reasons to go, reasons to stay ➸ camren

chapter twenty four ➸ aftershocks

“So she just… drove off?” Ally asked, handing Lauren the cup of tea she’d made and sitting down next to the green-eyed girl on the couch.

Lauren nodded. Her small hands clasped the warm mug, eager for some kind of warmth.

“Did it feel like she was unsure…? Like, do you think she’ll end up coming back?” Ally asked cautiously, placing a hand on Lauren’s shoulder.

Lauren shook her head. “I tried to get her to show some kind of emotion… I don’t know, Ally. She was just so… cold. Like she’d been waiting to do this forever.”

Ally sighed and rubbed Lauren’s back, trying to keep the girl calmed down.

“Well then we need to think about what we’re going to tell Rowan,” Ally said after a few minutes of silence. “I know it’s hard to think about, but it needs to happen sooner or later.”

Lauren’s breath caught in her throat and she swallowed hard. “What do we tell her?”

“The truth.”

——

So this must be what heaven feels like.

Wait, no. Heaven shouldn’t feel like this.

Heaven isn’t supposed to be this painful. Was she alive?

Oh god, she was alive.

Camila couldn’t move. The pain was unbearable. Waves of pain shot up her back, down her legs, and her head was throbbing. Her eyes felt heavy, and she was pretty sure her entire body had swollen itself until she looked like a human marshmallow.

Her tongue felt larger than usual, and when she moved her jaw slightly, she realized the texture of her mouth felt different. She must’ve bitten her tongue.

She was supposed to be dead.

“She’s awake!”

Camila’s hearing slowly fizzled back to normal, and she struggled to open her eyes. The lights in the room were blinding, and she realized she was in a hospital. Her eyes were heavy from being swollen shut. Camila didn’t even know how long she’d been out for.

Her first thought was Lauren.

Was she okay?

She tried to sit up but realized the doctors had placed her so precariously on the bed, with her leg elevated by a lift in the ceiling.

So she definitely broke a leg. That was easy to tell by the green cast that covered her right leg from the thigh down. If only Lauren were here to tell them that she hated the color green.

Camila discovered she could move her arms, but if she lifted them too high, a pain would shoot through her back. Well, at least she could move.

“Honey, can you tell us your name?”

Camila looked up and was met with a kind looking woman holding a clipboard. She stayed quiet.

“We can’t find anything that tells us where you’re from, or what your name is. There’s no records, no DNA matches, no anything. Do you have a name?”

Camila didn’t answer. She wouldn’t. Talking just made things worse. She was done with hurting people.

A look of concern spread across the nurse’s face and she jotted something down before looking back at Camila.

“Well, my name is Nurse Georgia. Do you know why you’re here?”

Camila didn’t speak.

“You were in a car accident, honey. The driver left you there and drove away, and no one has been able to locate him.”