Just off the key of reason / Camren Version

Chapter 1: You are the Dreamer

Hi, this is Lauren, your new roommate. I moved my stuff in this morning; I guess you were at work, but, you know, I wanted to leave you a note so you didn't think someone did...the opposite of rob you. Or something. Anyway, I went to get groceries. –Lauren

Oh, and if you aren't Camila Cabello, please tell her. Thank you.

Well...the note on Camila's  fridge was certainly unique. She had to admit, the first thing she'd thought when she caught sight of all the new stuff scattered around her apartment was ohmygod somebody broke in and gave me all their belongings!

Then she'd regained her ability to think rationally and remembered that her new roommate was joining her today, and dear God, she'd left one of the stove burners on that morning after breakfast.

Her new roommate was Lauren Jauregui, who apparently wrote in a childish scrawl that floated up and down the page, even on lined paper. She had drawn an elephant doodle in the bottom right hand corner and stuck the note to the fridge using a mini stuffed horse with magnetic feet that Camila had never seen before.

Of course, Camila  approved though; adorable things were her forte. She patted it on the head with a smile.

The building's landlord had been the one to find Camila a roommate, as she was too busy with rehearsals to scour the streets of New York for somebody to fill the space of her ex-roomie. She knew she had driven the previous occupant around some sort of bend, what with her singing and talking and purchasing of a hyperactive golden retriever puppy with an affinity for shoes.

In the end, either Barnaby or the roomie had to go, which is why Barnaby was now bounding out of Lauren's  room, tongue lolling and eyes bright.

Oh God, Camila thought. He must've destroyed something.

Camila didn't really want to enter Lauren's  room. She wasn't some nosy spy or anything; really, she was just loud and annoying, according to other people.

But, she definitely didn't want her new roommate to come home and find her most prized possessions in slobbery shreds on the bedroom floor.

So she pushed the door further open and stepped inside.

Right into fucking Wonderland.

Lauren had obviously completely unpacked, as no boxes were present. But holy mother of God, how could a room be so cluttered when it had been occupied for less than a few hours? Camila stood in the doorway, dazed, just taking it all in and patting Barnaby absently on his happy head for not wrecking anything.

Camila took in the patterned and colorful bedding, full of blue and green and orange and yellow. There were matching purple lamps on the desk and side table, and there were- yeah, okay, shit- there were four bookcases along the walls, filled to critical mass.

Camila actually feared for Lauren's safety; she didn't want to be awakened in the middle of the night to find her roommate dying under a four-ton bookcase full of crap.

Camila couldn't resist walking closer to examine the "crap." Most of it was actually books, multiple copies of classics that looked well-worn and falling apart.

She counted Gulliver's Travels and Alice in Wonderland, everything by C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl and Dickens, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Black Beauty and Sherlock Holmes.

Camila  moved on, trailing her fingers lightly over their spines, and looked at the rest of the clutter.

She briefly wondered if Lauren  was a hoarder. Her eyes widened; oh God, they'd end up on TV and Camila  would be the clueless roommate who had enabled Lauren  to live in an unsanitary mountain of junk for an inordinate amount of time.