Rising Love

Fate Follows the Pattern

Of course Lauren let Camila stay at her place, smacking Zayn in the arm after she finished the call, because he was giving her a knowing smirk the entire time she spoke.

"She broke up with Neil, didn't she?" Zayn asked, grin not wiping off his face.

Lauren nodded. "She's sad about it, but she told me it was long coming."

"Called it. You owe me ten dollars."

"I never made a bet." Lauren grit her teeth as she placed her phone on the counter. "And besides, this is something serious that she's going through, Zayn. I don't want to trivialize it for her, even behind closed doors."

"You're not happy about it, not even a wee bit?" Zayn asks Lauren, his right hand shifting a blue fidget spinner between his fingers, something he had found in the pocket of his pajama robe. "You have a chance with her now. I thought you would be excited to take it."

Lauren sighed, perhaps trying to relieve herself of the burden by breathing it out. It didn't have much of an effect, but it was enough to make the smile fade from Zayn's face. "I'm not - I mean, I am, really I am. Just not now."

"Why did they split?" Zayn twirled the fidget spinner between his fingers as he spoke. "Did he cheat?"

Lauren shook her head. "Feelings fading."

"Poor guy." Zayn mentioned, placing the spinner back into his pocket. "Tough ride for anyone who goes through that."

They moved to the sofa, not as drowsy as they had been before Camila called.

"She'll be here in two or three days." Lauren said aloud.

Zayn put his feet up on the footrest in front of the sofa. "Okay."

"I don't know if I'm looking forward to it." Lauren says in a small voice. Like everything, there were pros and cons to letting Camila stay with them, and it was pretty easy for Lauren to narrow them down. Pros? Well, Camila would be there. With her. Possibly spending time together.

Cons? Well, Camila would be there. Lauren hadn't even considered the possibility that the girl may be straight at this point. What if she was? She had always heard of the stereotype, the one where the lesbian falls for the straight girl, the inevitable heartbreak that seemed to follow, boo hoo, et cetera. Lauren hadn't yet been a victim of the allure of the straight girl, unless one counted the actor who played Lexa in The 100, but she surely didn't want to fall this hard for someone that she had absolutely no chance with.

Goddamn her and her spur of the moment decisions. Lauren replayed the moment in her head, cringing at the brain fart she had in the moment where she had let Camila stay at her place. Now she was suffering from the mental hangover of her decisions, basically feeling nothing else except this creeping sense of dread that seemed to be looking over her shoulder as she went about her daily business.

"Come on," Zayn says as he checks his phone, eyebrows rising slightly upon observation of the time. "We gotta go to work."

Lauren nods in agreement, although for once in her life her mind is on anything but work. Not even her favorite chocolate croissants could push the troubles swimming within her head.

She hops off the couch and slips on her french bread slippers, arching her back in a sort of morning stretch before she goes to change.

-

"I don't know whether to praise you or tell you that you fucked up."

Rosa was peeking at the baked goods that Lauren and Zayn had just baked overnight. It was about eight in the morning, and the tanned and spectacled brunette had not eaten breakfast. Lauren had nearly barrel-rolled towards Rosa once she had come into the bakery to clock in for her morning shift, and once Rosa had been a little less frazzled, Lauren had told her everything.

No matter from what standpoint she looked from, Rosa didn't know what to make of it.

"I'm pretty sure I fucked up," Lauren said, leaning over the counter and putting her head in her hands. "I don't even know whether she's interested in girls or not, and I'm already getting feelings for her."

"I'm pretty sure she's not straight."

"How?" Lauren murmured in despair, head still in her hands, making her words sound a bit muffled. "How do you even know that?"

"Because the good karma you've achieved wouldn't screw you up like that and make you fall for a straight gal."

"That's a wonderful elaboration." Lauren's lips curled to form an unimpressed expression. "But how is that supposed to help me?"

Rosa shrugged. "I don't exactly know. But what will you do while she's there?"

"I was thinking of actually staying at yours, for a while."

"Cole's and my place?" Rosa asked, somewhat incredulously.

Lauren nodded, absentmindedly scraping some dried flour off her apron.

Rosa sighed, and put down the breakfast sandwich that she was about to eat. "In any other case, Laur, I would say yes, but this isn't exactly something that you can run from so easily. Hell, I don't think it should be anything you should be running from at all."

"What if I screw it up, though? What if I think I have a chance and it turns out that it's all some sort of delusion? This could all be in my head for all I know."

"Then that's okay. We move on. You find someone else."

"But I don't want to find someone else." Lauren retorted, worrying at her lip with her teeth. Rosa figured that her friend was going to make her lip bleed any minute now due to the sheer nervousness that she seemed to be feeling.

"Look, Lauren. I know you believe in fate and all that jazz, but fate isn't a thing that just sits there and waits for itself to happen. If you know what I mean. Fate is the gold medal at the end of a video game level. Like Mario Kart. You don't get it automatically. You gotta take risks, take chances, get out of your comfort zone to get it."

"Okay." Lauren said, not quite convinced yet.

"Love isn't simple. Life isn't simple. I'm surprised that you thought fate would follow the same pattern, Lauren. To expect things to come so easily is unlike you."

"I don't want this to end anywhere near how badly I imagine it can turn out."

"So you're scared of failure. You're scared of all of the feelings you've built up in your head crumbling into ashes. You're scared of her leaving you in the peripheral."

Lauren nodded, conceding her fear to Rosa.

"Just take this chance for now, Laur. You'll be at work all day anyways, and most of the night. Time will pass quickly. Just imagine this as the first level."

A shade of confidence passes over Lauren's face, and Rosa starts to have hope in this again. "So I'll let her stay. I won't run. It won't be that long a time, and if I want to be okay with her and her to be okay with me, I'll try. I'll try anything as long as fate pulls through in the end."

"Atta girl." Rosa grins, taking a big bite of her breakfast sandwich as Lauren turns and basically skips to the kitchen.

Lauren walks back into the kitchen with a bit of spring in her step, and Rosa hopes to whatever powers up there that the two girls will somehow end up okay. After her brief wish for divine intervention or a deus ex machina, she comes back to the normal world and pulls out her phone.

Cole would want her to spill the tea as soon as she could. So she shoots the first text, saying:

Rosa: hoe you won't believe the chisme i got for you today.

Cole: spill

Rosa: just consider our ship one step closer to sailing. all that's needed is time

just a bit more time and their love will rise like a clump of bread dough

...rising love

ohmygod lauren's rubbing off on me brb gonna wash my mouth off with soap

Cole: baiii