Out of the Darkness | Camcy

She Left

-the summer before senior year-

Camila stared blankly at the floor, her curtains blowing in the wind from the open window. She couldn't care less. Lauren had left through there and she couldn't bring herself to close them. There was a beer bottle in her hand, but she forgot where it was from. Camila sighed heavily. She gripped the beer bottle as tight as she could, wishing it would break and tear open her palm. It didn't. This made her only more frustrated as she wasn't even strong enough to break glass. She wasn't strong enough to get through this either. She couldn't be.

The fact that Lauren was a vampire didn't surprise her. It was something she naively thought was "cool" when she first found out. Camila's eyes burned into the wooden floor and she suddenly brought up her arm and threw the bottle straight down. Strangely, she didn't hear the shattering. She felt pieces of glass hit her bare feet and lower legs but the pain didn't bother her.

Lauren was going to be in the vampire version of the hunger games, is what she thought bitterly, letting out a dark laugh. Camila was generally a pretty upbeat, happy person. She didn't let anything get to her that much. Even through being bullied in middle school she had maintained a happy and loving persona. And when she lost her best friend in sophomore year, to everyone else at school it probably seemed like nothing happened. Maybe that's why she was reacting so strongly now. All the negative energy she withheld for so long was bursting forth, all-consuming.

Camila glanced around her room furtively. Her eyes never stayed on one object for more than a second. She knew it was her fault that Lauren had left. She was just so mad at her for being willing to risk her life for a stupid clan tradition that she... broke up with her.

It was weird to think of it like that. In her exact words, she had told Lauren, "we can't be together if you do this." Lauren, apparently, cared more about what her clan wanted than her own desires. Camila refused to believe that Lauren actually wanted to be in that vampire game more than she wanted to be with her.

Camila felt a ringing in her ears and realized there were people in the room with her. They must've heard the glass break. She turned her head slowly to acknowledge them. Her mami was shouting at her with a worried look while holding an over-excited Sofi behind her. She felt a flare of pain in her chest at the thought of Sofi never seeing Lauren again... never calling her "Lamp". How could Lauren go off to die knowing what she was leaving behind?

Once her eyes connected with her mother's, something broke in her. "Mami, help me" She whispered. Sinu turned to Sofi and told her to wait there and then she rushed towards her eldest daughter. She brought Camila in a gentle hug and then leaned down to survey the damage on her legs and feet. "Sofi, bring the first aid kit," she called. Sofi looked utterly lost at that and Sinu shook her head with a sigh. "Never mind, I'll get it. Keep an eye on your sister but don't go in."

The rest of the night went by in flashes for Camila. One minute Sofi was studying her like she was watching an animal at the zoo. The next, her mom was carefully taking glass shards out her skin. It was over quickly for her. It was almost like she was paralyzed as all of this was going on. She was tucked in and told to go to sleep, but the next day came and her eyes remained steadily fixed on the dark ceiling above her. Camila had no idea what time it was when all of this was happening. For some reason, this thought was what broke her staring contest with the ceiling. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It was 1 pm. She guessed her mami wanted to let her sleep in after the events of the night before.

For a while, she continued laying there in her own personal pity party. Then, something in her snapped. She couldn't just let her last words to Lauren be breaking up with her. She had to do something. And if it didn't work, at least she would have tried.