The Party (GxG) (Camren) **EDITING**

Chapter 19

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A/N: For those that didn't know, Chapter 2 has been updated and extended. I suggest to read it before you read this, due to the brief connection between the two parts.
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Lauren remained at the hospital for a couple more days to allow the doctors to do a thorough examination of her vitals and to monitor her brain activity, just to ensure that there were no lingering consequences of her overdose and subsequent coma. As much as she begged and pleaded with the nurses and argued with her doctors, they refused to release her early. Dr. Christianson, her main doctor – although she called him James, as he insisted upon being on a first name basis with his clients – a young man who appeared to have taken a wrong turn to a Kelvin Klein photo-shoot, had organised for her to leave a day earlier than they had initially permitted. He had also provided her with a recommendation of a "less clinical" psychologist who would allow her to talk out her problems if she so wished.

Also in that time, much to Lauren's utter surprise, Sinu Cabello showed up just to ensure that Lauren was able to return to her home without the stress of hospital documents and paperwork. She was caring and motherly, attending to Lauren and aiding her as if she were her own daughter. Some things never changed, much to Lauren's complete relief. As much as Lauren hated to admit it, she really needed someone responsible and caring, like Sinu, to cheer her along and pick her up whenever she fell. It was reassuring and to Lauren, who was so used to being considered worthless or a burden, it meant everything.

Meanwhile, the other four girls were all relieved to have returned to the comfort and warmth of their homes, each reveling in the heavenly softness that a proper bed could provide. They each individually spent their first full night dead-to-the-world for the first time that year, much to their own relief. After their harrowing experience sleeping in the hospital armchairs and the single makeshift bed, they had gained a whole new appreciation for comfort that they had once taken for granted. Even Camila was glad to have some time alone, despite her body still stupidly yearning for the familiar warmth of a certain green-eyed girl that refused to remove her presence from Camila's private thoughts.

The date of Lauren's discharge from the hospital approached faster than a speeding bullet, and so too was the end of Winter break. They literally had five days left from the day of Lauren's revival to prepare for the next onslaught of assignments, tests and exams that would come with the new semester. Camila had booked her flight back to UCLA and was arranged to leave the day after Lauren's discharge, leaving little time for them to reconnect or to establish any sort of bond, let alone relationship. Part of her yearned to stay, to defer college for a semester just to spend some quality time with the other Latina, but she was aware of how detrimental that would be to her studies and possibly her future career.

Lauren herself was blissfully ignorant of the impending date and was already planningwhat she believed remained of her subsequent college break. For some reason, a certain chocolate-eyed Latina managed to boycott every one of those thoughts and plans only to transform them into something comfortably domestic or uncharacteristically romantic. Her body was still reliving the memory of Camila's touch brush upon her lips and ghost across her cheek, and her heart was still recuperating from the band practice that had occurred in her chest as Camila had bared her soul.

Camila... even the sound of the name produced pleasant tingles of warmth that swept throughout her entire body.

"Hey babe."

Lauren was rudely interrupted from her pleasant musings to find her best-friend standing before her with an amused smirk that seemed to irritate Lauren to no end. She rolled her eyes, just waiting for the inevitable teasing to begin as she sat in the discharge lounge. "What?" she snapped somewhat harshly.