Ethereal

twenty seven

"No Lauren please! I don't want to go home." Camila pleaded hysterically, tears rolling down her hollowed out cheeks.

"Camz, I know you got in a fight with your mom. You don't have to go to your mom's, come home with me. It's thanksgiving Camila." Lauren tried to convince the small girl.

It was a day before thanksgiving. Camila was stressing out about going home, which stressed Lauren out.

"P-please. I can not. I can not deal with this right now." The small girl pulled her sleeves over her hands and held them to her eyes.

"We'll stay." Lauren caved in to the younger girl. How could she not give into Camila? She was sure the brown eyed girl would be miserable the whole time and she just wanted Camila to be happy.

"Really?" Camila's breaths started evening themselves out.

"Yes baby." Lauren sighed, crawling back into the bed next to the smaller girl. Camila's eyes grew heavy. Her crying all day dehydrated her. "It'll be our first thanksgiving alone together."

"I need some water." Camila quickly announced. She rubbed her hands against her temple to try and coax her headache away.

"Be right back then." Lauren placed a kiss on the top of Camila's head. The small girl smiled in response.

Lauren made her way downstairs and over to the fridge to get a bottle of water. The house was unusually quiet besides the faint sound of Camila singing and playing her guitar in the background. Mani and Ally took a flight home to Texas. Dinah was visiting her family, but she was only a half hour away and would be back that night.

Lauren easily got sidetracked, trying to whip up something fast for them to eat.

"Play bloodstream!" Lauren yelled up the staircase. She got a simply "kay" in response. Lauren chuckled.

She started humming along to the familiar tune that filled her ears. Bloodstream was Lauren's favorite song at the moment. She had always been a sucker for Ed Sheeran.

After a while, Lauren stopped what she was doing to listen to the soft music of the guitar. But she heard nothing. Immediately becoming concerned, she bolted up the stairs and busted into the room.

"I was trying to finish but my hands won't stop shaking. I can't play the rest if my hands won't stop shaking!" Camila grew increasingly frustrated with herself. Lauren grabbed Camila's hands and cupped them in her own.

"I'll finish, I'll do the chords, you do the strings. Yeah?" Camila nodded her head.

Lauren placed her fingers on the chords as Camila started strumming. Camila's tongue poked out slightly from her lips, she was concentrating on strumming the strings, Lauren found it endearing.

"I can't remember what I was playing." Camila admitted honestly.

"You were playing bloodstream. By Ed Sheeran." Lauren tried to help jog her memory.

"How do you play?" Camila was staring at the guitar in front of her like it was a foreign object.

"What do you mean?" Lauren furrowed her eyebrows.

"I don't remember." Camila squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember.

"My hands are tingling." Camila stated, observing the palms of her hands.

"Shake them out. They probably just fell asleep." Lauren offered.

"I need to rest." Camila stated. She pulled the covers over her shoulders, her frail hands still shaking. Lauren couldn't pull any emotion from her tone. Her voice was trembling, but it wasn't trembling like she was about to cry. It was more of a tremble because she couldn't get herself to stop shivering.