A Simple Folded Paper

50

When Lauren got home, she put Hannah to sleep and made her way to her own room, finding Camila sound asleep too. Lauren smiled at the sight because Camila was using Lauren's pillow as a body pillow, replacing Lauren's body. Lauren changed into her pajamas and got under the covers, gently taking her pillow from Camila, placing it under her head and cuddling with her girlfriend right after. Lauren pressed her front against Camila's back and slipped an arm around the girl's torso and got even happier when she felt Camila interlocking their fingers.

After that, Lauren moved her head a little trying to escape Camila's hair that was tickling her face, when she felt a wet spot on her cheek. She rubbed her cheek on the pillow a couple more times to conclude that the pillow was, indeed, wet. She tried to figure out what could have happened to make such a wet spot on the pillow and that's where she remembered that that end of the pillow was pressed against Camila's neck when Lauren entered the room. Had Camila been crying? If so, why? Did she have a nightmare already and Lauren was not there to calm her down? Whatever it was, Lauren figured she could have the answers in the morning because there was no use in battling over it nor in waking Camila up to ask her.

~

Surprisingly, Lauren woke up nearly 10 hours later. When she opened her eyes and looked at the clock on her nightstand to see that it was past midday already, Lauren raised an eyebrow at herself. Since it was dark, she extended her arm to the side to see if Camila was still there, but she was alone in bed. Didn't Camila have a nightmare that night? That was new.

Groggily, Lauren got out of bed and met her family and Camila in the backyard. Her dad was making a barbecue, their typical Christmas barbecue, and Camila was sat on the swing braiding Hannah's hair. She leaned into the doorframe of the glass door and stared at the image, she still couldn't believe that she got to wake up to that. It was almost as if it was too good to be true because barely 2 weeks before, her dad was a douche and Camila... well, Lauren thought that Camila was being a douche as well.

"Good morning", she greeted.

Everyone turned their gaze to Lauren and Hannah ran to her. "Lolo! You're awake!", she screamed.

Lauren crouched down to catch her sister and give her a hug. "Hey, sweets, what's with the excitement?"

"We can finally open the presents!", the girl shouted happily.

Lauren needed a few seconds to realize that it was Christmas and she slept until noon. That was unusual because normally her family would wake her up really early to open the presents. That was a disadvantage of having little sisters. "Why didn't you wake me up?", she asked the other two.

Her dad gave her a smile and Camila got up from the swing, walking in Lauren's direction. "I ask them not to."

"Yeah, Cammy asked me to wait a few more hours because you were still sleeping", Hannah explained.

Lauren raised an eyebrow at Camila, "Cammy?".

"Yeah, she came up with it yesterday at the park", Camila said, chuckling at the memory. Hannah was a cute kid and 'Cammy' was not exactly that bad.

"Girls, you can head to the living room and start to distribute the presents. I'll just put the food on the table ad I'll meet you there in 2 minutes.", they heard Lauren's dad say, while he took the steaks out of the barbecue.

No need to tell Hannah twice. The little girl ran to the living room excitedly, leaving Lauren and Camila behind laughing at the kid's eagerness to open the presents.

Camila followed Lauren into the living room and sat on the couch while Hannah distributed the presents in 4 different piles. 4? Camila was surprised. She had a pile of presents? And it didn't have one gift, it had 5 of them. She was only expecting a drawing from Hannah and a present from Lauren because Lauren had already told her that she would get the girl one, but Camila was astonished for having that many presents since she had already opened hers the night before with her family. Lauren's dad appeared in the living room and sat on the couch next to the girls, just in time for Hannah to finish separating the presents.