Maneuvering Landmines (Converted Camren)

6/14

Calling Camila names and making her miserable took a backseat to the more immediate issue of being pregnant. Her parents were going to kill her. She thought about just getting rid of it. After all, she was pretty certain that Camila had an abortion. But that was a product of rape-- Camila had no choice in it.

Lauren flinched and shut her eyes as the image of Camila being violated came to her mind. She'd spent so much energy dehumanizing Camila, that she should have expected people would actually come to look at Camila as being subhuman when they treated her that way. Camila never had a choice, but Lauren had and she'd still chosen to sleep with Justin. It didn't feel right to have an abortion and it honestly went against her moral views. She thought it was okay for other people, but it wasn't okay for her. She already felt bad enough about herself without adding that to the pot-- she was already a recipe for disaster.

She convinced Ashton it was his-- she took advantage of his trusting naiveté and convinced him that a night in the hot tub had been enough to get her pregnant. He was a stand-up guy and he swore he'd be there for her, that he would do the right thing and Lauren believed he would.

Once Matthew Fanning announced to the school that she was pregnant, Justin figured out on his own the baby was his and Lauren had to deal with both Ashton and Justin annoying the crap out of her. It was too much. She just needed them to leave her alone long enough so she could think, but everyone was asking her 'what are you going to do?' and she didn't know.

Camila knew she was pregnant, of course. Camila had probably figured it out before she even did because it took a few mornings of throwing up into the toilet for Lauren to twig onto the fact she could be pregnant-- she'd been in such denial. Lauren thought maybe Camila would get back at her by telling their parents. She half hoped Camila would so that she wouldn't have to, but of course, Camila never did.

Camila never acknowledged she knew Lauren was pregnant, but Lauren noticed Camila was looking at her more.

The medical bills started to pile up-- Lauren intercepted the bills and presented them to Ashton and Justin, both of whom looked at her cluelessly and helplessly. Ashton gave her some money-- a piddly thirty dollars and Justin slipped her a couple hundred from his pool cleaning business, but it just wasn't enough. Still, Justin seemed like a better option than Ashton-- at least the one she could rely on a little better for financial security. She took him along to babysit Allyson Brooke  sister's kids and she had a good enough time with him that she thought Justin was the better choice. She was ready to dump Justin when Normani pulled her aside and showed her the sexts she'd exchanged with Justin while Justin had been babysitting with her.

"I thought you were with Dinah," Lauren said quietly as she read through the sexts.

Normani shrugged. "Who do you think was telling me what to say to him?"

She and Dinah exchanged grins.

"Whatever," Lauren snapped.

She confronted Justin about it and he was completely unapologetic and he tried to grope her breasts. She found Ashton and apologized for being a bitch to him. He hugged her and told her it was okay. She felt terrible for lying to him and awful for using him. She should have known better than to confuse counting on someone financially and counting on someone emotionally. But then she realized Ashton just loved her more than Justin did, and Ashton would do anything to get her money if she really needed it, whereas Justin wouldn't. She didn't love Ashton (she didn't love Justin either), but she resigned herself to using Ashton because the need to watch out for herself and her baby outweighed the guilt for not being good to Ashton.

She made her choice-- Ashton over Justin, but she still didn't know what she was going to do.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Lauren said quietly to Normani and Dinah who were surprisingly supportive of her in their own ways.