Exposed || Camren

Chapter Six: Clued Up

It wasn't until a week after the first interview that Lauren and Camila had met up again. In fact, it was the first time they had seen each other in that whole week. Well, at least Camila was sure she hadn't seen Lauren. It was almost like the girl was hiding away from Camila. She was a bit worried that the interview period was over. While the two hadn't talked much, or had done much at all, Camila could feel herself growing more and more attached to the green-eyed girl. Lauren was eccentric in some ways, like how she rarely spoke unless needed or just in how she reacted to people. But, in other ways, Lauren was absolutely beautiful. And not only in her features, which was just as true. Lauren seemed caring and loving and passionate. Camila could tell from the moment that she had first seen Lauren walk towards her journalism class that the girl wanted to be a journalist. Silently, Camila rooted for Lauren every day, and even tried to help her out when she found out the girl wasn't doing so well. She'd drop hints for the teacher, saying how wonderful Lauren was at speaking and how amazing her writing was. Of course, while people liked Camila and she held reign over some of the school's decisions due to that, it didn't persuade the teacher to give Lauren more than a D.

Camila sighed, leaning against her locker as she waited for Pauly. He was supposed to meet her in the morning there, just so they could go somewhere private and talk a bit. Things had been weird between them. Camila knew that Pauly loved her, he was a good boyfriend...most of the time. While there were a ton of reasons why Camila didn't like Pauly, there were reasons why she did like him, as well. He sometimes would get her flowers and chocolates and would serenade her when she was feeling down. In the eyes of everyone else, except for Normani and maybe Dinah, Pauly was an absolutely perfect boyfriend.

The problem was that Camila knew something no one else did; he was a cheater. It hurt the girl a lot every time she'd look out and see some other girl wrapped around Pauly, making out with him. But, Camila supposed it was her fault, as well, for staying with him. But, he was the best thing she could ever ask for at that time. And she needed to be supportive of him in order to keep him around. If pretending that Pauly wasn't promiscuous helped support him, then Camila was going to do that.

"Hey, Camila."

Camila's head snapped up, looking to her side. A smile spread across her face when she met Lauren's eyes. The journalist looked especially beautiful that morning, bare-faced with a couple pimples and bags under her eyes, the green of her iris seemingly darker from exhaustion. While Camila felt bad that Lauren was obviously tired, she couldn't help but to fall deeper for her.

"Hi, Lauren. How are you?" Camila asked, turning so she was facing Lauren, and also a bit closer. She wished that she could reach out and grab Lauren's hand. But, that wasn't appropriate, and Lauren most likely didn't feel the same attraction Camila did.

Lauren rubbed at her eyes tiredly, smiling a little before yawning. Camila had to hold back her cooing noises. "I'm okay, just really tired. I had to stay up late last night looking up articles about you. Part of the paper is comparing my information to other information."

Camila nodded slowly, humming softly. "Trust me, your information will be the most truthful," she said, which wasn't a lie at all. While she wasn't telling the truth the week before, it wasn't all completely a lie. It was the closest thing to truth that she could get. She always tried to make herself look perfect in the more public forums.

Lauren chuckled, tucking some hair behind her ear, smiling sweetly at Camila. "Okay, good. It would make a horrible paper if it was all lies," she said, chuckling again.

Camila blushed hotly, as that's what the paper was exactly. "Right," she murmured in reply. "So. Speaking of. When and where would you like to meet up again? I figured you could...come over at some point."

Lauren smiled, nodding a little. "Alright. Could we meet up after school today?" she asked, fixing the backpack on her shoulder.

Camila nodded, pulling out her phone. "Yep. Let me just text my mom. She's a little crazy about things, so I don't want her freaking you out," she said, giggling a little.

"We all have the weird one in the family. Is your dad the normal one, then?" Lauren asked, looking down at Camila's phone as the girl monkeyed with it.

Camila looked up, waiting until Lauren met her eyes. "My dad isn't really...in the picture," she said truthfully. Not many people knew about the disappearance of Camila's father, except for Normani and a couple of Camila's closer friends. So, Camila didn't know why she was being so raw around Lauren. It was rare for her to open up so quickly. She supposed really liking Lauren helped a little. "He disappeared when I was younger. No one really knows what happened to him or where we went. I was too young to remember anything. But my mom told me stories about how people searched for awhile, but they were never able to find him. Then, my mom had to move, because she was a single parent and couldn't afford some things. But, he left me this in return."

Lauren looked down at the charm Camila was showing her, then back up to the girl's brown eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know," she replied, pouting a little. She looked back down at Camila's phone, which buzzed with a response. "So?"

"We're home free," Camila answered, smiling up at Lauren. "And don't feel bad. About mentioning my dad. I don't even remember him, I just know his name. There's no pictures of him or anything."

Lauren frowned a bit, but didn't say anything in the response to Camila's father. "Okay. Well. I'll see you later, Camila. I see Pauly coming over."

Camila looked over her shoulder, twiddling her fingers over at her boyfriend. When she turned back to Lauren, she smiled. "You can stay. Pauly and I aren't gonna make out or anything."

Lauren chuckled softly, then cleared her throat. "That's quite alright. I have to get to get to class. I'll see you after school. Meet up at the college?" she asked.

Camila nodded. "Of course. Bye, Lauren," she said, waving at Lauren as the girl walked away. When she turned back around, Pauly was closing in on her.

"What was that? Why were you talking to Lily Joreagoo?" Pauly asked, quirking an eyebrow at Camila.

The brown eyed girl had to bite the inside of her cheek to not laugh. "It's Lauren Jauregui. And we're working on a project together for her journalism class. She's writing a paper about me," Camila said proudly. While she had been the front cover of newspapers and the header of blog posts multiple times, she still took pride in people wanting to talk to her and write about her. It made Camila feel special, and like maybe pretending to like all of the beauty pageants and questionnaires and stupid stuff in-between wasn't that bad.

Pauly just rolled his eyes, humming in disinterest. "Yeah, well, so have plenty of other people," he said, looking down at his nails. He picked some off, then sighed. "I thought we had to talk."

Camila bit her lip, hurt that Pauly didn't even care. He's the best boyfriend you can have, Camila. Just stick through it, Camila thought to herself, shaking her head.

"Right, um. About graduation and my party and all that. I need to know if you're coming or not. I know it's a couple of months away, but my mom wanted to make reservations now and the hall needs to know how much food to make," Camila said, smiling a little.

"Just put me on the list. I'll show up if I have time," Pauly replied with a shrug. "Are we done talking now? Can we make out?"

Camila's face dropped, sighing softly. "Yeah," she murmured, trying not to flinch as manly hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her in. As Pauly pressed closer to her, his crotch against her hip, Camila imagined Lauren smiling against her lips. Whispering about anything and everything. Wrapping her arms around Camila's waist and cuddling her close, like she was worth it.

Camila couldn't help but to smile.