Love Me, Please (Camren)

Chapter 25

The door is unlocked and Lauren steps inside, the breath knocked out of her lungs a little bit despite seeing this room before.

The last time she was here, Camila called crying and Lauren had been worried sick. She had noticed a little bit about the room but none of the details. Now that she's seeing it without the worry clouding her mind she feels a weird sense of intruding on something intimate.

"So this is my room,” Camila says, and her voice is a little quieter than it usually is, a little more raspy, a little softer. "Which, you've seen before.”

"I have," Lauren agrees, her voice quiet too because it feels wrong to disturb the moment.

There's a tapestry on the wall above her bed. It's not one of the madalas Lauren usually sees in girls' dorms—this one is dark and moody, a forest view of evergreens and fog. It's lined with fairy lights, the ones Lauren noticed before, and notices again when Camila flicks them on. The room is cast in a warm glow and Lauren shuffles in a bit more, looking around in poorly concealed awe at seeing such a personal view of Camila's life. The walls not covered by the tapestry are artistically decorated in music posts and papers printed with poetry. There are sticky notes stuck to the mirror with reminders and small messages and Lauren reads a few of them: performance this friday, lunch w/little, do laundry!!!!!

She's so caught up in everything, the messy duvet and the guitar propped up against the wall and the desk area strewed with art supplies among other things, that she doesn't realize Camila's speaking.

"I'll sleep on the floor, and I'm not sure if you're a nighttime showerer or not but it's down the hall and I can show you in a second if that's something you want, you can use my shampoo and stuff, I have like this body wash that smells like pomegranate and rose which is an unconventional combination but I love it a lot, and yeah. Also I'll get some clothes for you to sleep in-"

"I'm sorry. what?" Lauren blurts, having missed most of the beginning.

"What?" Camila asks, just as bewildered.

"Sorry, I zoned out a little."

"Oh, I was offering you a shower? And pomegranate rose scented body wash."

"I heard that, sorry, before that?"

"Oh. All I said was you'll sleep in my bed and I'll take the floor."

Lauren makes a noise of disagreement. Never would she imagine herself being cordial with Camila but here she is literally trying to politely refuse sleeping in her bed. It doesn't seem right to kick her out of her own bed. Besides, she doesn't think she can deal with that sort of... intimacy. "That's alright, I can take the floor, or like, the couch downstairs?"

"No! No-" Camila stutters, looking a little frantic and then settling down once she realizes how awkward it is. "Sorry. Um, I'll take the floor. The frat is... weird, like, I don't want you sleeping on the couch out there. It's fine. I want you to sleep in my bed."

"Um, okay... I just feel bad if you're on the floor-"

"Seriously, don't worry. I'll be fine."

"Your back gets sore," Lauren protests. "I know that. That's a thing."

Camila waves it off. "I'll be fine. I'm not taking no for an answer."

Lauren hates having no choice but she has to admit letting Camila have her way just this once is definitely the way to go. "Alright," she concedes wearily. "Um, I'm going to shower.”

"Let me show you where it is.”

Camila walks Lauren down the hall to the bathroom and Lauren is very glad that for a Friday night the house seems pretty empty and quiet. She doesn't know why, really, but she doesn't want anyone to see her here. Probably because she knows the assumptions people will make, which are normal assumptions given that Lauren and Camila are soulmates , but... It makes Lauren feel sleezy and cheap. She doesn't want to be kept around only for sex and then tossed aside when she's bored of it.