Your Love Is My Drug (Camren)

4. Corner piece

Chapter 4

Camila couldn't remember the last time she'd walked through a grocery store. It must have been a while because while she could tolerate the sight of food in small convenience stores, the thought of a building this large containing just as much food made her stomach turn unpleasantly. Their relationship had always been on and off again, but Camila felt mature enough now to conclude that she was simply neutral to it. She didn't love food, she didn't hate it. It was just there. She ate when she felt hungry and it was enough to sustain her body even if it failed to in Lauren's eyes.

She'd fallen asleep so late that when the devil -cleverly disguised as a emerald eyed woman and such a crippling impatience to be noticed that her words had a habit of making Camila dizzy- asked if she'd fallen asleep late, she didn't lie when she said no. She had fallen asleep very early in the morning.

Now she was somehow on her feet and walking down aisle seven with Lauren making sure to keep to the side of her at all times. Camila had been witness to the three heels Lauren cart had slammed into (and the profuse apologies afterward) and was not going to be a victim. She wasn't going to fall for any of it, especially the bullshit, and she didn't care if Lauren had a problem with the way she looked.

Lauren was reading the ingredients list of yet another can of something, utterly oblivious to an impatient exhale next to her.

Their cart was angled to the side, blocking part of the aisle so that when a middle-aged woman came to switch lanes to avoid an oncoming cart, she had nowhere to go. Her blue eyes narrowed as she scowled, staring at the ignorant piece of trash who was violating some sort of market code.

"Excuse me," the woman bit out rudely, using the end of her cart to push Lauren's out of the way. Lauren didn't hear her. "Ignorant bitch, just like the good magazines say."

Camila's hearing was still excellent. She watched the woman disappear around the corner. "Are you done?" she asked Lauren. "Can you eat it?"

Lauren put the can back on the shelf. "Yes. I can eat any animal product, Camila. I just choose not to. I find it helps me get through an entire meal without crying."

"By all means, give me the vegan lecture every time I ask a simple question."

"Is it annoying?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Annoying like the way that lady was smiling at you at the deli counter, asking which animal's flesh you'd prefer to eat for lunch?"

Camila didn't respond. She'd only put several items in the cart so far, and one of them was from the deli. Lauren had refused to trust her to walk there alone and so she'd stood at the counter beside Camila, looking like she was standing at a loved one's graveside.

"Sorry," Lauren said. "And I know most people in this store don't care. They probably found her friendly attitude lovely. But people take things personally, don't they? And personally, I think all deli counters are gross. When someone smiles as they're selling meat, it offends me. I can't help it. But I can sit and eat dinner with people who eat meat -I don't sit there and give them a lecture on a lifestyle choice that everybody is free to make, so... please, start picking out things you like to eat, okay? You can't live off cereal or sandwiches and I don't know what you want."

"Have you asked me?"

"No, I haven't," she admitted with a small smile. "What's your favourite food, Camila?"

"Why, are you thinking of setting fire to my kitchen tonight?"

"Humour me for one point five seconds."