Through Her Eyes (Camren)

Chapter 6: Star Light, Star Bright

When Sparkles was mentioned again it actually was Friday, although Lauren thought this was probably more by coincidence than it was Camila actually keeping a realistic track of time.

Ever since Camila had gone missing the previous week Lauren could not help but feel a bit nervous when she wasn’t around. It wasn’t that Lauren was lonely, it was just, if Camila wasn’t with Lauren, where was she exactly?

When she thought about it, Lauren didn’t know that much about Camila. She didn’t know a thing about Camila’s past and she really didn’t know much about Camila’s present, either. Camila liked things that reflected the light and she liked to talk about the stars and she had some friends with odd names who Lauren had never met. Camila had never mentioned anything about her family or where she lived. If she lived anywhere.

Lauren was pretty sure Camila lived somewhere, but after a month of knowing Camila and six days of losing her, ‘pretty sure’ wasn’t quite cutting it anymore.

So, sitting down for a breakfast of stale cereal on Friday morning, Lauren devised a plan. First she would lead Camila into her house with promises of food and then she would sit Camila down to have a very serious discussion about her living arrangements, and, did Camila have heating and central air and running water and food in her fridge? Because Camila was actually much a bit skinny and probably didn’t hold up well in less than perfect conditions.

Lauren hoped Camila liked pasta.

She went to the supermarket instead of going to work that day and when Camila came to dig through Lauren’s trash that evening, she was ready.

“Come inside,” Lauren invited, as had been their routine after Camila had gone missing the week before. It was turning out to be an unusually cold and overcast winter and Camila looked a bit too fragile to be left outside.

Which was exactly what they were going to talk about.

“But the trash!” Camila protested as Lauren dragged her towards the front door, her hand wrapped securely around Camila’s bare upper arm.

Lauren rolled her eyes fondly as Camila made quiet whining noises and they both stepped through the doorway. “You can go through it later. The trash isn’t going anywhere, I promise.”

“You promise?” Camila asked, and it sounded like more than Camila just repeating Lauren’s words back to her the way she sometimes did.

When Lauren turned around, Camila was staring at her with large, trusting eyes. It made Lauren oddly uncomfortable to have Camila’s eyes on her that way, focused and faithful. “Ah, yeah, I promise.” Lauren shifted nervously under Camila’s intense gaze. “Come on, you’re going to help me make dinner.”

Camila followed along obediently into the too large kitchen and Lauren set a pot full of water on the stove and turned it on, metal clanking hollowly against metal, echoing off the walls as Camila cocked her head oddly.

Lauren had seen those designer shows on television (she was bored, okay? It hadn’t been on purpose or anything) where the prospective house buyers were always talking about the kitchens. Too small, too cramped, needs updating, stainless steel, granite countertops.

They never said too big, too hollow, too cold, but Lauren was pretty sure once Mr. and Mrs. Disgustingly-Sappy-Newlywed moved into their new cookie cutter home in the suburbs they would find it frozen and vast around them.

Everything in her grandmother’s house was too big, too empty. Lauren wondered how her grandmother had lived there alone all the years she had and not gone crazy. Lauren wondered how she’d lived there the last year and not gone crazy.