The Soulmates Series Camren

Epilogue 1.34

Lauren felt heavy as she dragged herself through the airport, her feet dragging behind her. Normani and Ariana walked at her flanks, each of them carrying something of Lauren's, Normani with her suitcase and Ariana with her carry on. Her family followed behind, all soundless and careful. These were the people that had watched Lauren fall in love and fall apart all within the space of five months, watched her shift from the girl with the worst intentions in the world, to the girl who'd been crushed by the weight of her good intentions. They had watched her come to terms with her feelings, they'd watched her cut drugs out of her life, just to watch her slip back into them. They'd watched her cry her eyes out for weeks after Camila had broken her heart. Taylor had seen first hand how broken Lauren had been when they'd visited Seattle together the weekend after the incident, and Lauren could barely even look at her art portfolio without bursting into tears. She'd broken her phone two days after Camila broke her heart, her parents had it fixed the next day, but her heart couldn't be repaired as cheaply as her phone, or as quickly. At this point, she hadn't spoken in three weeks, not to anyone except for Camila's voicemail, she'd barely eaten, she hadn't gotten any sleep. Her nightmares had only intensified after Camila broke her heart, and Taylor had been there every morning to nurse her back to the closest thing to sanity that Lauren was capable of at this point. Camila had come to the house once, she'd stood outside the front door for an hour and a half before anyone opened the door, the whole family knowing it was her. Lauren had been the one to eventually open the door, not expecting it to be Camila. She'd cried for two days straight after Camila's visit. Sometimes she wondered if she was crying because she couldn't be with Camila anymore, or because Camila had been heartless enough to tell her she'd never loved her.

"Are you going to be okay here?" Normani asked, her hand resting on the crook of Lauren's elbow. She nodded soundlessly, lifting her hand to rub her eyes, desperate not to cry anymore. She thought that even if she wanted to, she wouldn't be able to. She hugged each of her family members, Normani and Ariana, accepted their goodbyes, returned their I love yous. It was progress, this was the most they'd gotten out of her in weeks. They left her in the airport at her request, she had an hour to kill before her flight and she knew exactly how she intended to do it, her phone was pressed against her ear before she'd even registered that she'd dialed her number yet again. It rang once, then twice, then three times, and then it cut off, with a simple, sugar sweet message that made Lauren feel physically sick.

"Hey, this is Camila, I must have missed your call- Leave me a message and I'll get back you,"

Lauren could almost hear the smile in her voice, her own smile fading when the brown eyed girl's recording spoke "I must have missed your call," Lauren muttered the words under her breath, mocking the girl. She was half full of love, half full of heartache; And it was killing her. Lauren took a deep breath before recording the message,

"Hey Camz, I'm at the airport right now... I don't know why but in my head I always had this vision of you showing up and begging me to stay, assuring me that you didn't mean what you said. Telling me that you were just as in love with me as I thought you were. As you said you were, but lately I've been accepting that you don't, and that you won't. You won't ever show up, you won't ever beg me, you won't ever answer my calls. You won't ever do any of these things because I was wrong, you won't do anything of these things because you don't love me and you never did. I didn't believe you at first, when you told me you didn't love me, but I see it now, because if you did, you wouldn't be able to keep breaking my heart like this. I'm in love with you Camila, I don't care if you don't love me, I love me. And I'm still choosing me, no matter how much I think you want me to beg for you. I'm sorry that I wasn't enough for you. Have a good year discovering yourself princesa, and say Hi to Sofi for me, would you? I'm sure she'd love to know how her heartless bitch of a sister tore my heart out. I shouldn't have said that, but I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry because it's true. You don't have a heart, and because of that you took mine. You can keep it though, I won't need it where I'm going. Later Camila."