Lauren opened her eyes slowly, rubbing them and sitting up to stretch.
It was 2.43PM, her sleep schedule had been a little messed up lately to say the least.
Today was the day.
Today was the day Lauren would finally leave this place. It had been a week since Alejandro had asked her to come home with him.
Since then, her excitement had withered a little and been replaced with nerves. She was sure she wouldn't be good enough to fit into his family.
If they were anything like him, Alejandro's family were going to be amazing. So it's not that she was scared of what they would be like, but more how she would react.
She had been in a coma for two years. That's two freaking years of no human contact.
Lauren wanted to badly to impress Alejandro and make him proud of her, but how could she do that when she could barely even speak? What if she said something wrong or couldn't say anything at all? What if she embarrassed Alejandro and he decided he didn't want to look after her anymore.
Decided not to overthink the subject any more, Lauren threw her legs over the side of the bed and padded over to the corner of the room where the clothes Alejandro's daughter were neatly folded on a chair.
She smiled at the thought of the girl but knitted her eyebrows together when she realized she didn't even know her name. She was sure it would be just as pretty as she was.
Lauren blushed, once again she had caught herself thinking about this girl she had literally only seen for no more than fifteen seconds, so why couldn't she get her out of her head?
Lauren lifted the hoodie up to her face, nuzzling her nose into it and taking in the slightly faded girls scent. She wanted nothing more than to run home with Alejandro and bury her head in the girls shoulder and just hold her. Damn, she was in way too deep already.
//
Lauren exited the bathroom dressed in the oversized hoodie and sweatpants that were just ever so slightly too short for her.
But it was okay, anything was better than the cold and scratchy hospital gown she'd been made to wear for the past week.
She decided to sit down for a while, absentmindedly scrolling through her tumblr dashboard on the phone Alejandro had given her a couple of days ago. She didn't remember how to read properly, so she didn't really understand a lot of it, but Alejandro had helped her set up the account and she found the art and other images on there the most interesting and beautiful thing in the world.
It was her escape from the drama of the real world.
The last hour or so of her stay in the hospital seemed to drag by excruciatingly slowly, she would glance over at the clock every so often, expecting it to be time to go home when in reality it had only been five minutes.
Lauren wasn't excited anymore. Lauren was scared.
She felt the familiar pit of butterflies forming in her stomach, only this time they weren't light and dreamy; they were heavy and made her want to curl up into a ball and never wake up.
But it was too late to turn back now. She couldn't back out even if she wanted to. It was either the group home that was waiting for her, or Alejandro's family. She knew for sure which one she'd rather pick.
Alejandro finally entered the room at 4.47PM, mumbling something about how he got caught up with another patient. Lauren couldn't help but notice how tense he seemed.
She placed a hand on his shoulder and he turned to face her. Over the past week, Lauren and Alejandro had spent a lot of time together, and the man had developed an impressive talent of being able to read Lauren's body language and tell what she was thinking before she even had to say it.
This was one of them times.
Sensing her concern, Alejandro smiled softly.
"I'm sorry, there's just a lot of paperwork and stuff to sort out; and this is a big decision for my family. But it's okay, because we're gaining an amazing addition to our family because of this, and that's all that matters kiddo" He finished before squeezing her hand gently, leading her out the door.
This was the first time Lauren had left that hospital room in two years. She made sure to take in everything she saw, savoring every new smell and sight. It was like she was a newborn baby again, everything about this whole experience felt new and foreign, but not in a bad way.
She was getting to experience the world with new eyes all over again, and she loved every second of it.
On the drive home, she wound down her window and made sure to take in everything. Every building, every tree, every new smell and stop sign and turning and store.
The smell of fresh paint or freshly cut grass or even the smell of the gas station, none of it failed to go unnoticed.
The drive was only 15 minutes long, but it didn't fail to brighten Lauren's mood up. She suddenly felt invincible.
As they pulled into the driveway, Lauren tensed a little, her nerves creeping back up on her slightly.
"w-w...what if t-ttthey d-don't like me" Lauren managed to get out, not taking her eyes off the front door.
"Lauren. They'll love you. It's only me and my wife and then our daughter who you've already briefly met, it's not like we've got a house of people to worry about impressing" Alejandro chuckled
Lauren smiled weakly, following Alejandro's lead and exiting the car. The two made their way up to the front door; Lauren's arm linked with his or balance.
Alejandro reached into his pocket to grab his keys but the door was swung open before he reached them, and Lauren was pulled into a tight hug.
Lauren panicked, but relaxed when she realized the person hugging her wasn't a threat. She felt Alejandro's big hands gently tugging them apart and stood back to look at the woman.
She was shorter than Lauren and had mid length dark hair. Glasses sat perched on her nose and Lauren decided she had a very kind face.
"Lauren, this is my wife, Sinu, sorry about that, she's been very excited to meet you" Alejandro chuckled, moving them into the house.
//
Once introductions had been made and house rules had been laid down, the family of three sat down to dinner. There was still no sign of Camila though, and Lauren couldn't help but wonder what the girl was doing right now.
As if her prayers had been answered, Lauren heard footsteps coming downstairs, and glanced up to see the girl she'd been waiting a week to see.
Camila froze at the bottom of the staircase and just stared at Lauren, they maintained the eye contact for a few seconds before the younger girl broke it to look back and forth between her parents.
"what the fuck?" she finally said, eyes searching her parents' for an explanation.
"Camila". Alejandro started.
So that was her name....Camila. Lauren liked it. It suited the girl. It felt good to finally put a name to the face she couldn't get out of her head for the past week.
"This is Lauren, as you know, I have been looking after her for the past few years. She's going to be staying with us for a while until she gets better. I trust you will be nice to her"
Alejandro finished, glancing back down at his plate of food.
Camila eyed Lauren again, narrowing her eyes and shooting Lauren a dirty look.
"Seriously?" she scoffed
"so you bring a STRANGER into our home, not even tell me about it and then expect me to play house with her? No fucking way." Camila said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Lauren shot her a pleading glance, silently begging the girl to not be mad at her, but it didn't work and Camila just averted her gaze back to her parents.
"Watch your language!" Sinu interrupted, standing up from the table and banging her fists against it, causing Lauren to jump.
"You will respect our guest. You don't have to like it, but you will be nice. Do you hear me?" Sinu challenged, staring down her daughter
Camila shot back one final dirty look before scoffing and turning to Lauren. "Fine. But don't for a second expect us to be friends. Stay away from me" Camila hissed, looking Lauren directly in the eyes before storming back upstairs.
Lauren forced herself to hold back her tears. She asked to be excused and made her way up to the guest bedroom she had been given.
She trudged past Camila's bedroom door, pausing for only a second in front of it before continuing down the hallway.
As much she wanted to go in there and beg Camila to give her a chance, she knew it was hopeless.
The girl wanted space, so that's what Lauren would give her.
So she retreated into her bedroom, slumping down onto the bed.
As she lay there, drifting off to sleep, Lauren couldn't help but wonder what she had done to make Camila hate her so much.
A/N
UPDATE TWO DAYS IN A ROW WHAT KIND OF MIRACLE IS THIS?!?!
Hope you guys are still enjoying this. I was in a writing mood so there MIGHT be another update today, if you're lucky;)
DFM will be update tomorrow if anyone is reading that too.
OH and if you guys wanna hmu I'd love to talk to some of you. My Twitter/ask will be below.
Love you guys so much, as always be safe and enjoy your day/night
-M
Twitter.com/grandescaminah
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