Lauren {girlxgirl}

Chapter Three

{Song: Crush- Tessa Violet}

I wake at nine the next morning to the light sound of birdsong, a warm bed, sunbeams streaming through my window blinds and, less pleasantly, the sound of my mum's heavy footsteps ricocheting up the stairs.
Why is she coming up here? I think, my barely awake brain struggling to create an explanation.
Ah, it's a Sunday... Which means church... Oh shit!

My heartbeat accelerates as I remember Lauren is in bed beside me. I shrug her soft arm off my shoulder and sit straight up, blinking my eyes for a second to clear the black spots, before turning to the girl beside me.
I grab her shoulder and shake her wildly.
"What d'you want..." She grumbles sleepily.
"Quick!" I hiss in her ear, "My mum's coming in."
She gets up in a flash, panicking, and slides out of bed and onto the floor surreptitiously, just as my mum opens the door.

"Rise and shine!" She states in what must be the most obnoxious voice ever, "Time to get up! Lex, are you coming to church today?" she continues. I look at her in pure disbelief, is she serious? By the look on her face I'd saw she is.
I prop myself up on my elbows, "Are you seriously asking me that? Think about it for a second." I frown, "I've not been to church with you since I was 12!... You forgot didn't you?"
"Oh, no I didn't forget," looking flustered, it's obvious that she's lying, "I was just wondering if you wanted to come with Lauren because it's obviously her first time at this new church..."

She looks to Lauren, who had covertly shuffled her way under the covers without my mum noticing, before continuing.
"You do have something to wear to church, right? Of course, if you forgot it then you can borrow something off me!"
Lauren bites her lip before looking my mum in the eyes. "Uh, about church Mrs Green... I'm not religious..." I look at her in confusion, one thing I do remember about her mum was that she's extremely religious, why would Lauren be on my side about not going to church? My mum looks at her with a flicker of disappointment in her eyes and I brush my thoughts away.

"What do you mean you don't-" she sighs, the image of a perfect girl deteriorating in her mind, "Actually, its okay! It doesn't matter," she states in a defeated tone, "Your dad and I going to leave in 5 minutes. Lauren, don't let Lex stay in the house all day... Be back by 2."
And with that, she turned and left the room, leaving being the heavy, cloying feeling of disappointment hanging in the air.

After the door clicks shut and her footsteps descend down the stairs I turn towards the Lauren, who is still sprawled on the floor beside me.
"So... Uh, I'd better sort your mattress, huh?" I bite my lip awkwardly.
Lauren nods, gets up and turns the air bed over. Expecting it to just be flat, I go to to valve to begin blowing it up when I notice the rip along the seam. Shit. We sit wordlessly looking at the tear for an instant, our silence only broken by the sound of the car pulling out of the drive.
"So uh... Do you have any tape or anything?" Lauren says after a second. I snap out of my daze, stand up, and go rummaging in my desk drawer. I pause after a moment, feeling Laurens soft gaze upon my back. With a smile I continue my search.
"Aha!" I exclaim after a minute, triumphantly brandishing an almost finished roll of duct tape in the air like a trophy.
Ripping parts off with my teeth, I begin taping the hole back together.
"It should work." I state, surveying my haphazard creation. She nods, biting her lip once more.

"So, uh, Lex?" Lauren questions, 'Where's your shower...?"
"Oh! Its downstairs, towels are in the cabinet in there... But if you're going down now-" I pause with a smirk spreading across my face.
"What? What's so funny?" she laughs
"If you're going down now... I'll race you. Not much of a competition though, I'm definitely gonna win!" I say jokingly, although, by the length of her legs and her athleticism, she's more likely to beat me. By a lot. Eyes twinkling, she smiles, "Bet." I grab my clothes from the floor and take off, wrenching my door open, and beginning down the stairs.
"Hey!" She giggles, continuing after me.
Just as a reach the bathroom door, stumbling from laughing, she beats me there. I press myself against the door,
"You're not getting in!" I joke.
She puts her arm up on the door above me and looks me in the eye.
"You sure about that, huh?"
I look her in the eye, my resolve weakening under her gaze. She bites her lip and I shiver. No. I try to shake the intrusive thought of 'Lean up and kiss her' out of my head and I break the stare by shoving her backwards, laughing.
"Fine! You can go first!"
She bows jokingly, "Thank you, m'lady"

I walk away from the bathroom as she enters and head to the kitchen, deciding that I'm in the mood for some cereal, multigrain shapes to be exact, the superior cereal. I head the cupboard but turn away with an eye roll. Of course the only stuff in there is months old muesli and a box of stale gluten free cereal from when mum was on her health kick.

Toast it is.

Once it's ready and the smell of warm toast fills the room, I slather it in copious amounts of butter and sit down to eat. But just before I start eating I drop the toast back onto the plate, slightly in awe. Lauren had walked in, hair dripping onto her shoulders, soaking her t-shirt. I can feel a hot blush spread across my face as she smiles at me.

Why am I blushing? I ask myself, she's a girl, you're straight, all she did was smile at you...?
Hurriedly I get up, abandoning my toast, so that she can't see how red my face has become.
"I'm going for a shower!" I stutter out, and then gesture to the plate, "You can have the toast!"
I turn and flee from the room, panicking slightly although I don't know why.
Unbeknownst to me, she shakes her head with a grin, a warm rosy colour spreading over her cheeks, sits down, and begins eating the toast I had left.

{A/N: I'm sorry this took me a month to write. I wrote this bit like 2 weeks ago but I kept saying I was gonna write more and then not so yeah. Anyway I also cut out like half the plot of the OG chapter 3 because it was pointless and was just filler and y'know quality over quantity and all that (did still manage to get this to over 1000 words though.)}