Touched By You

"Look at the life you made for yourself, that's on you."

Lauren agreed with the phrase, absence truly did make the heart grow fonder and every second away from Camila felt like a year. And though she felt this wholeheartedly, she also knew that this was an opportunity that could not go to waste. This was the beginning of a career she'd wanted since her earliest years drawing stick figures on butcher's paper.

So she decided to immerse herself in it all, in all the arts Rome had to offer because despite her growing faith in her own art, she knew this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity. So she put her feelings aside, she knew Camila would not think ill of her for it. In fact, last she spoke to her wife, Camila had been encouraging Lauren to make the most of her time away, promising her days of uninterrupted couple time upon her return.

Lauren truly loved her wife beyond words.

She was currently trying to pick an outfit for the debut presentation of her art work at the gallery and nothing she tried on seemed to be screaming 'aspiring artist' as she'd hoped they would. Part of her even considered calling Dinah for advice but she thought against it, knowing she would never be able to live it down with the Polynesian in future. So she opted to struggle alone and she concluded that fashion was certainly her biggest struggle.

Or maybe it wasn't that at all.

Part of Lauren felt like she was stalling. The longer she waited, the less disappointed she would be when everyone else at the gallery deemed her work unsatisfactory. She could already see it in their eyes or hear it in their false attempts at compliments.

And yes, she had the utmost faith in her art but who's to say everyone else will as well?

All of it prompted her to call Lucy. She hated that she couldn't work her feelings out on her own and she would have called Camila too but she would only be getting reassurances of her art from her wife, she needed reassurance in herself and her best friend had always excelled at that...in her own way.

"This is either Lauren or that really hot girl I almost hooked up with at the underground bar."Despite herself, Lauren felt a smile stretch onto her face because of how typically Lucy that greeting was.

"For your sake, you should be glad it's me, idiot." Lauren rolled her eyes, settling herself down on the bed. "Where's the wife?"

"With your wife...they're shopping." Lucy made the very last word in her statement sound like her worst nightmare. "Females." And Lauren could practically see the older girl rolling her eyes.

"How's my girl doing?"

"Oh, I'm doing pretty great, but don't let Vero catch you calling me that, I'll keep it between us."

"I could hit you sometimes."

"You already have, and suffice to say...I expected more." A soft sigh breezed through Lauren's ear. "Why are you calling me an hour before your big art reveal to the world, Jauregui?"

"Because I'm freaking the fuck out that I'm not good enough, why else?" The green-eyed girl try to play it off as a joke but Lucy heard the fear in her tone.

"You know," Lucy smiled to herself for a moment. "There was this day, before you and I started fucking or you really even noticed me, where you sat outside of the school and it was about an hour before the last bell and you were drawing. I was smoking and I wasn't even a metre away from you but you were so focused on your drawing that you didn't even notice the smell or...well, me. You were drawing the small picture of where the clouds met a tree and it was so simple...but I kind of understood it, I mean, at least no I do." Lauren remembered that day. It was the day after Theo had left and her father had come home. "You don't need me to tell you you're good, Jauregui, you need to tell you you're good. Your art is a depiction of your heart, sprawled on canvases or pages or walls, you're letting people in and whoever sees that...they feel. And isn't that what you want? You don't need me or Camila or anyone else to tell you that you're an artist, Lauren, you don't even really need to tell yourself, it's just who you've always been. Look at your tattoos, you chose them. Look at the life you made for yourself, that's on you. Everything you do is art, now fuck off and go and explain that to everyone else in a more eloquent way than I just did."

And they both took a moment, Lauren feeling her heart slowly starting to stabilise while Lucy sat perched on her windowsill staring at her glass of scotch, a small smile playing on her lips.

Because she was so proud of Lauren and who the girl was becoming. Proud of where life was taking her.

"You still there?" Lucy asked softly.

"Yeah."

"How much do you wanna make out with me after all that?"

Lauren smiled despite herself and could picture the playful look in Lucy's eyes. "I'll talk to you soon, Vives."

And as she hung up the phone, Lauren felt a thousand times more confident than she had prior to the call. Because Lucy was right, art had always been her life and her life is now art. With everything and everyone in it, it was a picture she could never truly draw. It was an art that could not be captured and it was perfect.

Lucy popped her phone down beside her and put her headphone back on, propping her laptop onto her lap and continued on from where she'd left her last mix. She had a gig on that night, it was at a high-end LGBTQ+ bar that had offered her a last minute slot and if she managed to wow them, there was promise for a career advancement in the industry.

Camila had offered her on countless occasions to assist in producing some of her songs but Lucy had insisted she didn't want outside help, she wanted to make it happen on her own and she was determined to do so.

She was glad Camila had convinced Vero to go out for the day because Lucy was prone to procrastinate with her wife around, at least now she could put her head down and work on her sound uninterrupted, aside from the brief call with Lauren.

And she immersed herself so wholeheartedly in her music that when her front door opened, she didn't hear a sound, making it easy for Vero to sneak up beside her and press a sloppy kiss to her cheek, effectively scaring the older girl and knocking her drink over.

"You fucker." Lucy sneered before a smile spread on her lips and she brought her wife in for a hearty kiss. "You're lucky you have a nice rack or I'd be so pissed."

"How's it going?" Vero eyed the complicated computer software Lucy had been working with.

"I'm almost set," The older girl flashed her wife a toothy smile. "Lauren called stressing out, she needed my Gandhi level words of wisdom."

"Lucia, I wish you wouldn't insult Gandhi like that."

"You're coming tonight, right?"

"Yes...in both ways." Vero winked, spinning around and leaving her wife squirming as she swayed her hips.

Bit of Laucy, bit of Vercy

Super short

But that's because the next chapter is gonna have y'all on edge and maybe hating me

BYE!