My Favorite Camren One-Shots (Part 3)

Scars

 Her mother swears she's beautiful just the way she is, but Lauren knows she isn't. She's not like "normal" humans. Lauren was well aware that she doesn't look like everyone else. How can someone who was born with a facial deformity be beautiful? The green eyed girl knows how people stare at her scars. She just wants people to look at something other than them, like why can't they stare at her eyes instead? How can someone look past the scars above her upper lip, her abnormal nose and her missing teeth? Lauren can't help the fact that she was born with a cleft palate and she just wished she looked like everyone else.

Growing up was hard for Lauren, having adults subtly stare at her from the corner of their eye, only to have Lauren catch them and look away when they do. Children's stares were painfully obvious, followed along with them loudly asking their parents about her. And don't get her started on old people. Nineteen. That's how many surgeries she's had in her life, all to her mouth, ears, and nose, and she's has had enough to become immune to pain. Lauren prays for the day it all ends because she still has a lot more to go.

School wasn't so bad when she made friends. She was still terrified of speaking and not just in front of crowds, but speaking at all. The only people she's comfortable enough to speak to are her friends, Ally and Normani, and her family of course. Lauren's speech isn't the best and is often asked to repeat many things and sometimes she gets fed up and gives up. Normani and Ally constantly remind her that it's okay and that she just needs to slow down and breathe. So she does. But Lauren just wishes she never had to in the first place.

Lauren continues to maintain her straight A's, after all she wants to go to college. Especially since it's her junior year and her surgeries have interfered with school. English is her best and favorite subject and right now she's in bed wishing she knew which book the class has started reading because she's been out from school for two days due to another ear surgery. Ally had told her that she would go over today to pick up her assignments with Mani, but to her surprise, it wasn't her friends who came through her bedroom door that evening. Instead it was a friendly, familiar face with brown eyes, blonde hair, and tan skin. Dinah is her name and Lauren sits in front of her in English.

 "Hey Lauren," Dinah says softly, hoping that she isn't intruding of the green eyed girl's resting time. "I just came by to drop off Gatsby for English, is that okay?"

"Hey Dinah and yeah that's great! I'm super excited, I've been wanting to read it for a while. Have you guys started?" Lauren replied.

After explaining all the things Lauren had missed during her absence, Dinah had also asked the bed written girl how she was feeling.

Lauren just smiles at the Polynesian, "I'm numb. I don't feel physical pain as much as I used to as a kid. It's bittersweet that I'm so used to it," her smile fades as she looks at the brown eyes across form her. Dinah's smile falters, but bounces back up again. An hour later Dinah says she has to head home and wishes Lauren a speedy recovery.

Lauren couldn't sleep. Not even the strong medication that she was given could make her sleepy. She started to read Gatsby, but after her vision started to get blurry, she decided to take a break. She listened to music and watched music videos, but sleep still didn't come to her. She decided to go for a walk around the house. After five minutes she headed to the bathroom. When she was washing her hands she couldn't help but to stare at her reflection and what it showed; a big, white, cup-like thing was covering her right ear. It reminded her of and eye patch; an ear patch if you will. There was blood stained gauze over her ear and she couldn't wait to get it off because it was extremely uncomfortable.

The next day she took it off. The first thing she did was look at herself in the mirror. I look like Dumbo, she thought. Even though she knew this was what happened to her ears after these surgeries she still gets emotional over the outcome. Her right ear had stitches on the back causing her eat to stick farther out than normal, but as soon as Lauren was about to cry, she noticed something else.