#the only time i got SLIGHTLY close to have a chanche at it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

5hfanfiction · 7 years

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clumsy in love (ghost au)

wattpad == longerr_hours , check out my other stuff if you wanna

“Chanch, I swear to fuck you’re the clumsiest person in the world,” Dinah laughs as Camila picks herself off the ground for the second time since the school day started.

“I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again,” Camila rolls her eyes as she steadies herself, not shocked that Dinah laughed instead of helped, “it’s definitely not my fault, it has to be some like scientific fuck up with my body."

"Whatever you say Walz,” Dinah continues to chuckle as they make their way to class.

It’s always been like that, Camila falling and tripping and stumbling her way around, somehow managing to pull off the clumsiness but still who likes being clumsy.

She swears it’s an actual disability, as in she has coordination issues that could be diagnosed as an actual problem, but she’d already been cleared as not having anything like that.

Her mom had made her go get checked out a few months ago and the doctor had had to find a polite way to say that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her feet. She’d thought maybe it was an extra bone that sent her off balance, or scoliosis, or literally anything, but it wasn’t. She’s just clumsy.

Sometimes she feels like, and this is going to sound crazy so bare with her, but she feels like she’s being pushed or pulled. Usually it’s when she isn’t falling, like when she manages to catch herself it feels like someone else did it, but sometimes she swears there’s an invisible foot in front of her.

That day continues like the rest and she ends up with a sore ankle, a sore arm and a broken pencil.

“Fucking, fuck,” Camila mumbles as she pushes her way through her door and stumbles on the frame, dropping her bag on her desk and making her way over to her bed. “My arm fucking hurts and my fucking favorite fucking pencil is fucking broken and-” she’s had a bad day.

“Hey, at least you didn’t break your pencil and your arm,” and yikes, okay it gets worse with the random voice and-

“Oh my god!” Camila yells, hopping back in place only to be caught by the cold arms and brought down to sit slowly on the bed to avoid injury.

“Holy shit did you just hear me?” the… thing asks, voice shocked but amused, also raspy and hot as fuck but Camila can’t really think about that right now.

And like, she knows it’s not a thing it’s a ghost, it looks like a ghost and a girl shaped ghost and Camila can’t see the ghost after a second because she passes out.

“Camila? Camz, c'mon wake up,” she hears a soft voice as she wakes up, head cushioned on her pillows and warmth covering one side of her body, cold covering the other.

“Five more minutes,” Camila groans out, burying her face into the pillow more. Her mom’s always annoying like this, no matter how many times she says she’s getting up she doesn’t leave her alone.

“Camila you’ve been…” and wait, that’s not her mom’s voice, and the cold on her back is shifting and-’

“Holy shit,” she’s upright, and stiff and turns to face the, wait it’s a normal girl. “Okay I don’t wanna be rude,” Camila starts as she stares uncertainly at the girl staring back at her, “but who on earth are you?"

"Umm… that’s kind of a long story but I’m Lauren,” she replies and Camila remembers now what she’d seen before when the light catches Lauren’s face and she’s almost translucent.

“You’re umm… you’re kind of like glowing,” Camila says, and she gulps too because she’s kind of scared as to who’s sitting in her room and knows her name and she thought she was a ghost earlier but maybe she was just a girl following her around and maybe that’s worse than a ghost but she’s unsure and the girl is yet to answer and-

“It happens sometimes,” she shrugs and Camila nods like an idiot. She’s always been hopeless around pretty people, even if she isn’t sure if they are a people.

“So… you’re Lauren,” Camila continues after another moment of silence, and if she wasn’t such a sucker for a pretty girl in her bed (as if that’s ever happened before), then she’d be freaking out over the stranger, but she’s somehow calm around Lauren.

All Lauren offers up is a nod as she sits up a little bit in the bed so Camila matches her position before continuing, trying to get to the bottom of this without being rude (why does she care, this is literally a stranger in her room that just appeared and what the hecking heck?).

“And you’re here because..?” she asks and like, now Lauren looks kind of uncertain but she begins to speak so Camila begins to listen.

“Well this is kind of hard to explain… I’ve been here for a while, kind of at least, and like I guess you can hear me now? And see me now? I don’t know why that is but-”

“Wait wait wait, are you like,” and Camila pauses, eyes wide as she looks around the room as if checking for anyone else before continuing, “are you a ghost?"

Lauren once again answer with a nod, and Camila should be freaking out but instead she wonders why this girl doesn’t seem to talk too much.

"You’ve been here for a while…” Camila says finally and it’s after a few minutes maybe of just looking at Lauren with Lauren looking back. She isn’t going to freak out, but Lauren seemed to be waiting for it. “Like as in in my room?” Camila asks with raised eyebrows and like, she shouldn’t be wondering how many times this ghost has seen her naked but she is because her priorities are mixed up.

“Umm, well more like with you? Yeah I’ve been with you, so wherever you are,” Lauren answers and Camila should once again be scared but she is flattered? Seriously? Camila get your shit together. "Or like, in some cases just somewhere close,“ Lauren adds and so Camila nods again, not sure what to make of the information. Lauren didn’t really give a reasoning for following Camila but she feels a little bit awkward asking.

"So you’re like… my personal ghost? Camila asks anyways after a moment because she is awkward so who cares. Her face still portrays her shock but now it’s slightly less terrified, more intrigued.

"Not exactly,” Lauren answers with a shrug as she perches on Camila’s bed. “I don’t have to follow you around or whatever but you’re like, really entertaining to be around - not in a bad way, of course. Or like, a creepy way, hopefully,” Camila’s kind of shocked that ghost can blush but yup this ghost is blushing and it’s adorable.

“I used to go to your school and I saw you once when I was visiting,” Lauren continues and Camila chooses to ignore thinking the ghost is cute. “You like… you kinda fell down the stairs a little bit,” she offers up but Camila falls down the stairs like, basically every day so that doesn’t help clarify when. “It would’ve been a bad fall and um… I caught you. I pushed you back up and I steadied you and I’ve been tagging along ever since,” she concludes, and Camila notices her tone switch a little bit when she brings up the fall but she hides it easily and Camila supposes she can ignore that too.

“Okay,” Camila nods and like, it’s okay, she’s surprisingly fine with this girl in her room because she seems cool, and there’s something that feels oddly comforting about her, even if she’s a ghost and Camila’s been afraid of ghosts since she was six and she swore her house was haunted.

But this ghost seems nice, different, so she just talks to her and it starts from there.

“I can’t fucking believe you’ve been purposely making me look stupid in front of Dinah for all these months,” Camila spits, aggressively pulling her feet up in her chair and not pulling lout the homework she told Lauren she’d start this period. Lauren laughs in response. “You know I went to a legitimate doctor, right? Like I was-”

“God yeah, that was the best shit ever Camz, I almost cracked when I saw how upset you were but it was too funny to see you stumbling all day,” Lauren laughs remembering dying laughing in the doctors office when Camila found out she was perfectly healthy, just awful at walking in a straight line.

“You purposely tried to hurt me,” Camila accused, crossing her arms and pouting like a child making Lauren laugh even harder.

“No, no, absolutely not, I may have played sometimes, but I saved you from yourself so may times because I may have enhanced it,but you;re clumsy enough on your own,” Lauren argues and Camila doesn’t really have an argument so she just pouts until she wants to talk agh, which is ten minutes later. (Girl sure knows how to pout).

“Hey Lo,” Camila bugs for the twelfth time today alone. Lauren would bet money, you know if she used money, that it’s another ghost joke. “What do you call a ghost who scares chickens?” and yup, it’s another ghost joke.

“I don’t know Camz, what do you call a ghost who scares chickens?” she plays along, because it’s Camila, and Lauren will listen to her jokes all the time, but seriously? It’s first period and everybody in the library probably thinks Camila is a psychopath talking to herself, and Lauren kind of wants a nap, sick of having to come to school with her so early.

“A poultry-ghost! Get it?” Camila exclaims, whisper shouts, and Lauren can’t stifle a laugh because okay yeah, good one.

“Don’t you have calculus to be doing?” Lauren asks after she chuckles a little bit an Camila seems smug to have made her laugh again (obviously not aware yet that Lauren will laugh at everything she says).

“Can you do it for me? Since you’re all old shouldn’t you be good at math?” she asks and pulls her bag up to her lap but doesn’t open it. That’s enough progress in her mind for at least twenty minutes.

“Nope,” Lauren replies, propping her feet up on Camila’s arm rest. “I only made it to junior year so pre calc is all I got, and come on, who remembers that shit forty years later?” and Camila’s eyes shoot open because one, she just found out how old Lauren was when she died and she found out when it was and Lauren is… older than her mom? She has a crush on someone - scratch that - a fusing ghost that’s older than her mother? Actually it’s Lauren so she’s over it already, but it’s still a shock.

They’d been hanging out, as in Camila had been able to see Lauren and communicate with her for a few weeks now. The two clicked fast, especially since both were harboring crushes and one (Camila, duh) was completely shameless about it.

She’d somehow gotten pretty close to having a life mate, someone always with her and scaring her and, Camila found out she was right about being pushed and pulled sometimes because now she felt even more clearly the hands either pulling her upright or jokingly making her stumble.

It’d been hard at first to remember that she was the only one who saw Lauren, and Dinah probably thinks she’s insane at the amount of slip ups she’s had, but she got used to it after a few days.

In situations like these, she figures she can talk to Lauren quietly and people will assume she’s on bluetooth phone or something since everybody does that shit nowadays.

“Wait… is it like, offensive that I make ghost jokes?” Camila asks after a few moments of the two lost in thought and if Lauren could be heard by anyone else she’d be kicked out of the library for the loud laugh that escapes her lips at the question.

“No Camila,” she says midst laughing and Camila begins to giggle too at the thought of what she’d just said. “Do your math, babe,” Lauren press again and pushes Camila’s attention towards the bag and like, she’d called Camila pet names casually before and it’s like, she’s blushing mad hard.

She doesn’t mind that Lauren’s a ghost and Lauren doesn’t seem to mind that she’s a human.

They don’t really talk about that fact though, that Lauren’s a ghost. Other than those ghost jokes, that is. A few times it comes up though, and it always leaves both girls wondering about everything in the world as they know it.

“So do all ghosts like, haunt wherever they die or something?” Camila asks, head rolling off the bed as Lauren rubs gently down her back, hoping she’ll fall back asleep so Lauren can catch some too. She loves talking to Camila, don’t get her wrong, but the girl doesn’t shut up.

“No they do not,” she replies anyways. she could’ve pretended to be asleep, but she doesn’t. “Usually they move onto… whatever it is that they move onto."

It’s silent for another moment and Lauren thinks maybe she’s finally- "So why haven’t you gone wherever it is that you’ll go?"

She sighs, not because of Camila still being awake, that’s fine actually because now the girl is turned so her head is lolling onto Lauren’s shoulder instead of off the bed and it’s kind of the most comforting thing she’s felt in forty years.

She sighs because she doesn’t know. She’s been trying to move on ever since her accident happened. She’s been desperately doing acts of good deeds for strangers (for example catching a pretty girl whenever she falls over the stairs) but nothing seems to be working. t’s not that Lauren isn’t loving Earth right now because she is, Earth with Camila is the bestest. She’s just really, really confused on what she’s supposed to be doing.

Lauren misses her mom. She’s gotten to see her once since she died, the night her mom died, and it was the reunion she’d hoped for, but when she woke up the next day her mother was gone and she was still here.

Here. She doesn’t even know where here is. Nobody on earth can see her or hear her or notice her other than Camila (which hey, she could be cheesy and say Camila is her whole world so technically the world can but nope nope no cheese right now) so she doesn’t consider herself a resident of this planet, but where?

Lauren has interacted with other ghosts, and sometimes she’s seen them just as lost as herself, but she’s never seen a trick on how to escape this never ending loop of being stranded here.

She has no clue why she’s still here. (That’s not true, she has her own cheesy, typical movie ideas, but she’s really hoping whatever higher power is holding her hostage isn’t as cliche as she is [A/N i totally am ;))))]).

"I’m not sure yet,” she replies, and Camila’s asleep, she knows it since she took too long to reply, but now she can’t stop thinking enough to sleep.

Camila finally fins out what happened to Lauren a few months into spending basically every waking moment and non waking moment with her.

It was a bad day, as in Camila failed a test and she tripped on a step and nobody caught her and there was a fire alarm in third period, which is her study so she didn’t get to do her homework, and Lauren had been missing since then.

She’s concerned, yeah, but she was kind of used to Lauren randomly disappearing and coming back so she tried to focus on school.

When Lauren doesn’t catch up to her after last period on her way walking home, she kind of does start to panic and does a u turn. She feels like she should check the school again, she thinks it’s crush intuition.

She finds Lauren sat on a staircase. It’s one of the back ones and it takes Camila about half an hour of wandering aimlessly to find her, but when she does she’s glad she looked because the girl looks defeated.

“Lauren?” She asks, nervous to approach, but less nervous and more concerned when she gets closer and Camila can see how sad she looks.

“It was right here,” Lauren says, voice soft and eyes focused on the ground next to her as Camila hesitantly approaches. “It was during one of those bomb scares during the Vietnam War… we’d been having a lot of them lately but they were yet to be really perfected and well… I tripped and nobody stopped…” she trails off, letting Camila take a moment to understand what’s been said, to connect the faint bruises littering Lauren’s body.

She was trampled.

She was tramped and killed and she must have been sitting here since the alarms went off earlier and Camila’s heart breaks thinking of how terrified Lauren must have been then and now.

“Lauren…” she starts, but stops. She can’t say anything, there isn’t anything to say. This will never be okay that tho girl, innocent and pure and beautiful and everything Camila admires in a person, this girl never got to experience life. Life never got to experience her.

She’s dead, she’s not going to come back and Camila is grateful that at least she gets to be with Lauren, but nobody else will and it breaks her heart to think of such a beautiful soul (BuyBeautifulSoulbyJesseMccartneyoniTunes) not being shared with the world.

“I’m fine now,” Lauren cuts in the silence, not wanting Camila to think she has to say something bold. she knows the younger girl cares, can feel it and see it on her face and she’s grateful. “It took me a while but I’m fine, I’m happy as I am and… I may have missed a lot but I’ve also gotten to see a lot as well."

That’s when Camila starts to notice that she’s beginning to fall for Lauren, if she were to mark the point it would be right then.

They get closer.

They get closer and everything is going great but then Camila kind of ruins it for a second.

It’s on a movie night. They’re watching The Last Five Years because Camila claims it’s the best thing in the world and Lauren likes it but she can’t get over what a douche bag the main guy is and she spends the whole movie critiquing him, and Camila kind of loves how passionate Lauren is about everything, how she’s so lively for someone who technically isn’t alive.

She’s ranting, passionately but "If I didn’t Believe in you” is about to come on and Camila will be damned if she misses this song, so she shushes Lauren.

When she turns to shush her she’s so close though, sos close that her eyes shine and her lips are just right there and Camila leans in without a second thought.

Lauren let’s her kiss her.

When their lips touch Camila swears she’s never felt anything so amazing in her life.

It’s soft, slow, probably only a few seconds but Camila can see everything good and happy about everything she’s ever experienced in the kiss.

Lauren sees everything she remembers life being and pulls away before she can question what it means. Her eyes meet Camila’s eyelids, fluttered closed and her face is covered in a light blushed and she’s the most beautiful thing Lauren has ever seen and she thinks she might be in love with her.

Then brown eyes open up and Lauren sees all the life that she’s sure is lacking in her own.

And so she runs.

It takes her a while and she isn’t quite sure where she’s going but she ends up where she always ends up, the staircase that ended her old life (and that started her new one, but she doesn’t think about that yet).

She feels like she’s going insane. She should’ve left as soon as Camila could see her because she’s dead. She’s dead and Camila is alive, so alive and she can’t pull her into this underworld with her.

But everything before Camila was so dark, and now it;s not, every day with her becomes brighter and she’s never been willing to get so hurt but she’s put her whole self into Camila’s hand, trusting her to hold her as close as possible.

She doesn’t want her to be put into danger, or risk being hurt, but she does want Camila to love her.

She thinks maybe she might, and when Camila turns the corner of the hallway, out of breath and so uncoordinated and out of shape but, it looks like she ran for Lauren and Lauren is officially head over heels.

“That transporting thing…” Camila says between pants, slowly approaching Lauren who looks more panicked than she ever has. “… that’s unfair, you know I can’t do that,” she finishes and if Lauren weren’t so torn she’d coo at how adorable Camila is.

“Camila we can’t-”

“We can Lauren, we can and we do,” Camila cuts her off and Lauren flinches at the harshness of her voice, Camila seems to realize this as she calms herself before continuing, “we’ve been ignoring it but I’m done with that. I really like you Lauren, and I know you feel the same way and I’m sick of not acting on it.”

“You shouldn’t feel that way, we shouldn’t feel this way,” Lauren stresses, running a hand through her hair as she paces back and forth,avoiding contact with Camila who’s anxiously watching her, trying to stop her ranting but failing to do so. “I’m dead Camila, I’m dead and I’m old and I’ll probably be gone by the time-”

“Shut the fuck up!” Camila finally completely interrupts, shocking the older girl by being demanding. “Just stop for a minute Lo, look at me for a minute,” she says and she approaches the older girl gently, finally having stopped her pacing and reaches for her hands.

They’re cold when she holds them, so she holds them tighter and tries her hardest to make Lauren feel as warm as her.

Lauren lets her hold her hands but she can’t look up. She’s trying to resist, but Camila’s touch makes her feel things she’s never felt before. She feels safe, happy, for once not dead inside and out.

“Lauren look at me,” Camila says again, and it’s soft, demanding but soft and gentle and when Lauren looks up Camila’s eyes are so soft and caring and beautiful and it’s so Camila.

“I don’t care,” Camila finally says slowly. “I don’t care if I might wake up one day to an empty bed and no note. I don’t care that I could lose you in a heartbeat if something finally changes. I don’t care that my dog will continue to bark at you whenever we go anywhere. I don’t care that you’re like forty years older than me either, I’m fucking in love with you Lauren Jauregui.

"I don’t care that I can’t introduce you to my parents and I don’t care that my friends are always going to think I’m a single weirdo, and I don’t care that sex is going to be freezing and I don’t care that you’re a fucking ghost. I just care about you, that’s it Lauren. That’s all there is for me, I care about you so much that it feels like I’ll die if I don’t get to show you for at least a little while."

She’s at aloes of words, Lauren doesn’t think she’s ever in her life and after life been so stunned and happy and grateful and suddenly she doesn’t care about any of it either, hell she doesn’t even care that she missed out on her old life because she’s found a new life in Camila.

"I love you too,” she says, and it takes a moment to come out, because she;s at a loss for words,a and she wanted to say something bold and romantic like Camila did, but all she has is that and it’s enough.

“I think I’m still here because I’m supposed to be loving you,” Lauren says, it’s one night years later and she’s still there and they’re still together and they’re happy and so so happy.

“I think you’re right,” Camila sighs, snuggling deeper into Lauren’s arms. “And I think I’m still here because you’re loving me."

Lauren feels more alive than she ever has next to Camila, and Camila feels the same.

#UPDATE #one shot #AU #slash #camren #romance fluff #submission #clumsy in love

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5hfanfiction · 7 years

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The Maid - Chapter 3

“Who is this Lauren?”, Dinah asked as she opened the door, but I got inside at lightning speed without answering her question. “Jesus! Calm down. Let’s go to my room and talk”

We went up the stairs to Dinah’s room and sat on the bed. This girl had been my best friend since we were 5 years old, she knew everything about me and always helped me to solve any mess I caused. I wouldn’t say she was the most responsible either, but she surely was less clumsy and had more self-control than me.

Dinah was studying business administration at my same university. Her parents owned a fair amount of restaurants spread all over Miami and she wanted to carry on the business.

“Ok, so what’s up? Spill it.” Dinah questioned excitedly as she looked at me.

“So, remember I told you I was going to be working as a maid for a rich woman my aunt used to work for. You know, doing house work and stuff.” I sighed and Dinah nodded eager to hear more. “Well, my boss is… she is fucking hot.”

“What! Wait, didn’t you say she was going to be some old lady? You like older woman now?”

“No.” I said as I rolled my eyes in response. “That’s the thing. I never expected her to look like that. She’s like super young, probably in her mid-twenties and she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, China.”

“Really? And she’s rich? Then what’s the problem, Mila. Get that”, she stuck her tongue out and did a little ‘hump the air’ dance.

“Dinah! I’m serious. I can’t lose this job.” I exclaimed as I threw a pillow at her.

“Ok, Ok. But, can I at least see why you’re acting so crazy about her”, she said as she opened the laptop that had been lying on her bed and started typing something. “What was her name?”

“Lauren. Lauren Jauregui.” I informed and stared at Dinah as she typed.

“Well, damn. Is that her!?” she gasped and turned her laptop around allowing me to appreciate a picture of my new boss posing in what it seemed to be a black dress that reveled some of her pale skin near her chest and legs.

////PHOTO/////

“Mhm”, I wasn’t able to utter any coherent sentence after seeing that picture.

“Wait, I think I’ve seen her before. She was in some magazine list of the 20 youngest billionaires in the US” Dinah remembered and then slapped my arm.

“Auch! What the fuck?” I rubbed my arm and looked at her surprised and a little angry.

“I’m talking to you! And close your mouth, you look like a horny teenage boy”.

“Shut up.” I fired back and then sighed. ”I just can’t help it. I mean, look at her”. I pointed at the picture.

“I know, like damn, she gets the riches and the bitches”

I smiled at my friend comment and slightly nodded because that statement was probably true. “Right. But that’s not all, she’s also super nice and polite, a little shy at times, but that makes her look even cuter. She’s just perfect….What I’m going to do?” I laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

“What the hell are you talking about Mila? This is great. You’re lucky.”

After hearing her comment, I quickly sat up. “Are you serious?” I asked in disbelief. “How can being attracted to my new billionaire boss be a good thing?”

“Emmm. One, she’s hot. Two, she’s rich. Three, she’s rich. Oh, and you said she was perfect so I don’t see what could be so bad about it, Mila.”

“Ok, first of all I don’t care about her money, you know I’m not like that” I explained.

“I was just joking” she rolled her eyes.

“And second, why are you acting like she is also interested?”

“Well, you’re cute and pretty popular with the ladies at college. I’m sure you could seduce her easily” she stated as she made a silly sexy face.

I chuckled at her and shook my head. “Maybe, but I don’t even know if she likes girls”.

“Like that has ever stopped you” she accused me.

I stared back at her with an ‘are you serious’ expression. “This is different, she’s my fucking boss, Cheechee”.

“So? Look, did you flirt with her at some point, because we both know that you are really flirty person, but how did she react?” she questioned.

“I didn’t flirt. I sort of like gawked at her with a dumb expression on my face because she was too perfect. I also, kind of stared at her ass, which by the way was huge, a couple of times but she didn’t notice, I think.” I confessed and Dinah looked at me with a disappointed look.

“Then, what about her? Did she checked you out or something?” she asked with furrowed brows as if she was interrogating me to solve a damn crime.

I looked up as I tried to remember the whole interaction between Miss Jauregui and me. “Emmm, I believe she did look at me a couple of times and helped me tie my cooking apron.” I confessed and Dinah raised her eyebrows.

“She wants you. You’re so blind sometimes, Chancho”.

“No, I really don’t think so, Dinah. She was super shy and probably was just trying to be nice. The whole situation was sort of awkward too” I responded with a skeptical look. “Perhaps, she caught me staring and felt uncomfortable…maybe she has a boyfriend and felt weird that her new female maid was staring at her like an idiot. And, oh my God, I kissed her check too, I forgot about that” I covered my face with both of my hands in embarrassment.

Dinah laughed at my nervousness. “I swear I’ve never seen you like this before.”

“Shush”

“Fine. So, when do we start the plan ‘seducing Miss Jauregui’?” she sked excitedly.

“Dinah, have you heard anything I just said. She’s out of my league”

“Not until she says so, Chanch. Why are you being so negative, you usually are super confident when approaching girls? And don’t tell me that it’s because she’s your boss and you feel intimidated, you literally flirted with my Calculus professor the other day”

I looked at her with an annoyed expression. “Dinah, just drop it. You’re supposed to be helping me.”

“I am helping you! You’re just being overdramatic and a little bitch” she fired back.

“What?”

“Stop being scared and do something. If you like someone you should act, Mila. Plus, you have never been so nervous and flustered about someone, you must like her a lot” she tried to convince me and I grunted.

“I don’t know”

“Come on, Chanch. What if you don’t do anything and then regret it years after. You don’t lose anything by trying. You obviously need to start approaching her slowly and discreetly find out if she’s with someone. I’m sure you know all this.” I stared at her as I analyzed her words and reflected on what I should do.

She definitely had a point, I needed to live without regrets. If I liked her, I needed to act and make sure I had no chance to then finally give up. I looked up and saw Dinah staring at me expectantly.

“Fine, I’ll try and see if I stand a chance”, I gave in and closed my eyes, already feeling a little of regret.

“Yes! I bet from here to three months you will be dating her.” I just shook my head as a response to her excitement.

I spent the rest of my day with Dinah, we decided to go out to the beach and talk some more, but the conversation pretty much consisted in Dinah interrogating me about what happened at Miss Jauregui’s house. When the sun started to hide behind the horizon and some stars made themselves present in the sky we said goodbye to each other and headed to our respective homes. Dinah said she couldn’t go out and do something fun that night because she had some exams on Monday, so obviously I accepted, I wasn’t in the mood for partying anyways.

After arriving home and answering my mom questions about how my first day as a maid had went, I excused myself from the dinner table and went up the stairs to my room. I lied on my bed as I closed my eyes, it had been a really busy day and I was pretty exhausted. Nevertheless, I decided to log into twitter and instagram for some minutes before going to bed. As I appreciated some pictures my friends from college had uploaded I came up with an idea.

I typed ‘Lauren Jauregui’ and started studying the results, I tapped the first account on the list and immediately several pictures appeared on my iPhone screen. It was definitely her account, she had plenty of followers, but didn’t upload much. Most of the pictures were aesthetic captures of different natural scenarios and politically charged ones, the rest were either selfies or pics with friends and, what I assumed to be, co-workers.

Based on what she published and her little descriptions I could tell she was a really intelligent and informed woman, she wasn’t afraid of speaking her mind and I liked that. She was really good with words and you could sense her confidence through her statements, which called my attention because she had behaved really shy back in her house, still managed to intimidate me though.

When I finished stalking my new boss on social media, I decided to put my pj’s on and get some sleep. Apparently, it was easier said than done, because I spent three hours moving around trying to find a comfortable position that could help me fall asleep. My mind was drowning in thoughts and memories of Miss Jauregui. I depicted every little detail about her in my head, her warm smile; her lips that seemed to be calling mine; her eyes that looked at me so shy and inviting; and her voice that enchanted and spoke to me in the most alluring way.

My eyes started closing slowly and I felt my body giving up to sleep, but my mind was active and drowning with her.

Lauren’s POV

I was sitting in my office revising some papers for work, or at least trying to, because my mind couldn’t really focus on anything besides what had happened earlier. I spent the entire afternoon reviving the small conversations and interactions I had shared with Camila and I couldn’t help it, there was something special about her that charmed me no matter my efforts to avoid it.

The kiss she gave me had triggered all kinds of reactions in my body, even when it had only been a brief contact on my check. When I saw her leaning in, I couldn’t move, my body didn’t respond to any of my orders, and my gaze had been constantly switching between her pink lips and warm eyes. After feeling her full lips against my check, my heart started pounding fast and felt some weird tickling sensation at the pit of my stomach.

I made myself stop thinking about my new maid and started to actually prepare stuff for work. When I finished organizing everything, I headed to the kitchen because I needed something to eat, urgently. When I opened the refrigerator I noticed that there were some glass food storage containers stuffed with, what it seemed to be, meat and rice. They were organized by the color of their lids at the top shelf; I couldn’t contain my smile. Camila had worked really hard that day and had still managed to make some extra food for me to eat the days she wouldn’t be coming.

I started preparing the food Camila had left and put some rice and a piece of stake on a plate. After some minutes, I took my plate out of the microwave and sat at my usual spot at the dinner table. I contemplated the empty living room of my house as I listened to the sound of the waves crushing, I usually didn’t care about eating or being alone in general, but right now I wished someone would keep me company and maybe enjoy the meal together.

The first person that came to mind was Camila, it would be nice if she was here right now so that we could talk about interesting topics like we did at lunch. Thanks to our conversations I had found out that we had lot in common and that she was really cultured and intelligent woman, she also understood my struggling at talking or socializing with her, since I noticed her trying to make me feel comfortable, even when we were in my house and I’m her boss.

I always tend to stay quiet when I’m in a meeting or gathering with a large group of people and just listen to whatever nonsense they talk about, but with Camila, after some awkward first attempts, the conversation started to flow freely. I think it was also due to how our minds complemented each other and how we always found mores issues and topics to discuss, not matter how mundane.

Suddenly, I realized how much time I had spent thinking about Camila, and it really confused me considering I don’t usually think about someone else for more than two minutes when choosing Christmas presents. I had always considered myself to be a rather cold-hearted person, not in the sense that I would hurt someone and not care about it at all, but mainly in relation to my “love” life. I didn’t believe in love, for me that was people confusing desire and affection together, and if it actually existed, I was probably not capable of feeling it.

Camila had called my attention, there was no denying in that. She had managed to captivate me like no other. This must be what people called desire or passion, because Camila had attracted me with every single aspect of her body and this whole fascination was new to me.

At work parties, I was always approached by numerous people, but never gave give them a second look and Normani would scream at me for hours about it. Lauren, she was really hot or Lauren, you could’ve had a great night of sex with him. I couldn’t care less about that shit, having a fifteen minutes long mediocre sex with a drunk stranger didn’t sound appealing at all to me, regardless of how ‘hot’ Mani described them to be.

However, as irresponsible as it sounded, I could see myself having a sexual encounter with Camila, which doesn’t mean that I would actually make it happen. She was my employee and the relationship we ought to share was strictly professional. I just needed to keep my dirty little secret hidden and buried in the deepest corners of my mind.

——————–

“Good morning, Lauren”, Normani said as she opened my office door at Jauregui’s Coorporation at 10 a.m. in a Monday. “Did you have a nice weekend?”

“Emmm…yeah, like always.”

“So it wasn’t a good weekend.” She joked and I rolled my eyes. “When are you going to accept going out with me and go clubbing?”

“When I start to enjoy going, which would probably be….never” I answered as I looked at the news in my laptop. Now it was Normani’s turn to roll her eyes and I smiled in response.

“Lauren, I’m serious. We can go out and maybe find you some boy or girl just as boring as you”.

“Why do you assume I want someone?” I questioned as I brought a cup of Starbucks coffee to my lips.

“I’m not saying that, what I mean is that you really NEED someone.” She explained. “Like, you can’t just keep on living only using the pink vibrator I got you”

I almost chocked on my coffee and started coughing. I looked at her as my hand rested on my chest and she looked back at me with a hint of entertainment in her eyes.

“Oh my God! Mani, shut up. And what makes you think I’ve used it?” I asked with difficulty as I tried to get some air into my lungs.

“Oh please. You obviously had. We’re human, therefore we are curious and horny. A girl has needs, right?” she asked.

I didn’t answer anything and just stared at her trying not to react to her accusations, because what she had said was nothing but the truth. I had used the pink toy, multiple times actually. As she had put it, a girl had needs.

“See” she raised her eyebrows with a superior look.

I felt my cheeks get warm and I looked away from her gaze.

“Awww, little Lauren is embarrassed”.

“Shut up or I’m firing you” I stated as I pretended to be mad and turned back to my laptop screen.

“Yeah, right. Whatever. I need to go back to work”

“You go and do that. That’s what I’m paying you for” I joked.

My conversations with Normani were always like this, we basically made fun of each other and joked around, but with no bad intentions. She was the closest thing to a friend I have ever had, she knew what I liked and hated and how to deal with me in different sorts of situations. Even if most of the time I rejected her invitations to go out to parties, I really cared about her, but I wouldn’t confess that out loud.

I knew Normani also worried about me, hence why she has always tried to play cupid and look for a way to pair me up with someone. She was always saying that I deserved someone good to spend the rest of my life with or at least someone to have sex and get rid of the stress that made me grumpy in the mornings.

My friendship with Normani was one of the most precious things I had and I couldn’t even imagine how my life would be without her, if it already was pretty unamusing and boring.

When lunch hour came Normani and I went to the restaurant we frequented, it was really good and served lots of sea food and Cuban delicacies. It wasn’t anything fancy or extravagant, usually the most delicious foods were served at the more economic establishments.

As we waited I felt my phone vibrate inside my purse so I started to look for it with difficulty as I tried to avoid grabbing any other unnecessary thing I carried with me. When I finally found it, I turned it around and stared at the screen, the name that appeared caught me by surprise. ‘Camila Cabello’ I opened my eyes in surprise and started to panic, my index finger moved unsteadily towards the screen. I tried not to overthink the situation anymore and quickly unlocked the call as I brought the phone to my ear.

When I raised my head again, Normani had her eyebrow furrowed and she showed both confusion and interest.

“Hello?”

“H-hi, sorry to disturb you, Miss Jauregui”

“No, you aren’t disturbing, I’m just eating lunch” I explained and Normani studied my face in detail.

“Oh, ok. I’m just calling because I think I left my student ID in your house the other day. Maybe it fell out my purse and I didn’t notice, today when I tried to enter the university’s library I realized I didn’t have it”, Camila informed with a little concern present in her voice.

“Oh”, I said and internally slapped myself for being so awkward. “I really haven’t looked around the house so attentively since you left the other day, but when I get home I’ll look for it”. I turned to my friend and her eyes were opened in shock, but I just looked down and started playing with my napkin as I waited for Camila’s response.

“Thank you so much, Miss Jauregui. It’s really not that serious, but it’s just a hassle to get a new one so I hope it is somewhere inside your house”

“It’s really nothing. When I get home I’ll look for it”, I said as I nervously drummed my fingers on the table.

“Wouldn’t it be better for me to go and look for it myself, you don’t have to. Besides, it was my mistake”

“Oh, I don’t know. I mean, if you want to. Aren’t you busy with university stuff?”

“Not really, this week is pretty chill. So…emmm. Is it okay if I get there at seven?

“Yeah, yeah. You have your keys, right?”

“Yep”

“Ok…bye, I guess?” I said doubtfully.

“Yes, bye Miss Jauregui, sorry for bothering you”

“Don’t worry about it. Have a nice day, Camila”

And on that note, I ended the call and breathed out some air that had been trapped in my lungs since I had saw my maid’s name appear on my phone screen.

“Ok, what the hell was that, Lauren?” Normani questioned with a mixture of confusion and surprise.

“What was what?” I asked as I took a sip of my mango juice.

“Oh, girl don’t even try it. Who’s Camila?”

“My new maid” I responded calmly as we waited for our food.

“Your new maid?” she furrowed her brows in confusion.

“Yes, Normani. My new maid.”

“What happened to Señora Maria?”, she looked really worried now.

“She had some health problems and had to quit. Nothing serious, but it was too much work for someone her age”.

“And why are you telling me this just now?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think you would care”

“I obviously care, Lauren. You need to tell me about things, I’m your friend and I care about what happens to you, stupid” she crumped her napkin into a ball and threw it at me. I was fast enough and grabbed it before it hit my face. I looked back at my friend, but didn’t say anything in response, I just couldn’t utter any words that reflected my sentiments towards her. Normani sensed my internal conflict and awkwardness, so she opened her mouth to speak again.

“But, whatever. What’s going on with this Camila?”

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “Nothing?”

“Yeah, right. You were literally shaking when you talked to her a few seconds ago. I’ve never seen you so flustered before, Jauregui” she insisted wiggling her eyebrows. I only huffed at her snarky comments.

“Is she cute?”

“What is this obsession you have with trying to pair me up with people?” I fired back, avoiding her question. But, as a result from her interrogatory, memories of Camila invaded my mind. Yeah, she was really beautiful, I thought to myself. She possessed something really unique, and maybe some people wouldn’t see anything special about her looks, but her beauty was hypnotizing, at least for me.

“I just want you to be happy with someone, because even when you are a pain in the ass sometimes, you deserve someone as amazing as you to share your life with”. I made a tight smile because I knew that would probably never happen. I was incapable of loving someone, I didn’t feel anything and I would never force myself to feel again like I did back in college.

Normani kept bugging me about Camila, telling me that I should try and see if I had a shot with her for the rest of our Lunch break. After eating, we went back to the building and I immersed myself in work, but I couldn’t help feeling nervous or anxious for some reason.

After reading like a thousand new ideas for softwares and discussing future projects for the company with our creative team, I was free to go back home. I organized everything in my desk and grabbed my purse. I got out of my office rather quickly and said goodbye to Normani.

I got inside my black Bentley Bentayga and drove out of the company’s parking lot. When a red light signaled the cars to stop I took a hold of my phone and selected Kehlani’s Everything Is Yours and turned the volume up, I needed to keep my mind distracted and not think about Camila’s visit. My trips were always like this, I loved music and these little rides allowed me to blast out my favorite songs freely, it helped me soothe my anger when there was some eternal traffic jam.

I parked my car and stared at my watched, which marked 7:45 p.m. I hoped out of my black jeep and head to the main door as I took my keys out. When I entered the house, I started looking everywhere to see if Camila was still here, but I didn’t see her. The first room I always walked to when I arrived home was the kitchen, so that’s where I went. I opened the refrigerator and took a can of beer, I needed something to refresh myself because it was pretty hot in Miami that afternoon.

I turned around and saw Camila approaching me cautiously, she was wearing some jean shorts and a white crop top that left her stomach muscles exposed. I gave her a polite smile and tried to not allow my eyes to wander through her body anymore.

“Hi”

“Hello” she said with a shy expression. “Any luck?” I asked as I took a sip of my beer.

She opened her mouth, but didn’t answer because the bell of my house interrupted her actions. I felt sort of surprised and confused, who could be calling at my door at this hour. The mailman?

“Excuse me” I pardoned myself and headed to the main entrance. I grabbed the handle and opened the door to found a smiling Normani standing on the other side.

“Hi. So, I thought it would be nice to have dinner together. I bought sushi” she confessed excitedly.

What the hell was she going here? Deep inside, I knew she was doing this on purpose, because she knew Camila was going to be there and Normani couldn’t compete against her curiosity. Before I realized she was already stepping inside of the house. Oh boy, this was going to be something.

#UPDATE #series #AU #camren #humour #romance fluff #submission #The Maid

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5hfanfiction · 8 years

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Come Back, Be Here - Chapter 12

Camila shoves heavy loads of make up on her face in attempt to cover up the still visible bruising. Lauren just dropped her back off at Austin’s about 2 hours ago and Dinah texted her saying she would be by in an hour.

“Why won’t you go away.” Camila mutters as she tries desperately to hide the bruising around her eyes. After coming to the realization that regular make up isn’t going to cut it, she decides to bust out the tattoo concealer she bought a couple of days ago when she realized that it would probably be weeks before the bruising faded completely. Luckily, it does the trick and so Camila finishes putting on the rest of her make up and then slips on the long-sleeve dress she dug out of her closet. The royal blue sequin dress is cute and it covers the bruises lining her arms so it's a win win.

As soon as she gets her heels on, she hears her phone ding and opens a text from Dinah saying that they are all waiting in the drive way. She quickly makes her way outside and smiles when she sees all her friends piled into Dinah’s car. Since Mani is occupying the front seat, she opts for sliding in on the left side.

“Chanch!” Dinah shouts as soon as Camila enters. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“Cheech it was only like 3 days.” Camila chuckles before turning to lock eyes with the green ones that haven’t left her body since she entered the vehicle. “Hi, Lo.”

A smile immediately tugs at Lauren’s lips. “Hey, Camz. You look great.” The green-eyed girl settles with great after deciding that fucking sexy isn’t really appropriate.

“Not so bad yourself, Jauregui.” Camila smiles before starting to sing along to the Beyoncé song that Dinah just turned on.

As soon as they walk up to the club, all eyes are on all five of the girls. Dinah grabs Normani’s hand, a subtle gesture that tells all the guys and girls to back off. Lauren just walks alongside the girl in the blue dress, her hand brushing Camila’s every couple of steps.

“Laur, you wanna drink or drive tonight?” Dinah turns around to face the brunette as they wait in line to get their ID’s checked.

“I’ll drive.” Lauren shrugs nonchalantly. She used to get hammered during her college years, but that got old really fast. Plus, meeting Camila made her change all her ways. She found out really soon that the girl was a light weight and an in-denial drunk. When they’d go out, Camila would be wasted after two shots, but would claim she was sober enough to drive them home. Lauren was always terrified if she got drunk and let her guard down that Camila would get hurt somehow and she would never forgive herself for that.

So tonight, just like she has many other times before, she cuts herself off after one Angry Orchard. Plus, not getting drunk means she has more calories to waste on hamburgers and fries. She’s realized that those taste better than beer anyway.

The young Latina and Polynesian take two shots a piece before sprinting to the dance floor while the other three girls opt to stay at the booth and watch their stuff. Lauren laughs as she watches Dinah and Camila dance their hearts out. All three girl almost choke on their drinks when Camila and Dinah start doing a synchronized dance when “JuJu On That Beat” comes on. After the song is over, Dinah drags Camila over to the bar to order them more shots.

“Four shots of vodka please.” The brunette leans on the bar. The bartender nods and retreats to the other end of the bar to grab a bottle.

“Uh, Chanch?” Dinah spins Camila around so she is facing the booth the other girls are occupying. Camila notices that is a girl is currently attempting to sit on Lauren’s lap. The blonde stranger has her arm wrapped around Lauren’s neck and is practically sitting on top of her. Camila watches Lauren pry the arm away from her neck only to have the girl put it right back in the same spot.

“Four shots.” Camila hears the bartender say and she blindly reaches beside her to grab a shot, her eyes still trained on the blonde and brunette across the bar. She downs the first show and slams the glass down on the bar before reaching for the other and doing the same. After the liquid courage, she makes her way over to the booth and stands behind it. The blonde whispers in Lauren’s ear and Camila vaguely hears her say “I don’t see your girl anywhere.”

“Baby! Let’s go dance!” Camila finally opens her mouth and Lauren immediately scans the room for Austin, having heard Camila shout the pet name. When she doesn’t see him, she allows her eyes to fall on Camila. When the older brunette sees the chocolate eyes trained on her, her heart goes ballistic.

“Who are you?” The blonde slurs/

“Her girl.” Camila answers while jerking Lauren away, which causes the blonde to fall off the booth and collide with the floor. The young Latina doesn’t give the girl a second glance, but instead drags Lauren to the dance floor. She hears Dinah yell “Get yo girl Chanch” and she rolls her eyes, a smirk gracing her features. When they finally reach the middle of the dance floor, the brown-eyed girl turns to a confused, yet slightly amused green-eyed girl. “You look like you needed some help back there.” She slurs.

“I did. Thanks, Camz.” Lauren offers the girl a flushed smile.

“No problem.” The younger girl shrugs. “Since we are out here, we might as well dance.”

Before Lauren can answer, Camila turns around and places her backside into the older girl’s front. She grabs the pale hands behind her and wraps them around her own waist. As the music picks up, Camila grinds her body into Lauren’s and the green-eyed girl is on the verge of passing out from excitement. After, getting over the initial shock of what is happening, she tightens her grip on Camila’s waist and pulls her impossibly closer to her.

Between the loud music and her heart beating loudly in her ears, she can’t hear anything, but she can feel Camila moving sensually against her and that’s all that matters. The drunk Latina runs her hands up and down Lauren’s forearms before interlacing her hands with the pale ones wrapped around her waist. Lauren’s heart soars when she feels Camila slide her fingers between her own. They dance for a couple of more songs before Camila unattaches herself from the older girl. Lauren frowns momentarily from the loss of contact, but the smile returns to her features as soon as Camila wraps her arms around her neck. The drunk brunette leans in and places her lips by Lauren’s ear.

“I love this song.” She whispers, her words slurred. The older girl immediately shivers when the hot breath hits her ear. Before Lauren can reply, Camila leans back slightly and Lauren’s breath hitches when she realizes how close their faces are. The green-eyed girl wants nothing more than to close the gap between them and take her wife’s plump lips in her own, but the smell of vodka on Camila’s breath is strong. Lauren wants to kiss her more than anything, but she can’t do it when the younger girl is drunk.

As the older Latina is chastising herself for even considering kissing Camila when she’s intoxicated, she feels soft lips press against hers. Lauren’s body feels like it has just been set on fire and every fiber in her being wants to kiss back, but she knows she can’t. Not like this.

So Lauren doesn’t move her lips, but instead places her hands on Camila’s shoulders and slowly pushes her back. “Camz, I can’t.” She whispers as her eyes scan the dazed and confused brown eyes in front of her.

Embarrassment floods through Camila and she takes a step back from the girl she just drunkenly kissed. When she feels tears start to well up in her eyes, she quickly side steps Lauren and makes her way off of the dance floor.

When Lauren registers what’s happening, she immediately spins around and grabs Camila’s arm to stop her. She effectively spins the girl around and when she sees the tears streaming down the tanned cheeks, her heart breaks.

“Camz hey don’t cry, baby.” Lauren immediately cups her cheeks and wipes the tears that are racing down her cheeks. “I just can’t-”

“I get it.” Camila cuts her off as she removes the pale hands from her face and keeps walking away.

“Camila!” The green-eyed girl yells, but the younger girl just continues walking.

The young brunette searches the crowd until she finds Dinah. “Cheechee, can I have the keys? I’m going to the car.” Camila asks the Polynesian. Dinah, too wrapped up in her fiance, hands Camila the keys. With the keys in tow, the drunk brunette stumbles out of the bar and heads for the car.

“Why the fuck did you have to do that Camila?” The brunette chastises herself as she opens up the car door and slides in. She is utterly humiliated and embarrassed and she just wants to go home. Not in her right mind, she quickly cranks up the car and puts it in drive. Deep down she knows that she shouldn’t drive, but right now she’s too upset to care.

Lauren searches the night club and finally finds Dinah lip-locking on the dance floor with Normani. “Dinah, have you seen Camz?” She taps the Polynesian on the shoulder.

“Yeah I gave her the keys she wasn’t feeling well or something.” She admits and Lauren’s eyes go wide.

“Dinah she was fucking drunk and upset! Why would you do that?” Lauren runs her fingers through her hair before sprinting toward the exit. As soon as she gets outside, she sees Dinah’s car barreling down the road.

“Camila!” Lauren screams as she frantically runs after the car.

The young brunette looks in the rear-view mirror and sees the green-eyed girl running desperately down the street. She chokes back a sob and continues to drive. She knows that she’s making a huge mistake, but somehow that makes her feel so alive. When she remembers kissing Lauren, she bangs her fist into her head.

“Stupid.” She repeats over and over again. Her eyes close for a split second and when she opens them, she sees the car heading straight for a brick mailbox. Her feet immediately hit the breaks, but it’s too late because the car is already colliding with the mailbox. The airbags release immediately and explode in her face.

When the car comes to a stop and the panic subsides, she feels the impact of the airbag. Her face feels like it has been set on fire and there’s blood pooling from her nose that’s most likely broken. Luckily, the alcohol in her system numbs some of the pain though. She hastily pulls out a wad of napkins from her glove compartment and presses them to her nose. The thought of calling 911 comes to her mind, but then is quickly dismissed when she remembers she could get a DUI for this. Instead, she keeps one hand holding the tissues to her nose and she used the other to put the car in reverse. Though the car is damaged, it still drive and she’s thankful for that. Slowly, she drives to Austin’s apartment, not wanting to face her friends right now. When Camila makes it to the apartment, she lays on the couch, an ice pack on her nose.

Meanwhile, Dinah, Normani, and Ally are comforting an inconsolable Lauren outside the nightclub.

“It’s all my fault.” Lauren sobs as she paces back and forth on the sidewalk.

“We will find her, Lo. She’ll be okay.” Dinah promises as the Uber pulls up. They all pile into the car and head to their apartment complex.

“Where the fuck is she?” Lauren screams when they finally make it back to the apartment and there’s no sign of Camila. The brunette sinks to the ground in front of their building and places her head in her hands. “I can’t lose her.” She cries as Ally comes over to comfort her. Dinah is now crying too and Normani is comforting her.

“It’s all my fault.” The green-eyed girl bangs her fists on the pavement beneath her.

“No, it’s mine.” Dinah chokes out. “I shouldn’t have given her the keys. If I would’ve just given her my attention for one second.” She shakes her head as angry tears fall to her cheeks. Normani immediately kisses them away.

“Baby, it’s not your fault.” The dark-skinned girl tightens her hold on her fiance and continues to whisper sweet nothings in her ear.

A couple of minutes later, Dinah’s eyes go wide and shrugs her fiance off of her. Normani goes to protest, but Dinah holds up her finger signaling for her to hold on. She quickly reaches in her purse and retrieves her phone.

“I had Mila share her location with me after he accident when she got a new phone.” Dinah navigates through her phone. “I’ve just never had a reason to use it so I forgot about it.”

Lauren’s eyes shoot up and she immediately scrambles over to the Polynesian. She breathes out a sigh of relief when she sees Camila’s location pop up.

“She’s at Austin’s.” Dinah furrows her eyebrows. “But Austin isn’t home, he’s visiting his parents.”

Lauren digs her keys out of her purse and takes off to her car, the other girls on her heel.

“Baby, you and Ally stay here in-case she comes back.” Dinah turns to Normani. The dark-skinned girl nods and places a quick kiss to Dinah’s cheek before the Polynesian enters the car.

Camila groans as she stands up from the couch to go to the fridge and get a colder ice pack. She feels like she’s been hit by a car when in all reality, she was behind the wheel. After settling for a pack of peas, she retreats back to the couch. Just as her eyes flutter closed, she hears a banging at the door. Her heart immediately drips as she scrambles to sit up.

“Camila!” The girl hears her name being called, but she doesn’t make a move to get up.

“Chanch!” Camila hears Dinah yell from outside the door and she groans.

“Karla Camila Cabello-Jauregui open this damn door or I’m kicking it down!” Lauren yells from outside the door. The green-eyed girl is trying to sound stern, but she’s absolutely worried out of her mind. Camila has always been the type to hide her pain from others. She hides her bruises, her cuts, everything. One time, Lauren woke up to find Camila in the bathroom bandaging herself up. She was covered in blood, having just face-planted while on her morning run. After making sure the girl was going to be okay, Lauren chastised her for not waking her up when she got home. Camila claimed she didn’t want to bother the girl and Lauren spent an hour reminding her of the vows she spoken to her on their wedding day.

Camila slowly stands up from the couch when she hears Lauren’s threat to knock down the door. Her tone was convincing and Camila believed she would do it so she figured she’d save her the trouble.

Before the green-eyed girl can collide her foot with the door, it opens. She scrambles in and sees Camila retreating back to the couch. The young Latina finally sits back down on the couch, effectively revealing her bloodied features. Lauren’s breath hitches and she runs over and kneels in front of her wife.

“Baby.” Lauren breathes out as she frantically searches Camila’s body for damage. The only damage she sees is on her face though. The skin on her face is burned from the impact of the airbag and the blood running from her nose is traveling down her chin and staining her blue dress. Tears leak from the brown eyes when she looks at Lauren. “Baby, are you okay?” Lauren chokes out and Camila shakes her head no. The older girl immediately scoops the wounded brunette into her arms and takes her to the bathroom. She sets her down on the counter and stands between her legs as she cleans up her face.

Lauren carefully drags the bath cloth over Camila’s face. The young girl winces occasionally and Lauren apologizes profusely every time. After the older girl gets Camila cleaned up and gets the bleeding stopped, she just looks into her eyes, feeling tears well up in her own.

“You could’ve been killed Camila.” Lauren whispers and Camila looks down in shame. “Or you could’ve killed someone else.” She adds and when Camila doesn’t respond, she starts getting worked up. “You. Could. Have. Been. Killed.” Lauren reiterates. “Do you get that?”

Camila keeps her head ducked.

“I could’ve lost you again!” Lauren yells as she runs a hand through her waves. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t!” Camila finally yells. “I wasn’t thinking, okay?”

“Obviously.” Lauren crosses her arms over her chest. “Fuck, Camila. You have people who love you and care about you. You can’t just do shit like that.” She throws her hands up.

Dinah finally walks into the bathroom and starts pulling a worked up Lauren away. She’s not mad at the green-eyed girl for speaking her mind. Hell, she’s being nice to Camila if you ask her. Dinah is still planning on ripping Camila a new one when she’s better.

“Not now, Lauren. You need to cool off.” Dinah continues to drag her to the door.

“Why do you care?” Camila yells back and watches as Lauren and Dinah both stop in their tracks. The green-eyed girl immediately spins around when she hears the question.

“Because I love you! I love you more than I love myself. You are my heart, Camila, and if something were to happen to you, I wouldn’t survive. I can’t live without you. You are the single most important thing in my life.” Lauren lowers her volume and her eyes soften. “You are my world Camila.” She stands in front of her again and leans in until her forehead is resting on Camila’s.

“I’m so sorry.” Camila chokes back a sob. “I don’t remember, but I have a feeling that you were my world too.”

Lauren leans back and looks in her favorite pair of eyes. “I need you to know that I only pulled away from the kiss tonight because you were drunk. I want to kiss you, Camila. More than anything. But not like that.” She raises her hands up to Camila’s face and traces the black circle under her right eye that became visible after she wiped the blood off her face. “He did this.” She states and Camila tenses up. “Why do you stay?”

“Because I’m fucked up, Lauren.” Camila whispers. “My head is so fucked up and my heart is too.” Angry tears slide down her cheeks and Lauren leans in and places her lips on Camila’s tanned cheek. Her lips linger on the cheek long enough to feel one of the the brunette’s tears hit her top lip.

“You’re perfect.” Lauren promises her as she tucks some hair behind her ear. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.” The green-eyed girl wipes some of her own tears away before walking out of the bathroom and leaving the apartment. The older brunette knows she’s leaving Camila in good hands. Dinah will take care of her. Lauren wants to, but she’s afraid if she stays, she’ll break down. She doesn’t want Camila to see her like that.

Lauren has always tried to be the stronger of the two, but tonight, she’s failing at that, and the last thing she wants is for Camila to see her fail.

#UPDATE #series #non AU #slash #trigger warning #camren #angst drama #romance fluff #submission #come back be here

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5hfanfiction · 8 years

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I Can do that With My Eyes Closed: Chapter 6

“This is so exciting!” Normani climbs up the ladder of the brand new wooden bunk bed set up in Camila’s room. The five girls had spent the entire day at Ikea, purchasing new furniture. Since Camila’s room, like all the other college rooms, was decently small, they had decided that three desperate beds, even twin sized, would be awfully crowded. Thus leading to the decision to buy a bunk bed.

The entire drive home had been Dinah and Normani battling for the top bunk, Lauren boasting about her new memory foam mattress cover, and Camila trying her best to DJ despite the noise. It took them almost an hour by itself to heave the large and incredibly awkwardly shaped box up the stairs (since it had been coincidentally too big for the elevator by an inch) and even longer to step the damn thing up (which they had too take apart twice after Dinah attached it wrong).

They had all stood to admire their work, each bed already managing to look personally like the owner. Dinah, who had lost a very long and dedicated game of rock-paper-scissors, ended up with the bottom bunk. Even if Camila didn’t previously know whom the bunk belonged too, it wouldn’t be hard too tell it was Dinah’s. She had a plain white comforter with a large ocean wave on it and dangling from the bars above where she slept, were pictures of her very large family. Normani’s comforter was an elegant navy blue color and her large beat headphones were draped across the railing surrounding her bed. Already, a pair of shoes was shoved to the end of her bed.

“I mean, it’s just like any other time you guys have slept over, except now we won’t sleep on the floor or squished on the couch.” Camila tried to stay cool because secretly she was a bit upset that they were sharing a bunk bed and she had to sleep by herself across the room.

“No way Chanch. This is way different. We can actually sleep in beds! Do you know how long it’s been since my back hasn’t hurt after waking up?” Dinah stretched her back and grimaced to prove her point. She walked over to her bed and let herself flop into the bed with a content sigh.

Camila frowned feeling slightly guilty. The whole reason that Dinah was sleeping on the couch in the first place was to watch Camila. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

Dinah shrugs. “No biggie.”

Normani leans over the edge of the top bunk and looks down at the two girls. “Nice and comfy.” She makes a big show to snuggle into her silk pillow (yes silk, Normani would settle for nothing less) with a smile.

Camila rolls her eyes at the two girls who were acting slightly like children on Christmas morning. “Yeah, yeah. Do you guys want to try something on the list or just go to bed?” Camila asks, it had been an exhausting day and they were all extremely tired.

Dinah yawns from her spot on the bed and pulls a taped napkin off of the wall where it hangs next to her bed. “Let’s see…..” She examines the list. “We could…. well no, that’s sounds stupid. Well we could… no too much work.”

Camila sighs and decides to take a seat. “Today Dinah.” She nags playfully.

Dinah rolls her eyes at Camila but scrolls down the list with a little more motivation this time. “Okay fine, this one here says acupressure. Chinese medical theory…. blah, blah, blah…. Alleviate sleeplessness. Why not?”

Camila raises her eyebrow because acupressure sounds a lot like acupuncture and Camila is not too fond of being stabbed by several needles. She thinks that might be the last thing to get her to sleep better. “Why do i get the feeling Laur wrote that down?” Camila asks curiously.

“Probably because she did.” Dinah snorts. She stands up from her bed and turns towards the upper bunk. “You ready Mani….” Dinah looks up to find Normani completely passed out in her large pile of blankets, soft snores escaping her parted lips. “Okay, just me and you then.” Dinah walks over to Camila’s bed and sits down. “Yeah this was definitely Lauren’s suggestion, its got step by step instructions in perfect handwriting.”

Camila chuckles, but it’s interrupted by a large yawn. Once she recovers, she clarifies. “So this doesn’t actually involve needles does it? Because i kinda hate needles.”

Dinah shakes her head. “Nope, not from what i can tell.”

“So how does it work then?” Camila questions.

Dinah straightens out the napkin and squints her eyes as she reads. “Step one…” She pauses to laugh. “God what a dork.”

Camila has to agree.

“Alright, step one, between your eyebrows, there is a small depression on the level of your brows, right above the nose. Apply gentle pressure to the point.” Dinah read allowed.

Camila scrunches her nose and tries her best to follow directions. “Here?” She asks when she has her thumb placed on the spot she thinks is correct.

“More to the center.” Dinah directs. “Oh god, i think she drew pictures…. and they are surprisingly really good.” Dinah comments as she observes the napkin.

“She is an art student Dinah. Here?” Camila asks holding her thumb way to high.

“No down, too far, no you aren’t in the center now…. Let me do it.” Dinah finally gives up on directing Camila. She steps closer to Camila, standing only a few inches away from her face and presses her thumb to the center of Camila’s forehead, placing it directly between her two eyebrows. She presses down. “Am i pressing too hard?” She asks cautiously.

Camila can smell Dinah’s spearmint toothpaste and she gulps at the closeness. “Uh…no. That’s fine.”

Dinah holds her thumb in place for a minute before removing it from the patch of skin on her forehead. She still has yet to realize that Camila can hear every breath the blonde girl takes and practically feel her body heat radiating off of her body. “Now it says you are supposed to massage both of your ears for a minute each.”

Dinah doesn’t even attempt to explain to Camila how, instead, she brushes Camila’s hair behind her ear and begins rubbing small circles with her fingers into Camila’s ear, one hand on each ear. Camila’s ears are cold, due to having not the best circulation, but Dinah’s warm hands begin to knead warmth into the soft skin. Dinah moves impossibly closed to Camila so that she can get a view of both ears. Camila’s breath hitches when she notices. She can see Dinah’s eyebrows scrunched up in concentration and how Dinah’s slightly dry lips are only inches from her own. She feels Dinah’s thumb stop to brush at her cheek for a second before resuming her massage.

After a minute, she stops, only then realizing how close she is to Camila. They make eye contact and Camila glances unconsciously to Dinah’s lips. Dinah breathes out and her minty breath makes Camila’s lips cold. She thinks that Dinah’s plump lips look like the perfect thing to warm them up.

Except then Dinah takes a few steps back and begins reading the final step and Camila realizing what she had been doing. She thinks that maybe Dinah will freak out or ask her about it, but Dinah doesn’t seem to have noticed. “It says now you are supposed to press the area between your first and second toes until you feel a dull ache….? Sorry Chanch but I ain’t touching your feet.”

Camila would usually laugh, except she doesn’t. Not because it wasn’t funny, because that is exactly the kind of not-funny, bad jokes that make Camila giggle. Her brain is spinning. Had she really just wanted Dinah to kiss her? Camila knows she’s gay, she’s known possibly her whole life (of course junior year was the year she finally came to terms with it) and right now is no exception, but Dinah? Dinah is Camila’s best friend. She loves her, but as a friend.

And yet, she was proved otherwise. She had been unable to stop herself from staring at Dinah’s lips and she had been thinking about how much she wanted their lips too touch and last time Camila checked, that was not what platonic best friends did.

Sure, Dinah was pretty. In fact, Camila would argue that she was one of the most effortlessly beautiful people Camila has ever met… maybe ever seen. She was practically flawless and Camila would be lying if she said that she wasn’t at least a little bit attracted t the blonde girl, but she was pretty sure that the slight attractiveness was it. Nothing more.

Camila likes to think that she is in tune with her emotions. She likes to thinks that she even feels sometimes before she thinks (which more often than not is a bad thing). Had she really began developing feelings for the girl? Did she want to-

“Mila?” Dinah’s steady voice brings her from her thoughts and she realizes that she has been staring at Dinah with a concerned look on her face the whole time she was zoned out. Of course, that was probably just a coincidence, right?

Camila blinks away her thoughts and clear her vision. “Hmm?” She responds.

“You okay?” Dinah has a concerned look in her eyes that Camila thinks is kinda cute. The way that her eyebrows scrunch together and how she….shit. She just did it again didn’t she?

She swallows before realizing that Dinah has been waiting for an answer for longer than she should have and Camila tries her best to cover it up. “What? Oh yeah, I’m just suddenly super tired. I zoned out.” She forces a chuckle to make it seem more realistic.

Dinah smiles back at the girl, hopping into her bed and pulling the covers up to her chin before rolling onto her stomach so that she faces Camila. “You gonna finish?” Dinah lifts the napkin that she holds and tapes it back onto the wall.

“Oh yeah….” Camila brings her foot to her hands and does as the directions say. She wonders how Lauren knows this stuff. She begins to feel a dull ache like the directions had said she would and she furrows her brow wondering how this would actually help. Or maybe it wouldn’t, who knows?

Dinah yawns while she watches Camila with a playful look on her face. She glances at the wall when Camila is done. “Oh, there is actually one more step. Another foot thing. Maybe Lauren has some weird foot fetish.” Dinah jokes.

Camila’s thoughts keep trying to pull her back into a deep discussion about Dinah, but Camila manages to mostly pay attention and she laughs. “Lauren probably read this somewhere you perv. Go ahead.” She motions for Dinah to continue.

Dinah smirks but clears her throat dramatically and reads the list once more. “Imagine that your foot has three sections, beginning at the tips of your toes and ending at the back of your heel. Got that?”

Camila tires her best to take it serious but she still laughs as she closes her eyes and imagines the sections as told to do so.

“Okay, find the distance one-third back from the tips of your toes and press on the sole of your foot for a few minutes. Damn who finds out these things?” Dinah comments before glancing up to see Camila rubbing at her foot and pressing the bottom. “I mean it looks really weird, how does it feel?”

Camila continues to do as the instructions say for a few minutes before deciding she had done it long enough. She turns to get into her bed and worms her way under the covers. Once she is all settled and the lights are off she answers, “It feels weird. Like all tingly.”

Dinah hums in response.

“This also feels weird.” Camila comments to no one in particular.

Dinah responds anyways. “Sleeping in an actual bed?” She asks tiredly.

“Well yeah, but i mean, like not only that. Sleeping in my bed, in my room, but with company. If that makes sense.” Camila tries her best to explain.

There is a rustling noise as Dinah rolls over in her bed. “What do you mean? You’ve never shared a room before? Haven’t you ever had like a sleepover at your house? Before college i mean?”

Camila sighs. “Nope. Never.”

Dinah isn’t too surprised that Camila hasn’t shared a room before. After all, not everyone has seven siblings like Dinah did. She is however, surprised that Camila has never had a sleepover. “You’ve never had a sleep over before college?” She asks sort of loudly and Normani moans a bit in her sleep. “Sorry.” She apologizes to the sleeping girl.

“No, but i wanted too.” Camila yawns before she can continue.

“So why didn’t you?” Dinah asks after trying to come up with something to say, even though Camila’s last sentence kinda sounds like the end of their conversation.

The question is never answered and Dinah assumes it’s because Camila has fallen asleep, a second set of lungs produce the steady breathing of sleep across the room. Dinah thinks about what Camila meant, though she assumes it isn’t a big deal, Dinah wonders why Camila never goes into detail about her life. In fact, Dinah realizes that Camila hasn’t really told Dinah anything about her life. She decides to try her best to get the girl to open up, after she gets a good night’s sleep of course.

Camila hopes that by steadying her breathing would make Dinah think that she was asleep. Dinah doesn’t talk again and soon her best friend’s snores are harmonizing with Normani’s. She is in that state of being where she really should be asleep, except she isn’t. The one where her mind is still awake enough that she is able to comprehend what she thinks, not yet dreaming, but still not fully awake.

She can’t help but let her mind drift to what had happened earlier with their almost kiss. Well, Camila can’t really even call it an almost kiss because they didn’t kiss. She doesn’t even think that the thought crossed Dinah’s mind. It was only Camila who looked at Dinah’s lips and only Camila who well…. wanted them to touch her own.

She can’t fall for Dinah. She knows this. There are multiple reasons against her. One main reason being that well, Camila is gay. No one knows that she is gay. She can’t tell them either, she can’t give anything away. They might hate her, and she has tried so damn hard to get these girls to like her and to make friends that she can’t do anything to lose that. She can’t lose them. Not now.

The other main factor being that Dinah is straight. Not literally. Literally Dinah has beautiful curves and a really nice butt. Sexually however, Dinah is straight as a ruler. Camila has only ever heard Dinah talk about boys. Boy arms, boy hands, boy abs, boy eyes, just boys. And it’s pretty frequent too.

Camila finds herself getting slightly upset and she sighs, rolling over to her side. She can’t think of this right now. She doesn’t need to be thinking of it right now. She likes Dinah… but as a friend. In a strictly platonic way. Like communism dictator from world war two kind of strict.

She is really tired. She can’t think about this anymore. So she didn’t. She lets black wave after black wave wash over her vision until her eyes drift shut and her breathing becomes deep and even.

Lauren likes to get up early. What can she say? She enjoys the feeling of having so much time to get things done. It makes her feel productive. In her opinion, the morning was one of the best parts of the day. She can’t help but appreciate the silence of Ally’s room and the smell of coffee from the extremely fancy (self-timing) coffee machine Lauren had spent her entire month’s budget on. She loves the quiet chirping of birds. She loves doing her morning yoga. And she especially loves how empty the school cafeteria is at seven in the morning. She took full advantage of her mornings.

Currently, she sits on one of the many white cafeteria tables. She always takes the one in the farthest corner of the room where she can people watch. Because she is sitting in that very spot, she happens to notice a girl looking in her direction.

The girl she thinks she recognizes from her painting class. Usually, the girl is decked out in ponytails and paint covered t-shirts and Lauren finds it hard to recognize her in her current clothing; a loose tank top, exercise pants, running shoes, and a black headband pulled around her hair.

The girl looks nervous, Lauren can tell that she is slightly talking to herself. They meet eye contact and the girl blushes like she has been caught. She looks around just to make sure that Lauren is for sure looking at her and when she realizes that she is the only person in the vicinity, her cheeks turn from pink to red. She seems to take a deep breath before walking in Lauren’s direction.

“Hey Lauren!” She smiles when she is within talking range. She reaches the table and takes a seat across from Lauren. “That’s your name right? Please say yes.” She almost pleads.

Lauren laughs and nods. “Yes, my name is Lauren.”

The girl looks relieved and she relaxes a bit in her seat, leaning her elbows on the table. “I’m Lucy, we have art together. I have to say, i saw your last piece and it completely blew my mind.” Lucy makes little explosions noises and Lauren can’t help but giggle because it’s obvious that Lucy is really nervous.

Lauren remembers more about the girl now. Very clearly in fact. She blushes a little bit at the compliment, one because Lucy pays attention to her art, and too because Lucy is possible Lauren’s top competitor for top spot in the class. She tries her best to hide her blush and play it cool to keep up her bad ass reputation (for some reason when people meet her they seem to realize that she isn’t). “Wow, thank you! That means a lot, because is saw your last piece and well, I thought it was way better than mine.”

Lucy cringes a bit. “You saw that? Damn…. I was hoping that you could see my next one, you know, after i try really hard to outdo yours.”

Lauren laughs. She decides that Lucy is really funny. Lucy looks proud. “Oh yeah?” Lauren plays along.

Lucy shrugs. “Sure.” She pauses a bit, trying to think of another conversation starter. “I haven’t seen you around the art building.” She half questions.

Lauren nods. “The noise was a bit much. I moved in with a friend in the art building.”

Lucy groans playfully. “Lucky, i swear, i have to blast my headphones to get even an ounce of good sleep.” She pauses. “I guess that means you aren’t really into parties then?”

“Not necessarily. I mean, i like partying, just not all the time. And definitely not at three in the morning when i have class at eight.” Lauren jokes.

Lucy looks slightly happier. “Okay well, this is kinda awkward.” She states. “Well actually, i guess by saying that i just made it awkward, because is wasn’t really before. Oh well.” She continues. “Anyways, I’ve been trying to work up the courage to talk to you all week and i was going to chicken out again but well you caught me.” Lucy motions over to where she had been standing five minutes prier.

“There’s this party, next Saturday. I really want to go, but you know, going to a party alone is basically asking for sex. Which I don’t really want at all and I think you are really beautiful, so would you want to go with me? It’s not for two weeks so take your time answering.” Lucy rambles ungracefully.

Luckily Lauren things it’s extremely cute. She pauses to think about it. She barely knows Lucy and college parties are kind of known for being sketchy.

Lucy takes the pause as a bad sign. “Sorry, i know we barely know each other, it’s just that all my friends are pissed off about getting caught in some prank setting of stink bombs or something and well, now they are all being super petty and they literally can’t think of anything except revenge. It’s crossed the line way too many times now and i really don’t want to be friends with those kinds of people you know? And I’m just really lonely now because college with your friends is supposed to be a jam. Except currently i have no friends.” Lucy bits her lip to direct herself back into the direction she wants. “Well the point is, is that I’m lonely, and I’ve seen you in class and sometimes i stare, you know, not in a creepy way, more in a admiring way? Because well you are really good at art and you are really beautiful and you seem like a cool person.”

Lauren thinks that when Lucy rambles, she says stuff that makes her laugh and think that Lucy is absolutely adorable. She smiles at the girl. “No sorry, that wasn’t a bad pause. I was just thinking. I would love to go to the party with you, i was just surprised is all.” She smiles back at the girl and Lucy let’s out a relieved breath.

“Oh… thank god. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. You know, usually I’m really smooth.” Lucy promises jokingly.

Lauren raises a brow. “Oh really?”

“You just wait. I’ve done the hard part. No reason to be nervous anymore. I hope…” She jokes.

Lauren shakes her head. “You know, you’re pretty funny Lucy.”

“Damn, now i have a reputation to uphold.” Lucy shakes her head.

Lauren chuckles before realizing something. “Wait, earlier did you say that your friends were getting revenge for getting caught up in some prank?”

Lucy nods. “Yeah, i mean, they were more harassing this poor girl that they blame than pranking. That’s why we aren’t friends anymore. I caught them trying to do something way out of line and they don’t have any intentions of stopping. We got into a fight about it and we aren’t on speaking terms.”

“The girl being harassed, is her name Dinah Jane?” Lauren asks curiously.

“I think so. Tall, blonde, plays volleyball?” Lucy clarifies.

“That would be the one.” Lauren confirms, the gears are already spinning in her head.

“You know her?” Lucy is now curious as to why all the questions.

“Yeah, she is one of my best friends.” Lauren watches for Lucy’s reaction.

“Oh, wow. I’m sorry. Just so you know, i totally don’t support what they are doing. I mean, i’ve told them to stop because that is just outright mean you know? It’s getting dangerous.” Lucy tries her best to show Lauren that she has no part in her ex-friends shenanigans.

Lauren nods approvingly, a smile crossing her features. “Hey, can you do me a favor?”

Lucy raises a brow at the mischievous look on Lauren’s face. “What are you thinking?”

“You guys are going to love me.” Lauren barges into Camila’s room unannounced.

She pauses as the door closes behind her and she looks at the scene in front of her. Camila sits cross legged on the couch holding a large wad of paper towels under her nose, part of which, tinted dark red. Dinah lays half on the couch, half off with her eyes closed. Lauren isn’t sure if she is asleep or not, but she looks exhausted. In one arm, Dinah holds a fresh roll of paper towels and with the other hand, two fingers grasp a trashcan.

“Doubtful.” Dinah proves Lauren that she is, in fact, awake. “Your acupuncture thingy didn’t do shit.”

Camila tries her best to give Dinah a stern look from behind her wad but ultimately fails when Dinah doesnt even bother to look up. “I ran into the bunk bed.” Camila explains with a very nasally sounding voice.

“Are you okay?” Lauren asks, doing her best to hold back a laugh trying to make its way out. Of course Camila ran into the bunk bed that they have had for less than a day.

Camila nods. “Wad me.” She mutters and Dinah doesnt even open her eyes or acknowledge the words before holding out the roll of paper towels for Camila to rip off a few sheets and moving the trashcan so that Camila can throw her currently red wad into. Dinah resumes her previous position, her face shoved into the couch cushion. “I think that your method really did help me to stay asleep better, but i still walked in my sleep… right into the bunk bed.”

Lauren can tell Camila is trying to be nice about it. “Did you check to make sure your nose isn’t broken?” Lauren bends down next to Camila’s face to try and examine the bleeding feature.

“Mani said it isn’t. Did you know her mom is a nurse? Apparently Normani nose this stuff.” Camila waits excitedly for her pun to set in and once it does Lauren bursts into a fit of laughter.

“Oh my god!” The green eyed girl wheezes.

Dinah groans from her spot next to them. “"That was so bad. I like my lifespan actually was reduced by a few years.”

“Lauren thinks its funny.” Camila defends.

“Whoopee.” Dinah grumbles.

Lauren raises an eyebrow at Camila who shrugs. “She’s been up since four.”

Lauren nods in understanding. Dinah needs her sleep, desperately. “Where is Mani?” She asks, noticing that the third roommate seems to be missing in action.

“The gym.” Camila answers. “She said something about needing to keep her abs well defined.”

Lauren smirks. “Have you seen her abs thought? Never seen any better.”

Camila wonders if this is a trick question and Lauren is asking because she suspects Camila is gay. Which she is. But Lauren can’t know that. Camila decides that she is overthinking and instead forces a stiff laugh instead of answering the question.

“Well since you’re here, I’m going to go sleep. Have fun.” Dinah rolls off the couch, leaving the paper towels and the trashcan behind and heads to the bedroom to sleep.

When she disappears, Camila remembers that Lauren came for a reason. “So why would we love you?” Camila asks before realizing how it sounded and curses. Lauren just laughs. “I mean, what were you going to tell us?”

“Oh right! Well i met this girl who is friends with a lot of the girls from the sports team. One of her really close friends is Dinah’s old roommate and some of her not so close friends are all in on the revenge pranks against Dinah.” Lauren is smiling at the news and Camila is confused as to why, because so far this doesn’t sound like good news to her.

“Okay?” She answers in the form of a question.

“So this girl, Lucy. She doesn’t agree with what her friends are doing so i talk to her right? Well she agreed to help me stop the issue.” Lauren can see Camila smiling now as she sees where this is going. “So originally I thought we should prank them back, but that would be stooping to their level, so Lucy is going to sort of spy on them until we figure out something to do.”

“And she is okay with that? I mean, if someone asked me to spy on you guys i probably would so no…. or run away.” Camila responds hesitantly.

“Yeah i made sure she was okay with it. I even told her that if she felt uncomfortable she could stop whenever she wanted too.” Lauren reassures the girl.

“Oh, okay then.” She smiles excitedly before pausing. “I don’t think we should tell Dinah yet though, in case it doesn’t work you know?”

Lauren nods. “Okay, i agree. We can surprise her if it goes well and nothing happens if it goes wrong. Good idea.”

“I feel like a spy.” Camila laughs.

“You are such a dork.”

“Camila. Mila, wake up.” Camila murmurs in her sleep and cuddles the roll of paper towels against her chest, but she shows no signs of being any more awake than she was.

Dinah sighs, plopping cross-legged onto the floor next to the couch so that she was eye level with Camila. She hates to wake Camila up, she really does. Partly because like Dinah, Camila had been up since four that morning and unlike Dinah, Camila hadn’t gotten the chance to take a nap like Dinah has. She must be exhausted. Especially with the other part being that Camila has been asleep for nearly five hours and hasn’t so much as attempted to sleep walk. Dinah knows that in the span of the past two weeks, this is the longest sleep Camila has gotten without walking around and expending her energy. The last thing she wants to do is ruin the streak.

Except, she has to. It’s nearly three and the two girls have a lyrical writing class in nearly ten minutes. Dinah has been trying to wake the girl up for the last half-hour, but considering Camila’s normal sleeping schedule and how cute she looked cuddling her face into the paper towels, Dinah hadn’t had the heart until just now.

She gently shakes Camila’s arm in another attempt to stir the girl. Camila’s eyebrows scrunch together, wrinkling her forehead and her lips form a small pout. Dinah shakes Camila’s arm again and Camila opens her eyes tiredly. Her eyelids hang half open and strands of Camila’s hair hang over her face from where they fall from her messy bun. She sees Dinah and gives the blonde a small smile, rolling onto her side to face her. Camila starts to say something, but a giant yawn interrupts and a small squeak escapes her mouth instead.

It’s weird for Dinah to see Camila like this. Sure, Dinah has been there loads of times when Camila is waking up, except usually its when Camila jolts awake from her sleep walking from some force, going directly from sleep to awake. She rarely gets to see Camila in the slow and gradual awakening stage. Dinah thinks it might be one of the cutest things she has ever seen. Maybe.

“Morning sleeping beauty.” Dinah teases.

Camila giggles after her yawn gives her control over her mouth once more. “What time is it?” She asks in a raspy voice.

Dinah checks her phone. “Almost three. We have class in ten minutes…. wait eight minutes sorry.”

The sleepy/waking up stage in between that Dinah was talking about is instantly gone as Camila hurries to her feet, nearly falling off the couch. She runs into the bedroom at full Camila speed and hurries to change into acceptable clothes. Preferably an outfit involving pants. “Why didn’t you wake me up!” She yells as works.

She can hear Dinah laughing from the other room and it gets louder as Dinah follows her to the bedroom. When she gets there, Camila is jumping up and down to pull up her jeans over her butt. “Well you never get good sleep. I thought you would need it.”

Camila looks down to zip up her pants before smiling affectionately. Dinah was so caring and sweet.

“Plus you looked kinda cute.” Dinah adds teasingly, imitating Camila cuddling her paper towels.

Camila knows Dinah is teasing, but that doesn’t stop a blush from creeping onto her cheeks and a warm feeling bubbling in her stomach. She hurries into the bathroom before Dinah notices and pulls her hair out of her bun. There was that butterfly feeling again. The one she KNOWS is completely platonic. Maybe she was just embarrassed?

She lets her hair fall around her shoulders, thanking god once again for giving her hair that she had never had to do because once again it saved her life. She then hurries out of the room, pulling on her shoes and hopping from leg to leg to do so. She loses her balance, like any Camila would do and she feels Dinah’s warm hand reach out to steady her. The butterflies never fail to make their appearance, as they have proved multiple times this morning. She chooses to ignore it.

Dinah laughs at Camila’s stumbling and Camila huffs. “Hey this is your fault you know.” She excuses her clumsiness by switching the blame.

They end up having to sprint to class. They make it to there seats just as the bell rings and the teacher wastes no time in teacher her place at the front of the room to began her lecture. Camila is breathing heavily, lets just say that she isn’t too keen on physical activity. Dinah chuckles and leans over to whisper in her ear.

“You okay there Chanch?”

Dinah’s breath tickles Camila’s ear and sends chills down her spine. Camila can feel Dinah’s lip brush against her ear lobe as Dinah pulls away. Her breath hitches in surprised and she tries her best to make a swift recovery even though she is pretty sure those pesky insects are back. “I…I don’t exercise much.” She hopes she sounds casual but the stutter says otherwise.

Dinah smirks in her usually playful manner. Camila wonders how Dinah seems to always keep herself cool, collected, and charismatic. “Yeah, I can see that.” She teases.

Camila crosses her arms. “Shut up. You’re on the volleyball team! You practice three times a week! And you have great abs.” Camila whisper yells. She doesn’t even realize what she is saying until the words are out of her mouth and she curses herself silently for being so awkward and obvious.

It’s been less than a day since she wanted to kiss Dinah (which she decided definitely had nothing to do with a crush…what crush?) and she is already acting like a fool.

Luckily for her, the teacher looks in their direction and whatever it was that Dinah was going to say in response was cut off. “We start our first assignment today.” The teacher directs, knowingly at the two best friends in the back.

Camila blushes (this time she knows its in embarrassment but she still wishes she didn’t blush so much, people probably think she has a really bad sunburn or something) and pretends to look really focused while Dinah nods like she was paying attention the whole time. Lies. Their conversation is forced to an end. Camila feels a little bit grateful towards the teacher, but don’t tell Dinah.

“You will be working in groups of two during the class period to write a song…. don’t worry. Not the whole thing, just the lyrics. Think of it as a poem if you want to.” A large sigh of relief sounds through the class and the teacher chuckles. “Normally I would assign you partners but seeing as this is a college class, I’m hoping you all are mature enough to pick your own partners that you can work efficiently with.” The teacher eyes a particular group of boys a few rows down.

Dinah turns to Camila with a cheesy smile and Camila chuckles. “Hey partner!”

Dinah looks confused. “Oh, sorry Camila. I was smiling at the guy behind you.”

Camila blushes (that awful sunburn again) and stutters. “Oh, y….yeah of course. Sorry.” She feels her heart sink a bit from feeling left out and dejected but then Dinah coos at Camila and pulls the girl into a hug.

“Awww, Chanch, I was only joking. Of course I was smiling at you. Who else am i going to be partners with besides my best friend?” Dinah ruffles Camila’s hair affectionately.

Camila shrugs. She can’t believe that over something so little she went through so many emotions. Man what is this girl doing to her (still definitely a friend thing).

“I dont know…I just…Do you have a piece of paper?” Camila thinks that Dinah might actually kill her one day.

Dinah nods muttering the words dork under her breath before pulling out a more crumbled than not piece of paper from her bag. Camila should have known better than to expect a nice new sheet. She shakes her head teasingly and Dinah smirks. “Hey you asked for paper, i gave you paper.”

Camila can’t complain. She just nods. “Okay fine, do you want to start?”

Let’s write about love.“ Dinah suggests.

Camila’s eyes go wide because Dinah says it all so casually and Camila isn’t sure if Dinah know’s something that she shouldn’t, something involving a certain crush (that definitely isn’t a crush) and a certain someone (that definitely isn’t Dinah). She coughs to give her a reason to hide her face in her arm for a minute and when she turns back to Dinah who gives her a strange look, she hopes she looks collected. "What do you mean love?”

“Love is easy to write about. I mean, everyone has been in love at some point.” Dinah comments. Camila frowns and luckily Dinah is distracted by a boy three rows Dinah who spilled the contents of his backpack onto the floor.

Everyone has been in love? Does that mean Dinah has been in love?

“Have…..Have you been in love?” Camila asks, tapping her pencil against their paper and writing their names really slowly so she doesn’t have to look up.

Dinah turns away from the boy and nods. “Yeah, i mean i was in high school so who knows to what extent, but i think i was in love.”

Camila feels her heart sink because if everyone has been in love, why hasn’t Camila? She feels extremely inexperienced. The idea of Dinah being in love with someone else adds to the weight of her sinking heart. She bites her lip and now that Dinah doesn’t have a distraction, she picks up on Camila’s behavior.

“Chanch, have you…. have you never been in love?” Dinah’s voice goes from loud and confident to soft and gentle.

Camila shakes her head. “No, i haven’t ever been in love.” She feels so innocent in comparison… which she kind of is.

“Oh.” Dinah pauses. “I mean, that’s okay. Not everyone has been in love. I’m sure when you finally do fall in love it will be amazing. Like all of those cheesy ass love songs that people sing will finally make sense and whoever it is who you love will be damn lucky.” Dinah smiles comfortingly and Camila feels a little better.

“We can still write about love songs if you want, I mean I’ve heard enough of those cheesy ass love songs to get the idea.” Camila playfully throws Dinah’s words back and Dinah laughs.

“Okay,” Dinah nods. “I’ll start and you just add on whenever okay?”

They spend a bit going back and forth, taking turn writing their poem/lyrics. The first few lines turn out really good and they end up with possible potential. Of course, it all goes downhill after Dinah asks Camila to think of something romantic that rhymes with rose and just to make Dinah laugh, she answers with hoes.

The entire thing turns into a competition of who can make who laugh the most and there aren’t any rules or limits. Dinah tells Camila that her jokes are lame, but Camila somehow ends up winning when Dinah pees a little because she was laughing so hard. Needless to say, the teacher walks around to check their walk thus far and Camila uses up her entire eraser in an effort to rid everything they wrote.

They end up with ten minutes left of class with only the first verse, bridge, and beginning of the chorus done.

“Okay, focus Chanch. We actually need to finish this now.” This it the forth time Dinah has said that, but hey, maybe this time she means it. Dinah tries to keep a straight face as Camila laughs.

Camila manages to bit her lip to stop herself from laughing and she takes a few deep breaths. “Okay, alright, let’s do this.”

Dinah reads over what they have, taking note of what they need. “Okay, so we just need another verse, to finish the chorus, and we have… ten minutes. We can do this.” Dinah decides. “So we need something that describes a feeling you feel when in love for the verse.”

Camila nods and begins thinking. Knowing she has never been in love, she tries to think of something to use as an example. Take Dinah for instance. Camila defiantly doesn’t love Dinah. As a friend, yes, but nothing more than that, at least Camila is convincing herself of that.

She thinks about the small butterflies that flap around her rib cage and tickle her heart whenever DInah does something Camila thinks is cute, but Camila decides that insects appear only out of fondness for her friend. She remembers once when she had gotten really giddy after Ally had somehow remembered Camila’s love for chocolate covered cinnamon bears and brought her some home after a hard night’s sleep. Camila had felt extremely giddy with fondness. It could be like that with Dinah as well.

Camila thinks for anything else she can use as an example, but after she comes up blank, she decides that the (strictly platonic) feelings for Dinah would have to do. “How about that feeling when your heart swells too big for your chest. Like it swells with love for that person. Like your entire heart is reserved specifically for y…that person.” Camila suggests.

Dinah nods excitedly. “You make my heart swell to big for my chest, a feeling that’s reserved just for you, can’t be repressed!” Dinah sings softly in approval. “Yeah, i like it. You sure you haven’t been in love Chanch?”

Camila nods. “Positive.”

Dinah smirks. “You must be a hopeless romantic than.”

“Possibly.” Camila shrugs.

Dinah writes down the lyrics on the crumbled paper and Camila observes how nice and loopy her handwriting is compared to her own messy chicken scratch. It kind of reminds Camila of their personalities. Dinah is always so cool and collect. She is calm and playful and her carelessness has a sort of beautiful elegance that somehow makes her seem flawless. And Camila… well Camila is messy. Her past, her hair, her writing, her room, her everything….is just messy.

The paper is already starting to look better with Dinah’s writing on it, Camila thinks that her life has gotten a little bit better since Dinah came into it too.

A/N: You can read on wattpad up to Chapter Ten under the user DinahFantasy ( https://www.wattpad.com/user/dinahfantasy )

#UPDATE #series #AU #caminah #angst drama #humour #romance fluff #submission #I Can do that With My Eyes Closed

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