It was enough. Things were good.
“Christmas special,” Lauren mumbled, flipping through television stations at impressive speed. “Christmas special, Christmas special, Christmas music, How the Grinch Saved Christmas…”
Lauren paused her channel surfing, eyebrows furrowed disapprovingly. The furry green creature on the screen was giving a small child a hug. “How the Grinch Saved Christmas? That’s bullshit. The Grinch is supposed to destroy Christmas. That’s why he’s the Grinch!”
Camila poked her nose out from her cocoon of fuzzy blankets, giving Lauren a curious look. “Why?” she asked, yawning and cuddling against the side of the couch, poking Lauren’s knee with her socked foot.
Now that December had come it was a free for all on Christmas cheer. The only shows that seemed to be on anymore were reruns of past years’ Christmas specials. Lauren’s neighbors had started setting out big, inflatable Santas and glowing reindeer on their lawns.
At Cocoa’s, Lauren and Normani had been forced to hang wreaths and lights and flimsy paper cutouts of snowflakes to be more festive. She’d hung the wreaths crooked and tossed all the lights onto one dead houseplant in hopes that it might catch on fire, to indicate what she thought of ‘festive’. Normani never tried to stop her.
Even the wildlife looked like it was trying to join in. Granted, trees were generally green, but lately Lauren thought they looked a little too green.
“Why?” Lauren repeated, stroking Camila’s sock covered foot idly. “Because he’s the Grinch, Camz. Don’t you know the Grinch? He stole Christmas!” Lauren frowned. “And then he gave it back, I guess, but I really thought the movie lost its integrity in the second half.”
Camila snuffled softly and wiggled further down on the couch, taking her cocoon with her, to give Lauren better access for foot rubbing. Lauren obediently rubbed harder. “Want me to take your sock off?” she asked. When Camila mumbled something agreeable, Lauren removed the silly, fluffy thing, tossing it aside and tickling the sole of Camila’s foot. Camila gave the same funny, high-pitched giggle she always did when Lauren resorted to tickling.
“The Grinch is my favorite holiday icon,” Lauren continued, going back to simple stroking before Camila kicked her. “He’s badass, he’s realistic. And now, look.” Lauren pointed to the television in disgust. “They made him into a cuddly green bunny!”
“I like cuddly bunnies,” Camila said, poking Lauren in the stomach with her toe.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” Lauren insisted. “Didn’t you ever watch the original movie?”
Camila hummed, sinking down further into her cocoon, so Lauren could only see her eyes, fluttering shut sleepily and taking longer to open again each time. “Yes,” she mumbled in a tone that Lauren had come to learn actually meant, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about you crazy, crazy person but I will agree with you anyway because I am also a crazy, crazy person.’
“Okay,” Lauren said, voice quieting automatically as Camila’s eyes stayed shut. “We’ll watch it tomorrow.”
Camila mumbled a sleepy thing, curling up tighter. Lauren stroked her ankle once before reaching down to find the fuzzy sock and pull it back over Camila’s bare foot.
——-
Camila was impressed with the movie. She talked in rhymes all day, mimicking from the characters and making up her own as she went.
“You’re way too excited,” Lauren teased as Camila sang a song about Whos from Whoville. Camila flailed about the room in what she probably considered dancing. Lauren tried and failed to suppress a smile. “Bah, Humbug.”
YOU ARE READING
Through Her Eyes (Camren)
FanfictionLauren never planned on living in the house she lived in. She never planned on working the job she worked. She never planned on befriending a strange girl named Camila, either. Lauren never planned a lot of things.
