Your Love Is My Drug (Camren)

6. How Did You Get So Far Away?

Chapter 6

It was one of those nights where Lauren woke so frequently that she was tempted to check the time on her phone, just in case she'd done the impossible and slept the entire day away. She hadn't.

She'd tried to get back to sleep the first half a dozen times it happened, not feeling particularly sleepy but it was clearly very late or very early and she'd had a long day the day before. Then it became too much of a chore. She got restless.

Lauren lay there in the dark and stared at Camila's door.

She didn't understand how she could know Camila so well but still be a mystery to her.

She felt so special to be the one to get those glimpses of the real Camila Cabello all those summers ago; she'd felt privileged to be the one that someone like Camila would go to in her hour of need and to find out that really, underneath it all, she was saying that she was just like her. They were both desperately lonely. The most popular girl in school had something in common with her. It wasn't even something trivial like loving the same TV show; it was feeling one of the most wretched emotions in existence no matter what lengths they'd gone to for it to go away. For a teenage girl, it was a lot. For Lauren, it was everything.

She wondered if Camila had felt lonely during the past six years. Lauren wondered if she'd sat up all night talking to anyone the way she used to talk to her, if anyone had ever given her that much.

Judging by the present circumstances, it wasn't all that difficult to presume the answer to that one.

Then Lauren considered leaving again, and she didn't think of anything else until daybreak.

X

Camila woke up with a headache the next morning.

When searching for the second fastest cure, she'd found her medicine cabinet empty of aspirin when she'd opened it. There'd been a split second of confusion before she remembered who was responsible for that. She felt nauseous and wasn't inclined to eat breakfast but she sat at the kitchen table across from Lauren and ate some dry toast to avoid any sort of argument or comments about the way her body looked.

Despite meaning what she'd said last night, she was getting used to having Lauren there. It wasn't so weird sitting down to have breakfast with her anymore.

"Did you hear Sid and Nancy last night?" Lauren asked, lowering her head to catch the yoghurt dripping off the spoon in her mouth.

Camila shook her head, chewing with her mouth open. She wasn't feeling the toast at all. At least there was only half a slice left out of two she'd begun with.

"Well, she- Camila, that's disgusting- Nancy went to town on him."

"Gross," Camila remarked, closing her mouth to eat.

"No, I mean they were fighting again. I was feeling sorry for the poor woman, but now it's him I almost feel sorry for. She can give as good as she gets, It was very entertaining. Worrying, but entertaining."

"They're not worth either."

Lauren gulped down some juice. "What are you doing today?"

"Thought I'd mix it up a little," Camila said. "I thought maybe I'd hang out with you and go to work."

"That sounds like a really great day."