Chapter 12. Hesitant and hopeful

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"Hi, Mrs Jauregui?" I greeted Lo's Mum over the phone, "You called me?"

"Hello, Camila. Is Lauren with you?" She queried. "And for the last time, call me by my first name - Clara."

I giggled at her persistence before answering. "Sorry. And no she went to the supermarket to buy milk for breakfast."

"I bet you girls leave your shopping until the last minute all the time."

"No, we are very organised most of the time," I retaliated.

"Of course, dear."

"Yeah, definitely. So what is it you wanted to tell me?" I returned to the main reason for this conversation.

"Right. Sweetie, I don't want you to tell Lauren because I don't want her to get more stressed or upset than she already is."

"Don't worry, I won't," I assured her.

"Thank you. It's about the apartment rent."

"What about it?" I was slightly confused.

"I know we have been paying every month so far but the unexpected funeral costs made things quite difficult for us, so we won't be able to pay the full amount for next month. I was wondering if your family could possibly help with it until we get back on our feet."

This was not going well. One mention of extra money needed and I would be sent on the first flight back. The only reason I was allowed to come to New York was because they weren't even paying for anything - I was on an academic scholarship and Lo and her parents basically paid for the apartment.

"I could ask them. How much more do you need?" I questioned hesitantly, already dreading the answer.

" We need $1500 because we had some saved up." And there it was. I'm almost certain my stomach dropped at the mention of that figure. How was I going to ask for that without having my ears bleed out?

"Ermmm, I'll ask them and get back to you?"

"Yes, that would be great los querido (love)."

"Okay then. I will talk to you later Mrs jauregui."

"Call me Clara," she sighed exasperated. "But yes, bye dear." I smiled shaking my head as the line went dead.

Now I had to figure out how to solve this. Sure enough, I could ask my parents with a sweet voice and puppy eyes but they were unresponsive to any affection what so ever, so that was a lost cause. I didn't want to go back, my life was finally getting better and I was surrounded by people who actually loved me. Lo, I smiled when I thought of her. Control yourself, I thought, you're just digging a deeper hole. If I wanted to stay I would have to come up with the money myself. That meant one thing, getting a job, so that was what I intended to do.

For the next few minutes, I searched for part-time job on the most popular sites, mainly Indeed though because everyone advertised on that. Lo walked in bearing a bag of groceries and shuffled to the kitchen with her warm layers proving to be a hindrance. I closed my laptop and made my way to her as she unpacked.

"Reese's. Oh my God, yes! Thank you, thank you....," I cheered repeatedly as I squeezed her into a hug. She pushed me away and just as she was about to speak she erupted into a sneezing fit with several high pitched achoo's and a red nose. "Aaaawww, poor baby. You're sick," I cooed.

"Yeah, so stay away or you will be too."

"No, I have the immune system of a horse," I flaunted.

"Obviously," she giggled, "but it's just in case." Sometimes I couldn't help but just find her sweet and caring side so endearing.

Per my request, Lo finally obliged into letting me make breakfast for her which was pancakes with Nutella and fruit, our favourite since we became friends back in Kindergarten and bonded over it on pancake day. The Saturday morning passed fairly quickly and I thought about what it would be like to be together as well as live together.

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