Saving Lauren (Camren)

Chapter 2

"Karla, you're late. I know you have to walk here everyday, but you being late is getting old." Mr. Saccs, owner of Saccs' Sacks o' Books, scolded me for being 15 minutes late, again. "I'm sorry, Jerry. It's just that today's my birthday- well it's my friends birthday and-" He held up his hand, signaling for me to stop. "I don't want to hear it, Cabello. Just get behind the counter and do whatever it is I pay you to do." He stomped away to his office in back, leaving me to watch his always-empty bookstore.

I sat on the stool placed behind the counter, I retrieved my phone from my pocket and attempted for the 28th time this week to beat my trivia crack opponent, IKnowWhereYouLive16, who despite the creepy username was a nice 14 year old boy from the midwest.

I nearly dropped my phone when I heard the bell of the door ding. I was in the middle of deciding which was scarier: The fact that someone had actually walked into the old book store, or the fact that I nearly cracked my phone. But, I lost my shit at the sight of something one hundred times scarier. I scanned her body from bottom to top, studying her... everything. I noticed how her skin was pale, her hair was as black as night, her lips were as red as a freshly cut watermelon in the summer, and her eyes as green and electric as a single blade of newly mowed grass.

When my eyes finally met hers, I could feel my heart immediately drop into the pit of my stomach. She nervously laughed at my shocked reaction and allowed an uncomfortable silence to fall over us, until she decided to speak. "Sorry, I never wrote back." I didn't stare at her, I didn't glance over her, I looked as far as I could into her soul and within the blink of an eye I could already see, so much had changed.

"You've been gone for seven years! Too afraid to even tell me you were moving, you make the last time I see you the ending to a dramatic romance novel! I was 11 years old, you were my first, and sadly my last, kiss... and then you just up and leave! My mom had to tell me you left! My fucking mom! I was broken. You were my ONLY friend, Lauren... and you never even wrote back, or called." I wiped away a tear I didn't even know escaped. I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding in for the last 7 years and finally diverted my eyes away from hers. I whispered, "It's been seven years, Lauren. Why are you here?"

And with that she pulled out a stack of letters; enveloped, stamped, but never sent out. "This is maybe 3 years worth of unsent letters. I was searching the house for something and came across these instead. My mother had been keeping your letters to me and my letters to you away in a box, underneath her bed. I stopped writing them when I was 15; I was pretty convinced you weren't writing me back because you hated me for never telling you I was leaving, and I didn't blame you." I stared at the stack, speechless, then I felt her hand touch my mine and I lifted my eyes back up to meet hers. "I only gave up when I was more than positive you had, but I thought about you everyday. When I came across your letters, I was devastated. You wrote to me for five years, and when I discovered all the things that had happened to you within those five years, I felt awful for not being able to be here by your side... through it all." I pulled my hand away and placed it in my lap, diverting my eyes to my folded fingers. "I know I'm two years too late," she said "but I'm really sorry you had to go through it all alone."

"It's fine, Lauren." My throat was dry and it felt as if it were the first time I had spoken in hours. "It's not fine! It's-" She tried to argue, but I stopped her with the simple wave of my hand telling her to forget it. "Really, it's fine." She sighed as if she knew she were defeated and a less intense silence began to fall over us, before she spoke again. "How's your mom?" I smiled softly, "She's better, now that my dad's back." Lauren sighed in relief and laughed quietly to herself before speaking quietly now, "I was silently hoping I wouldn't have to ask about Alejandro and then end up receiving really bad news." I laughed at her now relaxed look from receiving the news. "Yeah, everything doing pretty well." She smiled, "That's good to hear, and the kids?" I nodded excitedly at the mention of my siblings, "Alex is 7 now, and Sofi is 12! They're both getting so big!" "Wow, has it been that long!" She joked and I smiled my first genuine smile in years. "Same ol' Jauregui."

"Same ol' Cabello." She smiled politely and after what seemed like an eternity of staring, her eyes darted to the clock. "Shit, I have to go. Maybe I'll see you later!" I grabbed her hand spinning her back around, before she had the chance to run out of my life again. "Are you back to visit or..." I asked her drawing out my sentence.

"I'm back for good." She smiled as I released her hand and within seconds she was gone again.