Saving Lauren (Camren)

Chapter 3

It was nearing 6 o'clock when Jerry finally trudged tiredly out of his office. He looked at me, then out the window gazing at the darkening skies. He let out a loud sigh before dropping his eyes down to his watch. "You can go, Camila." He smiled gently before handing me my paycheck. "Thank you, Mr. Saccs. Don't worry, business will get better eventually," I smiled to him as I headed towards the door. "Eventually." He repeated, as if saying it out loud would give him some sort of reassurance. I waved to him one last time and turned quickly on my heels, out of the store.

When I arrived home I was welcomed by the smell of pizza and the sound of laughter. My mother was sitting on the couch, cuddled up to my father, who's fingers were tangled up in the chain of his dog tags that hung loosely around his neck. Seated in the loveseat across from them was the last person on Earth I expected to see. For the second time today, I was overcome with shock, confusion, and hatred. I was happy to see her, of course, but what I didn't understand is why now?

There were so many unanswered questions, but I couldn't just stand there like a log, trapped in my thoughts. "Hi," I quietly spoke as I entered the room, "what's going on?" My father glanced between Lauren and I with a raised eyebrow. "Are you ladies going to hug, or fight?"

"Alejandro!" My mother yelled as she took his hands and led him into kitchen to give us "alone" time. "I know you guys are on the other side of the wall!" I giggled slightly when I heard my parents' heavy footsteps down the hall. "Remember they would spy on us?" I smiled at the memories flooding back into mine, but shook my head quicky after to forget them.

"Why are you here, Lauren?" I asked her for the second time today. She sat up in the chair as if she were preparing to tell me the worst news. "I'm kind of, sort of in a big mess right now. I had nowhere else to go! So, I came to the one person on this planet I know still loves me." I quirked my eyebrow at her words "still loves her" and as if she read my thoughts, she spoke again, "I wasn't talking about you, relax. I meant Sinu."

"Why would you need my mom's help with anything? What are you like wanted for murder or something?" She laughed nervously and diverted her eyes, "No, I have a drinking problem. My parents kicked me out because I just partied all night and then I slept all day. My mom told me I wasn't going to be anybody one day, and that's when I decided I needed to get help." I stared blankly at her and laughed. "So, let me get this straight. You have a drinking problem, you got kicked out of your house, and instead of going to a best friend's house in California, where you live, you decided to get in your car and drive all the way back to Westchester so you can use my mother's home as a rehab facilitation. I think that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." I picked up my bag and walked to my room, leaving her alone in the comfort of the old loveseat.

I was shocked to see my friend, Dinah, laying on my bed when I entered my room. But, I was beyond frightened when I saw that she was accompanied with two girls I had never seen before.

"Hey, Walz!" Dinah said between chewing her pizza and giggling. "Hi," I replied hesitantly. "Who are they?" I looked at them and smiled "Not to be rude, but who are you?" The tinier girl laughed and spoke with a rather cute country accent, "Oh! We're Lauren's friends. I'm Ally and this is-" She was cut off by the other girl who laid sprawled out across my pillows, "Ally, I can introduce myself! Hey, I'm Normani!" I nodded and took a deep breath, "Ok, that's cool! Can you give us a minute?" I asked while grabbing Dinah's hand and pulling her out of the room, shutting the door behind us.

Gritting my teeth and clenching my jaw, I spoke. "Dinah, what the hell is going on?" She just laughed and patted my shoulder before looking in the direction of the living room. "Let's just say your ex-bestfriend and her two new best friends will be joining us for our June 27th Movie Marathon."

"What?" I nearly screamed. "Yeah, and she'll be staying here the rest of the summer." This time I did scream. I screamed all the way until to the movie started, and then till the end because it was a scary movie, Lauren's choice.

"No, I do not want to watch the Evil Undead." I repeated for the third time to Lauren, explaining to her that thrillers gave me uncontrollable heart palpitations, but not the same ones I get while looking at a One Direction edit. She only laughed and repeated for the fourth time tonight, "It's my birthday, it's my choice."

Yea, well it's my house Jauregui.

I just stared at her, letting my eyes burn into her skull and continuously ask myself "Why is she here?"

When the movie was over I had made it up in my mind I was too tired to sit through another one, so I excused myself for the night, said my goodbyes to Dinah and went to bed.

A/N: Sorry, if this chapter sucks! I'm actually like extremely exhausted so I'm just like ahdljhfldafd; I promised I'd update tonight. So, here you go! I hope it's not too awful.