The two pans of pizza, one Hawaiian and one pepperoni, finally arrive at the table and Ally pulls up a chair to eat with her three best friends and her one new friend.
"Well if no one else is going to eat, I will." Camila shrugs and reaches out to get a slice of the delicious Hawaiian pizza in front of her. In the process, the sleeve of her shirt rolls up a bit and reveals a nasty purple and black bruise on her left wrist.
The green-eyed girl notices this and before she can stop herself, she reaches out and takes Camila's thin arm in her hands. She quickly rolls the sleeve up, ignoring Camila's protests, and inspects the bruise that seems to wrap around her slender wrist.
"Who did this, Camz? Did he do this?" Lauren's blood boils and Camila jerks her arm away quickly. She hastily pulls her sleeve back down and grabs a piece of pizza.
"It's nothing." The younger girl promises. "I just tripped."
"Chanch, you don't trip and make a bruise in the shape of a handprint on your wrist." Dinah states as she scans her best friend's face for answers.
"Mila, is Austin hurting you?" Normani asks quietly. All four girls are scared to hear the answer, but they know they need to.
Camila's eyes shoot up at the dark-skinned girl and immediately she shakes her head. "I'm not doing this right now." She quickly stands up.
Dinah stands up to try to reason with her. "What about lunch, Mila?" The Polynesian knows the way to Camila's heart is through pizza. Everyone knows that.
"I'm not hungry anymore." Camila throws her napkin down on the table and storms out of the restaurant.
Oh no you don't. Lauren thinks as she stands up and follows the brunette out of the restaurant. When she makes it out of the door, she sees the young girl walking down the sidewalk. Lauren jogs to catch up to her and her heart breaks when she sees the tears clouding her favorite pair of chocolate eyes.
"Hey why don't you let me drive you home?" Lauren offers as she clutches her fists together in attempt to stop herself from reaching out and comforting the teary eyed brunette.
"It's so frustrating not being able to remember." Camila allows the tears to fall as she stops walking. The green-eyed girl stops alongside her, Camila's response catching her off guard. She racks her brain to try and come up with the right words to say to Camila, but she realizes that sometimes there simply aren't any right words. Lauren has been in these kinds of situations a lot and so she knows that sometimes what people need most is the comfort of knowing that someone is listening to what they have to say and understanding them.
"I bet it is. I can't imagine going through what you went through." Throwing all restraint aside, Lauren reaches out and extends her hands to touch Camila's face. "You are so strong Camz." She states as she uses the pads of her thumbs to wipe away Camila's tears. Her heart soars when she realizes that the younger girl didn't pull away from her.
After a couple of moments of staring into Lauren's eyes, Camila finally speaks up. "Do you umm have any pictures of us?" She mumbles and Lauren barely hears the request, but when the words actually register in her mind, a smile spreads across her face.
"I have a million." Lauren answers confidently as she fishes her phone from her pocket. She scrolls through her pictures, trying to decide which one she wants to show Camila. She finally settles on showing her one of her favorite pictures of the two of them.
Flashback
"I wanna do something spontaneous with you." Camila blurts out as she comes to a stop in front of a well-known nightclub. Lauren quirks an eyebrow at her girlfriend and then follows her gaze to a sign on the nightclub marque that says 'closed for private wedding party.'
"Camz, don't even think about it. We have dinner reservations in a few minutes!" Lauren chastises her girlfriend.
"Hmm free food or an expensive check?" Camila weighs out the options with her hands, ultimately putting the free food hand way above the other one. Lauren rolls her eyes at the girl.
"Camz." Lauren groans as she checks the time on her phone. Their reservation is in 10 minutes. "We will get caught and thrown out."
"These things always have way too much food and they don't know half the guests anyway." Camila promises as she starts inching her way to the door. "If anyone asks, I'm the bride's distant cousin from Ohio and you..." Camila taps her chin. "you went to school with the groom."
Before Lauren can protest, the door swings open a man carrying a trash bag exits. Camila quickly stops the door from closing and cocks her head to the side with a pout on her lips, silently asking Lauren what her choice will be.
"Fine." Lauren grumbles as she walks toward her girlfriend. "Will I ever be able to resist that charming pout of yours?"
"Nope. It's too cute." Camila leans in and captures her girlfriend's lips in her own. "I hope you brought your dancing shoes Jauregui because your 'friend' from high school just got married and we have some celebrating to do." Camila smirks when she sees her girlfriend step forward and motion for Camila to go in. The younger girl leads them both into the club. Luckily, when they get in there, all the lights are dimmed and loud music is playing.
"Geez these people have a lot of friends." Lauren mumbles as she takes in the couple of hundred people scattered throughout the place. "I don't even know this many people."
"Lucky for us, huh?" Camila rocks her eyebrows up and down playfully. "Now where's the food? I'm starved." The younger girl stands on her tiptoes to scan the place and Lauren chuckles.
The two brunettes spend the rest of the night eating and dancing. Only once did they have to explain who they were and lucky for them, the people who asked were tipsy enough to buy their story.
A couple of hours and many glasses of champagne later, the girls decide to call it a night. As they are walking out of the wedding reception, a man with a camera in his hands gives the girls a card.
"So you can look at all the pictures that were taken tonight. I remember taking a few of you two. You make a really cute couple." The guy smiles warmly at them and Lauren thanks him.
Lauren decided then and there to always agree to Camila's spontaneous ideas. Even if they do seem absurd.
End of Flashback
After finding her favorite picture taken of them from that night, Lauren hands her phone off to Camila. "We uh crashed a wedding reception senior year of college. It was one of the best nights of my life." The green-eyed girl narrates the picture.
Camila's eyes scan over the picture and she smiles. She is wearing a black dress that has the shoulders cut out of it and Lauren is wearing a stunning red dress. They both have their hands over their mouths, eyes closed, and are laughing about something. Camila runs her fingertips over the picture fondly and starts to tear up again. She looks genuinely happy in the picture and genuinely in love. She can't remember the last time she's felt as happy as she looked in that picture with the green-eyed girl.
"We look so happy." Camila chokes out.
"We were happy. So happy." Lauren nods.
Camila finally hands Lauren her phone back and looks up at her. "None of this is fair to you. I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Lauren smiles gently at the brunette as she takes her phone back. "I'm okay. Don't worry about me."
"Nothing is okay, Lauren. We are married and I don't even remember you. Not to mention the fact that I'm in a relationship with someone else." Camila wipes the tears falling from her eyes and Lauren's heart breaks. "And I love him." Scratch that, her heart shatters.
Lauren chokes up and once again, she is at a loss for words. "I understand, but I want you to know that I'm not going anywhere, Camila. I'll back off, but I'm still going to be around." Lauren informs the girl.
Camila smiles sadly through her tears. "I wouldn't hate you if you left. I would understand."
"I would hate me if I left." Lauren counters. "For better or worse. I made that promise to you two years ago and I intend to keep it."
Camila nods as she wipes the fresh tears from her face. "Do you uh mind taking me home?"
"Not at all." Lauren pipes up as she leads the two of them back to her car. The car ride to the apartment is silent and Lauren is okay with that. Silence between the two of them has never been awkward and she understands that Camila is having to process a lot of information.
When they arrive, Lauren walks Camila to her apartment. The one conveniently situated right in front of her new apartment. Dinah sent Lauren a text after they left Ally's pizza place saying that she already called and told them that Lauren wanted it and all she had to do was sign a lease. The Polynesian was quickly becoming Lauren's second favorite person. The first being the brunette that she is about to exchange goodbyes with.
"How did we get separated?" The younger brunette turns to face the green-eyed girl.
"We lived in Venice and there were bombings there a year ago. You may have seen them on the news or heard about them. When the city was threatened, I immediately got you out of there and put you on a plane to here. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room on the plane for me." Lauren explains, the memory of that day still making her heart ache. "I tried to get back to you, but the airport and other ports around the city were hit and it took a year to rebuild them and get new planes and boats in."
Camila nods in understanding. "I do remember seeing the aftermath on television." Her eyes widen momentarily when a thought crosses her mind. "I can't believe I lived in Italy."
"You temporarily lived there for 4 months and then we resided there for two years." Lauren smiles.
"Temporarily?" The younger girl asks.
"Yeah. We both studied abroad there our junior year of college. Both of our majors dealt with the arts and well Venice is the best study abroad place for that." Lauren explains. "That's how we met actually. We fell in love there. With the city and with each other. So when we graduated from the University of Miami, we both decided to go back and start our lives there." Lauren conveniently leaves out the part that Camila's parents played in them moving to Venice. That isn't her story to tell though and if Camila ever finds out, Lauren wants it to be from them and not her.
"What did I do there?" Camila asks eagerly.
"You taught music." Lauren chuckles when Camila's eyes widen.
"I was a music teacher?" Camila whispers to herself. "My parents never told me that." Her eyebrows crease together in confusion.
They didn't tell you a lot. Lauren thinks to herself.
"Well thank you for playing 20 questions with me tonight." Camila chuckles and ducks her head. "Also thank you for putting me on the plane, Lauren." She picks at a string hanging from her sweater nervously. "I wish you could've used the ticket though."
Lauren hooks her finger under Camila's chin and raises her head. "Hey look at me." She coaxes and when Camila finally looks up, she continues. "If I had to do it all over again, if I had to do it tomorrow, I'd still choose your safety over mine." The young artist looks deeply into the chocolate eyes in front of her.
Camila blushes for the millionth time today. So fucking smooth. She thinks as she brushes a piece of her hair behind her ears. She's honestly speechless and she surprises even herself. Camila usually is always the one to talk and know what to say, but something about the green eyes in front of her just leave her completely speechless and flustered. The teacher settles on giving the girl a bashful nod.
"And I just want to apologize in advance if I accidentally grab your hand or reach out to get something off your face when you're eating." Lauren rocks back and forth on her heels. "I'm going to try my best to keep this..." She gestures between the two of them "platonic. But you were mine for 4 years so it'll take some getting used to."
Camila smiles fondly at the nervous brunette in front of her. She's mainly just glad she's not the only one who is nervous right now. "I understand, Lauren. I won't get mad if you do those things. I get it." She sends a reassuring smile Lauren's way.
Lauren returns it immediately. Camila's smiles always had a knack for being quite contagious. "Good. Well I guess I'll be seeing you then." Lauren offers a small wave even though every muscle in her body is screaming at her to take Camila into her arms.
Camila offers a small wave before turning on her heels and entering into her apartment. Lauren waits by the door until she hears the lock click and then she descends back down the stairs and goes to the front office to sign her lease. Being a couple of steps away from Camila is better than being a half a world away from Camila. It's the small victories that Lauren is learning to love the most.