thin walls (are calling me home)

Chapter 8

"Well, this is it."

"This is it, sis. It's now or never. Our last moment of anonymity. Is it too much to expect a mob of crazy fans by tomorrow?"

Camila chuckled – more out of nervousness than she'd like to admit – and shook her head. She was beginning to see a pattern with the people she surrounded her with: they were all idiots.

(Not that she minded; in fact, she secretly thought she was one as well.)

"Shut up, Shawn." Camila shook her head with a fond little smile playing on her lips.

Shawn rose his hands in surrender, but the smirk in his lips gave him away. Camila rolled her eyes and took a sip of water from her bottle – that yes, she carried basically everywhere – before turning back to keep her eyes on the door to the small room they were in.

When she'd said this was it, she'd meant it. Camila and Shawn were currently sitting on the comfortable couch of one of the offices that belonged to "Drama dot com" magazine, waiting for their interviewer to come back. It wasn't a huge magazine, but it wasn't a tiny one either, and she couldn't have been more pleased to get the invitation to the interview.

"So, how's living with Lauren?" Shawn asked, bringing a smile to her face at the mention of her girlfriend, though it soon vanished.

Living with Lauren was everything she hoped it would be, which meant basically the same as before, only better. For the past few weeks they'd been sleeping over at the other's house almost every day, so there wasn't that much of a difference. They'd had to move some of their furniture, as well as sell and throw away some of it – Normani and Ally had eagerly demanded to keep Lauren's kitchen table, which had enticed a fight with their increasingly closer friend, Dinah –, but Camila was very happy with the way they'd rearranged the apartment.

(And the fact that she now had a balcony, but that was beyond the point.)

So, it was safe to say that Camila was indeed very happy that they were living together but she was also worried about Lauren. It was now the second time she saw her girlfriend trying to hide or downplay what she was feeling.

Camila thought she had made clear that she was there for Lauren, but the green eyed girl hadn't talked about the shooting again other than to confirm that she was fine. She also hadn't opened up about the encounter with her uncle – though Camila didn't know if she was overreacting or seeing things where there are none in the latter case.

Either way, Camila was kind of worried about that. She was now afraid that Lauren wasn't opening up not because she didn't trust her, but because of some other reason, even though she had no idea what it could be. If Camila didn't know the motive, she had no way to help. The worst thing about the situation was that Camila could see right through Lauren when she tried to pretend that she wasn't sad.

Camila knew that Lauren wasn't feeling bad all the time, she knew that Lauren wasn't always pretending to be okay and that she truly was happy a lot of times. God, Camila loved her, but realizing when Lauren wasn't always being honest about her feelings frustrated her to no end.

And well, there was that.

Lauren had no recollection of confessing her love for Camila, which was obviously the universe showing her just how unlucky she was. Camila caught herself almost slipping and saying it right then and there all the time, but she always managed to stop herself, having already started to plan something for Valentine's Day, which was getting closer and closer. Camila smiled at the thought, unable to stop herself at the surprise she's planning.