Tears, Hearts, and Scars (Camren)

C4 Old Sparks

Lauren's POV

The nurse cleaned the small cut and informed us that we both had received minor concussions from the collision. We were both sent home, but I had asked Camila if she wanted to come over because her parents were busy. She agreed after five minutes of pondering, and I'm sure it would've taken her a shorter amount of time if she didn't have the concussion.

~ At Lauren's Household ~

We are both lying on the grey linen couch that is placed in the corner of my room with some movie playing on the TV that was the Christmas/romance usual, playing on the screen, because it was a couple weeks before the famous holiday. I continued to eat my ice cream while Camila just sits down with hers and is concentrating on the screen. Taking in her features, I notice that she has a scratch on her cheek, barely visibly to the common being. I've always known that Camila had gone to the same high school as me, but I never really knew if she had friends. I mean sure, we had other friends in middle school, but on the other hand I had never seen any of our old acquaintances at the high school, or anywhere else to be honest. I never kept in touch with them; it was kind of like I blocked them out (including Camila) after what happened between the two of us. After all, it was near the end of the school year, and the summer coming after the ending of eighth grade would be the last before the freshman year of high school. It kind of sucked, because now that I think about it, I realize that Camila doesn't have any friends. I've seen her sitting alone with a book, every time during lunch at the cafeteria.

"Hey Camila. What's your class schedule?" I say out of nowhere.

"Um, here." She quickly pulls a piece of paper out of her pocket and sticks her arm out to me.

"Do you carry this around everywhere?"

"Yes."

"Camz, I was being sarcastic..." I start to laugh obnoxiously loudly (without intending to actually be obnoxious). The both of us blush (my reason being that I accidentally called her "the old nickname"), she looks down, and smiles a little at the use of her old nickname. I reach over to grab the schedule, but our hands touch for a moment. That moment... It was enough for a million sparks to fly up my arm. You're probably just excited, Lauren, you know, to have your friend back. I realized that my hand was just frozen in place, on top of hers, but I quickly regain my composure and retrieve the paper. Camila sits there awkwardly until I unfold it.

"Wait a minute! You have the same exact schedule as me... How come I never see you in my classes? I mean, none of my friends are able to *cough* smart enough *cough* take AP classes."

"Well, I usually just sit in the back of the class and kind of 'hide' from the teacher, no one really notices me anyways. That's the way it works, and I'm used to it."

"Oh, ok. How about tomorrow, when we return back to school, you hang around me? I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. I'd introduce you to my friends and we could sit together at lunch, oh! Maybe we could sit next to each other in class, maybe—"

"Lo, you're kind of rambling, but I'd love to hang around you and your 'not so smart' friends."

I smiled. I smiled an actual smile. A genuine one, one that was real, one that I hadn't done in a long time. I was happy.

---------------------------------

The next day, I came to school with a huge grin spread on my face.

Normani embraced me into a hug before saying, "Alright, what are you smiling about, Hotregui?" No response came from me.

She repeated, "Hello? Are you even listening to me? Ugh!" While Normani is still trying to get my attention, I just stand there, my mind wandering off to picture Camila, the small scar on her cheek, her imperfection, making her seem even more perfect, and her luscious brown eyes, oh my god, I wish I coul—. I finally snap out of the daze I'm in.

"Sorry I was just thinking," I take a large breath, "It's nothing you need to worry about."

"Oh, is it about a certain someone?" She asks while wiggling her eyebrows.

"Dear Lord, Mani, not this again. I've told you at least a billion times I don't like anyone!"

"Yeah yeah yeah. Things change Lo! People change. Besides—Hey, who's that?"

I look over my shoulder and see Camila walking towards me, well, more like her struggling with her giant load of books while trying to reach her destination, me. I take in her beauty, her brown eyes, that sparkle when she smiles. The way her face scrunches up when she thinks makes me want to—

"Hey Lauren! And hello to..."

"I'm Normani, Lauren refers to me as Strut Master, Brownie, Miss Chocolatier, ManiBear, Mani—You know what, the list can go on forever on what she calls me, you can just call me Mani, or Normani."

"Mani, this is Camila, and Camila this being with one of the most captivating walks on the entire planet is Ugly Face. Oh whoops, I meant to say Normani, maybe I just call things the way I see it." I start to laugh and so does Normani, but not before she punches my arm and lets out a 'loser'. Camila just stands there looking at her feet until Normani screams, "HEY LOOK! IT'S DINAH! DINAH JANE, MEET LAURABLANCA'S NEW FRIEND CASMALINDA!"

Dinah exclaims, "Jesus ManiBear, no need to shout until everyone's ears bleed!"

Normani rhetorically replies, "Says Miss Towers Over You Like A Redwood Tree, you basically shout everything you say. It's like you don't have ears, or you think everyone else is deaf and you need to shout everything."

Dinah sticks her tongue out at Normani and realizes Camila standing there awkwardly.

"Hi! My name is—Whoa, you— Really, I mean you are really pretty."

"C'mon Danish, don't go all lesbian on us now."

"At least... Ugh, you are so lucky, Jauregui! I can't even think of a good comeback. I feel like my fricking brain is dying because of all the information it had to process from this year, and we are barely even halfway through it! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT WE SURVIVED FROM A COUPLE MONTHS! From each other of course." Ally suddenly appears out of nowhere and jumps onto Dinah's back, therefore causing Dinah to let out a high pitched squeal (along with her almost face planting because the unexpected amount of weight on her back).

Ally screams, "YOU LOVE US!"

We all just burst into laughter at Ally's actions, including Camila.

"Hi, I'm Ally!" She greets, hugging Camila.

Camila looks taken aback by the little ball of sunshine's actions, but quickly reciprocates the hug.

"I'm Camila, an old friend of Lo—Lauren's." She sighs in relief because she almost lets herself create a mistake. Lauren nods while the others continue on with their daily and usual banter they have in the mornings. The group soon separates to different places in order to get to their classes on time.

I tap on Camila's shoulder because she is collecting her books for AP English, "Hey Camz, ready to go to class?" The moment my finger touches her sleeveless shoulder a burning fire sensation is spread throughout my whole body, especially my cheeks.

She looks startled at first, but relaxes once she sees it's me.

"Yeah, I'm ready."