Still Bonding

Three Months Later

It's been nearly three months since the whole "kidnapping fiasco," as Lauren likes to call it.

--

Michael was rather pissed at his daughter for ruining his plan; however, once Lauren plead her case of just wanting to live a normal life–with her eyes glossed and shining brightly with truth—he melted like putty into her hands.

Lauren is a daddy's girl, and Michael just can't stay mad at her.

After all the fuss in the media died down, Michael asked about Lauren's plans to start anew. She wanted her own condominium, to get accepted into University of Miami to major in Photography, and for the Jaureguis and Cabellos to call a truce.

The last one was a bit of a stretch for him, but somehow, the Cabello girl got her father to reach out with a sincere peace offering. Seeing the look on his eldest daughter's face when she entered their home with the Cabellos in tow quickly settled his mind on whether or not to go along with it all.

--

"Laur!"

She hears her name being called for the fourth time, but Lauren just flips over in bed and covers her head with a pillow. It really doesn't do much to drown out the voice calling for her.

"Laaau-rennn," Camila singsongs loudly, her voice echoing throughout the condo. Lauren could tell that Camila was nearly to her bedroom door, which made those annoying butterflies in her stomach stir up. Any second, she was going to be bombarded by the younger girl, as she usually was whenever Camila felt Lauren needed a morning visit—which happened to be almost every morning.

Despite not being a morning person, Lauren is always happy to see Camila. After their families called a truce, they respected that their daughters were becoming friends. When Lauren's father bought her condo, Alejandro only agreed to let Camila visit her on one condition—Camila's bodyguard had to be allowed on the premises in case Camila needed him. Lauren's family accepted the condition—Lauren had her own guards on standby anyway. What's an extra helping hand in the rise of an emergency?

Before she can even process another thought, Camila bursts into Lauren's room and pounces on top of her, causing a slew of curse words to be muffled out from beneath her pillow.

As Lauren turns over to face her younger friend, Camila instantly moves to straddle Lauren's hips. The older girl ignores the certain parts of her body heating up due to the intimate contact as she wipes the sleep from her eyes. She rests her hands on Camila's knees and notices the girl on top of her is hiding something behind her back.

"Guess what I got us," Camila suggests, wiggling her eyebrows.

Lauren grunts in response, trying not to smile at her friend's antics.

"Cinnamon rolls!" the girl yells excitedly, slinging forth a Cinnabon bag from behind her back.

Lauren can't help the stupid, childish giggle that escapes her mouth before she says, "This is why we're friends, Camz."

Camila flashes her a silly smile, her eyes shut tight as she slips her tongue through her teeth. Lauren shakes her head as she bites her lip—the younger girl really is something else. She still can't believe that they're actually friends after everything that happened.

Thankfully, Camila held no harsh feelings for Lauren once they were out of that house. She's not sure what she would've done if everything had backfired and Camila wanted nothing to do with her in the end. She's continually appreciating her new lifestyle and her new friend­—even though Lauren eventually wants to be more than just friends with Camila.