My Favorite Camren One-Shots (Part 2)

Lavender Seashells

Camila’s POV

The sky was all bluish with a hint of pale purple when the sun began setting. Dusk could be the most enchanting hour in the universe and still she was oblivious to it all. Another day had ended and yet to her, it seemed like her world was falling part with it.

                The doctor was sure that the diagnosis was accurate. How long did she have? The doctor wasn’t sure. Six months. One year. Maybe…

                It was December, the year was 2015 and Camila was dying. Her mother being dead, it was only her father who accompanied her to the hospital and drove home.

                The rain began to fall but Camila knew that they were getting nearer. She could already smell the sea.

                All her relatives and neighbors were there when they arrived. For a moment, she felt delirious, almost half sick with rage.

“It’s too early for my funeral!” she wanted to scream at them but didn’t. After all, they only wanted to comfort her. They all cried and embraced her and Camila felt ashamed of her narrow mindedness. How could she resent all these people who love her so much and whom she had trusted and played with and visited all her life?

It was nearly nine when she got to be alone in her room. She remembered the exact details of the doctor telling her that she was dying, and the first thing that came to her mind was Lauren.

Lauren was the daughter of her mother’s best friend who had gone abroad to study. This summer she was going home, home to the beach where they grew up together. If together was the appropriate word, since from her sixth birthday, Lauren had hated her. She despised her and showed it recklessly, intentionally and constantly. Despite that, Camila had loved her and had waited faithfully for her return.

And yet what now? Lauren is coming home to a dying girl…

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Lauren’s POV

The old house was still the same as she remembered. She was ten when she had gone to Europe to study and now she was twenty. That means it had only been ten years since she left this outdated fishing village and yet it felt like it was a lifetime ago.

She recalled that she was to work in one of the firms in the city a few miles from here and frowned most darkly. She snorted with disgust as the sand soiled her combat boots a little and a grass stain smeared her pants.

 Her parents were waiting for her on the verandah and she smiled for the first time as she came up to be embraced. She didn’t notice the pale Latina sitting on the hammock behind her mother until the girl smiled at her.

“Do you remember me Lauren?” the girl said softly, her voice raspy but weak.

Lauren’s forehead creased a little as she tried to place her.

“No” she replied and saw that the brown-eyed girl was clearly disappointed but the smile returned when she added, “But you do look familiar.”

“Camila from the house next door,” she said and a wave of remembrance hit Lauren. She was the annoying little girl next door with the bows who always tried to get her to play with her.

“Now I remember,” she replied casually and implied with her tone that there wasn’t anything pleasant to remember about Camila.

Lauren’s father coughed and she immediately saw a look of understanding pass between her parents before they went inside and left her in the verandah with the younger girl.