Touched By You

"I feel the pain ignorance leaves behind."

"I fucking hate it."

"What?" Camila's eyes roamed over to Lauren whose eyes were stuck on the screen of her phone.

"The world, Camz," The green-eyed girl grumbled, everything about her screaming anger. "It's so...poisoned."

Had the younger Cuban not been too preoccupied with the pancake batter she was currently mixing up, she'd be leaning over behind her wife and reading whatever was causing the raven-haired girl to seethe with anger.

Lauren read over the article again, her fingers then typing away to find out more and more about what had happened. It opened a wound she never knew she had and set a fire in her heart that was slowly growing hotter. She read articles on CNN online and BBC and she was reminded why she had chosen to start a new path in life.

Because she could bury her head under the sand and pretend like what happened to Lucy was just a one off, that shootings weren't this frequently occurring thing, but the problem was that they were. They have happened a lot, they will keep happening a lot and sure, people could go ahead and blame the guns.

But guns have triggers and they don't simply pull them themselves, there is always a person behind a gun.

And that's not to say she didn't hate guns, she certainly did. She hated them more than she hated anything else that ever came into her life. They were designed as weapons to take lives and she was a stronger believer that no one was entitled to take another's life. So if there was one thing she could eradicate on this earth, it would be guns.

Lauren blamed both guns and the people wielding them.

"Talk to me." Camila spoke from the kitchen, noticing Lauren's quiet contemplation and knowing that her mind was filled with unspoken thoughts that were eating at the green-eyed girl.

"There was a shooting in New Zealand. The gunman started shooting in a Mosque. These were just innocent people praying, Camz. They were just...they were praying." Lauren sighed, leaning back in her seat and running a hand over her face. "It's not right. It's not and I'm sitting here in this penthouse without a worry in the world right now and there are people out there suffering. I fucking hate it."

"Then do something about it," Because the younger girl knew what Lauren needed to hear sometimes. She knew the older girl needed that push sometimes to make her thoughts known to the world. "Speak out, Laur, make people listen."

It wasn't until Lauren was sat in front of Halsey for the first time that she really took into account what Camila had said. Alessia had made good on her promise to introduce the green-eyed girl to the singer and now Lauren was perched on Halsey's couch sharing a joint with her head tipped back.

The pair had felt almost a little awkward during their first interaction and decided that maybe a little herb would help them ease into a more organic conversation.

"I want people to hear me." Lauren announced, more to herself than to the other girl in the room. "I want to be able to hear people."

"That's the timeless problem with humanity, isn't it? We never listen to each other." Halsey's speech with slow but certain; firm. "We're too busy making up rebuttals in our heads whilst others speak that we fail to hear what they have to say. We always want to have the last say. It's human nature."

"We need to start listening." Lauren nodded, in complete agreement with the older girl. "We have to, we need to be better than we are."

"I hear you," Halsey smiled over to the green-eyed girl. "I feel the pain ignorance leaves behind."

"Like when a girl says no."

"But in his head he hears yes."

"And when someone preaches peace."