Along These Trodden Paths [Camren]

Chapter Three

"But what if your Mom finds out?" Camila whines from where she lies on the bed, adorned in sweatpants and unhappily eating a bag of Doritos.

"She won't. Look, as long as your Mom thinks I'm here, then we're all good. Kay?" Lauren wobbles for a second on one leg as she pulls a tight mini skirt over her slim hips.

Camila huffs. "But, your Mom can be really scary, and you know she'll like ban you from sleeping over-" she falters for a second as Lauren pulls off the casual sweater she's wearing and stands in a lacy bra that Camila has never seen before.

"What the hell is that?" Camila asks, mouth agape.

Lauren turns around, a blush lightly colouring her freckled cheeks. "What does it look like numnuts? It's a bra."

"Yeah but...it's like, fancy."

"Yeah well, I bought it the other day after softball practice. Topshop has them."

"I know your Mom hasn't seen that oth'wise you'd be dead."

Lauren scoffs. "Of course not. I'm not stupid, I keep it stuffed at the back of my underwear drawer."

There's a pause as Lauren pulls at the bra a bit, flustered under Camila's openly analytical gaze.

"I didn't know you could even get bras like that in your size." Camila says dubiously. She was pretty sure Lauren still wore like a double A, she herself was stuck in a training bra, sadly.

"Well," Lauren pauses awkwardly. "I kinda stuffed it with toilet roll."

"What?!"

"What? Loads of the girls do it."

Lauren turns around to keep on dressing, pulling on a dark red, tight top before examining herself in Camila's full length mirror. She feels self-conscious; not normally one to wear outfits like this, but today after school Keaton had pulled her in by her hips and whispered in her ear, "Wear something hot tonight babe."

And well, it was their third date, and she didn't want him to think she was a prude, right?

The clock read 9:45pm. She had told her Mom she was sleeping over a Camila's, as she often did on Fridays, but really Keaton was coming to take her out at 10pm. She was nervous.

"How do I look?" She turns around to face Camila, purposefully ignoring the unhappy look she wears.

"Too good for him."

Camila doesn't blink, and Lauren feels stripped under the candid sincerity of her bronzed eyes. There's a twinge in her chest, as though deep down she knows this is an important moment, and the words ones she should consider, but she wants to do this exciting thing, wants to be able to tell all the other girls that she's dating a senior when she's only a freshman. She wants her Mom to stop telling her to relax on the politics, and to get outside of her head because she hasn't really experienced anything. You see, life has been nice but not thrilling on the whole, and when Keaton pulled her behind that staircase two weeks before, and whispered about how gorgeous her lips and eyes were, how he couldn't take his eyes off her all week, she'd felt a spark of something stirring in her chest that was different to her conventional, conservative Miami life.

So she steps forward and runs her thumb along the contorted furrowing of Camila's brow.

"I'll be back by Midnight babe."

-

At around quarter past ten, Keaton beeps his horn once, and both Camila and Lauren's eyes flash for a second in panic at the thought of Camila's Mom going to investigate. When there's no footsteps in the house, Lauren scrambles to grab her jacket and sling her purse over her shoulder, giving Camila a quick peck on the cheek- "Thanks for doing this Camz."- and then she's out the window before Camila can even blink.