a reason to love

chapter 1

It had been 6 months since they had a dinner with pleasant conversation and even longer since they had slept in the same room. Camila raked her fork back and forth over the mound of mashed potatoes on her plate. She glanced over at Lauren quickly, hoping to avoid eye contact. It had been even longer than 6 months since that had happened. Well, since it had happened willingly.

They had the All-American dream of growing up together and being best friends. When they got a little bit older, it was just a natural part of the progression for them to fall in love. Anyone who knew them as children understood that there was just something special about their relationship. If you messed with Camila, Lauren would be right there defending her. And if you messed with Lauren, Camila would be the first to give you a piece of her mind. They were inseparable. Funny how things change, isn't it? The person who once bent over backwards to be your defense switching to offense when you least expected it.

Silence was Lauren and Camila's new approach towards making their marriage work. They knew each other so well that they never really had to use words anyway, but this was different. Where they used to communicate easily with their eyes and soft touches, now they had to manage with short sentences and passive aggressive text messages.

As Lauren walked over to the sink, she thought about how different she thought their life would be. The vision she had growing up now blurry and hard to distinguish against the harsh and jagged memories of reality. She had admitted to herself a long time ago that she played a big part in their disintegrating relationship. She started to take what she had always had for granted and now the only constant in her life was slipping away. Sure, there were actual problems that they needed to resolve and feelings they needed to discuss, but in the end, Lauren felt like there wasn't anyone else in the world that she could marry. There's no one else in the world that Lauren would want to marry. Camila was her soul mate. She couldn't live without her.

Camila watched Lauren as she slowly made her way to the sink, pausing for a moment as if she were pondering something of great importance. She had always admired the way Lauren took time to think without doing anything else to distract her from her thoughts. Camila, on the other hand, was fully incapable of only doing one thing at a time. This single trait could be the reason for their failing marriage. When Lauren had started working late and coming home too tired to spend any time with her wife, Camila was forced to rely on friends for human interaction and support. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until one of those "friends" took advantage of how close she and Camila were getting, much to Camila's dismay.

Since the day Lauren found out, silence had filled their home. It was all too loud for Camila. For her, the silence was like a thousand banging symbols that never stopped. That's why when the doorbell rang, Camila didn't even notice. What she did notice was Lauren turning around from her place at the sink and looking at her. "Are you expecting company?" she said, with a bitter tone.

Camila shook her head no and stood up from the table, trailing behind her wife as she made her way to the front door of their house. Lauren looked through the window but couldn't see anyone outside. Nothing could have prepared them for what was on the other side of the door.

Opening it slowly, Lauren gasped as she saw a little girl with messy hair that was dressed in clearly dirty clothing. The girl couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 years old. She took a step outside, looking around for the girl's parents. There was no one to be seen. Camila bent down so that she was eye level with the little girl. "Hi, Princess. Where's your mommy and daddy?"

The little girl just shrugged and looked back and forth between Camila and Lauren with hesitant eyes. She dropped her head and began looking at her feet, scuffing them on the ground. Camila's eyes widened as she felt something that she hadn't felt in what seemed like years. Lauren's hand found hers and tugged on it, making Camila look directly at her. When their eyes met it was like an electric current. Camila literally jumped at the feeling. They connected in that special way of theirs and without saying a word Lauren bent down and picked up the little girl, taking her inside and out of harm's way.

Camila stayed back as Lauren carried the girl upstairs. She had no idea what was happening with the girl, but she knew that it felt good to have Lauren look at her again. She sighed and made her way to where her wife and the little girl were, not knowing what state she would find either one of them once she got there.