A Change Of Directions (Camren)

Chapter 12: Emotional trainwreck

Remember what I had said about my badassness points? That I still had lots of them? Taking back my words here.

Badassness: Level 0

Points: -99

You wonder why? I tell you why.

Dozens of shopping bags dangling from my overloaded arms, two smoothies in each of my hands, Lauren's handbag hung over my wrist, her new bought hat covering my eyes and two shoe boxes stowed under my arms. Not to mention the Hawaiian necklace with paper flowers that decorated my neck.

I tried ducking away from Lauren when she had wanted to throw the necklace over me, but the damn hat had been hindering my sight and there were still two cups of smoothies in my hands, so in the end, she got me and made a silly happy dance.

Good to see that at least one of us was getting a blast out of my public humiliation.

So that was how I looked when we left the mall and I couldn't even protest much when she took a picture of me with her phone. Thank God for the smoothies in my hands or I would have tried to strangle her.

Or just grab her and kiss her.

Definitely not.

Anyway, Lauren was positively beaming with amusement at my deadpanned expression and I didn't know why I let her keep torturing me.

Cause this is sweet torture. Almost like drawing out an orgasm.

Shut. Up.

Truth is, she was irresistible. Damn those pretty emerald eyes.

She would innocently bat her thick, long eye lashes and stick out her plump bottom lip and then I would find myself melting at the cute sight. And whatever resolution I had made for myself, like stop her buying every damn thing that looked hot on her (which meant everything) crumbled to nothing when she pulled out that weapon.

Admittedly, I generally didn't have much resistance when it came to her.

All in all, it wasn't such a bad day. I was quite proud of myself that I had been able to entertain Lauren every moment we had been spending together. And that was almost all the time. Except for the times she had gone to the changing rooms where I hadn't been allowed to follow ("Don't even dream about taking a peek").

Yeah, today was actually worth playing a human loading space. Throughout this whole shopping process, I had gained more and more trust with Lauren and she had opened up to me a lot. It was so easy to strike up a conversation with her, whether it was just silly banter or serious discussions about profound topics, there wasn't one moment where we weren't talking.

And even when we stopped playfully bickering, pointlessly arguing and teasingly messing with each other for a change, we shared a comfortable silence. Like with Shawn, I felt perfectly at ease with her when we sat together at the food court, silently munching on our sandwiches, sharing playful gazes before blushingly averting them.

"Camila?" A curious voice called and I dazedly looked up at Lauren who stood by her car with its trunk opened, waiting for me to load the things in there. Heaving the thousand shopping bags into the trunk, I sighed in relief when I felt all the weight dropping off my body. I took off Lauren's hat as well as the Hawaiian necklace with a relieved sigh.

"You know, you could have let me carry half of the bags. It wouldn't have killed me." Lauren said with a grateful smile and she lightly nudged my arm. I returned her smile, but teasingly retorted, "You know, you could have just bought half that stuff."

Lauren mock scoffed and shut the trunk with a loud thud. "You could have been half that stubborn and let me carry my things. I'm not a little girl."