Framed

Six, Part One.

A/N: Here we go

Monday. 3:45 pm.

Only for Lauren.

Lucy's self made mantra resounded within her mind over and over again as she attached duct tape to the camera, the Peeping Tom in this risky endeavor, with latex gloved hands. Louis grunted and whined as Lucy's white Converse put pressure on his small shoulders. While Zayn was busy picking the lock with his own special lock pick kit, Lucy was standing on Louis's shoulders, attempting to reduce the amount of video footage necessary for them to delete once they actually made their way into the camera room.

However, whilst Zayn and Louis were doing this out of a motive to help out both Lauren and Camila, Lucy kept reciting those three words within her thoughts.

Only for Lauren.

Camila could end up imprisoned or dead for all she cared. If anything, Camila out of the way somehow may be best for Lucy, if Camila was somehow found guilty as the price for Lauren's innocence. Things had been so good between Lucy and Lauren before Camila Cabello had stumbled into that English classroom and Lauren's life. That past summer, they had spent a lot of time together. Lucy had taken Lauren to the top of the Alpine Mountains, where she grew her stash of organic weed. They had built bonfires at the beach and listened to cool tunes while the tides roared and the sun tucked itself into bed.

Lucy thought she understood how much Alicia had broken Lauren's heart. She, after all, had spent an entire summer trying to put the pieces together again, hoping and praying that maybe, just maybe she had done enough to be enough for Lauren. Was it selfish, the fact that she mainly tried to repair Lauren's heart just for the purpose of healing her own as well? Lucy didn't personally know the answer to that question, one she had been asking herself since the beginning of that summer. All she could do now was choose to follow whatever her gut and her heart told her was right.

"Did you put all the tape up?" Zayn asked from his spot at the door. He had a few bobby pins in his mouth, paperclips in his pockets, and was using a device of his own creation to fiddle with the door's lock.

"Just about," Lucy responded. She squinted her eyes as she attached the final piece of duct tape to the already coated camera, just for good measure.

"Hurry up already! My shoulders are starting to ache.." Louis whined.

Rolling her eyes somewhat indignantly, Lucy hopped off Louis's shoulders, landing solidly on her feet, wobbling only slightly. Louis sighed in relief, and Lucy was just glad to no longer be in the target range of Louis's bitching.

Just in time, there was a click, and Zayn's gloved hand triumphantly pushed the door open. With a Cheshire Cat grin stretched wide on his face, he allowed Louis and Lucy in before entering the room himself, making sure to close the door behind them.

The room was dark. Only the lights from the screens illuminated the cluttered room. The screens, showing who and what were by the cameras were attached to the wall on the right, the nearby desks filled with closed laptops, day old chai lattes, and muffin crumbs and wrappers.

"Lucy, do you want to delete the footage, or do you want me to do it?" Zayn asked.

"Aren't you slower at it, though? We need to do this quickly. We cannot afford to get caught doing this."

"Don't worry, we won't get caught. We're okay. We still got time."

"Ha. Sure. No we don't," Lucy responded bluntly. "Move and let me get to work on this."

The boys stepped aside, and Lucy sat at the main computer monitor and began navigating her way through the computer system.

"Look for the old tapes and old videos", she ordered, and the boys scrambled to the other corners of the room to start looking.