Lauren Cimorelli Sick and Sad

Dug My Way Out Blood and Fire, Welcome to My Silly Life

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Lisa's POV
Lauren has slowly been opening up to us all throughout this last week. We've been doing a lot of sisterly oriented activities and I think that it's been helping. However, I can't feel like she's hiding something from us. I plan to get to the bottom of it today. We are planning on going to the beach and I'm going to find a way to talk to Lauren one on one while we are there. Maybe while we are exploring the beach caves?

"C'mon Lisa! We're leaving right now!" Dani shouts up the stairs. I look at my bathing suit in the mirror one last time then run downstairs.

"Alright, I'm ready!" We all jump into the car and drive down to the beach. The car is a hive of activity in anticipation for the fun day ahead of us. I even see Lauren with her contagious grin. I can't help but smile as well. We pull up to the beach and jump out. The goofballs all run right into the water leaving Chrissy, Lauren and I to unpack the car and set up our spot on the beach. This is a hidden section we found so it's only us here. We put the towels and chairs down. Lauren puts the umbrella up. After that we run into the waves as well. We race down to the edge and I run in first with Chrissy close behind me. I turn around to see Lauren into about her knees, but she looks hesitant to come in any farther.

"Lo, c'mon. The water feels great."

"Actually, I can officially say that it burns a bit where I'm standing." She says sarcastically. It hits me then that the salt water must be making her cuts and scars sting.

"Lo, you don't have to come in. We could always find something else to do."

"No! I don't want this to stop me. Just... Help me out here." She reaches her hand out and I reach out and grab it. She wades into the waves hissing but she pushes forward anyways. Finally she takes a deep breath and then submerges under the water all the way. She comes back up gasping and smiling. I giggle at her and soon we are both laughing wildly.

She splashes me and I splash back. Soon we are in an all out war. The other girls join in with us and I can't see anything except water. I am suddenly knocked down by someone grabbing me around the waist and pulling me down with them. When I come back out of the water I see Lauren was the one to grab me. She sees my face and tries to swim away but it's to late for that. With a shocked giggle she goes down under the water as well. She comes up sputtering and I can't stop laughing. Soon everyone joins in. It's just to cute.

We play in the ocean for a few more hours until we get tired and go back to our spot on the towels. We lay down for a few minutes and then decide to play in the sand. I grab a stick and start drawing in the sand. I carve little hearts before I get an idea. I come up behind Lauren where she is building a sand sculpture and circle around her, carving a heart as I go. She stands up and looks at the heart. She turns to me with a smile before grabbing a stick and doing the same thing around my feet. Soon we're doodling hearts all up and down the beach. We doodle some around our other sisters and steadily get closer and closer to the caves on the side of the beach. Here's my chance.

"Hey Lo, can I ask you something?" Her giggling stops.

"Um, yeah. What's up?"

"Is there something that you haven't been telling us Lo?" She looks down guiltily.

"Maybe..."

"Lo, please talk to me. I promise I'll try to help."

"That's just it. It's something that you guys did." She looks mad suddenly.

"Lo what do you mean?" She glares at me.

"The studio practice Lisa. The one week that no one was sick and suddenly I don't matter to you because you don't need me to sing two parts. Your kind of giving me mixed signals." She imitates my voice. "Oh yeah Lo, of course we care about you. Tell me all your problems." The voice becomes deeper. "We hate you Lauren, why can't you be better?" she looks at me, doubt clear in her eyes.