Thunderstorms (Camren)

Chapter 4

Lauren huffed to herself, tugging her bag over her shoulder as it began to fall down, again. It was starting to annoy her, this was at least the sixth time her bag had fallen down in the last ten minutes.

She tried to ignore her growing annoyance and listened closely to her surroundings. Above her, vehicles whizzed by at high speeds, the pace in which they were going created a large buzzing sound, sort of like its own sonic boom. Lauren found it relaxing, the whirring of engines above her head were calming to her, she wasn't entirely sure why however she knew she had found them relaxing ever since she was a child.

It was rather dark underneath the highway. It didn't help that it was quickly approaching nightfall and that there were no streetlights to brighten up the path.

The sky was a mix of cool oranges and lilacs, purple was starting to form at the bottom, moving up to mesh with the darker oranges positioned halfway up the skyline. It was beautiful and almost relaxing, the array of perfectly blended colours made Lauren feel at ease.

The soles of her shoes collided noisily with the stone pathway, echoing slightly in Lauren's ears with each step she took. The sounds followed a smooth and pleasant pattern, Lauren listened closely to it and felt her annoyance starting to wither away already.

College was stressing her out. She was in her sophomore year and she still struggled to get used to the workload, school had only started back just over two months ago and yet she was already drowning in school work. It really wore her out and made her question why she even wanted to go to college in the first place. She blamed it on all of the movies she had watched about the wild frat parties hosted by attractive, shirtless guys and the cute girls who always seemed to find themselves in some sort of trouble on campus. Mainly the girls.

Lauren wasn't ashamed of her sexuality, she was proud of it. She was openly bisexual –leaning more towards the female side of things, however– and she was thankful for her group of friends who were incredibly supportive when she came out.

Her family supported her too, although once when she brought her now ex-girlfriend home, there was a slightly awkward tension the whole time. This made Lauren realise that even though her family were supportive, they weren't entirely sure what to do in situations involving her and her girlfriend.

She was still thankful nonetheless because she knew the situation could be worse, much worse. Lauren was just grateful that she hadn't been kicked out and had been accepted by her friends and family for being who she was.

Lauren's train of thought was broken when she heard the sound of shoes colliding with something. It wasn't her own because they made a different noise. She was confused as to where the noise could be coming from but as she followed the slight curve of the pathway, she realised where the sound was coming from.

It was coming from someone sat atop the brick wall that followed the stone path all the way up to its end. The wall was pretty tall and Lauren wondered how the person had climbed up it, probably with a lot of practice.

Lauren continued to walking, she wanted to get home quickly but she also wanted to find out who the stranger was perched on the wall. She couldn't help it, she'd always been extremely curious.

The sky was slowly getting darker, the light purples approaching the dark oranges, almost in greeting. It casted a glow on the path, producing magnificent shadows on the cracked stone. It was breathtaking.

As Lauren walked towards the stranger sat on the wall, she noticed a small billow of what was no doubt smoke. It reminded Lauren of the girl who had been smoking outside of the pet store. She smiled at the thought, the girl had been nice to her and even though she scared Lauren at first and looked scary, she was far from it from what Lauren could tell.