mute ➺ camren

Chapter Six

The rest of the week went by quite quickly, Lauren and Camila barely interacted, and Lauren always avoided her in school, especially in free periods. They had quite a lot, as they only studied two courses, however the music course and art course had the same slot in the timetable, so their free periods were shared, but they spent them in completely different places, most of the time.

"Monday, Lauren. I mean it. Everyone else has completed their portfolio already, by last weeks deadline." Lauren's art teacher nagged at her, again, like she did every lesson. Lauren sighed, knowing she was in the wrong, but it was extremely difficult to pour her heart and soul into her art like she usually would, with a needy Spanish girl breathing down her back every minute of the day. She simply nodded, gave half smile and left, obviously without a word. Lauren wandered around the halls, not wanting to go to the common room, or the library, or anywhere that she would usually go. Without giving it a second thought, she began to make her way over to the music department.

*****

"Camila if you want to get better at playing you need to get one, you can't rely on practicing in your free periods, it takes longer than that, more patience, more dedication." Camila's music teacher told her, already criticizing her limited guitar playing ability.
"I know, but I can't afford to buy a guitar..." She responded, her voice diminishing as she ended her sentence.
"Well, I'd start saving. If you want to include it in your exam at the end of the year, you'll need one. I'm afraid we can't lend out our own they aren't insured, and it would be a hell of a lot more to replace one of these ones than to buy one of your own." The teacher emphasized once again.
"I don't have money though." Camila protested, feeling like she should be defending herself in this situation.
"Well, most kids your age have jobs, something to think about maybe." The teacher said, quite rudely in Camila's eyes, before collecting her things and walking away.

Camila felt defeated, like she shouldn't have taken music, what could she do that was even remotely musical? But what else was there to take, performing arts? No way, she couldn't act, and was slightly too uncoordinated to dance. She couldn't take art, not because Lauren took it, but because she couldn't draw to save her life. She didn't even know what other courses were available. She sighed, and packed away her things, taking them to another room in the department, a relatively small one, with a piano and a couple of guitars on a stand. She left the door slightly ajar, and set down her things, sitting down on the piano stool and holding a guitar across her body.

Lauren strolled into the music department, probably the most neglected of them all, as music equipment was so expensive, it was almost never replaced or fixed, neither was the decor. The door creaked as she pulled it open, and creaked again as she let it close behind her. The place was empty, or so it seemed, Lauren assumed everyone had left, as she passed a crowd on her way over. She wandered around, pressing down a few keys of a piano she walked past, strumming a rather out of tune guitar, admiring the cabinets of old CD's. She soon enough found the stairs, and began to head up them, taking slow steps, as she heard a few rough strums of a guitar, this one seemed to be in tune.

Camila brushed her thumb down the strings across her stomach, playing a chord softly, the only chord she had aced; E minor. She played it softly every few seconds, until her fingers were close to being cut by the wire strings. There were things about playing she was yet to grow accustomed to. She moved her hands, stretching them out, and massaging her sore fingertips. She said the guitar down and sighed.

Lauren followed the sound of the strums, of what seemed to be the same note, or chord, or whatever, until she got to a door, slightly ajar, and it stopped, and a sigh followed. Lauren panicked, thinking she had made the floor creak and just hadn't noticed. She backed away, and found herself looking through the gap of the door, directly to the girl sitting on the piano stool, with a guitar sat on her lap. The girl had her back to Lauren, and her dark brown hair fell right the way down to her lower back. She wasn't playing anymore, it looked like she was fiddling with her fingers. Lauren had never played the guitar, apart from her father's when she was very little, but she barely learnt a thing, and could remember even less, so she didn't really know what the deal was. Maybe it hurt your fingers. Lauren moved herself further round the corner, managing to get an even better look at the girl through the crack in the door, and she felt her heart in her throat when it was Camila's face that turned round. She was almost certain that she saw her. Without thinking, Lauren sped into the room ahead of her, having to walk past the small room Camila was in, and she closed the door behind her.