Popular|| Camren

Chapter 35

*Camila's POV*

"Girls, I gotta go" I say as I start to run out of the house.

"Why?" They ask.

"Long story, I'll be back." I say as I snatch my keys off the table and run to my car. He's such a doùche. I knew he would take this badly and hurt Lauren. If we were straight and I were a guy, I would fight him in a heartbeat but unfortunately, I am a petite 17 year old girl and I am as intimidating as a kitten.

I pull up to the restaurant Lauren told me she walked to and see her sitting on a bench outside, makeup running down her face. I really wanna fight Ansel right about now.

"Hey babe are you alright?" I say as I rush over to sit next to her on the bench.

"Yeah... I guess" She replies wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"What did he do?" I ask concerningly.

"Well being the fúck boy he is, he was like 'can I watch you and a girl?' 'I bet I could turn you straight'" She mimics him "and the I got out and he continued to drive next to me and say a bunch of stupid stuff and then I finally got him to go and now... now I'm here." She says turning towards me. I check my surroundings and lean in to kiss her. I run my hand through her curled hair and my thumb lightly over her stitches. It shot back the memories of that bitter sweet day. I thought that I lost her and that I'd never get to tell her how much I loved her and I'd never get to feel the way I feel right now again. But then again, we made it official in the hospital room. I pull away and her eyes flutter open.

"Hey how about we ditch and I take you on a real date." I lean over and read the restaurant sign. "This looks like fancy restaurant, nice restaurant for a date." I say raising my eyebrows and smirking at her.

"It's like 5 star it's gonna be expensive and I thought you said that we weren't gonna do normal dat-"

"Hush, Princess. Tonight, is all about you." I say as I stand up and hold my hand out to help her up. she places her on top of mine and curtsies.

"Alright, Princess if you say so" She says with a giggle.

I go back to the car and retrieve my wallet and we walk into the restaurant.

"Table for 2" I say to the hostess and she leads us out to a a table with a lake view. Before Lauren goes to sit down, I pull out her chair for her. I'm not a guy but can I still be chivalrous?

"Wow, this is really nice" She says gazing around the restaurant.

"Right? I say "There's like 10 of each utensil why do we need so many?" I laugh.

"I think the little fork is a salad fork and then there's a soup spoon and a whole bunch of other shít" She leans in and laughs quietly. We read over the menus and of course, everything is crazy expensive. I order the cheapest thing so that Lauren can get whatever she wants.
"Hi can I start you off with anything to drink?" The waitress chirps. We both order water, thank god we aren't 21 because wine is expensive.
"I think we're ready to order now" I say.
"I'll have a salad" I say, budget conscience.
"And what about you?" The waitress asks Turning to Lauren
"I'll have the same" she replies.
"Ok, it'll be served shortly" the waitress says as she walks away.
"So we came to a 5 star restaurant to have salad and water?" I laugh.
"Yeah I guess. Everything is super expensive!" She exclaims.
"The expense was holding you back? I told you, you're the princess tonight, you can have whatever your heart desires" I say.
"Yeah but you're also a princess who deserves everything her heart desires" she giggles.
"Yeah but I like taking care of you" I reply whole heartedly.
"Well what if I like taking care of you too?" She says defensively but smiles to clarify that she's joking.
"Well, we'll take care of each other." I say as I place a hand on hers. This place is filled with judgmental Rich  people but I don't really care about their stares right now. I care about my princess.
-
"That was actually really good" Lauren says as we exit the restaurant.
"Yeah. Who knew salad's could be so filling" I say rubbing my stomach.
"Oh you're full? I was gonna take us out for ice cream!" Lauren whines.
"You don't have to do that-"
"Yes I do. We're princesses who care for each other, remember?" She laughs flashing a toothy grin.
"If you insist..." I trail off.
"I do." She laughs lightly pushing my arm.
We get in the car and I follow her directions.
"I swear this is the best ice cream place ever." She beams as we pull into the tiny building's gravel parking lot.
"I'll take your word for it." I say and we make our way in.
We order a huge sundae to split.
"I used to get this with my dad and it would be gone before I could even get to it." She says as she gets a spoonful of ice cream.
"This is... Monstrous" I laugh at the size of the dessert.
"Barely" she says as I start to dig in. My girlfriend's sweet tooth is the cutest.
"This has been... The best first date" I say, my mouth full of ice cream.
"It has. Considering its the only date I've been on so I can-" she teases.
"Oh shut up" I joke as we both laugh.
"You think they're having more fun at homecoming?" She says.
"Doubt it. They're not all they're hyped up to be. It's like paying to get into school except you get to wear nice dresses" I joke.
"You think... You think we could go to prom?" Lauren asks.
"My dear, is this a promposal? So early in the year!" I gasp causing her to giggle.
"If you want it to be" she laughs as we make our way back to the car.
"Think we'll be out then?" She asks. We're at the side of my car in a parking lot. It seems this is where a lot of our serious talks happen.
"I don't know. I hope to be" I say.
"It's so hard to hide it." Lauren says as she looks down. "At the restaurant and the ice cream parlor I saw all these straight couples kissing and being all lovey in public and I wish that we could do that but we get nasty looks if we even hold hands. I wish we could be normal." She says. Her green eyes dart back up to me.
"I wish we could too. But it's such a hateful world. People who are afraid of what's different express it in hate. I wish I could change that but I can't. I just wanna stay safe, Ya know? I hear of all these hate crimes and it just makes it even harder to come out to the world." I say. A tear rolls down my cheek. This has always been a sensitive subject. I can't help my emotions towards it. It just makes me so upset and furious that where we live, I can't even love my girlfriend publicly because my safety could be in jeopardy.
"Hey, it's alright." She says wiping the tear from my face. "I'm ok with this being our little secret for the time being. It's fine as long as I still get to take care of you and you take care of me, I have everything and I don't care whether it's the whole world who knows it or just you and I" she says with a caring smile. She always knows how to say the right things to make me feel like everything's gonna be ok.