For the next few weeks, Camila continued to recover and open up about the night of the attack with Lauren, feeling more comfortable talking about it as each occasion passed. Lauren never wanted to push her to talk about the incident, because she could see how visibly upset she would get just thinking about it. Lauren also felt guilty still, seeing as if she never left Camila by herself at the ice cream stand, she never would've had to walk home alone. So, Lauren tried to do everything she could to make it up to her.
"Do you wanna go to the movies tonight? Maybe we could get dinner after?" Lauren asked, leaning against Camila's closed bedroom door as she stood in front of the mirror applying her makeup.
"Another date? We've been out every night this week. Don't you just wanna stay in for once?" Camila asked, half laughing.
"But I owe you big time. It's the least I could do" Lauren said, walking toward Camila.
"Babe, I already told you. You don't owe me, okay? We're moving past it" Camila said seriosuly.
Lauren came behind her, wrapping her hands around her waist and nuzzling her head into the crook of Camila's neck. "I knowwww but I still feel really really bad about it" she said, pressing her lips against Camila's neck.
She stopped applying her makeup and looked at Lauren through the reflective glass, "you know how you could make it up to me? Stop feeling so bad about it and just, let it go."
Lauren kissed Camila's neck once more, "fine, I'll let it go, but I'm still taking you out...I really wanna see that new Kevin Hart movie" she said, smiling against the skin of Camila's neck.
"Ugh, fine" Camila rolled her eyes and finished her makeup.
After spending most of the day with Dinah, Ally, and Normani, Camila and Lauren separated from the rest of the group and made their way to the movie theater. They stood in line for a minute before hearing a faint voice coming from behind them.
"Camila Cabello is that you?" The voice asked hesitantly and surprised.
Camila and Lauren both turned their heads in the direction of the voice.
"Oh my gosh, hi!" Camila exclaimed, throwing her arms around the source of the voice, a tall, lanky kid, with a backwards hat on.
"How have you been, it's been so long!" He said, as they separated.
"I'm doing okay, how's your sister? How's your mom? Oh my God, how's everybody?!" Camila asked excitedly as Lauren stood next to her awkwardly.
"Everybody's doing really good, my sister's starting college this fall, my mom still teaches at the elementary schoo-" he was cut off by a shorter blonde girl who came up next to him smiling, holding a bag of popcorn in her hands.
"Oh, Camila" he began quietly, "this is my girlfriend, Emily" he said, gesturing to the girl next to him. "This is Camila," he said, "we used to live next door to each other back when we were younger."
"Oh, hi" the girl said brightly as she looked over at Lauren, waiting to be introduced.
"Oh, gosh, sorry" Camila said, realizing she completely forgot to address Lauren. "This is my...friend...Lauren" she said quietly.
Lauren looked down at Camila uncomfortably before glancing her eyes back up at the two unfamiliar faces in front of her. "Hi, nice to meet you guys."
There was a bit of an awkward silence before Emily broke it to Camila's relief by saying, "we should get back in line. We don't wanna miss the movie."
They all said their goodbyes and Camila and Lauren turned back to face the front of the line. Camila reached for Lauren's left hand but she pulled it away before she could take hold of it.
"Babe, what's wrong?" She asked, slightly confused, but at the same time, well aware of why Lauren didn't want to hold her hand.
"Your friend? I'd say we're a little more than friends at this point Camila, wouldn't you?" Lauren said, trying not to sound too angry.
"I'm sorry, I didn't-" Camila stopped as Lauren bought the tickets, only to continue when they made their way over to a group of empty chairs and tables at the corner of the theater lobby.
"Listen, I didn't know what to say, I-"
"Are you embarrassed of me?" Lauren asked abruptly.
"No, I...I just didn't-"
Lauren leaned back in her chair, annoyed at Camila's lack of an explanation. "I don't understand why it was so hard for you to say 'hey this is my girlfriend Lauren'?"
Camila paused for a moment, her eyes growing wide.
"What?" Lauren asked, her tone still annoyed.
"Girlfriend? We're...like...girlfriends?" Camila asked quietly.
Lauren leaned forward off the back of her chair and her tone changed from annoyed to nervous. "Well...yeah, that's what I thought...this was" she said, gesturing her index finger between the two of them. Camila smiled in response.
"Wait, are we...not girlfriends?" Lauren asked nervously, realizing she might be wrong. "Well, shit. This is embarrassing" she said as she ran her hand through her hair and leaned back in her seat.
Camila leaned forward excitedly, "no, we can-we can be girlfriends...I mean..if that's what you want" she more asked rather than stated.
"I mean, that's what I thought you meant when you said you wanted to be together?" Lauren recalled that after all this time, she still didn't know the status of their relationship and just started to assume that Camila was her girlfriend.
"I don't know, I've never really done this before, Lauren. You're supposed to be the expert." Camila laughed.
"Well," Lauren reached for Camila's hand across the table, "I guess I'll take this one...will you be my girlfriend?" Even though she was certain Camila would obviously say yes, she was still nervous seeing Camila's dark chocolate brown eyes stare into hers expectantly.
Camila swallowed hard, "I would love to" and leaned forward to give Lauren a kiss as she smiled.
"Woo, well that was the most confusing and stressful five minutes of my life" Lauren joked as they stood up and made their way into their theater.
"So who was that guy anyway?" She asked as she held Camila's hand and opened the door of the secluded movie showing.
"His name's Josh. Me, him, and Dinah all used to live in the same neighborhood" Camila answered as she picked a seat in the second to last row.
"The three of us used to like run that neighborhood" Camila laughed, "we thought we were so cool." Without thinking, Camila went on to say, "I remember Dinah and I used to fight over him all the time. We had the biggest crush on him."
Camila looked up at Lauren who had an uneasy smile on her face. "Sorry, I don't have a crush on him anymore, I just..."
Lauren put her hand on Camila's knee in the seat to her right, "Camz, it's okay. You're allowed to have crushes in your past life" she said, laughing slightly.
Camila didn't say anything, just giving the same uneasy smile Lauren had previously given her.
"Okay?" Lauren asked, prompting her to speak.
"Okay."
The two of them settled in together as the previews came to an end and the movie started. Lauren wrapped her right arm around Camila's shoulder and reached her other arm across to take Camila's left hand in hers. They remained like this throughout the duration of the movie, Lauren kissing the top of Camila's head every once in a while.
After dinner, they went back to Lauren's house, whose parents were at a friend's for dinner, and her siblings were each in their respective bedrooms. Lauren and Camila sat on the couch in the living room, each fiddling with their phones before Camila put her hand on Lauren's leg and said, "you know I'm really glad you asked me to be your girlfriend. I was starting to think that I was just some little side hoe of yours."
Lauren's jaw dropped as Camila smiled, amused at her reaction. "Sorry it took so long, I just thought we would naturally slide into it."
Camila raised an eyebrow at Lauren's choice of words.
"Oh God Camz, not like that, I mean like, I thought-"
Camila laughed at her discomfort. "You're cute" she said, leaning in to kiss Lauren.
After about five minutes of continuous kissing, which was starting to get pretty heated-Lauren and Camila's hands wandering, Lauren felt someone plop down on the couch next to her. She separated from Camila, startled, and turned her head to see her younger brother staring at them with a huge grin on his face.
"umm, can I help you?" She asked, annoyed.
"Actually, you can" he said, raising his eyebrows.
"Oh, God Chris, you're such a perv!" She hit him hard on the arm as Camila tried her best to hide her face behind Lauren.
"Sooo whatcha dooooin?" He asked in the most annoying voice he could muster up.
"Will you get out of here?!" Lauren said, growing angrier.
"Nah, I kinda like it here. I think I might watch a little TV. Don't mind me" he said, reaching for the remote, with the same annoying grin still plastered on his face.
"Alright, we're going upstairs. Come on Camz" Lauren said, as she lifted Camila by her hands and led her to the stairs.
"You crazy kids have fun! I'll let my mom know allllll about this when she gets home!"
Lauren stopped in her tracks and dropped her head, knowing that there was no getting out of this one. He was going to tell their parents and there was nothing she could do about it.
She led Camila up the stairs and into her bedroom, closing the door behind them. Lauren wanted to get back to making out with Camila as quickly as she could, trying her best to act like the situation downstairs with her brother never happened. She wrapped her hands around Camila's waist and pulled her up against her as they stood next to the bed, kissing her slowly.
Camila pulled back to catch a breath, "is he really gonna tell your parents?"
Lauren went back to kiss her for a few more seconds before answering, "oh yeah, as soon as they walk through the door he's gonna be all over that one." She brought their lips together again, not wanting to talk, just kiss.
Camila leaned back again, struggling to separate their mouths, "what are we gonna do?"
Lauren continued to kiss Camila then said, "there's not much we can do Camz. You're my girlfriend now. They had to find out at some point."
Camila smiled and Lauren took that as an indication that the conversation was finally over and she pushed her down onto the bed, crawling on top of her. She plastered their lips together, taking Camila's hair in her hands and pushing it up above her head. Camila rubbed Lauren's sides softly underneath her shirt, enjoying the feeling of her skin. Lauren reached her own hands underneath Camila's shirt, finding her bra and squeezing her breasts gently underneath both hands. She moved her lips over to Camila's neck and licked gently before sucking pleasurably.
"Take this off" Camila whispered as she tugged on the bottom of Lauren's shirt from behind.
Just as Lauren went to lift her head from the crook of Camila's neck, she could hear the front door open then close shortly after, her mom's voice carrying up the stairs.
"Fuck" Lauren said against Camila's neck, never feeling more disappointed in her life.