True Love (Camren)

Chapter 27

(3 years later)

Lauren and Camila had a small apartment together just off campus of their university. The summer after graduation, their parents agreed they should save up money so they could have a place together without the expensive dorms. They wouldn't even have a guarantee they'd have the same dorm. They eventually got enough and, with the help of their family and friends, they moved in before their freshman year of college. They were now Juniors, and Dinah, Normani and Ally all shared their own apartment about a block from their complex. It was perfect. The place was a total dump at first, but after they fixed it up a little with Chris and the dads, it looked fairly decent.

"Hey, Camz?" Lauren calls when she walks through the door with two visitors.

Camila's head pops out around the corner of their room where she was doing homework on her laptop, and she smiles although she had a look of confusion on her face.

"Uh, Camz, this is Jamie, and her daughter, Gabriella," Lauren says.

Camila smiles softly. "Hi, I'm Camila. Nice to meet you both," she says politely.

Jamie smiles back. "Nice to meet you, too," she says before coughing.

"Awe, how old is she?" Camila coos at the baby in her arms.

"She's almost seven months," Jamie says happily, having caught her breath slowly.

"Jamie, are you okay? Do you need some water?" Camila asks, noticing her cough.

"Oh, that's alright, thank you. Water isn't gonna fix it, hon," she says, smiling sadly. Camila looks at Lauren questioningly.

"Jamie has leukemia, Camz," Lauren explains softly.

"Oh," Camila says, a little surprised and not really knowing what to say.

"It's okay, nobody really knows how to react to that. Just... pretend I'm healthy as can be," Jamie jokes.

Camila smiles. "I uh, told Jamie I'd babysit Gabby for her while she does some things down at the hospital. Or whenever she's not feeling well or just wants her gone for a while," Lauren explains, making Jamie chuckle.

"Yeah, she's a real handful sometimes," she replies.

Camila laughs lightly. "She sure is cute though," she says, walking up to the infant. Gabby looks up at her with her deep sea blue eyes. "Hi, cutie," Camila coos in her baby voice.

Lana prances out into the living room, rubbing against Camila to get her attention. "Oh, go take a nap you old lady," Camila says kind heartedly, gently shoving the cat away with her foot. Lana meows in protest before walking over to Lauren, who picks her up to cuddle her. Camila rolls her eyes half-heartedly, returning her attention to the baby.

"You wanna hold her? I think I have to go now anyway," Jamie asks her.

Camila looks up at her and smiles while nodding. Jamie hands the baby over carefully, dropping the diaper bag on the ground by the door.

"Okay, I gotta run. See you later guys. Bye, Gabby," Jamie says to them, kissing her daughter on the head before walking out.

"So she has leukemia?" Camila asks once they see her car pull away, bouncing Gabby on her hip gently.

Lauren nods. "She has stage two already. It sucks because she has Gabby and she doesn't really have any family around. I met her around campus and we're pretty good friends now so I offered to babysit once in a while when she was telling me how exhausted she was one day," Lauren explains.

Camila frowns. "No family at all? Not even like... a boyfriend?" Lauren shakes her head. "What about Gabby's father?"

She shakes her head again. "Nope. Baby daddy was out of the picture as soon as he found out there was a kid. Her parents both died in a car accident last year, and her sister hasn't talked to her in years," she says sadly.

"Wow. That must be horrible," Camila says in shock. Gabby grabs her hair and starts to play with it, and Camila smiles before tickling her stomach slightly. Gabby giggles cutely, and both Camila and Lauren laugh a little, too.

"I can't wait to have kids one day," Lauren says honestly, loving the sight in front of her.

Camila looks up at her, a huge goofy grin on her face. "I think we should have at least one daughter. Maybe a son as well," she says casually.

Lauren raises an eyebrow. "We?" she repeats, a smile on her face.

Camila looks up at her in confusion. "Well duh," she says sassily.

"I think you need to spend less time with Dinah," Lauren says, rolling her eyes playfully.

Camila laughs, gently rubbing circles in the small child's back before pecking Lauren on the cheek. "I wouldn't want a family with anyone else," she says, making Lauren blush. "I've always loved kids. They're just so... carefree. And cute, obviously," Camila adds after a moment, saying the last part in a high pitched voice to Gabby, who giggles. The two of them sit on the carpeted floor with Gabby, playing with her and making her laugh. Once she started to get fussy, Camila furrows her eyebrows as she picks her back up. "What's she eat?" she asks Lauren.

The older girl shrugs. "Whatever's in the bag?" she says uncertainly, getting up to retrieve the bag by the door. "There's some baby cereal in here," she says, pulling out the bottle of the snack. She sits back on the floor, opening it and pouring some of its contents into Camila's hand. She offers the piece of cereal to the baby, and she takes it in her tiny hand before throwing it back to the floor.

"She doesn't like it," Camila says in slight frustration.

"Well let's see what she does like then," Lauren says as she stands, offering to hold the child so Camila could get up. Once in the kitchen, she sets the baby on the counter top and Camila holds her steady there while Lauren looks through the pantries. "We don't really have anything," Lauren says. Camila sighs, grabbing a banana to eat, feeling a bit hungry herself. As she sat down with Gabby in her lap, the baby looked at the fruit curiously before trying to grab it.

"You want some?" Camila asks her, taking a tiny piece and offering it to her. Gabby takes it skeptically before eating it, wanting more afterwards. Camila laughs lightly as she continued to feed the baby small pieces of the fruit. "You and I are gonna get along just fine," Camila says, making Lauren laugh.

---
"I could get used to this," Camila says as she walks into the living room later, seeing Lauren on the couch with Gabby asleep on her stomach. She had the older girl's pointer finger clutched in her tiny hand, her pink pacifier moving slightly whenever her mouth twitched.

"She's the cutest thing," Lauren whispers, smiling softly at the infant in her footies on top of her.

"Jamie just called me in the study. She said she needed Gabby to stay here tonight," Camila says seriously as she sat down on the ground next to the couch, Lana almost immediately sitting in her lap.

"Is everything alright?" Lauren asks quietly, concerned.

Camila shrugs. "I don't know. I think they wanna run some tests," she says, worry laced in her words as she gently stroked Lana's back. Lauren reaches her hand out to grab Camila's.

"We can do this. And... she can do this. Jamie's tough, don't worry," she says, kissing the back of Camila's hand. The brown eyed girl smiles softly, watching Gabby sleep with adoration.

-----

a/n: Hello! I got sick this weekend which sucks bc I have school tomorrow but I don't regret going to the TOP concert. Just so you know, the story line is gonna stay at this point for a while. Anyway, have a good day/night, ily all.

-Ashleigh

{IG: Milaslayme, Twitter: gtg_cabello}