Past Lives

Part Two

"Guys, we're stopping at my house before we head to Miami. I hope you don't mind." Lauren sighed, knowing what she had to do, yet dreading it.

"Of course, we don't mind, Ralph! You paid for the car, now drive!" Dinah pointed forward with her arm extended.

"Okay." Lauren took a breath. "Let's do this."

-

The drive to Lauren's house was relatively short, and with each passing minute, Lauren got increasingly nervous. It wasn't like Lauren to be so afraid of confrontation, but this time, it was with her mother, and sometimes one's own mother can be the scariest being in the universe. Lauren was never one to make trouble as a child and she rarely had fights with her mom, so this was a new feeling for her, and she hated it. There was no feeling worse to Lauren than knowing her own mother, a woman who's been by her side all her life, hated her. She had once heard that mothers never hate their flesh and blood, and she didn't entirely believe that her mom truly hated her, but for the time being Lauren's mom sure put up a good act.

"Aye, Ralph, ya good?" Dinah gently smacked Lauren on the shoulder to see if she was still awake at the wheel.

"Uh... yeah. I'm fine, Dinah," Lauren struggled to find her words after being deep in thought. "Just... thinking," Lauren audibly gulped.

Camila caught on to Lauren's tenseness, "are you sure you want to do this, Lo? You seem really tense."

"I have to; my sister is really worried about me and I also have a bunch of shit to pick up, I left my laptop, my college textbooks, my clothes..." Lauren listed while waving around her free hand that wasn't on the wheel for emphasis.

"Aye, Ralph Laurenza, isn't this your house?" Dinah tapped Lauren's shoulder quickly as Lauren slammed on the breaks.

"Shit, yeah."

Lauren pulled into her former driveway slowly, being sure not to make a scene.

"Okay... so, how are we gonna do this? Are you staying here or..." Lauren trailed off as she realized that both Dinah and Camila were already making their way out of the vehicle and walking up to Lauren's front porch.

Before Lauren could even make it close to her front stoop, Dinah was already knocking loudly on Lauren's front door.

"Shit," Lauren mumbled as reality set in that this was actually happening. She also realized that there were only two outcomes to this situation: her mother could answer, or her sister could answer, and she really hoped it'd be the latter.

Just to Lauren's seemingly nonexistent luck, the former answered the door promptly after the third knock.

The door swung open to reveal Clara's furrowed brows and absolutely perplexed expression.

"Hello, Lauren's parental unit, I'm Camila," Camila greeted Lauren's mother politely.

"Aye, I'm Dinah Jane." Dinah waved.

"Who in God's name are you two and what are you doing on my front porch?" Clara asked the two girls, raising a hand to cover her eyes as if she had a headache, in an exasperated manner.

The girls didn't even have to say anything as they simply stepped to the side to reveal a profusely panicked Lauren.

The expression on Clara's face was unreadable, "What is this? You've brought your girlfriend and some other girl to win me over, huh? It's not going to work, Lauren Michelle," she reprimanded her daughter flatly.

She never used Lauren's middle name, so this showed she meant business.

Lauren bit her lip, "Mother," she started, "I've just come to get my things."