Vindicated (Camren)

Chapter 15: Slasher

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"Here, have some popcorn," Lauren even made a pause in order to make an offer of the large bucket in the most annoyingly playful manner just to add more discomfort on the obviously already uncomfortable very quiet cricket compulsory sitting next to her.

Camila could not even remember how it happened, but Lauren somehow managed to talk her into watching a movie. The bamboozled bodyguard found herself inside Jauregui Manor's incredibly huge Pirates of the Caribbean-themed home theater room (Yes, it's practically a wooden ship!) complete with a crow's nest, shrouds, a ship wheel, ancient-looking barrels, and of course, a life-size statue of no other than Captain Jack Sparrow himself.

Despite feeling terrorized, not to mention violated in so many levels, she glued her eyes on the ridiculously awesome 152-inch television screen and obligated herself to watch the film Happy Birthday To Me. She needed to keep her focus on the movie, or else, the moment her eyes would tore away from the screen, she'd be on her way out of the manor. Not that she was scared of slasher and gore movies - her entire life was a good example already - it's just that she hated movies in general. However, Lauren Jauregui who was recently upgraded to the "more than a friend, less than a lover" status still insisted that they spend the time watching movies together. So, yeah, Camila didn't really have the choice.

"Remind me again why we're watching a crappy movie," Camila whispered as if to avoid disturbing the rest of the non-existing moviegoers in the theater.

Lauren enforced herself to sit still and refrain from recoiling in her chair or looking away from the screen in repulsion as the disgusting scene of Ginny Wainwright's brain operation was about to begin. She couldn't let her company know that she was feeling just as uneasy because the upcoming sight of a bloody internal organ was simply too unbearable to watch for her. There's quite a reason why she'd never dreamt to be in the medical profession.

"Your brother is taking my best friend to see that new Insidious film," Lauren replied as calm as possible avoiding real hard to make unnecessary pauses for chokes and flinches out of fright. "We need to have our fair share of a good scary movie. It is not crappy, okay? For your information, this is a classic slasher film with its own cult following."

"You only have a killer on the loose chasing down a group of snobbish high school kids which includes this maniacal girl. What's so 'classic' about it? They all probably deserve the scare anyway."

Lauren turned her head towards the only killjoy in the room to give her the evil glare causing Camila to shut her mouth immediately. More than that, it was indeed a perfect excuse to look away and avoid having to watch the rest of the nauseating scene of brain incision without raising any suspicion. Her loud squeal though when an unexpected surprise flashed on the screen a few minutes later ultimately ended her fake bravery.

Camila fixed a confused look at her lady boss as they both started a silly staring contest until Lauren finally let out a sigh in surrender. It's over. The fearless brunette was already possibly thinking that the heiress was just another lame girly girl who could not even handle a gory movie, and then turn out to be a major turnoff. However, instead of leaving or moving away, Camila took the large bucket of popcorn and placed it on the nearby empty chair so she could grab hold of Lauren's hand without an obstruction and pull the scaredy-cat closer to her.

"You almost managed to fool me there," Camila told Lauren truthfully. "Pretending to be the unafraid one, huh?"

"I'm not afraid," the other lied.

"Nice try," teased the brunette. "Well, how about this? From this moment until the end of this crap whenever you get surprised by an unanticipated scare, just scream as loud as you can and I'll pretend I don't hear anything. Whenever you get horrified by a ridiculously blood-spattered death scene, I'll give you a hand in covering your eyes or we can just bury your face on my shoulder - whatever works for you. Is that alright? Do we have a deal, scaredy-cat?"