Camila's POV
We've been driving for nearly an hour. We hardly talked but surprisingly, that didn't feel weird at all. We felt comfortable with how things were between us, nothing was forced.
But the growl coming from my tummy broke the silence and both of us chuckled.
"You hungry?" Lauren asked.
"Always." I responded immediately. She chuckled again.
"Look, there's a drive thru over there. Wanna stop? I need to pee anyway." she suggested pointing at the gross building on our right.
"Sure."
I took the right turn and parked the car. The restaurant looked incredibly scruffy and I could feel burnt food from my car. But food is food, and I wasn't going to discriminate. We headed to the place and Lauren was obviously in a rush.
"You do have to pee indeed." I stated and laughed.
She gave me an unimpressed look and quickened her walk. Damn.
"Do you want me to order anything for you?"
"Any burger is fine, I gotta go." She said with a grimace on her face as she walked in the direction of the restroom.
"Oh, grab me some coke too." she called.
Sure.
I walked up to the bar and a waiter looked at me, he was sort of handsome. He got closer and smiled lightly. I smiled back, not wanting to come off rude and waited for him to take my order.
I sat at the stool by the bar, waiting for our food and for Lauren. She appeared a minute later with relief written all over her face.
"Better?" I asked amused.
"Much." She responded shortly. "How much do I owe you?"
"What do you mean?" I questioned puzzled.
"For the food, how much was it?"
"Oh, don't worry about that. Today it was my treat." I answered easily.
"But you paid for the fuel already, and god knows how much longer we'll be riding around." She argued.
"I said don't worry. You'll make up for it next time." I said with hope for a next time.
"Okay." She smiled. She seemed pleased, so that must have been the confirmation of my hopes. Yay.
"There you go." The waiter appeared from the kitchen and put the paper bags on the counter.
"Thanks."
"Thank you." Both of us said.
"Let's take it outside, it smells here." Lauren suggested.
"My thoughts exactly." I breathed.
After I'd finished my French fries, I took out my salad and started eating that. Lauren was almost done with her burger and she was looking around, taking in our surroundings.
"It's beautiful out here, I've never been here." She spoke up.
I looked around myself, and it was indeed beautiful. We were surrounded by nothing in general. But if you looked closer, you paid more attention to the details.
There was a river making its way along the road, a dessert with all kinds of bushes spread farther than my eyes could reach, I also noticed a forest on the horizon and then there was the sleazy restaurant and the never ending road.
"Mhm," I agreed. "Me neither. Are you satisfied with your choice?" I asked.
"Definitely." She smiled.
"Hey, do you want some of that? I wasn't that hungry after all." I suggested gesturing to my salad.
"Is it with salmon?" she questioned and I nodded.
"Thought so. I can't but thanks."
"You're allergic?"
"Yep."
"That sucks, I love salmon." I confessed randomly.
"Same." She replied sadly. "You could always take it with you to the car."
"Yeah, are you done though?"
"I am. Ready to get going?"
"Mhm." I nodded.
We took our seats and settled in the car. Lauren turned the radio on and a song I didn't know was on.
"Yeeees!!!" Lauren screamed.
"Whose song is it?" I laughed.
"It's Foals. I love them so much." She answered.
"I don't know them."
"Well, just listen, they're amazing." Lauren ranted.
Before I could get chance to listen to the song, the girl started singing softly.
"Now the waves they drag you down; carry you to broken ground; though I find you in the sand; wipe you clean with dirty hands."
The song was delicate and so was her voice at the moment. She looked so vulnerable, as if anyone could hurt her. She wore her heart on her sleeve and she didn't even seem scared nor bothered by this.
She kept on singing and I decided to pay attention to the lyrics.
"Forget the horror here forget the horror here; leave it all down here; it's future rust and then it's future dust."
I didn't understand it, not yet. I figured that if Lauren sang with so much passion, this song must have meant something to her. So I'm definitely going to check it out later. Suddenly the melody came out louder and harsher, Lauren's voice picked up on the volume and her demeanor expressed what she was feeling. Her eyebrows were furrowed, eyes shut and her fists were clamped so hard that her knuckles were turning white and her whole body was tense.
"Cause I am. I'm the fury in your head; I'm the fury in your bed; I'm the ghost in the back of your head"
She was literally shouting now.
The melody went back to normal and so did Lauren's behavior. She relaxed and she opened her eyes. She looked around and found my eyes. She gasped lightly and bit her bottom lip.
"Sorry, that's one of my favorites." She explained. "And it holds a special place in my heart."
"That's okay, no need to be sorry."
Her lip trembled and her hand shook and she ran it through her hair. I grabbed it and held it securely.
"You okay, Laur?"
"I am now." She answered timidly. We smiled at each other and I decided a change of the subject would be good for both of us.
"Do you want to head back to the city or do you prefer exploring some more?" I asked.
"Let's go back, I want a dessert and I know the right place for it." Lauren said mischievously.
"Alright." I chuckled.
"We'll explore more next time. Next time you'll choose the direction, yeah?" she suggested.
"Sure." I giggled.
"Okay, let's play 21 questions." Lauren said randomly.
"Why? That's lame."
"It is, but I want to learn more about you, and I want to do that fast. And 21 questions is a good way to do it. Come on, ask me first." She explained quickly.
"Ugh, okay." I groaned. "Um-"
"But let's not do serious ones, okay?"
"No problem."
As all the skyscrapers started to come into sight, Lauren and I were done with our game. Thanks to that I found out she loves all kinds of animals and she doesn't discriminate, her favorite color is dark purple, but she wouldn't tell me why, she's been painting ever since she was very little, she sings every time she takes a shower, she doesn't like dark chocolate, she's scared of heights, one time she was laughing at her brother so hard, that she fell from the couch and broke her arm, and ended up with a doctor putting her whole arm in a cast, and many, many other trivial facts which I'm willing to remember as long as possible.
And since the point of playing the game was Lauren finding out things about me, I was forced to tell her just as many facts connected to me. She seemed so pleased with receiving them, that I didn't have the heart to just not disagree.
We are friends after all, we might as well get to know to each other by playing dumb 21 questions. Everything I did with Lauren seemed fun and so did this game.
Though I wouldn't play it with anyone else, but I wasn't going to admit that to her.
"Okay, you said you want to get dessert somewhere. Guide me or something." I broke the silence.
"How about we switch? I can drive now." She suggested. "Unless you're not okay with me driving your car?"
"Oh no, it's fine. Let's switch." I agreed.
I stopped the car after I'd checked if anyone was coming, there was no one, so I quickly left the car and so did Lauren. We sat in our new seats and Lauren fastened her seatbelt.
She started driving and when I saw the traffic jam ahead of us, I felt so thankful I wasn't the one behind the wheel at the moment.
"Wow," the sound slipped out of my mouth.
"What?" Lauren questioned and chuckled.
I chuckled as well. "I'm just really glad I'm not you right now."
"Why?"
"Why?? Do you see what I see? The traffic is so bad." I responded.
"Hm, it's always like that at this hour, I guess. I'm used to it."
"I admire you." I breathed.
Lauren only giggled lightly.
"Are we there yet?" I asked bluntly.
"Oh, so you're that kid." Lauren stated. "Well I have bad news, we're not. With this traffic, there's still at least 20 minutes of driving."
"That sucks. Will you at least tell me where we're going? So that I'll know if so much time spent in the car is worth it." I wondered.
"I'll give you one key word, but please, don't be discouraged by that."
I nodded immediately.
"Cookies."
"Cookies?" I asked. Did I hear correctly? "Laureeeen.." I dragged.
"I asked you not to be discouraged. I promise it's worth it, okay?"
I looked at the girl skeptically.
"Do you trust me?" she questioned.
Do I?
"I do." Surprisingly, I really do trust this girl. I have since the moment we've met. The problem is, I have no idea why. Or maybe it's not even a problem.
"Well then, just leave it to me. You acted the same way about yesterday's ice cream. After all it was delicious, wasn't it?" Lauren trailed.
"Oh it was."
"See? I'm pretty sure you'll love the cookie place even more."
"Who did ever say I loved the ice cream place though?"
"No one. You didn't have to tell me this, I saw it in your eyes." Lauren said and winked at me.
She got me.
"Tell me something." Lauren said suddenly.
"What?"
"You heard me, tell me something about you." Lauren repeated.
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"Um," Fuck, what do I tell her? I figured it couldn't be anything trivial. If she had wanted something like that, she would've asked me that during our game. I need to think of something more important.
"Yeees?" Lauren trailed.
"Let the girl think, alright."
Lauren laughed and didn't say anything else.
I got it! It's risky but it's important to me.
"I believe in mermaids and fairies."
Silence. That's all I received from the girl on my left for about 5 minutes.
"Awesome." Goddamn mermaids and faries, why did I have to choose this?
Awesome, though. In her opinion it's awesome. Okay.
"Yeah," I added, sensing the weirdness spread in the car. "Did I say something wrong?" I wondered out loud and then put my hand to my mouth. I didn't want that to come out, I didn't want her to hear it.
"What? Oh, no. Not at all." she mumbled, looking at the road. Her face betrayed all kinds of emotions and I knew something was up.
"Then what is it?" I quit stopping myself from saying certain things and just let the words flow out.
"Um," the girl obviously struggled. "Chris, uh, my little brother believes in mermaids and fairies, too." she spit out. "Sorry, believed." She added quickly.
Fuck. Great, Karla, congrats.
"Lauren, I'm sorry."
"What for? It's okay."
"Well, I made you think of him again, are you alright? Do you want to stop? You're not gonna faint, are you?"
She chuckled and looked at me briefly.
"Surprisingly, I am. I don't feel the things I usually feel when I think of him, so no, I'm not going to faint." Lauren explained.
"Good, I'm glad." I said. "Are we there yet?" I added to break the tension.
"Thank god, we are." She responded.
"Yaaaay!" I squealed.
The 'cookie place' wasn't just a cookie place, like I thought it'd be. The variety of baked goods that were served at the small café genuinely surprised me.
Lauren seemed pleased with my reaction to it, she was smiling widely and her eyes were squinted which I didn't get to see very often. I figured it only happens when she's truly content with how things are going.
My eyes opened even wider and my jaw dropped to the floor when I realized just how many muffins were presented in from of me.
"Well, choose." Lauren said, smiling smugly.
I stole a glance of her face and directed my gaze back on the muffins. There were so many different types and flavors that I couldn't make up my mind. Lauren chose one of the most 'normal' ones, a one filled with white chocolate, does she have a thing for white chocolate?, and raspberries.
After good ten minutes of analyzing, I finally decided on a brownie with bananas. My love for bananas won this one, besides I didn't want to experiment too much.
I'll try something crazy next time.
The cashier handed us the tray with our food and coffees and Lauren pulled out some cash out of her pocket.
"Here," I spoke up, handing her money for my part.
"It's on me." she responded immediately.
"Again??" I groaned.
She chuckled and nodded.
The lady gave Lauren the change and smiled politely. "Enjoy and have a good day."
"Thanks." I answered for the both of us. Lauren was already on her way to the booth at the back of the café with our food. I ran after her not wanting to be left behind.
"Why the rush?" I said gasping for air.
She chuckled and took her seat.
"What? you thought I'd run away with your food?"
"That's exactly what I thought, are you a psychic?" I joked.
"Oh no, my dear. I'm something else." Lauren played along.
"Well, do you read minds then?" I continued.
"See, I knew you'd ask me that before you even opened your mouth." Lauren answered.
"You do then?"
"Maybe," she said winking.
We devoured our muffins within seconds smiled at each other.
"This was delicious, thank you for taking me here." I spoke up.
"My pleasure." Lauren said quietly.
"So what do you think our moms are up to? Mine is so bad at hiding things, she was so far from being secretive." I said, giggling.
"Mine said she couldn't tell me anything." Lauren replied as she took a sip of her coffee.
"Why?" I trailed.
"Because she couldn't risk me telling you or something." She shrugged her shoulders. "Don't you have any idea what it could be?"
"Nope, none." I answered shortly.
"Well, do you know when you'll find out?" Lauren continued.
"Um, before I'd left the house, my mom asked me to be out for at least," How long was it? "I think five hours. So I can't go home for at least two more."
Lauren burst out laughing and I raised my eyebrows questioningly.
"She's being way too obvious." Lauren explained.
"Oh, I know right?" I chuckled. "So damn subtle." I added, taking the final sip of my drink and putting it down.
"Are you done?"
"Mhm," I nodded.
"Do you wanna come over? We could just chill and wait out the two hours." She suggested.
"Yeah, sure."
We gathered out things and got back to our car. Lauren was the one driving again and within minutes, we were back at her place.
Mrs. Jauregui wasn't home and we had the house to ourselves. We didn't feel like doing anything crazy, and we decided on Netflix. Yes, damn Netflix.
Lauren was surprised to hear I never even tried to watch American Horror Story and she gave me no other choice, but to start the first season.
As we were settled on the couch, I kept glancing at the girl on my right. She was literally consumed by the TV show and she looked so calm and serene that I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't entirely enjoying this show, it just wasn't my thing.
We did chat from time to time, which was mostly Lauren asking for my opinion on certain characters or situations happening on the screen.
After third episode we took a break and I realized I could actually go home now. I thanked the girl for the day spent together and hugged her goodbye.
I got into my car and got back on to road, thrilled to see what my mom was up to. I pulled in our driveway and took the key out of the ignition.
I saw the Jauregui's car parked in front of our garage and I realized Clara must have been with my mom the whole time.
I unfastened the seatbelt and got out of the car. I locked it and headed home.
I reached for the knob and twisted it in the right direction. I opened the door and was met with two conversant figures that I did not expect seeing today, or any other day to be honest.
"Hi Mila." One of them said.
"Surprise, jackass." The second one accompanied.
Oh, Lord. Is this real life?
a/n EWW. thank god i got out cause i literally i hate this chapter, no sure why. my mood swings are lowkey killing me but i'm on vacation with my cousins and siblings and it's great.
hope you like it more than i do, enjoy and stay positive people
pola x