My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose

Chapter Five

Lauren woke up slowly, which made a nice change from her alarm blaring. She felt warm and became aware of the soft breathing of someone pressed against her.

Her eyes snapped open when she realised who it was.

Oh no.

Camila had an arm around her, and was leaning her head on her shoulder. They must have fallen asleep on the sofa sometime after Tristan had been crowned King... it was blurry. Lauren hadn't paid much attention. She was pretty unimpressed with the movie to be honest. She just didn't understand the characters' motivations. Immortality wouldn't be fun. It'd be lonely.

Unless you found someone to share it with.

Lauren frowned, furious with herself. She'd promised to distance herself from Camila. That had lasted all of three hours.

She couldn't let herself get close to this girl, it would only end badly. She knew from experience.

Yet, as she sat there with Camila against her, she couldn't quite bring herself to leave. That'd mean waking Camila up, and she was sleeping so peacefully that it was probably illegal to disturb her.

She was meant to be working, but LaF could probably handle the store. She could afford to lie in a little.

Plus it wasn't that bad. She could deal.

Okay, cuddling Camila was nice and all but it was now eleven am and her neck was seriously cramping.

Slowly, Lauren reached out and poked Camila in the cheek, careful not to hurt her.

"Camila?" she whispered, poking her again, "Cameeeeeeeeela."

The smaller girl groaned a little bit, and shifted slightly, holding onto Lauren tighter.

"You've got to wake up..."

Still nothing.

"Camz it's almost noon."

"Let me sleep!"

"Taylor Swift is on the radio-"

"WHAT?!"

Lauren had to dodge Camila in order to not be head-butted in the chin. She bit her lip to stop herself from laughing as she watched the tiny girl jump up to her feet and look around wildly for a few seconds before realising what was going on.

"That wasn't very funny," she pouted.

"On the contrary, Camz, it was hilarious."

Camila wrinkled her nose in anger which, okay, was kind of the cutest thing ever.

You're in too damn deep, Jauregui.

"Now come on, I gotta shower and get dressed in my own damn apartment," Lauren stood up from the couch and walked through to the hall.

"Okay, fine" Camila called after her, "but then you're coming back to help me paint the last wall!"

"Sure, but first I'm introducing you to LaF!" Lauren yelled as she walked across the landing to her own apartment, closing the door behind her.

"Okay, before you go in, I should probably warn you about LaFontaine," Lauren said, her hand hovering over the doorknob."They can be quite... blunt? Like they'd never be mean or anything but they also don't sugar-coat stuff. And the worst part is they're frustratingly always right."

Camila just rolled her eyes. "I'm sure I can handle it."

Lauren shrugged, then opened the door, holding it open as Camila stepped into the storeroom.