Love Me, Please (Camren)

Chapter 5

After Lauren ran away from her soulmate that first time, bolting off the stage and losing herself in the maze of sidewalks on campus, she was in denial.

For the half hour it took to find her way out of whatever loop of pathways she was stuck in and bring herself back to her dorm, she had convinced herself that Cabello wasn't actually her soulmate. She had convinced herself that the momentous feeling building up in her chest wasn't the mark of finally matching, but rather just some unexplained phenomenon which she was overdramatizing to the point of thinking Cabello was the one. It isn't an exact science and the feeling could've very well been wrong.

She wasn't the one.

When you meet your match, and look into their eyes for the first time, a mark begins to form somewhere on your body: your soulmate's name written in their own handwriting.

It's like a tattoo, only even more permanent, and it takes a few hours to become fully visible. There's nothing to do to remove it, and you have no choice of what it looks like or where it lands.

Before Lauren was in this mess, she always felt sorry for the people with soulmarks in unfortunate places. For example, on their face. The bridge of their nose or the space of their forehead. Or perhaps somewhere more embarrassing, like their armpit, or on their ass.

Personally, she had always liked the idea of a private mark in an innocent place, perhaps on the ribcage or the hip or maybe the inner side of a pinkie finger. There's something intimate about having your soulmate's name written on you delicately in a place that isn't always visible, something Lauren has always found captivating and sweet. When she was younger she used to imagine one day gaining mark on her breastbone, right over her heart, where she could look down at it whenever she wanted to and feel loved.

Because fate has never been on Lauren's side, that's not how it happened.

After running away, she stumbled into the bathroom on the floor of her dorm and found herself afraid to examine herself in the mirror. Luckily, the bathroom was empty, most likely because everyone was already out enjoying their Friday night while Lauren was having the biggest crisis of her life.

It didn't happen as expected. She didn't have to remove any clothes, check between her fingers, or even turn around. When her eyes landed on her reflection, she saw it immediately.

There. In thick, undeniable script, slanty and swoopy. A little bit ridiculous for how fancy it looked. Lauren loathed it immediately.

There. Right on her forearm. Big and unavoidable. She felt like it was visible from space, it was so obtrusive.

Granted it's not the worst place in the world to have your soulmates name.
The good thing is it can easily be covered up with a sweater or long sleaved shirt or jacket, just whatever clothing with long sleeves.

The bad thing is that they're in Miami where the weather is either hot or really fucking hot.

Lauren's not sure if she will survive this.

She though about putting some jewerly over it but with the way the name stands out it seems pretty impossible to cover it with anything less that a sleeve.

She keeps staring at it saying the name in her head over and over again.

Camila.

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(PS: I know that technically that's not her first name but for the sake of this story let's ignore that and pretend that you get the name that your soulmate truly uses)