II.
There was no explaining it, but something just wouldn't let me move.
I exhaled with audible annoyance, throwing the key down onto the passenger seat and pushing the door open so I was once more soaked through to the bone. With no jacket on, the rainwater was quickly biting through my t-shirt and jeans, and it was going to be one hell of a late start to the new semester to get back with a raging cold. The girl on the bench lifted her head in confusion while I propped one arm up on the roof the car and used the other to close the door.
"Look." I said sharply. "I don't know what the hell your deal is, but where I come from, people don't let other people sit out in the rain and just feel sorry for themselves."
She made no sound, but I could tell she was listening so I continued.
"Can I at least give you a ride somewhere? Home? The mall? Anyplace with a roof? I won't call you annoying anymore, I promise."
"I told you already, I'm fine." She repeated, lowering her head.
"Well from where I'm standing, you're not fine. And I'm not fine just knowing you're not fine. So I'm going to stand here until you either get into the car, or find someplace to go that isn't here."
The girl frowned. "What's your deal? Do you just go around the city picking up homeless strangers everywhere?"
I was about to roll my eyes, but something stopped me. "Wait... you're homeless?"
The girl just looked down to her toes again, returning to her previous demeanour of ignorance to my presence. "Look..." I said slowly, ensuring that my voice remained loud enough to hear. "How about you just come home with me. I mean you can't stay out here... you'll freeze." I looked up. "Or by the looks of it, you might drown."
With that, her eyes finally moved to me. "So you do just take in random strangers from the street."
This time, I did roll my eyes. "No. I don't."
"So why are you doing it to me?"
"Well..." I felt all caution fly to the wind as I stepped a little closer. "Most of the weirdos I find on park benches aren't nearly as hot as you are."
There was a moment of rainy silence, and the girl looked up at me with a small frown.
"What?" I followed up, tilting my head to the side as she just stared at me in silence, waiting for an explanation. "Look at you, you're really going to tell me that you've never been hit on before?"
The girl got to her feet, sliding her arms through the sleeves of her jacket that had been been previously draped over her shoulders. She seemed taken aback at first, but was slowly becoming more and more impressed as time progressed. "Oh, so that was you hitting on me? Wow... kinda smooth, and really shallow. Not what I'd expect from someone like you."
"Someone like me?" I met her halfway, keeping my distance yet allowing enough space between us for a challenging conversation. Looking her straight in the eye, I saw that they were green. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Look at you." The girl chuckled. "Big brown eyes, an innocent face... you've got to be the most doe-eyed person I've ever seen, you literally look like a baby deer that just fell out of its mom." Pressing one hand down on the roof of the car, she lifted an eyebrow at me. "I didn't expect there to be a flirty badass behind those eyes."
I knew immediately that there was something special about this girl, and even more so that there was no way I was going to leave without her. "Get in the car." I ordered, lifting my chin over at the passenger seat door that was still conveniently unlocked.
"Give me a good reason why I would do that." The girl spoke slowly.
"Because." I let a smile curl onto my lips. "I'm taking you home tonight."
She released a small breath, and I felt a tingling sensation rise in my shoulders. "Are you now?"
"Hell yeah." I backed up and pulled open the driver's side, watching as she mirrored my movements to a tee, and slid into the seat beside me once I was behind the wheel. I had won this fight. Once the doors were closed, I locked them from the inside and took the key from her, jamming it into the ignition and taking off down the road before either of us could change our minds.
"So how do you know I'm not going to kill you?" The girl asked scratchily, fixing her eyes on me across the car. "You're just taking a chance here?"
"How do you know I'm not going to kill you?"
"Are you?"
"No." I hesitated, but not for long. "Are you?"
"Not unless you give me a reason to." She said with a small laugh. When I tore my eyes away from the road to glance over at her, she was looking at me with a teasing grin. "Relax." She then reassured. "Lighten up a little, it was a joke."
Little did she know that I was watching her continue to shiver, and cursing inwardly at the fact that the heat in my car no longer worked. "Are you cold?"
"I'm okay."
Thinking for a moment, I looked down at the cups next to us. "Are you a coffee or a tea person?"
"Either."
"Take the cup on your left." I said, gesturing with my chin to the cardboard tray. They're probably not steaming hot anymore, but it should help anyway. And maybe if you hadn't taken so long to get your ass in the car, they would have been warmer."
The girl frowned. "Man, you're a real delight, you know that?"
I smiled at the front window. "So I've been told."
"These aren't for someone?"
I pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, they are. The one on the left is for you."
"Oh." The girl lifted the cup out of its tray and took a sniff. "You got me a cup of coffee?"
"Yeah." I lied. "I hope it's okay... I tend to put more sugar in them than I need to."
"That's sweet."
"I know. I'm the best." I accentuated my words with a subtle hair flip.
"No, I mean it's sweet." The girl repeated blinking down in her cup. "But it's good though, thanks."
I turned the corner and watched the underground garage come into view through the rain. "No problem. I was hoping that buying you a drink would help me pick you up tonight. Looks like I scored."
Not giving her a chance to respond, I pulled into the designated parking space and cut the engine. "Okay, let's go. You look like you need a hot shower." I moved to grab the handle of the door and pushed it open. The girl had done the same, and was carrying her cup in one hand, and Shawn's in the other.
"Wait."
"Hm?" I turned around to see her standing on the other side of the car, searching my face for something. "Something wrong?"
Her voice was soft when she replied, and it might have just been the way the parking lot was built, but it echoed off the walls nicely. "Tell me your name."
Blinking with stupidity, I replied. "Oh.. Right. I've offered you a shower in my home and I don't even know your name. Jesus, I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry."
The girl just waited, her eyes still focused on me. I couldn't help but feel incredibly self conscious. She was beautiful.
"Camila." I said with a small smile, focusing on her calm, dark, yet elegant demeanour.
The girl just nodded. "It's nice to meet you Camila." She rounded the side of the car and appeared just behind me. As it turned out, up close she was even more beautiful.
"I'm Lauren."
***
Lauren followed me into the lobby, passing the front desk and into the elevator. On the ride up, I took the chance to give her a pre-apology for the apartment.
"The place isn't anything to be excited for. It's actually not much at all. One bedroom, one bathroom, and one hell of a mess."
Running her thumbs over the lid of her cup, Lauren shrugged. "Don't worry about it. One hell of a mess is one hell of a lot better than one hell of a park bench."
"Impressive." I nodded at her. "I don't think I've ever met someone who's actually able to keep up with my repetitive wit."
Lauren smiled as the elevator doors opened. I stepped out first, and cringed as a slight shiver ran from the base of my neck down to my spine when the girl's voice bounced off the walls around me. "Well maybe you just haven't been meeting the right people." She spoke low, her voice brimming with a tantalizing rust that was angelic to the ears.
I just rolled my eyes and grabbed the spare key from a nearby fern, jamming it into the apartment's lock and giving the entire contraption a hearty twist. "Oh, and I'm going to go right ahead and assume that you're the right person? Miss too big for her britches queen of sass?"
"It's called defending your pride." She responded.
"Sure." I smirked back at her as we entered the apartment, stripping off my rain-soaked jacket and tossing it to the ground . I then ushered Lauren in, gesturing for her to do the same. "Anyways, welcome. This is basically it. The bathroom is just down the hall, you can go on and take a shower. Oh, and if you leave your clothes just outside I can bring them downstairs and toss them in the dryer."
Lauren turned and gave me a look. "Are you being serious? Or is that just an excuse for me to take off my clothes?"
I smirked again. "I mean... who says a little bit of both won't hurt anyone? You taking off your clothes would probably be the best thing about this whole night."
"Both of what wouldn't hurt anyone?" Shawn's voice cut the conversation in half, as he appeared from the door that separated the apartment from the balcony. He had changed into a red hooded flannel overtop a black v-neck, and the hood was pulled on his head so just a portion of short dark hair was visible.
"Nothing, unimportant." I plucked his coffee out of the tray Lauren's hand and rounded the couch to hand it to him. "Here. "
"Thanks." Shawn cracked a small smile. "Way to take forever."
"What were you doing outside like that?" I asked, looking behind to where the picture window was being continuously battered by the rain. "It's still pouring out there."
"The balcony is sheltered." He shrugged, looking up to where Lauren was still standing with the single cup of coffee in her hand and a confused look on her face. He blinked a few times, then looked down at me. "Hey, who's this?"
"This is Lauren." I stepped to the side to give him a better view. "Lauren... um... " I looked at the girl. "Lauren..."
"Jauregui." Lauren finished off the introduction herself, smiling kindly at Shawn.
"Jauregui." I repeated with a smile, trying my hardest to diffuse the newfound awkwardness.
"Shawn Mendes." Shawn nodded at her. "It's nice to meet you."
"You too."
Shawn turned his attention back to me, tilting his head in confusion. "Camila, did you not get yourself a coffee? We've still got three or four hours of things to get done."
"Um..." My eyes drifted to the cup in Lauren's hand as the boy made his way into the kitchen and placed his own back in the microwave for a reheat."I figured drinking coffee this late at night wasn't such a good idea, so I opted out. Maybe I'll make a pot of tea later. Something a little lighter."
Something pressed against the back of my hand, and I turned to see Lauren had silently made her way directly behind me, and had an eternally grateful look in her eye. "Take it." She murmured, knowing that over the sound of the microwave, only I could hear her.
"It's yours." I replied under my breath.
With a small nod, she took a step back just as Shawn turned around once more.
"Let's go and get you into the shower." I announced, taking Lauren by the arm and pulling her towards the hall. "I feel like if you stand here any longer you'll get hypothermia and it'll be my fault."
Lauren followed close until we were out of Shawn's sight, stopping when we were both standing outside the door to the small washroom. "Just throw your stuff out here." I told her. "I'll take care of it."
"Great." Lauren nodded, then out of nowhere took my hand and pulled me inside before closing the door behind her. The apartment bathroom was tiny, so much so that I found myself at a rather close proximity to her. And it definitely wasn't a bad thing. Standing an inch or two above me, she looked down with a small frown. "So you didn't tell me you had a boyfriend."
"A what?"
"A boyfriend."
"I don't have a boyfriend."
The girl's green eyes lifted with amusement. "Good, because a girl doesn't normally flirt with another girl then bring her home to where she has a guy."
I grinned. "What do you have against guys?"
Lauren shrugged. "Nothing. They're just really not my thing."
My grin widened. "It's times like this that I'm super glad I'm not a guy."
"Alright, alright. Just get out so I can change." With a light shove to my chest, I teetered backwards as Lauren opened the bathroom door.
"Wait, I can't stay and watch?" I asked, one quarter jokingly and three quarters dead serious. "I wasn't kidding when I said that this was going to be the best thing about the whole night."
Lauren rolled her eyes. "Out Camila."
I curled my lip into a pout. "Oh come on, I know you have a killer ass under those skinny jeans. You have one killer ass over them."
Another push to the chest, and I stumbled backwards out the door right as it was closed only inches from my face. "Hold on, I still need your clothes for real." I said through the door, pressing my cheek to the surface longingly. It opened with a start, and Lauren pressed a bundle of clothing at my chest before it closed a single second later. It was worth it though, and I knew I had a residual smile on my face from that decadent flash of collarbone.
Unfortunately, before I could say another word, the shower was turned on and my thoughts were tuned out.
***
I'm going to run these downstairs." I told Shawn, re-entering the living room and glancing at the boy who was perched at the kitchen table and peering down at a textbook. "Did you want me to grab you anything from the vending machines?"
"I'm good." Shawn looked towards the washroom with a frown, then got to his feet and changed his mind with the snap of a finger. "Actually... do you mind if I head down there with you? I could actually use a few chocolate bars."
I smiled, gesturing for him to follow me out the door and down the hall. It shouldn't have been much of a surprise, but the minute we were out of earshot, the questions began.
"So Mila. Tell me about this girl. Why did you bring her home? And more importantly, why haven't I seen her before? I mean we pretty much know the same people."
I linked my arm around his, leaning against his shoulder as we found our way to the stairway that led to the basement. "Do you promise not to freak out?"
"I promise."
"Okay..." With a deep breath. I began. "So I found her on a park bench-"
Shawn stopped abruptly, and it caused me to stumble over my own feet and end up a few steps ahead of him. Holding both hands out, I braced for the impending storm of questions. "Hey now, you promised you wouldn't freak out."
"No, I'm not." Shawn ran his hand up through his hair and pulled off his hood. "Not freaking out at all, just wondering why all of a sudden you're deciding to harbour a homeless person like it's just another Friday night." His voice had a panicked tone to it, brown eyes flickering with confusion. "Are you crazy? Did you fall or hit your head on something?"
Clasping my hands together, I put a pleading look on my face. "Okay first off, this is just another Friday night. Second, it was raining alright? She was sitting in that park by the coffee shop downtown, and it was just so awful outside that I just... offered for her to stop by and shower."
"So you just picked her up and brought her home?" You don't think maybe there could have been some kind of shelter or something she could have gone to?" He then looked back at the closed door with work painted on his face. What if she's dangerous? What if she steals something and just takes off?
It was an honest question, but I was confident in my choice. "She won't." I insisted. "I don't know why exactly, but she won't." I continued, ensuring that he couldn't start lecturing again. "I know you're going to want to go all manly and protective of me, but please just give Lauren a chance okay? This is really important to me. She's different."
"Camila, you've known her for an hour!" Shawn exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pulling me down the stairs. "This is crazy, are you just going to stay alone with her tonight?"
"I don't know." I replied, trying to keep pace with him. "I'll see what she wants to do when we get back. All I know is that I don't want her out in the storm anymore."
Shawn muttered something under his breath, and continued to do so until we had graced both the laundry room and the basement vending machines with our presence. Returning to the room, he silently seated himself back at his workspace while I began boiling water for the promised pot of tea. When the shower shut off in the bathroom and the door opened, I was already halfway down the hall with Lauren's dry clothes bundled in my arms.
"Here." I presented them to her with a big smile, then scanned her towel covered body up and down with an impressed smirk. "Your things are all dry. Nice and cozy."
"Thanks." Lauren took them, disappeared for a moment, then much to my disappointment reappeared fully dressed. "You've been awesome Camila. Thanks for everything you've done tonight."
I bit my lip. "Why do you sound like you're saying goodbye?"
"I don't want to overstay my welcome." Lauren explained briefly then advanced to step past me. My foot shot out in front of her, stopping her from taking another step. Looking up, I met a very confused gaze.
"You're not." I nodded.
"No?"
"No."
Not covered in streaking from dirt mixed with rain, I could see in plain light that Lauren was stunning. Everything on her face came together, from the curve of her jawline to her pale complexion that was surrounded by a curtain of damp, dark hair. I had partly been poking fun before, but that was quickly changing.
"Hey." I blinked at her, tilting my head a few degrees to the side and staring at the twin glassy emerald orbs that were all of a sudden flecked with amber. "Your eyes are green."
"Yeah, and the sky is blue." She replied with a haughty snort of laughter.
"Actually the sky is grey right now asshole." I moved my foot, watching her turn so she was facing me head on. With a smile, I let the next proposition roll off my tongue with ease. "Don't leave. Theres no point in you getting warm and dry in here, then going outside again so you can re-freeze your butt off."
"I guess that's true."
"So stay." I repeated. "It's a mess inside, but you can take the bedroom. I'll sleep out on the couch."
"Wait." Lauren backed up so she was leaning against the hallway with her hands behind her back. There was a smirk on her face. "You want me to stay the night? I thought I was just going to wait out the rain."
"Nope." I opened the door to my bedroom behind her and grinned. "You're staying here, so make yourself comfortable. There are a whole bunch of hoodies in the closet."
Lauren sputtered with laughter. "You really think your clothes are going to fit me? Look at you, you're the size of a twig."
"Hey now, I'm not that small." I curled my lip into a pout as we entered, pushing around piles of clean laundry and grabbing the tussled comforter to straighten it out. I then wriggled up to sit on the bed, folding my legs under me and balancing my elbows on my knees.
"Please." Lauren scoffed, pulling the closet door open and stepping back to take in the number of hangers that were packed the relatively small space. "I bet I could snap you in half like a twig."
Narrowing my eyes behind her, I smirked. "I'd like to see you try."
Turning to glance at me, Lauren matched my smirk with one of her own. "You do?"
"Yeah." I shuffled off the bed once again to kneel down and grab a cluster of used clothes and dump it all into the laundry hamper. Little did I know that in a matter of milliseconds, Lauren would appear behind me with nothing but a gentle breeze as evidence.
Her voice was then ridiculously close to the shell of my ear.
"You really want to go there brown eyes?"
"Jesus." I looked behind me, eyes wide. "You were just on the other side of the room. How fast did you move?"
"You really don't want to go there either."
I turned around, watching her back up and slide her hands into the pockets of her jeans, smiling.
"So what do you think?" I asked her getting to my feet and matching her smile. "Are you down with going out and getting something to eat? I don't have very much here yet, mostly just popcorn and peanut butter."
"I could eat." Lauren's shoulders were up by her ears with a shrug. "But honestly, popcorn and peanut butter doesn't sound all that bad."
I stepped over and took the girl's hand. A little to my surprise, she let me pull her from the bedroom and down the hall. "It's a lot worse than it sounds, trust me. It's way better to go out and pick up something fresh."
"Okay. I can be down with that." Lauren gave my hand a small squeeze before letting go, doing so right as we entered the living room area.
Shawn was sitting and scribbling notes into a series of notebooks with his laptop open only a few inches away. He was surrounded by his things, as well as my own set of notebooks and unused writing utensils.
"Shawn." I addressed him. "The two of us are going out to pick something up to eat. Do you want anything?"
From where he was sitting, the boy looked up. "Hold on, the two of you are just going to go out there?"
I looked at Lauren over to Shawn, then back to Lauren again. "Uh... yeah. There's nothing to eat here, and I'm starving. How does Indian food sound? I could really go for some butter chicken right now."
"Mm... with rice. That sounds amazing." Lauren mumbled from behind me, seemingly to herself.
I watched Shawn's face twist into visible concern, and pleaded with him silently to not challenge my hunger. Lauren however, had ulterior motives.
"Shawn." She addressed him kindly. "How about you come with us?"
"Uh... I don't know. I'm not all that hungry." He replied, not looking at her as he twirled the pencil in his hand around his fingers a few times. "You guys just go ahead. But don't be too long alright? Mila, you've got a lot to get done tonight."
"I know." I grabbed my keys and pulled the front door open, gesturing for Lauren to leave. She did, not without a smile in Shawn's direction. "We'll be back in a few." I assured him, waiting for a sure nod before following the girl myself.
The moment we were outside, Lauren had stopped and was now leaning against the wall of the hallway. Her arms were folded over her torso, and she was watching me with a smirk that was very much like the ones I had been receiving all night.
"Mila." She repeated the nickname Shawn had used with one brow lifted. "That's actually really cute. Was he the one who came up with it, or did you?"
"He did." I answered, pulling the door so the lock on the opposite side clicked closed. "It was way back when we were kids, and I guess it just sorta caught on with everyone else. Apparently three syllables was one too many for a name that he would end up saying a million times a day."
"Hm." Lauren pushed off the wall and followed behind me as we made our way down towards the stairs. "It's not bad... but I would have gone with something a little more along the lines of one syllable."
Pushing the door open, I looked back at her, thinking for a moment. "Like what...Mil?"
"Camz."
"Camz." I repeated. "That sounds stupid. It sounds like the logo for some children's fruit snack of something." I waited for Lauren's face to turn into mock hurt, then repeated the one syllable gem back to her with a scoff. "Camz."
"You sound stupid." Lauren stalked past me, flipping her now dry hair over her shoulder and taking off down the stairs. I followed close behind, matching her pace as well as I could Shawn's. Once we reached the bottom floor, she slowed down and turned to walk backwards in front of me. "So how did the two you meet? It seems like you've known each other for a while now."
I took her hand and turned her around, leading her around to the underground garage. "We grew up together. I've literally known him for my whole life, or at least as we both got stuck as shrubs in our kindergarten rendition of 'The Wizard of Oz'." I shivered, going back to the memories that had been so tightly bound to me all this time.
"That's adorable." The girl before me nodded.
"Yeah. I guess so. He got in trouble for kicking some kids toy down a storm drain, and I argued with the teacher. That's really all it took for the teachers to get us both to make up for our crimes by putting us in the play. We hit it off right away."
The two of us headed into the car, Lauren swinging around to the passenger seat and sliding inside before I could. "It kinda seems like the two of you were destined to be together." She noted. "That would be one hell of a fairytale love story."
Seating myself behind the wheel, I laughed. "Oh god no. Shawn's never expressed even the slightest interest in something like that, and to be honest, neither have I. We're best friends, and I don't think either of us want to put that in jeopardy."
"Really?" Lauren turned her head, and was watching me again.
"Yeah. Is that hard to believe?"
"To be honest?" The girl thread her fingers through her hair. "A little bit... yeah."
"Why?"
This time, it was Lauren who laughed. "Look at you Camila. How could someone possibly be best friends with you and not want to have you all to themselves? And I'm talking about guys and girls."
"If I could kick your right now I would." I muttered jokingly, pulling out into the rain and taking to the streets. The restaurant I had in mind was a mere five minute drive away, and perfect for a late night food run. When Lauren didn't reply, I took it as a go ahead to continue. "You call me shallow, it turns out you're really no better."
The girl just laughed, indicating her complete agreement.
Arriving, Lauren and I headed inside from the parking lot, and were immediately hit in the face with the tantalizing scent of indian food. More spices than I could name were wafting through my nostrils, their source straight from the vents. "I'm starving." The green eyed girl held the door open for me, and I reciprocated the gesture with a pat to the cheek.
"I hear you." Mouth watering, I scanned the dining area and came up with a number of families sitting at the tables and happily conversing.
"Well then hear this." Lauren nudged me in the shoulder as we stood and waited to place an order. "They have a buffet here. That's got to be why it smells so good."
Lauren's eyes glowed in the dim restaurant light, and the minute I looked at her I knew I was going to stretch out this night for as long as it could go. The atmosphere was warm, most tables were full, and with the low mood music, it was the perfect place to relax.
So it took me less than five seconds to propose that we find a table, and stay.
Much to my delight, it took even less time for her to reply with a firm yes.
So we stayed. And damn did it feel good.
***
A/N: Let me know how I did. I've got a lot planned for this, and along the way I want some suggestions as to who else you want to see, some plot lines you want me to incorporate, etc. Also I know the chapters aren't nearly as long as before, and its essentially because although I loved the 10k word chapters to death, they were very exhausting. This story will just be significantly longer. (:
Thanks for reading!