Through Her Eyes (Camren)

Chapter 5: Lost and Found

The thing was, Lauren was still pretty sure she wanted Camila to go away. No one wanted someone going through their trash at night. It was an invasion of privacy and it was just sort of gross. Camila was strange and insanely frustrating to talk to. She dressed weird and wore weird bows, and she looked at Lauren weird and she made Lauren feel weird. So, yes, Lauren was pretty sure she just wanted Camila to go away.

Until Camila did go away, of course, and then Lauren just wanted her to come back now, please.

Camila disappeared on a Tuesday night. Or, well, she’d been there on Monday night, digging through Lauren’s trash as usual, wearing the purple hoodie she hadn’t taken off since Lauren had given it to her and chattering on about Elvis’s whiskers. (Lauren had suggested getting a disposable razor if her friend wanted to shave but Camila had just looked at her oddly.)

So, Camila was there Monday, just like she had been every night for almost the last month. She’d walked off into the night with her plastic bag full of trash and Lauren hadn’t watched her go. Camila would be back the next day, she figured, because Camila always was.

Camila wasn’t back the next day, though. Lauren sat in the family room for hours, staring out into the darkness, waiting. When the old grandfather clock chimed four times Lauren decided that perhaps Camila was already outside and Lauren just hadn’t seen her. She stepped out her front door to look, the garage light turning on as she passed it and illuminating the yard, but Camila wasn’t there. Lauren sat down on the front porch to wait. She waited there for three hours, jerking her arm every ten minutes so the motion sensor would keep the light on. Camila never came and at seven Lauren had to get ready for work.

Lauren didn’t see Camila that day or the next.

It wasn’t fair for Camila to just leave like that. To insert herself into Lauren’s life and Lauren’s head and maybe Lauren’s heart too and then just take it all away, take herself away. It wasn’t fair at all, and Lauren was going to have to find Camila so she could tell her so.

Problem was, Lauren didn’t know where to look, didn’t even know where to start. Camila was always just showing up where Lauren was. Lauren had never thought she’d have to find Camila. She’d never thought she’d want to.

When Lauren hadn’t seen Camila in three days, she skipped work and went looking. She started on foot, went to the park where she’d seen Camila staring up at the sky and the minimart where she’d seen Camila eating a chocolate bar she most likely hadn’t paid for, but Camila wasn’t at either of those places. Once Lauren had made her way back home she decided the operation would have to be on a bigger scale and started up her truck.

Camila wasn’t at the pizza place where Lauren had run into her twice and she wasn’t at the gas station on 5th with the friendly old checker and she wasn’t in the soup kitchen and she wasn’t on any of the streets in between. By six o’clock Lauren was hungry and tired and she had to admit it to herself – Camila wasn’t anywhere.

When she got home Lauren sat down on the sidewalk by her trashcan and put her head in her hands.

She hadn’t been lonely, really lonely, in almost a year. And Camila, Camila had ruined everything.

“Miss Jauregui!” an all too familiar voice squawked. Lauren sighed and clutched at her beanie harder. Fantastic. “Miss Jauregui!”

“Yeah?” Lauren asked, pulling herself up and leaning against the trashcan. She eyed Mrs. Smith in annoyance. Couldn’t a girl sulk in peace?

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Mrs. Smith was saying, hands on her hips. “Miss Jauregui, your grandmother was a bad enough neighbor – all those cats and her music – and she never mowed the lawn, never! And that fence! Look at the paint on that fence, it’s still a mess-“