Talk To Me (Camren)

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter 14

Lauren's POV

"Yeah Camila's over."

"Well invite Camila. Dinah will not shut up about wanting to meet her so really you'd be doing the rest of us a favor," Normani's voice came from my phone speaker.

I looked across the counter to Camila who was happily eating ice cream out of the carton. We woke up an hour ago and I'm pretty sure my parents came home in the middle of the night. It was a very welcoming morning, waking up to Camila. We'd shifted in our sleep so Camila had been curled up in my side, her hair in my mouth. She was warm and I could hear her soft breathing. The morning light had looked lovely against her smooth skin.

Now my parents were at work and my siblings were still snoring in their beds, so Camila and I were eating breakfast. I asked Camila if she also wanted a cup of coffee but she screwed up her face and said she preferred coffee ice cream. So I gave it to her. She had looked at me in disbelief when I had taken the espresso ice cream out of the freezer. Now Normani was calling and asking if I wanted to hang out before winter break was over.

"Yeah ask if she'll come," I heard Dinah's muffled voice yell.

So I covered the mouthpiece and waited for Camila to look up from her spoon.

"What's up?" Camila asked with a mouthful of ice cream, making some drip out of the corner of her mouth.

"How lovely. You're talking while your mouth is pouring ice cream," I teased her.

Camila quickly wiped her mouth with a napkin and gave me a goofy grin. I was happy to see she was acting much more comfortable with me today. I'm glad because the other option would be that the two of us would be awkward since our kiss...kisses.

"So...do you want to go hang out with my friends and I?"

"Your friends?" She bit her lip nervously, "Where?"

"Their names are Normani, Ally, and Dinah. We're hanging out at Ally's house today. Maybe watch a movie or eat." I knew she loved food because I'd seen her chow down at the table. Also, she ate all the popcorn yesterday in record time.

"Are you sure it's fine if I come? I mean, they'll know I'm coming right?"

"Yeah, they'd love to have you. My friend, Dinah, had wanted to talk to you for a while now but she was intimidated."

"By me? Intimidated by me?" Camila looked like I had said the most unbelieving thing.

"Yes. You can be intimidating. You have the type of, like, wise silence. Like, I don't know, you're silent but one can tell that you are thinking deeply and it's intimidating. Sometimes I think that you're thinking the words you don't speak and I'm always dying to hear them."

But you are starting to say more, I hope.

She contemplates my words for a beet.

"Okay, I'll join you. Only if you're sure it's fine."

I put the phone to my ear once again and heard Normani's annoyed voice on the other end.

"The bitch put me on hold...no...Dinah my god...oh sorry Ally."

"Normani."

"Oh there you are. Finally. I've been waiting for forever- so what did she say?"

"She's coming."

"Yes!" Dinah exclaimed in the background.
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"Are you sure you don't want to borrow any of my clothes?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Camila shut her door and looked out the window.

I started the ignition and pulled out of my driveway.

"What if I can't speak?"

The fact that Camila said "can't" caught my attention. It was always 'I might not be able to' but it was never 'can't'.

"If you can't speak then it's no big deal. The girls won't mind. Maybe they'll be a little disappointed since I think they'd like to properly meet you, but they'd understand." I smiled at her reassuringly.

"Right," she exhaled.

I searched for her hand and laced ours together with the hand that wasn't on the wheel.

"I'd never let anyone force you, Camila."

"I know you wouldn't." I felt Camila thumb stroking the top of my hand. My stomach went aflutter.

Camila put on the radio and stopped at a1975 song.

"I love this song," we said at the same time.
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knock knock

"Why hello you two!" Ally greeted brightly after she opened the door for us. "Come in, come in."

"My name is Ally, it's nice to meet you. I love your shirt!" The older girl chattered in a sweet tone. Camila and I's eyes went instinctively to Camila's grey long sleeved. I swallowed as I noticed how tightly it clung to the right places. Damn I agreed with Ally, but probably for a different reason.

Camila took a deep breath, fiddled with her jaw, licked her lips, and looked at me. I lifted the corner of my mouth in an encouraging smile.

Camila didn't leave my eyes as she squeaked, "Thanks," and Ally beamed.

"Great, so," Ally lead us into the kitchen where the rest of the girls were, "the girls are just vegging out."

My hand kept bumping with Camila's and I finally sneaked mine into hers. She automatically wrapped her fingers between mine. Our hands fit perfectly.

Dinah and Normani had their backs to us as they leaned over the counter. A variety of chips and junk food lay in front of them.

"Hey y'all, Lauren and Camila are here."

They turned and smiled at us.

"Hey!"

"Hi!"

"I'm Normani."

"And I'm Dinah Jane," Dinah chimed in.

Camila shyly waved and Dinah grabbed the waving hand to lead her out of the kitchen. I followed because our hands were still linked.

Camila seemed surprised by the Polynesian's forwardness. She looked a little uncomfortable with the physical contact, but didn't recoil (not that she could).

"We're going to be good friends, I already know it." I wondered how Dinah could possibly know that.

We were lead to a cozy seating area where a large TV stood. Normani and Ally came in with the snacks.

"So Laur, how was your Christmas? Was it as shitty as expected?" Normani asked.

I willed the red tinge from my face as I replied, "It was actually great. Best Christmas I've ever experienced."

Normani looked curious before Dinah started yelling about a spider that was on the coffee table. Ally ended up ruthlessly squashing it, so there was that. Camila sat silently examining the situation.

We talked about our Christmas breaks as I tried miserably to not stare at Camila for too long. She rubbed her palms on her jeans and kept glancing at me. Each look made my stomach do a summersault so you could imagine the acrobatics it was doing as she looked away then back every two seconds.

"That's lovely," Camila suddenly said and I realized that she was responding to what Normani had been talking about. I wasn't listening due to the fact that the Cuban girl was sitting two spaces away, meaning that it was so easy to gawk at her.

Everyone turned to Camila and she smiled weakly. Dinah took it as a permission to address the brown eyed girl.

"Camila is such a nice name. Who named you?"

"Camila's my middle name. My real one's Karla," she responded.

"Oh. Who named you Karla?"

She halted then supplied, "Mom." Low-key bitterness was laced in the hushed one-syllable word.

Karla Camila Cabello. Karla. Camila. Cabello. I let it process in my brain. I wonder why she goes by Camila.

"Cool."

"What music do you like, Camila?"

Her phone came out of her purse and she handed it to Dinah. We all huddled around it, scrolling through her playlists. Damn. The girl knows her stuff.

"Yes! The girl's got Beyoncé! I approve." Dinah grinned at Normani.

"Look, Lo, she likes Lana."

Sure enough, Lana Del Rey showed on the screen. She had all of Born to Die, Paradise, and Untraviolence.

"Have you heard her old songs?" I asked, facing her.

She shook her head and started to lean in towards me. I swear my heart stopped beating. Camila was causing me heart palpitations. She stopped, her lips resting fairly close to my ear, her hot breath hitting it teasingly, "Show me later."

Wow, okay.

I let out a shaky breath as she returned to watching Dinah scroll through songs. Does she know the affect she has over me? If she kept doing things like that I would need some serious restraint.

"It sucks that we have to go to school tomorrow."

"Noo, I don't want to think about it. Let's watch a movie or tv series."

"Let's a watch an 80's movie."

"No, no let's watch a horror movie."

"No, Lauren," Dinah and Normani groaned in synchrony.

"How about a bad horror/thriller. We should watch All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. It has Amber Heard in it, so it's automatically worth watching," I suggested.

It ended up being a good choice. Even Ally liked this thriller. Camila had never watched it before so the ending had totally taken her by surprise.

"Knew it. Mandy was way too shady to not be the psycho killer," Dinah announced after the ending credits rolled in.

"I actually liked that. At first I was skeptical with the guy jumping off the roof because Mandy was beautiful,or whatever, but I liked it," Camila told me.

Dinah had heard and chimed in, "I know right? Like, okay, Mandy is hot, but you don't have to kill yourself over her."

"Yeah. Throughout the movie I was thinking 'Wow, Lauren would totally be right there with the boys, trying to impress Amber Heard in extreme ways such as jumping off a roof and killing people.'" Ally mused.

"I'm offended," I joked, but I was starting to dislike everyone's chuckles.

"I'm just kidding, Lolo. You're way too smart for that," Ally smiled sweetly.

"Gee, thanks."

It was a very chill movie night, like most nights. At one point, the girls started singing and wouldn't stop poking me until I sang too. Dinah had a way of making Camila do things. I don't know how she did it, but she got Camila to sing a little too. I wanted to bath in Camila's seemingly effortlessly, silky voice. It was the kind of voice you would expect to hear on iTunes.

"So Camila, I heard you got honor roll." How did Dinah find these things out?

"Yeah, it's- it's pretty rad," Camila confirmed thoughtfully.

"Lauren's on honor roll too, although she'll never say it."

"Maybe if you studied and didn't have ADHD you would get better grades too, missy," Ally rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." Dinah drawled.

Ten minutes later, everyone had fanned out to do their own thing. Ally was texting on the couch, Normani was cracking up at the television, Dinah and Camila were giggling on the the pullout chair with a mad libs book, and I was reading an article on Jennifer Lawrence.

My eyes kept darting over the magazine due to Camila's short bursts of laughter. Their personalities seemed to be very compatible. Seeing them squished into one huge chair, staring at a little book made them look like eight year old girls. It was adorable to watch them interact like this.

"No! Put it down, it's good!" Camila smacked Dinah's arm repeatedly.

"Noo," Dinah laughed and moved the book out of the smaller girl's reach.

Camila pouted and grabbed at the pencil.

"I'm writing it," she insisted.

"Fine."

"Good."

Around 8:45 was when Camila and I finally said goodbye. I grinned like an idiot when Camila told me that she liked my friends. Everything was going so well until we went to my house and Camila said...

"I guess I should be going home."

I was about to ask her of she wanted a drive home before I remembered that my parents had taken the car. So instead I said, "I guess."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Lauren."

I watched her long hair blow in the breeze as she walked out the door. It was getting dark and I could only see her dark silhouette among blues and blacks.

"Wait, Camila."

She turned.

My throat went dry and I was afraid I would choke up. "Please stay."

"..."

"I don't want you to go home," the horrible memory of Camila's father flashed before my eyes, "Please don't go home."

I always got very scared for Camila whenever she left, ever since...what I saw.

Camila's creamy brown eyes looked blankly at me.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"My sister."

"Stop with those short answers Camila."

"My sister. I don't want to leave her. Not until she's at our grandparents'."

"..."

"You don't have to worry about me, Lauren.

There was no way of stopping Camila from being selfless. So I let her go.

"Okay. Fine. I'll see you tomorrow. Be safe." My voice reminded me of the days my father would travel from Europe and back for his job. I was eight and I always thought there was a good chance of the plane crashing. Before he left, I would plead for him to stay but I finally gave up and prayed he would be fine. So I hoped Camila was fine at home. I wouldn't ever not be worried until she was there, by my side. Why? Because I didn't know what I would do if Camila's plane were to crash.