Infatuation//Camren

Chapter 24

(A/N): Listen to Undo as you read the chapter

We all ended up back at Clara's house. Cups of tea were made and booze was passed around.

Lauren, Normani, Dinah, Ally, and I sat out the back, sitting in a circle. The sun was warm on our faces, but I couldn't escape the dull, glum feeling in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't even begin to attempt to feel what Lauren was feeling.

Her hand rested on my thigh, our hands intertwined.

"How are you doing, girl?" Normani asked Lauren.

"I feel like shit. I feel like this is a strange fever nightmare." Lauren replied, rubbing her hand over her face.

"I have stuff if you want it." Normani said quietly, pulling out her stash of already-rolled joints.

"Yep." Lauren said quickly, snatching the spliff from Normani's hand and lighting it, taking a deep inhale.

"Pass it round, I'm not gonna sit here and watch you get high." Dinah said suddenly. Lauren passed it around. We passed the joint around the circle and we lit up another three or four. Everything became muted and soft and music was playing and Lauren's hands were soft and warm against my skin. It was around three in the afternoon.

"If Chris was here right now, he'd be asking for me to sneak him a beer." Lauren said with a smile. We all smiled at the thought.

"Do you remember that time, like ages ago, when he asked us for advice about girls?" Ally asked. We all laughed.

"What did you say?" asked with a laugh.

"He wanted to ask this girl at school if she liked him and he didn't know how. So he came to Lauren for advice, and we may or may not have told him more than he wanted or needed to know." Normani chimed in.

Lauren laughed. Then her face fell and I could see she held back tears.

"He's really gone." She whispered, her voice breaking a little bit.

The rest of the day was spent talking and smoking and drinking and laughing and crying. It was a strange kind of mix - feeling really happy in remembering him, and then feeling completely lost because he'd died.

He was barely 14. And he'd died. I wasn't close close to him, but anyone could feel the tragedy and sadness in the atmosphere.

People started leaving, trickling out the door one by one. Normani and the girls were the last to leave after they helped us clean up the house for Clara who'd fallen asleep in a heap upstairs. It would've been the hardest on her, losing Chris. Mike had lied down next to Clara and tucked her in, made sure she was alright, then hugged Lauren and me goodbye.

It was just Lauren and me awake in the house. It was around five. The house was dark, the curtains were drawn, the TV was the only light in the room. It cast sporadic multicolored shadows and shapes on the walls. Lauren and I had been sitting there silently for what felt like years. I knew she had sat there, thinking.
Lauren was sitting in an old black leather armchair with tattered sides - it had always been 'her spot', she told me. Her eyes had glazed over, and they reflected the glowing light of the TV. She was deep in thought. I walked over to her slowly, she hadn't noticed. She stared into space, completely oblivious to me standing right next to her. I straddled her, with my knees either side of her legs. Her eyes snapped into focus on mine. She bit her lip for a millisecond. The room was quiet and we hadn't said a word to each other in hours. Before we could say anything, Lauren pulled me onto her. Our lips collided. Our touch was frenzied and rushed and wild and frantic. Lauren's hands slid down my sides and rested on my hips.

"I feel like I haven't seen you all day." Lauren whispered hoarsely against my lips.

I laughed quietly, breaking away from her. "I know. I missed you." I sat with my arms looped around her neck, my hands resting on the back of the armchair.
Lauren grinned at me, her pupils dilated. "I missed you." Her lips crashed to mine again before I could say any more.