Thinking of Your Skin: The Truth Behind Camren - Book Two

Chapter 12: Why Don't You Care?

December 18th, 2016

11:30 P.M.

Lauren

She had left the doorstop in. I entered her hotel room without a knock, without a word. Luckily, she was still there. Camila and I had left our stuff at the hotel, planning on coming back to get them after the concert, but, regardless of how messy Camila was, I knew it wasn't going to take her that long to pack up and go home. Our last Jingle Ball in our home town was amazing, but we were all anxious to get home to our families for the holidays.

I noticed her delicate fingers hovering over the keyboard in front of her on her bed. She was slightly hunched over, but she straightened up the second she heard me. I quickly stepped through the door frame, moved the golden doorstop out of the way, and closed the door behind me, my left hand still lingering on the doorknob.

"What are you doing?" Camila closed her laptop, eyes wide.

"Have you checked Twitter?" I remained frozen by the door.

"No, I..."

"Don't." I cut her off and started making my way towards her.

I could see the concern and confusion simultaneously present in her expression now. She swallowed hard as she watched me closing the distance between the two of us. I sat down on the edge of her bed and trapped her with my eyes. Neither of us moved or spoke for what seemed like an eternity. When she realized that there were tears threatening to escape from my watery eyes, she finally broke the silence.

"Lauren, what's going on?"

"You'll find out later."

"Then why are you here now?"

"I didn't come here to talk."

More silence, but this time her eyes widened and her eyebrows rose. As I looked into those deep brown eyes for the millionth time, I felt a wave of panic crash over me. This was it. Everything was about to change.

................................

Camila

After weeks of freezing me out again, she was here, now, just as I was minutes away from walking away from her forever. And she 'wasn't here to talk'. What the fuck did that even mean?

"Well, what I mean is, I didn't come here to talk about the Twitter situation...and I also came to give you something." she added to fill the silence.

I simply stared back at her, unsure of how to respond or even if I should. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled her hand back out quickly, something now balled in her left fist.

Lauren held her hand out and let her fingers separate from her palm, revealing a small, pearl ring. My ring. The ring she had given me on Valentines Day in 2015. The ring that practically symbolized our love for each other, if anything truly had the ability to represent a love so grand. The ring I thought I had lost months ago.

"Where'd you get that?" I rasped.

"I found it.", she replied, "I found it outside of your hotel room one day we were checking out. I wanted to give it back to you but...we weren't really talking. And plus, I figured there was a reason it was on the floor."