The Soulmates Series Camren

Neverlasting 1.1

Lauren slid her sunglasses off the bridge of her nose, folding the legs in on the dark shades. She slipped the glasses in her bag and sat up straight on her towel, her hands dangling in the space between her slightly parted knees. She lifted a hand and ran her fingers through the wavy tresses. The girl was staring ahead of her into the water, her gaze focused on the form of a girl standing waist deep in the water, her dark hair hanging to just above the surface of the crystalline surface of the saltwater blue. The girl too was staring ahead of her, out at the open ocean and she stood alone in the Miami waters.

"You're staring," Her friend Alexa whispered to her, a smirk on her painted nude lips.

"I'm not," Lauren articulated, not tearing her gaze away from the girl in the water who had taken to running her hands over the surface of the water. Lauren had a lazy smile on her red painted lips, her hands reaching down to grab the hem of her shirt, she pulled it over her head slowly, allowing her dark tresses to cascade over the curvature of her taut body. The girl turned in the water, causing a small swirl of saltwater to twist around her lithe form. Lauren coughed loudly when her gaze fell on the scene before her. She was still waist deep in the water but now Lauren could see every inch of her exposed skin that had been hidden by a combination of the angle of her body and her long hair. She wore a plain white bikini that exposed her taut abdomen and a belly button piercing that the sunlight bounced off, dispersing a spectrum of rainbow colours over her skin. But it was not her body that captured Lauren's attention but her unusual, yet striking features, from her round dark brown eyes to the curved full lips that looked delectable when the sun glinted off their moisture. The girl walked out of the water slowly and with every step Lauren found herself even more mesmerized by the girl in front of her. Alexa nudged Lauren teasingly and both girls chuckled. It was then that the girl in the water noticed the green eyed beauty, laughing feverishly with her best friend. Her face was all lit up, creases formed at the corners of her eyes. She looked wild and unruly, and it was gorgeous. Lauren returned her gaze to the girl in the water and her mouth hung agape, she was gazing back at her with a small smile on her lips as she emerged entirely from the water. Lauren lowered her gaze, biting down on her bottom lip. The girl walked with a slightly awkward swing in her hips that Lauren couldn't help but follow, and amused smile on her lips, her eyes lingering on those dark brown orbs for an extra half second before the girl from the water turned away, her teeth dragging over her plump bottom lip.

"Wow." Lauren breathed, her gaze meeting with that of her best friend. "Was she... flirting with me or did I imagine that?"

"Well actions do speak louder than words," Alexa smirked, her gaze focused on the rosy cheeks that Lauren was desperately trying to hide behind her wavy, salt dried hair.

"I bet she says some pretty beautiful words," Lauren sighed dreamily, resting her chin on her hand, elbow resting on her knee.

"Is the ice queen in love?" Alexa smirked, nudging Lauren's elbow off her knee. Her head fell with her hand, causing her best friend to erupt into fits of laughter.

"If I believed in love at first sight I might think so,"

"Oh come on, you're a writer and you expect me to believe that you don't believe in love at first sight?" Alexa said, raising an eyebrow at Lauren.

"I'm not a writer," Lauren retorted, "I'm an artist," She added mockingly. Alexa was always saying these things about her, the various titles her best friend had bestowed upon her never felt fitting to Lauren even though she knew that she did write, and she did paint, and she sang. And she loved in all of the most artist ways but she did not feel like artist stretched over how she felt about herself.

"Shut up," Alexa laughed, resting her head on Lauren's shoulder. The sun was beginning to set on the scene before her and suddenly Lauren found herself missing the shadowy form in the water, she imagined how stunning the polaroid image of the girl in the water with the colour falling from the sky behind her would have looked and her pulse began to hammer in her veins. "You know, I always wondered how you found such ease in making people fall in love with you," Alexa stated in a low tone, her voice almost a whisper as the two best friends took in the lilac sunset before them.

"And what conclusions did you come to?" Lauren asked, cocking a curious eyebrow.

"I decided that people fall in love with you so easily because you know exactly how you can make them feel," Alexa confessed, looking up at Lauren with her dark eyes.

"I do?" Lauren smirked, wrapping her arm around her best friend's shoulder.

"Don't play innocent with me Jauregui, I know your game," Alexa teased, brushing Lauren's hand off of her shoulder.

"Hmm, I thought I was more subtle than that," Lauren laughed, detaching herself from her best friend to pull her black 'The 1975' shirt over her head. She swooped her hair out from the neckline of her shirt and pushed it over to one side with her fingers.

"Are you ready to go home?" Alexa asked skeptically, her eyes averting from Lauren as the girl fumbled around in her bag aimlessly searching through her things. She withdrew her lipstick from her bag and touched up the deep red colour on her lips. Lauren replaced the lipstick and took her polaroid in her hands, lifting the camera to eye level before snapping a picture of her best friend, crossed legged and smiling in the sand. Alexa laughed and climbed to her feet, tripping over herself into Lauren with a clumsy smile, she buried her head in Lauren's shoulder and continued to laugh as the green eyed girl snapped another picture of the two of them after she had removed the printed photo of Alexa. She shook the first picture before slipping in her back pocket and shaking the other, sliding it into the pocket as well. The camera was returned to it's space in between her sketchpad and her pencils.

"Who said anything about going home? I need a drink." Lauren laughed, linking her arm through Alexa's.

"And where exactly would an underage girl such as yourself get one of those?" Alexa asked, playing around with the innocent charade Lauren had chosen to play today.

"Oh well I just wouldn't know," She smirked as the pair made their way up the beach. The green eyed girl noticed the girl from the water flipping through the pages of a photobook, her mind seemingly engulfed in the glossy pages of the book. Lauren smiled at her, meeting her gaze for a half second before she and Alexa made their way onto the concrete pavement, her scuffed black converse hitting the concrete before Alexa's pristine white ones had a chance. Lauren reached into the bag that hung on her shoulder and slid her silver hipflash from where it remained stashed beneath her on call beanie. Alexa laughed, expecting the younger girl to do as much. Lauren took a long swig of the bitter substance inside, her face remained composed, as if the alcohol barely met her lips. She passed the flask to Alexa and observed as her best friend screwed up her face and spluttered, screwing the cap back on her flask. "You suck," She smirked.

"Yeah, I suck plenty of things, what's your point?" Alexa teased, nudging Lauren with her hip. Lauren rolled her eyes and shoved Alexa back, an amused grin on her painted red lips.

"My point is, you're an idiot, and I fucking love you," Lauren laughed, wrapping her arm around Alexa's waist.

As the day faded away one thing remained engraved in Lauren's mind, the girl from the water and the look in her eyes. She wondered about her interest in the photobook, and her solitude and the look in her dark eyes. She wondered about her favourite things, and the way she spoke. Among all of the things she wondered about in regards to the stunning girl her name did not feel important, only the depths of her mind.