Just A Job (Lauren/You)

Chapter 11

"Camz! Look at this." "Have you seen Camila?" "Camzie, come here."

What the hell was happening?

It's been a week since our little back street encounter and it's painfully obvious how Lauren has changed. And it was confusing me. It was baffling me. I'm seriously running out of synonyms to describe what I'm feeling right now.

After what I said to her that night, she ran past me and back to the hotel. I couldn't believe what I just said. You're just a job? Fuck that. She was much more-so much more. But I didn't want to get hurt again. I was scared. So I chose Camila. I know I promised her I'll be back but my body was so tired and heavy that I practically crawled to my room and slept. And it didn't help that even in my fucking dreams, Lauren was still haunting me.

The next morning, I avoided sitting near the girls at breakfast since I didn't know how Lauren would react to seeing me. Five minutes later, she comes in the doorway with Camila and they were laughing. Like seriously laughing. And I didn't know what was going on. Her eyes land on mine and I was expecting to see sadness there but she only smiled and greeted me.

What was I expecting? Well, I was expecting her eyes to be red and swollen at the very least. But no, they were green and bright. I was expecting her to ignore me. But no, she smiled at me. Was everything she told me, a lie? Because here I was with all my complicated feelings and regrets and she was laughing with the girl I replaced her with. Why do I feel like the fucking bad guy?

"No! Stop it, Camz! My stomach hurts!"

Lauren and Camila were fooling around while waiting for the stylist. Their interactions seemed so genuine and adorable that you wouldn't think a few days ago, they weren't talking to each other. And knowing I was the reason for that left a bad taste in my mouth. But now that they were talking and laughing with each other, I should be happy right? But Lauren's laugh was mocking me. It was like it's telling me, 'You could've had this but you let it go.'

Damn it, I needed to get out of here.

I stood up from the couch and walk out of the room. You'd think Lauren would be the one who doesn't want to be in the same room as me. I sighed and walked towards the vending machines. I was a selfish son of a bitch.

I didn't need to see his face to know who he was. His red snapback was like a warning for me not to get too close. I stopped in my tracks while he still had his back turned to me. I slowly turned around and tried to quietly back away from him.

"Y/N?"

I stopped walking and squeezed my eyes shut. I really didn't want any drama right now but he could still throw me out with one snap of his fingers. I turned around and faced the little boy in front of me.

"Hey, Austin."

He looked at me curiously, like he didn't know what to say or how to approach me. Well, I was bigger than him and I did threaten to break his legs so I could kind of understand where he's coming from.

"Look, man, I wanted to talk to you about what happened that night with Camila," he said.

"What about her?"

"We really haven't talked lately. I think she's been avoiding me. Do you know why?"

At that moment, I felt all the calmness leave my body and the anger rise up. This wannabe pretty boy had no fucking idea how to handle a girl and he wants Camila? Not even over my dead body.

"You're an asshole, Austin. The way you handled her that night was disrespectful and just plain wrong. She wanted to get away from you and you what? You grab her like she fucking belongs to you!"