‘You practically died twice while you were in a coma’ a voice behind them said.
A young doctor entered the room, ‘I’m looking for Lauren Jauregui, she was supposed to be visiting you?’ he said with a smile and Lauren lifted her hand. ‘What about Lauren?’ Camila asked the doctor curious, ‘I just need to take the gauze off her arms’ He told her and walked towards the bed he unwrapped her arm and put the bloody gauze in the bin, he took out a alcohol cloth and cleaned up her arms, Camila noticed that there were a lot of cuts, she counted fourteen in total from which eight had stitches. Lauren did her best to keep the cuts out of her view but she failed miserably. Lauren looked up, clearly ashamed, Camila’s eyes were getting watery again and a single tear ran down her right cheek. Camila reached her arms out towards the older girls who immediately hugged the smaller girl back and as soon as Lauren wrapped her arms around her Camila pulled her even closer.
When they pulled away they noticed the other three girls who were standing on the bedside with some trays of food. They gasped as soon as they noticed that the gauze around Lauren’s arm was gone and the thick red lines in the white flesh of her arm were visible. Dinah reached out and took a hold of one of Lauren’s hands, she turned it so they could see the cuts. ‘Please never again’ Ally mumbled as she ran her thumb along one of the lines. Lauren kept apologising to the girls but Camila never said a word, she just held on to Lauren as tight as possible, she just couldn’t get over the fact that she almost lost her best friend because of herself.
When visiting hours were over, Normani, Dinah and Ally were staring at Camila who was still holding on to Lauren like her life depended on her. ‘Mila, let go please, we need to go’ Dinah practically begged her for the tenth time, but again without any response. ‘Camz what’s wrong, you’ve been holding me for like two hours now, and you didn’t say a word’ Lauren asked the smaller girl while stroking her arm. ‘Please don’t go’ Camila whispered but it was loud enough for the Dinah, Normani and Ally to hear, ‘I will visit again tomorrow again, ok?’ Lauren suggested, and Camila finally pulled away. Her eyes were puffy, her cheeks were tearstained and her bottom lip was quivering ‘I almost lost you once because of me, please stay here’ Camila said in almost a whisper ‘just one night’ she was practically begging at this point. Lauren looked at the three girls in the doorway, she was panicking she didn’t know what to do, she was a hundred percent sure that she wasn’t allowed to stay but she didn’t want to leave the younger girl. ‘just stay’ Normani told her, ‘they probably won’t care’ Ally stepped in, Camila smiled at the three girls with watery eyes before hugging Lauren again. The three of them stepped out of the room and closed the door.
‘Don’t blame yourself’ Lauren said when she laid down beneath the duvet next to Camila, the smaller girl pulled Lauren closer to her, she laid her head on the girl’s chest while her hand rested on the girls stomach. She listened to the girl’s heartbeat and it immediately calmed her down, ‘you’re still here’ Camila mumbled and Lauren chuckled ‘Yes, I am’ she told her ‘I’m never going to leave you again, I promise, it was a stupid thing to do’ Lauren continued. ‘No Lauren, you couldn’t help it, I wouldn’t be able to live without you either’ Camila told her as she closed her eyes. Lauren blushed when she realised what the girl just said. After some time the breathing of the smaller girl on top of her had steadied and small snores were heard, ‘goodnight Camzi’.
Camila sat in the backseat of the car with the girls while her parents were in the front seat, they were playing stupid games and singing along to the radio until her mother screamed, she watched in horror as the car flew through the air and flipped multiple times, it didn’t take long for the car to light on fire. All she could hear were screams of agony as her friends and parents burned around her, she couldn’t do anything, she was stuck. They were burning because she was stuck beneath that goddamn chair, ‘It’s your fault Mila’ ‘Help us Mila’ ‘Mila do something’ ‘Camzi please It’s hurting’ everyone was begging her to do something but she couldn’t, she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She screamed out as the fire hit her arms and legs and she heard a low cry from her dead, ‘mija you killed your mother, you killed Sofia!’ he said screaming the last part. Tears streamed down her face as she saw the skin of her arms and legs peel off. She heard another agonising scream, it was Ally’s. The small girl was fully lit on fire and she fell to the floor of the car with another ear-piercing scream, Normani’s and Dinah’s lifeless body were resting against Camila’s shoulder while they burned, a hand gripped her knee to see Lauren, covered in flames, begging her to do something. Her words turned into screams, ear-piercing agonising screams, she fell onto Camila’s lap as she burned. ‘It’s going to explode’ was the last thing she could hear before all she could hear was a constant ringing sound. The car exploded and parts were flying around her, why didn’t she die? The pain was unbearable, why didn’t she die? What was going on? She held on to Lauren’s lifeless body as the flames spread further over her body, ‘Lauren ple-‘
