Three Is A Crowd

Chapter 52: The Rose Is Our Thing

It's the slowest she has ever ridden Harley; so slow that she feels like a seventy-year old grandma riding a scooter with a bag of groceries in a pink front basket trying to recall where her house is while also looking for her old, partially-blind cat named Kafka.

But it's fine, what's important is that Lauren, and her gift, which she tries really hard to balance around her back, arrives at Camila's house intact. She knows it's not ideal, considering how one of her old friends got paralyzed from waist down after a stupid motorcycle accident because he lost his balance when his guitar case, which was slung on his back, tipped to one side, suddenly shifting his balance causing him to collide with a speeding car.

That's why she's driving super slow.

She turns left on the next block, where a bunch of mostly middle-class houses stand in a row, checking the numbers, and curses when a black cat, a streak of fur ball, barely illuminated by the dim lamp post several feet away, suddenly runs across the street, in front of her, causing Lauren, who fortunately has incredible reflexes, to sharply swerve to the right. She has barely managed to convince her mother not to throw Harley away (with an agreement that she is only allowed to look at it and not ride it), she wouldn't want to get into an accident not even a month later.

Muttering a few meaty swear words, Lauren looks back and sees the black cat half-hidden in the neatly-trimmed bushes, its bright yellowish eyes glinting and staring at her with a mix of melancholy and annoyance, if that's possible, as if it's resenting Lauren for almost running over it, and also pitying her for having to go to Camila's party carrying that big lump of shit on her back just so she could be judged by the Cabellos and endure the sickening stench of Shawn's musky cologne.

With a sigh, Lauren leaves the sulking cat, whom she thinks she might have a connection with, one that'll make an awesome pet (Camren, her pet fish, is still her favorite though) simply because she feels that the cat gets her, and speeds (as much as she's able) on.

She might have imagined it but she's pretty sure she heard the cat meow goodluck to her, and a hoarse voice, not too far away, shout "Franz!! Where are you?!" in a worried tone.

._.

Finally, she's here! Camila's heart beats a little faster as she hears Lauren's motorcycle disrupting the noisy chattering all over the house, like a band of trumpets announcing to the entire kingdom the arrival of Prince Charming who's about to ask the King and Queen for their daughter's hand. Though, in this case, considering how much Sinu loathes motorcycles, not to mention Lauren herself, Camila's pretty sure that Prince (or Princess) Charming isn't going to get so much as a finger, let alone an entire hand in marriage.

Why is she thinking about marriage (or fingers)? She shakes her head as she fluffs her dress. Quickly, she finger-combs her hair, licks her lips nervously, and casually sniffs at her armpits to make sure she's not smelling funky, then runs towards the window to check if it's really Lauren.

And there she is, Lauren on her goddamn motorcycle, stepping off of Harley as if she's in a commercial, like, seriously, if it was Camila doing that she would have already face-planted on the ground, her foot getting entangled with the wheel or pedal or whatever it is that could potentially endanger her life. Camila swallows hard as she sees Lauren removing her helmet and flipping her messy hair quite sexily -- she likes that a lot, as she is very much charmed by her iconic hair-flipping.

From the window where she's peeping from, she sees her cousin Mildred (who she knows is a closeted lesbian and a raging nympho) licking her lips while eyeing Lauren up and down as if she's some tasty grilled chicken breast, and opening the gate to talk to her. Mildred points back at the house as she lets her in.