Three Is A Crowd

Chapter 12: I Have Questions

When Camila wakes up the next morning, the first thing that crosses her mind, believe it or not, is Lauren.

She's pretty sure she dreamt about her, and since she's still stuck between her sleep state and consciousness, she quickly tries to remember the details of her dream before it completely slips away from her memory, as most do.

In her hazy recollection which consists mostly of sound recall more than anything else, and her brain seems to have this wonderful way of placing images along with the sounds her brain registered (in her dreams, of course), Lauren came to their room, floundering about, like a drunk person, and she can hear zippers zipping, and clothes being thrown around. Camila thinks, that in her dream, she's trying to find Nemo. The weird thing is, she wasn't in the ocean and Lauren was nowhere to be found - so, then she has to find both Nemo and Lauren. She can specifically remember the sounds she heard similar to that of a fish out of water. It was a squishy, squelching, wet sound. Flopping, maybe? In her dream, she thought it was Nemo, and she's scared that he'll die before she could save him, and she was shouting for Lauren for her help, but she still couldn't see her, although, she most definitely could hear her nearby. She can barely hear Lauren's voice; it's muffled, like she's groaning, and she can hear the flopping sound again; going slower, sometimes faster (as if the fish was trying to stay alive), then slower again, sometimes to the point that it will completely stop. And just when she's afraid the invisible fish would soon die, then the sound will get louder and faster again -- squishy flopping sounds, mixed with Lauren's voice that sounded like it came from afar. She thinks, in her dream, Lauren was a mermaid singing a haunting melody that no human could understand as it's only composed of moans and breathy sounds; and she's lamenting for the life of that flopping fish out of the water, begging for Camila to come save him and bring him back into the ocean.

Next thing she knows, Camila is awake, and she's back in her bed. No fish, and no moaning Lauren.

What a weird dream, Camila muses as she yawns loudly.

Out of habit, which she has noticed she has acquired lately, she scans the bed on the other side of the room checking out for Lauren.

Camila sighs in disappointment when she sees the messy but empty bed because she's hoping she could talk to Lauren about yesterday. The way she abruptly left is weird, and she just wants to make sure that she didn't do anything to offend her.

No, really, truth is, she may not be as experienced in these kinds of things like Lauren, but she knows that something almost happened yesterday. She's not that naive. Yet she doesn't know how to properly react to it because she's not entirely sure what exactly went down, and she doesn't want to make assumptions. All she's certain about is that Lauren was leaning closer and closer, and for a split second Camila thought she was gonna kiss her. Obviously, she thought wrong because next thing she knew, Lauren was speeding out of the room faster than Camila could leave a therapy session her dad set her up when she was thirteen and she said she'd like to marry Angelina Jolie instead of Brad Pitt.

Shaking her head groggily, she stretches her arms out and she yawns, almost jumping out of her skin when she hears a loud noise from the bathroom.

She suddenly feels like she's been caught in a compromising situation when Lauren comes out of it freshly-showered, her cheeks warming up upon seeing her roommate clad only in a small towel. It's funny how intimidating Lauren's mere presence is because there she is standing half-naked, and, yet, Camila is the one feeling self-conscious.

"Oh! Hi. Uhm, good morning! I-I thought you went out already... which is weird coz like it's literally still so early. I mean, you usually wake up late. So yeah, when I saw your bed empty, I was like, hmm that's weird. But, there you are!"