Don't pretend (Camren)

Ch. 2

"So.. may I ask you who you are?" I told her just before we arrived to her booth.

"After you" she said with a malicious smile.

"I'm Lauren, please to meet you. And thanks for saving me by the way"

"It was, and is, my pleasure. I'm Camila 'by the way'" she said then mocking me and doing some quotation marks with her hands.

"What a nice name" I said without thinking twice.

She then locked our gazes and gave me a shy smile before gesturing me to sit at her table.

"These are my friends Dinah and Normani, guys this is Lauren" she introduced me to her friends and viceversa.

"Mila! I asked for a cocktail not for new friends" Dinah said all of a sudden revealing her drunkenness.

"Dinah! Be polite! I'm really sorry for her behavior, please don't pay her attention. So Lauren, right? Nice to meet you! What brought you here? I've never seen you before and I spend literally every day of my life in this place" the 'Normani' girl asked me.

"Yeah, in fact this is the first time that I came here. I'm not really into the 'crazy for drinking' kind of life but today was a pretty crappy day so I felt like I needed a distraction and.. Here I am." I said like I needed to justify my decision.

"Oh" she then said keeping her mouth in the 'O' shape that it had assumed for more time than intended. "I understand." She then continued "But, you know, all the 'crazy for drinking' people often act like they act just because they have a 'pretty crappy' life. You shouldn't judge them." She added remarking my words and I understood that she misinterpreted what I was saying and thought that I was talking about her and her friends.

"No please, don't get me wrong. I was just trying to convince myself that right now I need this kind of help. Some liquid courage, you know. So maybe I can forget about my life for a while. Actually I'm just admiring and envying who's able to 'drink the pain away'." I explained hoping that she'll understand.

She didn't answer thou, she just looked away with a sad smile that made my heart break into pieces.

I just need to keep in mind that everyone in here have their own problems.

"Maybe I should go.. It was a bad idea  after all-" I started saying but I stopped when I realized that fingers soft as clouds were brushing against mine making my heart skip a beat. This was just so unexpected and spontaneous that left me frozen.

"Please stay." Camila pressed then her whole hand on top of mine tightening her grip as she continued "I've had a crappy day too. Maybe we can help each other committing this brave gesture. I'm not much of a drinker too.." Camila said so sincerely and pleaded me with her warm brown eyes that I suddenly forgot the reason why I wanted to come back home.

So I stayed.

We spent the night drinking and talking.

I learned that Dinah was a lawyer. That her last client went in jail even thou he was clearly innocent and she felt the weight of the judge's sentence on her shoulder. That she think that he could've been saved if only she had tried harder. And that the "victim's" family is not helping her because is still harassing her since the verdict, making her feel awful and making her cry almost every day.

She was so stressed that had to leave her job.

I learned that Normani was a dancer but had an accident and broke some of her bones and they will never recover completely and so now she's working in a call center.

And Camila.. Camila was such a mystery. She didn't talk about her life, her problems, her job. She talked about random things such as books, politics, music, movies. And at the end of the night I just realized that I didn't know anything about her.

But I was too afraid to ask because I knew that if someone had been asking me instead, I just wouldn't have answered. Plus I didn't want to sound invasive.

So what I learned about Camila was that she's just like me. I didn't want to talk about my personal issues to a bunch of perfect strangers and so didn't she. I just listened to what the other girls had to say and I must admit that it helped.

It helped me realize that I'm just one of the many, that if I want I'm not alone. That I could let someone help me. And I told to myself that I could meet an analyst or something like that to regain my life back.

By the way I decided that that was a thing I would have reconsidered when I was sober again.

For now I would have just enjoyed the night. That went on too fast for my liking.

We drunk so much that there was a moment in the whole night in which I didn't even remember my name. But it felt right and so I didn't mind.

Somehow, later on, I made it safe and sound to my house and went to sleep instantly because I was literally dying for the headache.

I already knew that the hangover was around the corner and that it would have hit hard. But I was ready to face it. Just like I felt ready to face my life.

Or that was I thougth.

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A/N

Sooooo
I know, it's been a while since the last update but I was somewhere else with my head (And also fiscally since I was on vacation lmao).

How did you spend your holidays and how do you think this fic is going so far?

I would love to hear your opinion and don't forget to correct me every time I kill the English language with my ignorance xD

Love you <3
See you soon