Exposed || Camren

Chapter Ten: I Won't

I wanted to apologize really fast for the late post. I'm so, so, so sorry. 

After Camila came out to Lauren, she felt the need to come out to everyone else. Maybe not the whole school, but to her mother and her friends. She knew that her friends would be okay with it, as she was sure Normani and Dinah already had a sinking feeling, and the rest of them really looked up to Camila. But, Camila couldn't help but to be scared of what Sinuhe was going to think. Sinuhe was huge into beauty pageantry, and it seemed that it was the most homophobic of all. She had never heard of an openly lesbian beauty queen, and it wasn't like she expected to. It wasn't something that people really cared to know about. People just assumed that everyone was straight, like that was the default sexuality that everyone had to be. Everyone was either straight or not.

Pauly made it somewhere on the list,  but she was too nervous to really keep track of where he landed. Camila wasn't planning to come out to him anytime soon, especially since he was what was keeping her up and desired. As long as Camila was with Pauly, she was wanted more and more by everyone at the school, and what people couldn't have, they wanted more. 

At school, Camila leaned up against her locker, scrolling through her phone lazily. She wasn't really in the mood for school, as it was almost up, and finals were just around the corner, making everything about it stressful. Plus, the thought of Pauly wasn't very nice for her, as she pretty much hated him at this point. And she was certain that he would want her to skip class, or something stupid. 

"Hey, babe," Paul greeted suddenly, pressing himself against the locker next to Camila. The brunette looked over, quirking an eyebrow at the oddly happy expression on Pauly's face. 

"You look happy," Camila said, smiling a little. Maybe today Pauly would be a bit better to her, and wouldn't force her to do stupid things, like making out in front of tons of people, or skipping class, or whatever else Pauly usually had in mind. "What's up?" 

Pauly just smiled wider, chuckling softly. "Oh, nothing. Just got an A on my math test," he said, holding up a paper in front of Camila. 

The girl clapped happily, pressing a kiss to Pauly's cheek. She grabbed the test, looking closer. "Wow. Pauly, I'm really proud of you. I know how hard you've been working," Camila replied, handing the test back. "Your mom is probably really happy, as well, huh?" 

Pauly shrugged, putting the paper away. "Yeah, I hope so. Her and dad haven't been exactly lovey-dovey recently, so I'm hoping this soothes things over a bit," he said softly. 

Camila bit her lip, wrapping her arm around Pauly's shoulders. "They'll be so proud of you, babe. I know I am. Does that mean you got your grade up to a B?" she asked, smiling when Pauly held her close. 

"Yeah, it does! It means I'm graduating this year," Pauly answered, smiling back at his girlfriend. "I just need to pass finals and I'm home free." 

Camila giggled, kissing Pauly sweetly, for the first time wanting to actually kiss him. She was proud of him, despite the fact she didn't really love him or anything. She liked this kind of Pauly, the kind that did things like got her flowers and went to the movies with her, and kissed her romantically instead of sexually. She liked that he was smiling instead of frowning, and was touching her delicately, like she was fragile and he actually cared for her. It felt nice to be cared for.

But the girl still couldn't help but to wonder how all of it would be like with Lauren. 

---

Lauren scrolled through the angry paper she had written about Camila, wincing every time she came across something rather nasty. She knew that if she turned something like that in, she'd be in a lot of trouble. Not only because her teacher was going to scold her, most likely resulting in a detention, but she was going to not graduate because of it. Lauren had to delete the paper, which she had added to, mentioning the fact that Camila was homophobic, but was gay, as well. A hypocrite at its finest. But, there was something inside of her that kept repeating that deleting the paper was a bad idea. It was a perfect way to get back at the beauty queen, and it scared Lauren that this was really what was going through her mind. 

Lauren sighed and deleted the paper, biting her lip when the page had disappeared, instead showing a blank canvas. She smiled a little, then started to type up a new paper, making sure to add as much as she could remember from the last paper to it. As she was writing the paper in the library, she heard a loud giggle, which she shushed in return. They shushed back, making Lauren slightly agitated, but she wasn't about to go get up and tell them to shut up or something else. While Lauren had grown a bit more confident in herself and her words, she still didn't like to talk to others, especially when it caused some sort of conflict. But, as she sat there and the people continued to giggle, she grew tired of it all. 

Lauren got up, then went to where the giggles were coming from. She rounded the corner of a bookshelf, getting more and more upset the closer to the laughter she was getting. 

"Who do you think-" Lauren started, cutting herself off when she saw who the two people were. 

"Oh. Lauren Jauregui, local buzzkill," Pauly said, snorting softly as he poked Camila's cheek. The girl giggled softly, but she looked uncomfortable now that she saw Lauren was there. Most likely because not too long ago, Camila had been crying because she was scared of coming out to Lauren. Now, here she was, wrapped around her boyfriend on a beanbag chair, disturbing the peace of other people trying to broaden their education. 

Lauren frowned, scoffing before shaking her head. "How typical," she said before twisting around, throwing over her shoulder, "maybe you two should read some books on proper etiquette." She then rounded around the bookshelf again, heading over to her laptop. 

"She should read a book on how to do her makeup. She looks like a cow," Camila suddenly said, making Lauren freeze up. She clenched her jaw, opening her laptop back up. She hit the back arrow on her document, smiling when the new words she had written had disappeared, then went back again, humming when the paper from before reappeared. She saved it, then shut her laptop, making sure to throw a glare in Camila's direction as she left. 

If Camila wanted to be a lying bitch and play games, then so could Lauren.