The Pursuit of Camila Cabello

Chapter Nineteen: Sweet, Sweet Revenge

A.N: I changed the blurb if anyone wanted to check that out. Idk, I think this one is better.

———

Have you ever been so angry you can taste it? Lauren has. It tasted bitter, metallic almost. She could feel it course through her body, pulsating through her veins. She could feel the rage expel from her body like radiation, violent and deadly.

    She watched Camila with deadly precision. It was as if every inch of skin was placed her a microscope, open for Lauren to examine. The bruises that painted her eye were more vibrant in colour. The blood that trickled down her cheekbone and mixed with her tears seemed larger than a mere trickle. The skin sticking out, red and angry, on her head was more prominent than Lauren needed to see.

    But the worst thing Lauren saw was the gut-wrenching look on Camila's face. The broken, hollow look in her eyes.

    Lauren was frozen in place. She couldn't take her eyes off of Camila's battered face.

    Camila letting out a small whimper startled Lauren out of her frozen state. On instinct, she reached out and held Camila's face in her hands as gently as she could. Her eyes skimmed over the injuries as she asked, "Who did this to you?"

    Camila just shook her head, letting out a few sobs. Lauren clenched her jaw and led Camila into her home, shutting the door behind her. Her desire to see Camila safe and comforted would always outweigh her own rage.

    A few minutes later, after Lauren wrapped Camila in a blanket on the couch and filled a bowl of warm water, she began to clean her wounds. Dipping the hand-towel into the water, she wiped away the semi-dried blood that stuck to Camila's forehead.

    As she did so, she asked with barely contained anger, "Who did this to you, Camz?"

    Camila's bottom lip trembled and she choked back a sob. Lauren sighed and gently lifted Camila's chin to face her. Unable to avoid Lauren's penetrative gaze, Camila caved in and mumbled, "Austin."

    Lauren's rage had reached biblical proportions. As she held Camila's face with a gentle touch, her mind ran rampant with images of her beating Austin within an inch of his life. It was the only thing giving her some form of satisfaction in this situation.

    "He's been cheating on me," Camila mumbled, flinching with the towel grazed her open wound.

    Lauren's hand stilled as she said, "What?"

    Camila began to fidget, playing with her fingers as she said, "His trips to San Antonio — y'know, when he said he was visiting his grandfather — he'd been visiting her there. One of the paparazzi caught them..."

    As Camila trailed off, Lauren was cursing herself. She blamed herself for not continuing Junior's PI's investigation. If she had known that her suspicions were right, that Austin was the scum she thought he was, Camila wouldn't be sitting here. She wouldn't be bleeding from an open wound, crying. She would be attending Austin's funeral as she cried into Lauren's shoulder.

    Camila continued to ramble, prompting Lauren to resume washing away the blood, "I've known for a while what he was doing... I just thought he would have stopped before the wedding, y'know. But then that article came out and his cheating became a public discussion instead of our private conversation."

    Lauren thought she was doing a good job of surprising her anger. She calmly asked, "Why did he hit you?"

    "Because I called him out on his shit," Camila chuckled mirthlessly, "I called him a whore, a cheating whore who couldn't keep his pito in his pants. I didn't realise he had hit me till my head hit the floor. When he was done, he ran off."