The Perks of Being a Lesbian (Camren)

Chapter 4

Dinner at Lauren's house was uneventful since it was just her. Clara had tried to discipline her at first, making her do schoolwork to make up for the couple of hours she had missed after being sent home, but eventually she backed off. Lauren came downstairs for a glass of water to find that Clara had given up on playing prison warden and gone out with friends. So that left Lauren to eat dinner on her own since her dad was working like always.

She liked it that way though. It wasn't nearly as awkward, she could eat in her room, and she could go on Tumblr while she ate and play her music as loud as she wanted. Sometimes on days like this, Lauren would ask Natasha to hang out with her, but today the woman had too much housework to finish up before she went home. So that left Lauren on her own.

She was about to switch from Tumblr to YouTube and see if any of her favorite YouTubers had posted a new video when she was interrupted by her phone buzzing. It made a sharp rattling sound against the glass surface of her desk. Peering over at the screen, she didn't recognize the number, but the area code was the same.

She wasn't sure who would be calling her since the only people she talked to on the phone were Zayn and her grandmother. She shrugged, turning away from her laptop to answer the call. If it was a wrong number she'd just deal with it. She figured it was either that or Zayn calling her from someone else's phone. He did that a lot since he could never remember to charge his own for some reason.

Lauren rolled her eyes at the thought before answering.

"Hello?" There was an awkward silence before the other person answered.

"Um, hey, Lauren. It's Camila..."

Of course, it was. Lauren could pick that girl's voice out of a crowded room. She wished she'd had more of a warning, but even seeing Camila's name pop up on her phone screen wouldn't help the chills she felt whenever she first heard the girl's voice. But why was Camila calling her? How did she even get her number?

"Camila? Uh, hey," Lauren greeted back awkwardly. 

She leaned back in her desk chair, swinging the seat from side to side, suddenly a little nervous now that she knew who she was talking to. For some reason, Camila seemed to always have that effect on her.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay...after today with James and everything. I didn't see you around after that so I wanted to check on you," Camila explained.

Lauren felt both flattered and confused that the girl cared so much. She figured just a public display of how unpopular she was or overhearing one of the rumors going around about her would be enough to keep Camila at bay. But apparently, that wasn't the case.

"Oh, uh, I'm fine. I was sent home. Kinda got suspended..." Lauren commented, again, pretty awkwardly. God, she wished she could be better at conversation. But then again, she didn't have a lot of people to converse with, so it's not like she had much of a means for practice.

"Really? I mean, I heard that, but I wasn't sure. I couldn't believe it. Like, how is that fair? Why were you suspended?" Camila asked, sounding adorably yet genuinely frustrated to Lauren.

"Well, because I kicked James in the balls. I don't know if you know this since you're new, but there's a zero-tolerance policy on violence, so I was suspended. Apparently, I was even cut a deal. Two days instead of the usual week," she said with a sigh. She could hear Camila do the same on the other end of the line.

"That's ridiculous! Well, what punishment did James get?"

Lauren laughed bitterly at that. She couldn't help it. Just the thought of her punishment compared to James' made her laugh in disbelief even though she knew it to be true. The sound startled Camila a little, but oddly she found it a bit attractive.