A Light in the Dark

Chapter 18

Lauren carefully placed an ice pack on Camila's throbbing foot. She hissed lowly at the sudden coolness and Lauren frowned concerned.

"I told you that you should have just let me carry you!"

"That's ridiculous, Lauren. I'm fine," she waved off, but shrunk back when Lauren's heated glare met her eyes.

"You're fine? You're calling that fine?!" The green-eyed girl mentioned to her swollen ankle and Camila bit her lip. "Why did you have to be stubborn, Camz? My mom is going to kill me... your mom is going to kill me... she said like a million times that you shouldn't put pressure on your foot! She's going to kill all of us!"

"It's not that bad," she mumbled and avoided any eye-contact. She knew that it had been a stupid move of her, but she wasn't going to tell Lauren that. "Besides, Luis would've found it hilarious. I was not going to give him any satisfaction for what he had done."

"So you injured yourself further because of Luis?" Lauren shook her head in disbelief. "Luis shouldn't have been your first thought; you should have put your health first!"

"I thought we agreed to never saying his name ever again?" Dinah asked and looked to Normani who sat beside her on the couch. "I'm still for burning every picture of him, who's with me?"

Lauren shot her eyes to the taller girl and raised an eyebrow. "We're not doing that."

"But why not?" Dinah whined. "See it as some kind of ritual, you know, to purify your soul from the devil or something..."

Normani snorted. "I'll sponsor matches!"

"That's gonna be a huge bonfire," Dinah said thoughtfully and stared off into space. "We could do it on the beach!"

"We're not-"

"Ooh! We need smores!" Normani jumped up. "If I go to the grocery store now, I can still get us some snacks!"

Camila looked in disbelief at the two of them. While she could understand the need for a celebration, they couldn't be serious...

"GUYS!" Lauren yelled. "We're not burning the pictures!"

Camila nodded firmly. "It's not just paper that you're burning, it's all kinds of chemicals in those photos. We can't just throw them into a fire, that's pollution!"

"While... while that wasn't exactly my reasoning," said Lauren slowly, looking at her with amusement, "it's still a good point."

"And what is your reasoning exactly?" Dinah asked, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Surely you don't want to be reminded of that?"

Camila shifted uneasily as she watched how Lauren rubbed her neck. She had learned that the green-eyed girl had a habit to do that when she felt nervous.

"Uh, just... he... he wasn't always that... that kind of person," Lauren whispered, not looking at anyone.

Her heart sank. She had hoped that Lauren had seen Luis' true colors today. But it didn't seem like it.

Dinah snorted, shaking her head. "Okay. Then let's hear it."

Lauren glanced up. "What?"

"Tell us about him. What nice things did he do for you and others? We never really talked about your relationship, so go on. You have the floor."

Camila frowned and shot Dinah a confused look. What was she doing? She'd rather not hear about any kind of relationship that Lauren was in, especially not with Luis. She wanted to forget that he existed in the first place. But Dinah shook her head slightly and winked at her.