Thunderstorms (Camren)

Chapter 13

The highway.

That's all Lauren thought as she closed up the pet store for the night. She locked the front door from the inside, having already switched the sign to say 'Closed'. She hurried around the store, checking and then double-checking everything, making sure her boss wouldn't have an excuse to scold her. Lauren rolled her eyes at the thought of her boss; what an asshole.

She rushed to the light switch that was positioned nearby the 'Employees Only' door. Lauren flicked the switch and the fluorescent light instantly stopped, no longer bathing the store in its yellow-white glow. Instead, the store was draped in black, the only source of light now coming from outside where the streetlights were beginning to light up, and also from the tiny lights inside each of the fish tanks, they barely lit the place up, however.

Lauren's eyes scanned the dark silhouettes of the dog kennels; she'd already fed all of the animals -she'd made sure of that. One time she'd forgotten to feed a lizard and she'd had her paycheque docked for a week- she didn't want to experience that again. All she had to worry about now was locking up the store from the back entrance.

Oh, and why she had to go to the highway.

"Meet me at the highway after closing time." That's all the note had said in writing that seemed to have been written by a child. Lauren had the slightest idea of who the mysterious command had come from, recalling how Camila had briefly mentioned that her writing was awful.

("It's more like chicken scratch than handwriting, the only thing I can write that's actually legible is my name." Camila explained, with that charming half-smile/half-smirk on her lips while Lauren listened with rapt attention, completely enamoured by the way Camila's lips moved as she spoke. "Even then it looks like a seven year old wrote it more than a nineteen year old.")

However, Camila hadn't stopped by at any point that day. That's why Lauren was so confused, the highway was Camila's place -she knew that- but surely the Cuban would've at least stopped by to say hello and give her the note instead of just leaving it placed on the top of linoleum counter.

Lauren couldn't even recall someone entering the pet store that day, aside from a mother and son who were looking for a collar for their golden retriever. She was sure she would've heard the shrill bell, then again, Lauren had been lost in her thoughts countless times before and had ended up missing said bell.

Just like the day she first met Camila.

The pale Latina was completely caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't realised she was already heading towards the highway, seeing as she'd locked up and tugged her college sweatshirt over her head. It was only when the soles of her shoes made contact with the cracked path under the highway that she realised where she was.

She chuckled a little to herself, she'd just been thinking about how it would've been impossible to miss the bell but here she was, having missed the entire journey to the highway due to being lost in her thoughts. Lauren decided it was totally possible that she'd missed someone enter the store to leave the note on the counter.

Lauren kept walking for a few minutes, just listening to the sound of her shoes colliding with the stone below her as she followed the slight curve of the path. She smiled to herself as she remembered hearing Camila's shoes hitting against the brick wall beside her, it hadn't even been that long ago, it was December now and she'd met Camila in late October and yet she was already infatuated by the shorter brunette.

She knew she caught feelings quickly, but she didn't realise she caught feelings that quickly. There must just be something special about Camila, since it had taken Lauren a year and a a half of friendship before she'd dated Keana, granted on top of that time Lauren had been figuring her sexuality out but still, she'd started liking Camila much quicker than she'd started liking Keana.