nodded. "Here. She starts Monday."
"Oh, ok." Lauren nodded, getting to her feet when the bell rang.
"See you tonight." Ally called as she headed to class.
-----
"Where's your mom?" Dinah asked as she, Ally, Normani and Lauren walked up the stairs towards her room.
"Out with Mr Cabello."
"You mean dad." Normani teased making Ally glare at her.
"Where's his daughter?" Lauren asked, falling down onto Ally's bed.
"In her room. She only ever leaves to go to the bathroom."
"What's she like?" Dinah asked. "Like, what's she look like?"
"She's cute. Always looks tired or sick or something but she's cute. Small, brown hair." Ally shrugged.
"Small? Smaller than you?"
"No, when is anyone over the age of five smaller than me? But she is smaller than you guys."
"Go ask her to come in and watch movies with us." Lauren suggested.
"She won't come in. She doesn't leave her room."
"Fine. What're we watching?"
"The new Scream." Ally said as she fixed the DVD player.
"I gotta go pee." Lauren announced.
"Thanks for that." Normani said and Lauren grinned over her shoulder as she left.
Lauren walked along the hallway, jumping when someone walked into her side. "Oh, sorry." Lauren said, looking down at the girl next to her.
Ally was right, she did look tired but that didn't make her any less beautiful. Even clad in a crewneck jumper and her hair pulled up in a messy pony.
"Hi, you must be Camila." Lauren said, watching as the smaller girl looked down at her feet.
"Yeah. I'm just..." Camila mumbled quietly, stepping back into her room and closing the door.
Lauren frowned, staring at the door that had just been shut in her face. She didn't feel offended that a door had just been slammed in her face.
Lauren turned, completely forgetting the fact that she needed to go to the bathroom and walked back into Ally's room. "You kind of underestimated just how cute she was, didn't you?"
"What?"
"Camila. She's a little more than cute."
"Did you go into her room?"
"No, she banged into me when I was going to the bathroom, I still have to go, by the way." Lauren pointed out making the girls roll their eyes. "She's beautiful Ally."
"Jesus, I should've known this would happen." Ally muttered and Normani and Dinah laughed.
"I'm not surprised, really."
"What?" Lauren frowned.
"You. You have a thing for 'broken' people. You think you can fix them but this isn't your thing to fix."
"What? That's ridiculous, I don't want to fix Camila. I'm just saying she's beautiful."
"Ok, whatever you say. Go pee so we can watch the movie." Lauren glared at Ally before turning and heading into the bathroom.
-----
The bad thing about being a night owl was that you were always the last one awake at sleep overs. This was something that had happened ever since their first sleep over when they were kids so Lauren had taken to going doing into the living room and watching TV.
She knew that Mrs Hernandez was still out which is why she thought it was strange that the TV was on.
Lauren walked into the living room making Camila's head snap up to look at her. "Sorry. I couldn't sleep."
"It's fine." Camila mumbled, looking back at the TV.
"You mind if I sit down here? It's boring lying up there in the dark."
Camila nodded, pointing to the sofa.
"What're you watching?"
"Harry Potter." Camila replied in a quiet voice.
"Aw, I love Harry Potter." Lauren smiled, resting back to watch the film.
"Who are you?" Camila asked, keeping her eyes on the TV.
"I'm Lauren, Ally's best friend."
Camila nodded once, chewing lightly on her thumb nail as she watched the movie.
"You know, Harry is a bit of an idiot. He just doesn't do what he's told and then gets in some sort of trouble then Hermione and Ron have to go help him and they all end up almost dead." Lauren said.
Camila didn't say anything, she just kept her eyes on the TV like Lauren hadn't even said a word.
Lauren turned back to the movie, deciding against trying to make Camila talk to her.
Lauren was yawning by the end of the movie. "I think I'm gonna go to bed." Lauren groaned, stretching as she got to her feet. "Aren't you tired? It's one am."
"I'm fine."
Lauren nodded, more to herself since Camila wasn't looking at her, and headed towards the stairs. "Night, Camila." Lauren mumbled, not bother to wait for a reply since she knew she wouldn't get one, and headed back up to Ally's room.
-----
She wasn't shocked that Camila didn't come down for breakfast the next morning.
"Where'd you go last night?" Dinah asked from her seat in the counter before taking a bite of her toast.
"What'd you mean?" Lauren frowned.
"I woke up around half past twelve and you were gone."
"I went down stairs to watch TV for a bit like I always do."
"Ah, thought you had snuck into Camila's room."
"No, I'm not a pervert." Lauren huffed.
"I would disagree but alright." Ally teased with a grin.
"Fuck you." Lauren snapped playfully.
"Come on, I need to work on my tan." Ally said, hopping off the counter.
"Swimming time." Normani cheered, running outside with Dinah on her heels.
Lauren quietly followed Ally out to the back yard, pulling off her shirt and diving into the pool.
"Have you started that biology paper?" Ally asked, sitting down on the edge of the pool.
"It's Saturday, Ally, I don't wanna talk about school." Lauren huffed, pushing her hair out of her face and resting her chin on the edge of the pool.
"You haven't even started it, have you?"
"I'll start it tonight."
"It's due Monday."
"It's a paper on renewable energy, it's easy." Lauren said, her eyes traveling along the house and stopped when she noticed Camila in one of the windows.
She was sitting on her windowsill with what looked like beats headphones over her ears and was reading a book.
Lauren felt bad for not inviting Camila down, she knew the answer would be no but it's still nice to be asked.
She could hear Ally going on about how procrastinating won't get her anywhere in life but Lauren had tuned out, the corner of her mouth twitching up into a smile when Camila looking down at them. Camila stared down at her for a couple of seconds before turning her attention back to her book.
"Lauren!"
"I know. Procrastinating is bad. Doing stuff in advance is good." Lauren mumbled, her eyes remaining on the girl in the window.
"Lauren, stop perving."
"I wasn't perving." Lauren snapped, finally turning her back to the window.
"She's is cute, though." Normani nodded, looking up at the window.
"Yeah, I agree with what Lauren said last night." Dinah added.
"Guys, stop staring up at her window!"
"What does she do up there all day?" Dinah asked, leaning her back against the edge of the pool and looking up at Ally.
"Reads. I think it's Harry Potter she's reading right now. She's a massive Harry Potter fan."
"Huh. Maybe you guys are destined to be, Lauren."
"Shut up."
"I don't want to know what she's going to be like at school."
"Hasn't she been back at school since?"
"Yeah, she's been expelled from one school though. Punched a kid but considering that was six months after the accident and he said something about her mom I would say that's a pretty fair reaction."
Lauren nodded in agreement, she had no doubt that she would've done the same.
"Anyway, about that biology paper." Ally started, jumping into another rant.
Lauren just rolled her eyes and nodded along, pretending she was actually listening.