Do You Remember ? (Camren)

Chapter 23

Lauren was not looking forward for tonight. She had to go to her parents’ house for a family dinner. But that wasn’t the worst part, it wasn’t just her family like her mom, dad and siblings, it was her extended family including her little cousins. She loved her cousins a lot, don’t get her wrong, but when all of them run up and pounce on her at once, that’s when it started to get old.

All of them look up to Lauren as an idol-figure. They all do everything she does and want to be like her since she is the oldest Jauregui cousin. All of it together gets a little overwhelming, but this time it was worse because she felt like her world was crumbling quickly beneath her feet.

Lauren walked down the stairs to the kitchen and picked up her keys and wallet from the counter and a can of redbull before heading out the door and climbing her car. She had practically living on redbull because of the lack of sleep.

After arriving at her parents’ house, she breaced herself at the door, waiting to be attacked by twelve pairs of tiny hands of her cousins. There were eight boys and four girls and they were all under the age of ten.

She took a deep breath and plastered a fake smile onto her lips before pressing the doorbell. As soon as the ring echoed through the house, she heard the screaming of the children ‘Lauren!’.. ‘Lolo is here!’.. ‘get her!’.. Apparently, Lauren was the only one that hadn’t made an appearance at the party yet. Her Dad opened the door and all the little kids rushed out the door and grabbed onto her legs before she even took a step into the house.

“Hey sweeties… Do you want to let me in the house?” she laughed a little and placed her hands on the top of their head lovingly. They all smiled up at her and grabbed her hands to pull her in the house so that she could spend hours upon hours playing with them. Just great!. Sarcasm there.

“Lauren honey, come in the kitchen.”She heard her  Aunt Lea call as she finally got away from the children and sat down. She sighed and pulled herself back up and walked towards the kitchen. She entered and all of the older ladies of the family were sitting in there socializing with each other.

“Could you give us a hand with setting up the table for dinner ?” Aunt Lea asked as she pulled on the oven mitts to take the dinner out of the oven. “Yea I guess.” Lauren answered and started to walk towards the China closet with all of the fancy dishes. She grabbed the plates and a couple of the glasses and walked into the dining room. When she set the plates in a stack on the table, one of the younger girls came in. Her name was Chloe and she was five.

“Hey baby.” Lauren said and squatted down so that she was somewhat eye level with Chloe. “What’s the matter sweetie?” She asked as she saw that Chloe wasn’t her normal happy self. “Caleb wont play with me.” Caleb was Chloe’s brother and he was three years older than her. “He’s busy with with James and Aiden playing cars.” Chloe looked down at the ground.

Lauren knew that she had to find something for her to do, so that Chloe didn’t start crying. “Well, how about you help me set the table for Aunt Lea. And as a bonus you can sit with me at dinner.” A huge smile grew on Chloe’s face as she nodded enthusiastically . Lauren laughed a little and grabbed a plate off of the table. “Alright, put both hands out.” Chloe did as Lauren said and stuck both arms out.

“I want you to carry the plate with both hands as tight as you can so that you don’t drop it.” Chloe nodded her heads and grabbed onto the plate with both hands tightly. “Now, put one of these plates at each chair okay.?” Lauren asked more than stated. “Yep.” Chloe giggled and made her way to the first chair.