Worse News (sequel to Bad News)

Worse News - Chap. 28

Chapter 28

 

She shakes her head and squeezes her eyes shut tightly for a moment. It’s not real. She thinks, trying to convince herself that Camila wasn’t standing there. It’s not real Lauren, she’s dead. She says to herself, before opening her eyes again and focusing on the people around her.

‘’Thank you guys.’’ Lauren speaks into the microphone with a slightly shaky voice, before hopping off stage with applause on the background. A few people congratulate her on her performance on her way to the bar. She thanks them politely, but gives them no further attention while tries to clear her mind from the image of Camila as she spots Dinah talking to Jay.

‘’Hey.’’ Lauren says as she finally makes her way through Jay’s crowded bar to meet her friends. ‘’Hey, that was great Laur!’’ Dinah says to her, greeting her with a hug. Lauren smiles at her in thanking. ‘’Yeah, you did good Lauren. The crowd loved you.’’ Jay agrees with Dinah.

‘’Thank you. Thanks for letting me sing here and earn some extra money.’’ Lauren says bashfully, feeling slightly ashamed that she’s having money troubles. ‘’How many times do I have to tell you that I’m the one that should be thanking you for coming here. Seriously Lauren, your gigs have made this bar popular.’’ Jay argues, giving her a pointed look.

Lauren smiles bashfully. ‘’Thanks.’’ She mutters, knowing that Jay has been good to her. He has offered her a job in the bar, but Lauren couldn’t make the combination between a tiring job and school. Plus, she still works as a waitress in the lunchroom every Saturday. But Jay had offered her to come and sing every Saturday night, and Lauren received some good money with that.

Jay’s offer has been the main reason Lauren could even stay in New York. If it weren’t for him and the extra money she earned by singing a couple of songs in his bar, she would have to go back to Miami and live with her parents again. And Miami was not the place Lauren wanted to be right now. She couldn’t go there. Too many bad memories are in Miami, and this was not the time for Lauren to face them.

After talking to Dinah for a while, Jay got back from serving some people and stood behind the bar again. Tyler was running around the bar with drinks and orders like crazy. Dinah saw somebody that she knew from work and went over to chat with the girl, leaving Lauren behind with Jay.

‘’So, how’ve you been?’’ Jay asks, cleaning some beer glasses. Lauren shrugs while taking another sip of her water. ‘’Okay.’’ She answers simply. But Jay nods in understanding. He had asked her several times how she’d been, but Lauren was never able to express how she felt. Even after more than three months, she couldn’t describe her emotions.

‘’You holding up a bit?’’ Jay asks again. Lauren sighs and nods. ‘’Yeah, it’s going alright financially now, but everything else just… I don’t care about everything else anymore.’’ She answers honestly, finding it easy to talk to Jay instead of her friends or family for once.

‘’What you mean don’t care?’’ he asks, fixing a drink for the person sitting next to Lauren at the bar. ‘’I don’t know. I mean, I’m trying to focus on school, but all I can think about is how she loved it when I was singing. When I go home, the first thing I do is change into her clothes. I call her phone every night when I’m in bed, just to hear her voice through her voicemail. Every time I’m making dinner, I somehow end up making dinner for two instead of for myself. And most of those things just happen without me really realizing it. It’s like I can’t do anything without thinking about her.’’ Lauren rambles sadly.