Are You Gonna Kiss Me?

Chapter - 8

Camila P.O.V:

Wow.

Just . . .

Wow.

I know they say that every person you meet are fighting their own battles and we just don't know it.

But this . . .

This is something else.

There's not a single soul on the beach except the two of us.

And I bet, if someone else were to be in my position right now, they'd have thought that Lauren was possessed by a monster or something and released it out of her body, just now.

Every single pore in her body screamed.

I can tell, cuz I felt it all the way over here on the bench.

This beach has been my whole childhood.

Every day before school, till 6th grade, my mom took me here to see the sunrise. It made me who I am today. All the peaceful, blissful state of mind before school made me a little level headed to face and tackle my bullies.

But seeing THE Lauren Jauregui screaming the crap outta herself is concerning.

I mean, I DID see her wake up in a cold sweat from her sleep in her room, but I didn't think it has anything to do with her. I brushed it off as a random nightmare.

But, maybe it wasn't that . . . random after all-

The dog that I've been petting, perks up its ears and I look up to see her looking straight up at the sky, breathing in a lungful of air.

For a moment I think that she's about to scream again, but then she releases her breath slowly draining it out of her system.

She then turns to look at me over her shoulder, making wispy pieces of hair fall from her neck to her back.

The sun behind her illuminates her midnight-hair, just like it did with her eyes when she was sitting next to me. Even from this distance, I can still see that her face is moist from all the tears, with her knees buried in the sand completely given up and exhausted from all the screaming.

Her silhouette looks just like a fallen angel.

I smile at her.

It seems appropriate to do so, cuz all I can think about is the pain that she's going through . . . even though I don't know what it is about.

And also because something in me tells me to do so.

I break off a piece from the banana I'm holding, never breaking the gaze I fixed on her, and feed it to the stray dog sitting lazily next to me.

The dog yaps it up without protest, hanging its tongue out hoping if I'd give more of my banana.

I look down at the gentle animal. It wags its tail, looking longingly at me with big, brown, doe-eyes.

I turn my head to see Lauren again, but she's already up from her spot and is pacing at top speed towards me.

My smile disappears and a frown replaces it, the closer she gets.

"Let's go"

She grabs my wrist and pulls me up on my feet.

"What?? Why?!" I panic, literally getting dragged through the mud with the force that she's pulling me with.

It's not anger that I see in her face. Nor sadness. Not pain, or any hint of screaming that she did just now.

It's absolute calmness.