Camila's POV
I heard the door bell ring as I got out of the shower. My guess is Lauren has just got here and Sofi is on her way to open the door.
Earlier I explained her the situation, that this one time she was allowed to open the door by herself, but only because I knew the person who would visit us.
I also might have asked her not to mention that to our mom. She would've killed me if she'd found out that I told my little sister to open the door by herself. Oh well..
I put on the clothes that I brought to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, sprayed some perfumes and hurried down the stairs.
"..but don't tell my sister I told you that. She'd tickle me to death." I heard Sofia's delicate voice say to our new guest.
"Don't tell me what, boo?" I ran down the stairs as soon as I heard the two girls talk, being too curious to let it go.
My sister inhaled dramatically and clasped her hand over her mouth.
"She caught us, Lauren! What do we do?"
I was standing next to them by now and my sister's face reflected pure horror when Lauren's was filled with amusement and joy.
"Sweetie, look at her, she has no clue what's going on, she didn't catch us." The girl said as she tried to calm the 5-year-old.
Sofia looked at me skeptically and watched me intently for a few seconds.
"You're right, she has no idea what's going on. Phew!"
Lauren smiled at her and rubbed her back gently.
"Don't think I'm forgetting that anytime soon, you and I will have to talk." I told Lauren directly, pointing my finger at her when I noticed my sister's attention wasn't on us anymore.
And then Lauren did something, that I wouldn't expect a girl her age do. To wit, she stuck her tongue at me and, of course, winked afterwards. She has a thing for winking, I think.
"Sof, did mom prepare you any breakfast?"
"Yeah, I even put my plate in the sink." She said and smiled proudly.
"That's fantastic. Do you want to go outside and play a little bit?"
"Yes!!" ..ugh that was loud.
"Okay, go get your shoes. But please, be careful around mom's section in the garden. She was working really hard on it, we don't want her hard work to be wasted, right?"
"No, of course not! She'd be sad."
"Exactly, so you'll remember?"
"I will."
"Great, well, have fun and let me know if you need anything, I'll be with Lauren."
I didn't get a response, because she was already on her way to our garden. I shook my head and smiled thoughtfully. This little girl is my gift, I've no idea what I'd do without her.
"She's adorable," suddenly I heard Lauren say, "and totally like you."
"I agree, sometimes it feels as if we are the same person but in two different bodies."
We both laughed and watched her build a sandcastle from the house.
"Well, hi." I greeted the girl and smiled.
"Hey there." she said and smiled back.
"How are you feeling?" I questioned as I looked at her wounded arm, poor Lauren.
"Oh, I'm good, really. Those hardly hurt to be honest, and I'm in a great mood." She smiled happily.
"I'm very glad to hear that you're okay, you got me worried! Anyway, I'll get some breakfast, do you want something to eat?"
"You mean get some lunch?" she looked at me suggestively. "And no thanks, I already ate."
"Whatever, stop making fun of my sleeping patterns."
We walked to the kitchen and I got myself a bowl and cereal.
"I'm not making fun of you, it's just not very good for you, plus how are you going to manage being awake when it's time for school?"
"Don't even start that topic, I don't want to think about school unless it's really necessary. When I at least try to imagine myself there, I feel like crying." I confessed as I poured a decent amount of milk.
"Crying? Why, cutie? School's not that bad, to be honest. I enjoy it most of the time."
"Well, that's probably because you're popular, have lots of friends, don't sit alone at lunch and get straight A's on everything." I rambled. "Oh, you're probably a member of every club that exists as well."
"Is this how you see me?" Lauren asked, surprised and maybe hurt, too.
"No, I mean, maybe? I don't know. I don't even know how old you are, so why would I assume all those things. I'm sorry, it wasn't right of me to do it."
"No, it's okay, don't worry. I'm 17, by the way." She revealed.
"Oh, cool. I'm 16, but I probably look 14." I feigned laughter and smiled.
"What? That's not true." It was quite nice of her to disagree. "But about the way you described me, your image of me was partly wrong. I'm definitely not popular, not now, at least. I have a few good friends, but I don't talk to them anymore. I guess my grades aren't too bad, and you weren't exactly wrong about the school clubs. I'm a member of, like seven or something."
I finally got to learn something about her and I couldn't be gladder.
"Seven, are you forreal? How do you manage?"
Lauren laughed lightly and said, "I enjoy them, they're not a waste of time in my opinion and I get to learn many things. And the other members are great people, too. So when something is good for you in your eyes, why would you see it as a burden? To me, it's another opportunity to gain experience and knowledge."
"Wow, I admire you so much. That's really great, Lauren." I said thoughtfully. "I wish we could go to the same school, I'd know at least one person and you'd show me around, tell me some fun facts about the teachers.." I listed sadly.
"You just moved here, right?" she asked suddenly.
"Yeah, why?"
"Do you know what high school you'll go to?"
"Uh, I got into like three, but after talking to my mom, we eventually agreed on Miami State High School or something like that."
"No shit!" Lauren yelled.
"Oh my god, what?"
"It's my school, we're going to the same school, Camila!"
OH MY GOD. "Oh my god!!!"
"I know, wow. That's awesome." Lauren laughed and hugged me out of excitement. "I'll introduce you to my friends, maybe we'll attend some classes together, we'll eat lunch together, it's going to be amazing, I promise. I'll like going to school even more now."
"Wow, that's like, such a relief. I'll like going to school more now as well, for sure." My grin could not have been wider.
"I know! I'll prove you school isn't bad."
"I never said it was bad. I only thought it'd be, because I had to leave my two best friends behind and come here. And maybe you've already figured that out, but I'm kind of shy and the idea of going to a new school by myself scared me to death." I confessed. "But I'm sure I'll love it so freakishly much with you by my side." I said, smiling.
"Oh, I understand. I'm sorry to hear you had to leave your friends, though."
"Yeah, I've only been here for a month, but it feels like I haven't seen then for a year." I could feel the lump in throat grow with each word I said.
"Can't you guys visit each other from time to time? I know how it feels to have a distance friendship and seriously, distance's a bitch."
"I can't just go to Cuba whenever I want and they come to Miami either, it's much harder than you make it seem like."
"Fuck, Cuba? I didn't know, sorry." The girl said regretfully. "That'd explain your mom's accent though, right?"
"Yeah," I laughed gently, " My English is better than hers because Sofia and I used to go to bilingual schools, and our mom started learning this language only a few years ago."
"Oh, yeah. But it's cute, the accent."
"I never really thought of it as cute, to be honest." I admitted and finally started eating.
"Hey, Camila." Lauren spoke up after a few minutes of silence.
"What's up?"
"I realized I'd never thanked you."
"What for?" I asked puzzled, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Your presence at the hospital in general, but mostly your help during my conversation with my mom. It really meant a lot to me, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done that if it hadn't been for you."
"Oh, that. Well you're welcome but it was nothing, really." I smiled, assuring the girl.
"It definitely wasn't nothing to me, so yeah. That's why I wanted to thank you, I wanted you to know I'm really grateful."
"Okay, anytime." I said as I finished my breakfast. "So I don't think there's anything I have to do, besides watching Sofi. My mom's in the group therapy, but she usually goes out with your mom afterwards, right?"
"Yes, my mom already told me they have plans for the afternoon."
"Hm, so I'm not even sure when she'll be back. But we could always walk my sister to the neighbor if you want to go already?" I suggested.
"Are you sure it's okay? I'd suggest taking your sister with us, but I don't own a car seat and the beach is pretty far and I'm not really up for walking so much."
"No, it's fine. The neighbors' daughter loves spending time with Sofia, and they always tell us she's no bother."
"Okay, great." Lauren smiled and let out a breath of relief.
"Let me just grab my phone from my room and we'll be good to go."
"Mhm," the girl nodded. "is it alright if I get Sofia from the garden?"
"Sure, wait by the door."
~
We got into Lauren's car and as I was fastening my seatbelt, she put the key into the ignition and started the vehicle.
I've already called my mom and let her know where Sofia was and what my plans were, she was glad to hear I was going out, but most importantly, because I was going with Lauren.
I don't know what her problem is, she's way too stubborn. She needs to understand there's nothing going on between Lauren and I.
Suddenly I felt an instant need to listen to one particular song, I saw an USB cable plugged in and I immediately decided to ask Lauren if I could play some music. I didn't tell her which song I wanted to ply exactly, because I wanted to surprise her.
"Sure, no problem." She answered.
So I plugged in my phone, searched for the song in a playlist that is one of my guilty pleasures and pressed the 'play' button.
A familiar melody blasted through the loudspeakers and I instantly started swaying to left and right.
Not even three seconds have passed and Lauren was giving me a look of disbelieve and amusement.
"Camila!" she half yelled.
"What?" I laughed out loud.
"It's July and," she stopped to look at the dashboard, "90 degrees, are you serious right now?" her face was reflecting nothing but hilarity.
"Does it look like I'm not serious, Lauren?" I asked, amused but definitely not surprised by her reaction, I was sort of counting on that, actually.
"It is July and 90 degrees and you're listening to Let It Go??" she yelled again.
"Hell yeah!" I yelled back. "Why wouldn't I? What's stopping me? You?" I smirked challengingly.
She kept looking at the road, like she was supposed to, and smirked too.
I won.
"Okay.." Lauren spoke up again. "..DON'T LET THEM IN, DON'T LET THEM SEE!"
"BE THE GOOD GIRL YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BE"
"CONCEAL, DON'T FEEL, DON'T LET THEM KNOW"
"WELL NOW THEY KNOW!"
Lauren and I took turns in singing as I waited impatiently for the chorus. I took a deep breath when it was only a few seconds away. I side eyed the girl on my left and saw her preparing to sing the next few lines as loud as possible as well.
"LET IT GOOO, LET IT GOOOOO! CAN'T HOLD IT BACK AAANYMOOOOORE!!"
"LET IT GOO, LET IT GOOOOOO! CAN'T HOLD IT BACK AAANYMOORE!!"
Both of us sang at the top of our lungs and I saw some pedestrians send skeptical looks in our direction. Did they actually hear us? The windows are closed, were we that loud?
Who cares. The happiness written all over Lauren's face is worth a thousand glares or pointed looks. At that moment, we're feeling happy and it's all that matters.
"..The cold never bothered me anyway." the girl's singing voice got my attention and I couldn't stop myself from thinking how beautiful and unique she sounded. Her voice is so raspy yet delicate. I wonder if she's aware of her talent, hopefully. If not, I'm willing to spend months reassuring her about this.
She kept singing to herself softly and I used it as an opportunity to listen to her a bit longer, I don't know when I'd get to hear her sing again.
She turned her head to the right and looked at me for a second, she smiled shyly and paid her whole attention to the road again. Her eyes were captivating, just like her voice, because I got to hear it again. Unfortunately the song was coming to an end, and as it turned out, so was our ride.
"Is it alright if we park here and then take a walk on the beach to the ice cream booth that I'd told you about?" Lauren voiced her question.
"Of course, just lead the way. It's my first time here. Actually, it's the first time I went out farther from my house than necessary, so.."
Lauren giggled lightly and she seemed a bit shocked. "Really? When did you guys move here?"
"Like a month ago." I replied shortly.
"Woah, and you never went out? Even by yourself?"
"Well, I did go exploring, but never too far. I've been to the park near my house and walked around my neighborhood a bit. But nothing besides that." I explained.
"I see, well, young lady, prepare yourself for spending a lot of time with me, I'm totally going to show you around." Lauren admitted. "Maybe I'll even take you to one of my favorite places in Miami? Who knows." She added and winked, as she almost always does.
"I'm looking forward to it, ma'am." I smiled proudly.
We got out of the car, put our shoes in Lauren's bag and head to our destination.
a/n surpriseeee c: hello beautiful people, hope you're all doing great!
expect next chapter this week as well, writing comes easier these days so i'm totally using it.
lauren and sofia finally met, lauren's dream came true lol and they already have secrets! haha
anywaaay thanks so much for reading and stay positive
pola x