Yours Truly

Part 12

The following Monday morning, Lauren let her alarm clock drone on as it started blaring at 6 A.M. There was no way in hell that she was going to school. For starters, she was sick because of her stupid decision to walk out into the storm and she caught herself a pretty bad cold. Even if she weren't sick, she still wouldn't have gone anyways. Seeing Camila would be way too hard.

Lying in Camila's bed Saturday night without her was horrible. The scent of her on the sheets and pillows was just taunting Lauren the entire night, reminding her that she was so close but so far away. At one point, she even moved to sleep on the floor.

The initial anger that boiled inside of Lauren from the ruthlessness of Camila's words has now simmered down to pure sadness and hurt. It pains her to think that Camila thinks that lowly of her. Her opinion means a lot to Lauren and she definitely expressed how she felt about her last night.

She left early that next morning even before the sun woke up and left without saying a word or mentioning anything to Camila. It's not like it would matter. She apparently doesn't mean much to Camila anymore anyways. What started out to be one of the happiest nights she's had in a while took an unfortunate turn and wound up being one of the worst. This is why she doesn't get attached to people that often, especially those she has feelings for. It hurts too much when the universe turns in a way that pins them against each other.

How does Camila feel about all of this? Lauren is well aware that talking is a two-way street, but the coward inside of her prevented her from making the first move. She lied awake for the majority of the night wishing that Camila would walk in through those doors at any second. But she never did.

She spent the entirety of Sunday and Monday sulking, but after she knew Normani was home from school on Monday, she drove over to her house uninvited, sickly and all, because she didn't want to be alone again. As soon as Normani saw Lauren's facial expression and body language, she simply just pulled her into a warm hug and held her for so long until the tears stopped coming down her face. Normani didn't ask her anything nor did she even say anything. She just held her silently, but her presence was enough to make Lauren feel better, even if it was temporary.

Lauren didn't tell her what happened between her and Camila because she felt like it should stay between them until they were able to sort things out. And it's never good to try to explain something when emotions were high. Unintended words would be expressed and biased opinions would be shared. But her friends aren't oblivious. They knew that the only thing that would ever be able to get to Lauren that much is Camila.

But she doesn't want them to think of Camila in a certain way because they're obviously closer to Lauren than the younger girl and they're extremely protective. Normani and Dinah would actually murder Camila if they found out what she said and did to Lauren.

Normani invited Dinah over later in attempt to get Lauren's mind off of her issues and it helped for the most part until she went back home later that night, stuck alone with her thoughts and feelings. It was a long night of her checking her phone hundreds of times hoping for a text or call that wouldn't come.

Lauren splashes some cool water on her face this Tuesday morning after she finally decides to get up from bed in the afternoon. Her eyes, nose, and throat are killing her and she feels like shit, both physically and emotionally. She's tired in a way that sleep won't fix and she knows that moping around all day in bed wouldn't help in the slightest either considering that's basically all she did Sunday and Monday.

Her phone vibrates on the sink counter and her "Dad" pops up. He went in to check up on Lauren this morning when she didn't come down to say hi before he went to work like she always does and whenever she's sick, he tends to call her every 5 minutes because he's that type of dad.