Our Deepest Scars

Chapter 40

Lauren's head instantly swiveled to her left, and she felt as though she was descending a particularly steep drop on a rollercoaster ride.

"H—how long has she been gone for? Where is she? Wha—"

Dinah placed a hand on the Latina's shoulder. "I don't know, Laur. I just woke up and saw that she was gone."

The brunette ran a shaking hand through her hair, which was tousled from the movement of her head against the pillow while she had been sleeping. "What's wrong with her, Dinah? I know the fire has obviously shaken her up, but it's something more than that. I can see it in her eyes," Lauren said in despair, throwing the covers off of her body in her haste to find her girlfriend.

Shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders, Dinah whispered, "she wouldn't tell me. I tried to get her to open up to me in the hospital but she said she couldn't. It was clear she wasn't ready to talk about whatever it was." Lauren nodded, realizing now that Dinah had made the others get breakfast so that she could try to pry the answer out of Camila's mind.

Lauren climbed out of bed, rubbing sleep from the corners of her eyes. She found Dinah's hand in the darkness, needing its warmth and comfort for moral support and finding no objection from the taller girl. Dinah was just as anxious to find Camila as the Latina was, especially knowing that the small girl was worrying about something and seemed determined to keep it to herself.

It was too dark to see clearly in the room, but the girls didn't want to turn on the light and risk waking Ally and Normani up, so they fumbled to the door in the near pitch black, grabbing the key card on their way out.

"Don't you think we should have looked around the room in case she's still in there?" Lauren asked nervously as they shut the door behind them.

Dinah rolled her eyes. "She's not in bed and she's not in the bathroom. Where do you think she would be, hiding in the closet?" She read Lauren's expression and knew that the older girl was actually considering the possibility. "Lauren, if she was in that room and heard us talking, she would have come out. Camila loves you...she would hate to think that you were worrying about her."

"She loves you too," Lauren reminded as they progressed along the corridor, which was dimly lit by small lights at ankle level.

"Yeah, but you know it's not the same thing. Mila would do anything for you, Laur. The way you two look at each other is kind of disgusting," Dinah joked playfully, trying to lighten the mood despite the darkness around them. She obtained a soft punch from the Latina before Lauren stopped. They had reached the elevator.

Pondering where her girlfriend might have gone, Lauren came up with little. She had absolutely no idea where Camila might have gone in the middle of the night. "Where do you think she went?" she inquired of Dinah, glancing up at the taller girl.

Dinah stared at the elevator, deep in thought. She knew Camila inside out, but even she was struggling to figure out where the small girl may have gone at such a late hour, especially considering that they were in a hotel. Suddenly she remembered a conversation that she had had with Camila a few years ago.

"When she gets nervous, she likes to be outside. It makes her feel better. She told me ages ago, and I didn't know about her anxiety back then, but I guess that must have been what she meant when she said it," Dinah revealed, recalling the conversation clearly in her mind.

Lauren replied slowly, "so you think she's somewhere outside?" Dinah nodded. "Great. She could be anywhere in the whole of LA. We'll never find her." The brunette's tone was bitter but laced with a deep concern for her girlfriend.

"I don't think she will have gone far. Camila's not the kind of person to just leave in the middle of the night, and I know she wouldn't want to walk around by herself in the dark..." Dinah was at a loss as to where the small girl might be.