Camren Oneshots & Imagines

Sugar (III)

Camila's thumbs hovered over the phone screen while she watched her fiance play pool with his 'pals'. He was positively terrible at it, despite how he'd claimed to be world-championship-worthy. What was more important, though, was that he was preoccupied. For the first time in a long time, his attention was not focused on Camila in the slightest. He'd failed to notice how Camila had been glued to her phone all day and was entirely oblivious to the photos she couldn't escape, photos of her with smeared makeup and puffy lips and subtly crooked teeth evident in her open-mouthed smiles, her cackling laughter almost audible still; all things that would usually make her throw a fit unless the photos were destroyed... all things that Lauren somehow made look like art.

When he took his turn, pocketed no ball, and chugged down some more beer as a response to his 'bad luck', she knew she should take the chance. Her fingers tapped out the message she was so desperate to send.

Camila: Are you free?

In the few minutes that followed, her heart began to pound. Perhaps she'd done the wrong thing. Perhaps Lauren wouldn't want to see her again. Perhaps he would find out and accuse her of cheating and the whole stunt would go to shit. Perhaps--

Her phone dinged with a response.

...

"Where are we?"

Camila smiled softly, handing Lauren the coffee she'd been so reluctant to let the celebrity buy for her. "My favourite place," She answered, then clarified, "Nobody ever comes here except me; I come here to write."

"Your favourite place is a derelict parking garage?" She quirked a brow, though it was paired with a minuscule grin. She took a sip of her drink and began to amble around the room, eyes flitting over the trash and debris scattered around.

Camila nodded, snorting quietly to herself. "It's not ideal, I guess, but the view's nice."

"I guess so," Lauren whispered, only glancing briefly over the concrete barrier separating them from a three-story fall, where the skyline of the city could be seen. Her focus had landed on some strange lines running along one of the pillars supporting the roof which, upon further inspection, turned out to be messily scrawled words. She raised a finger, tracing it over the ink. "Did you write this?"

"'Blink twice if I'm okay, now my eyes are drying up'? Yeah." Camila asked monotonously, quoting the first line of the inscription. She took a deep breath and span to reach her purse, which she'd placed beside her when she took a seat on the ground. Lauren didn't pay the burst of movement much mind, focusing instead on reading her way down the column, pursing her lips in sympathy at the words that seemed written by her own hand six years ago, right before she left home. Her head whipped around, however, at a bright flash of light. Camila chucked, pulling the photo from the front of the Polaroid camera.

"Hey, wait, don't shake it!" Lauren called out, hurrying over to halt Camila's hand. The celebrity froze, curling her pinky finger around to hold Lauren's hand to hers.

"But, I-"

"The song's stupid, you'll just smear the photo." Camila gulped, eyes moving from their connected hands to Lauren's lips. For a moment, they were two normal people. Lauren unknowingly shattered the illusion with her next words. "Why'd you waste a photo, anyway? Aren't I the photographer here, Miss Cabello?"

"I didn't waste it," Camila whispered, "I captured the moment. You deserve to live forever on film."

"Cheesy." Lauren's tone would have been awfully cool if it weren't for the forced nature of the word and the clenching of her jaw that followed.

Camila gave a lopsided smile. "Cute," She corrected.

Lauren's lips twitched into a smile, eyes flitting between Camila's. With their closeness, it was hard to keep them in focus, but she didn't mind the headache it took to notice the slight wrinkles by the corners that came with her grin. Then, with a quick inhale, she turned the photo still clenched between Camila's fingertips. "It looks good."