Better Than He Can (Camren)

Page IV

Everything had changed.

Whether that was because Lauren was now at college one thousand, two hundred and seventy-six miles away from Camila or part of the aftermath of the night they spent together before she left, Lauren wasn’t sure.
All the green eyed girl knew, regardless of the reason, was that everything felt different now. And not the good kind of different.

It didn’t happen straight away, things seemed fine right after.
Actually, they seemed more than fine. Different yes, but it was the kind of different that the older girl had been craving for the past three years of their friendship.
Lauren couldn’t help but notice that Camila constantly seemed to be touching her now. Not in a sexual way exactly, it was more kisses on cheeks for no apparent reason, hands on thighs whilst they were watching TV, fingers stroking arms just to give them an excuse to touch.
It wasn’t a lot, but it was something.

And then it was nothing.

After one week of gentle touches and lingering glances, it all stopped, Camila went off the radar.
Not completely, the younger girl would still reply to Lauren’s texts but they were always blunt one word answers, several hours after she’d originally text her, and that was as good as it got.
No matter what Lauren said or did, Camila couldn’t make time to see her, she was always busy.
Busy with what, Lauren wasn’t quite sure. The older Latina guessed she couldn’t complain thought, they had been living in each other’s pockets recently and maybe Camila just needed a breather.
All the same, she thought it would have been nice to spend her last week before she left for college with her best friend.

The days flew in. Lauren felt like she blinked and suddenly it was time for her to leave for New York.
The green eyed girl had been dreading this day, she knew it was going to be hard to leave each and every one of her friends but the thought of saying farewell to Camila made her feel physically sick, it was going to be the hardest goodbye of them all.
Or at least it might have been if Camila had actually turned up to say goodbye.

Lauren waited and waited. She waited so long at her house that she missed the original taxi she’d booked to take her to the airport and then she waited so long at the airport she almost missed her flight. But eventually, after over a hundred missed calls and unread texts, Lauren had to leave Miami without saying goodbye to the girl that her world had basically revolved around for the last three years.

And that was when Lauren knew everything had changed.

Camila did call her the next day to apologize. Apparently “I got caught up, you have no idea how crazy everything was yesterday” was a good enough excuse in the younger girls eyes.
It wasn’t, but the “You know I love you Lo, I’ll make it up to you I promise” that followed after made Lauren’s heart flutter and suddenly she no longer had it in her to be mad at Camila.
She’d never been very good at that.

In Lauren’s mind all she could think was, at least she’s calling me again, right?

Wrong. As the older girl settled into the new school year, gradually, their calls got shorter and less frequent. From once a day, to once a week, to whenever Camila could find the time. And apparently ‘the time’ was only when she wanted to talk about a new guy she was dating.

Lauren thought the term ‘dating’ was a very generous way to describe what her friend from back home was doing.

“Lauren you’ll never believe who I had sex with last night. Guess, just guess. You are going to literally die” the younger girl gushed down the phone after two weeks of no contact at all.
She went on to tell her how amazing it was and how amazing he was and how amazing life was, and Camila was right, it made Lauren feel like she could 'literally die’.
The older girl gradually started to realize that deep down, part of her had secretly hoped that maybe she was special, maybe she was the only one who could make Camila feel something. But that clearly wasn’t the case.