Ink ➳ Camren

Chapter Seventeen

All rights go to original author.

^^^That video made me cry like a little bitch

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It wasn't so much the searing pain behind her eyes that made Lauren wish for unconsciousness or that the room was spinning in time with the churning of her stomach. Those things Lauren could handle. Those inconveniences of the morning after were not insurmountable. But waking up in Lily Collins's bed, naked, that was more than Lauren could currently contend with.

"You got sick in the taxi."

Lauren turned her head too quickly, the pain and nausea intensifying tenfold. Lily was sitting in the chair by the window holding a cup of tea and watching Lauren sleep, or perhaps just waiting for her to wake up. "I made tea."

Lauren covered her face with her hands. "Fuck."

"No...but you wanted to." Lily extended the cup of tea to Lauren. "Drink this."

Lauren removed her hands from her face, but kept her eyes closed. Slowly and carefully, she propped herself up into a near sitting position. She held out her hand towards Lily, but Lily didn't move the cup into her reach.

After a moment, Lauren opened her eyes and glared at Lily for not helping her out. She leaned forward and grabbed the tea. "Thanks a lot." She took a sip.

"Now tell me." Lily trained her penetrating hazel eyes on the hung-over mess in her bed.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Lauren, I haven't seen you that fucked up since high school. Partly because you've built up the tolerance of an elephant and partly because you haven't needed to be."

Lauren took a deep breath. "I fucked it up." She looked to Lily for a reaction. She didn't get one. "I scared her off."

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"They're a right pack of fuckers, they are. She was the best candidate, the only one worth a second glance, and those Nobel fuckers passed her up!" Joseph was on his second cup of coffee. Camila was nursing her own cup of lukewarm coffee and trying not to yell at her well-meaning former teacher and mom's boyfriend for making her headache worse by the second.

"Oh Joseph! When are you going to let it go, honey? There were ninety other nominees." Sinuhe had heard this speech more times than she could count, but she loved Joseph a little bit more each time she heard it.

"You are the best, is all I'm saying." Joseph grabbed the newspaper and shook it a few times. Camila knew this to be his unique way of saying he was done griping for the time being.

Sinuhe set a plate of eggs in front of her hung-over and somber looking daughter and got down to brass tacks. "So she dumped you then?"

Camila looked up from her coffee, "What?"

"The reason you've come home dear...that Lauren you mentioned." Sinuhe's eyes were kind as she tried to comfort Camila.

"What are you on about, Mami?"

"So you dumped her then?" Sinuhe seemed quite surprised by that scenario.

"No. No one got dumped and Lauren and I aren't...we're not even dating really...so, leave it."

Sinuhe looked over to Joseph who had come out from behind his paper. They exchanged knowing looks. A silence fell over the breakfast table.

"I like your tattoo..."