The Soulmates Series Camren

1.11

Lauren hung back from her friends, her penny board tucked under her arm. She dropped the board to her feet and pushed off with one foot, building some momentum using her foot before pulling it onto the board to join her other foot, rolling her taut body in order to steer the board through the group of her friends. Xavier was carrying Vero on his back, spinning her around periodically as she burst into fits of laughter. Normani and Tristan were play fighting with one another, shoving each other into the sand and it reminded her of the morning that she met Camila, and she became so much more than "brown eyes" or "beach girl" to her. Alexa skipped happily down the sidewalk next to Lauren on her penny board. The six friends had been inseparable since the first day of middle school, some of them even longer, they were a solid unit and Lauren was mad at herself for the small amount of time they'd been spending together lately. The hours she'd spent with them lately had been few and far between. Tonight they would light a bonfire on the beach and they would be them, and it would be spectacular. When they reached their favourite spot on the beach, furthest away from the tourist hotels, Lauren skilfully dismounted her board, stepping on the tail of it and catching it in one hand.

"It's nice to have you back Jauregui," Tristan smirked, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

"I mean, I still hate you, but it sort of sucked not having you around," Normani smirked, dropping the cooler into the sand and producing two water bottles filled to the brim with vodka. She threw one bottle to Lauren who caught it easily in her free hand, and unscrewed the cap of the other with her own hands.

"I texted Ally, she's back in town for the weekend and I thought we could hang out with her and Troy tonight," Lauren said, screwing up her face slightly as she took a long drink from the water bottle.

"Your Texan?" Xavier asked, piling up the wood he produced from his kit bag which was typically full of spray paint canisters but tonight his art gear had been replaced with wood for their fire.

"Damn straight baby," Lauren called out, setting herself down on a towel next to Alexa.

"Damn straight?" Alexa teased, nudging Lauren with a cheeky grin on her lips as she snatched Lauren's vodka from her hand.

"Haven't heard you use the word straight since ninth grade," Vero laughed, taking a long draw of a blunt that hung from between her fingers. She and Xavier were passing the joint between the two of them almost mechanically now and at this point Vero was on her back on the towel, her head in her boyfriend's lap. Tristan struck a match and lit a firelighter, throwing it atop the pile of wood. The six of them settled around the fire, drinking and laughing together as they always did.

Camila nestled her book into her lithe thighs, running the tip of her highlighter over various lines in a Chaucer poem she was annotating for Mr Conner's AP Lit class. There was a dim fire burning in her fire place and the 1975 blasted through her apartment. Ariana was in the kitchen, rifling through the cupboards for snacks.

"So tell me again how you ended up kissing the hottest girl in Miami, with the exception of me of course," Ariana said, pausing to hold her hand under her chin as though to exhibit herself. "On a rooftop, I mean holy fuck Mila."

"It just sort of erm, happened," Camila shrugged, biting down on her bottom lip.

"Fuck off, this girl is pretty much the most notorious girl at Miami U and you think that shit just happened" Ariana laughed, but her eyes said something entirely different. She meant business, and she knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Okay, so maybe I took your advice. I mean when I showed up I was soaked through from the rain so naturally she had to offer me clothes, and I sort of left the door open a little when I was changing and somewhere in her dirty.. Twisted little mind kissing me was some sort of punishment for my bad behaviour," Camila recited rhythmically, her tongue moving to form the words as though to the beat of the music. Ariana was staring at her with wide eyes now, she was in utter disbelief for one, that Camila had listened to her, and secondly that she'd actually went through with it.