A Light in the Dark

Chapter 5

She had been watching how Lauren paced around the room for good five minutes. This scared and nervous version of her was strange to witness. Of course, she didn't know her at all, but the girl, she had been getting to know since yesterday, was nothing like this.

Camila sighed and looked at the now empty table. The first thing, when she came home, had been to remove the letters and the bottle of pills. It was inevitable that Lauren saw them for a second time, but at least she wasn't able to stare at them for too long.

"Are you trying to walk a hole into the floor or do you want to talk? You know, like you said earlier?" she asked and watched how Lauren came to a stop.

The green-eyed girl sighed deeply and slowly walked around the table to take a seat beside her. Camila noticed that Lauren's hands were trembling as she played nervously with her fingers.

"Lauren, are you okay?" she asked, now getting slightly worried. But if something were wrong, the other girl would have surely talked to one of her friends and not to her. So what was this all about?

"Camz... Camila..." Lauren let out a shuddering breath and looked down at her lap. "I don't... I honestly don't know how to start... or where... I've never done something like this before and maybe I shouldn't do it, but I can't just not, you know?"

Camila furrowed her brows. This was making absolutely no sense. "I'm sorry, but what are you talking about?"

Lauren ran her fingers through her hair.

"Oh my God, I hope I'm doing more good than bad," she mumbled and Camila was sure that she wasn't supposed to hear that.

"Lauren, just spit it out already."

"Well... you remember yesterday?"

She rolled her eyes. "Honestly, do you really think my memory is that bad?"

"Right." Lauren sighed. "I guess, I just start at the beginning..."

She watched for a while as Lauren fumbled with her hands, still not saying anything. "Lauren..."

"Did you know that I've been living here for three months now?" she was interrupted and Camila furrowed her brow. She had never paid any attention to her neighbors. There was other stuff she had to worry about.

"No?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought... You always seemed to be in your own little world. You intrigued me..." Lauren trailed off and avoided eye contact with her. "I have the habit to put on my headphones in the evening and blast loud music, just to block everything out, you know? To try and relax a little before learning some more. But one evening, I didn't... and I heard you sobbing."

Camila blushed slightly. How embarrassing of her. She was such an idiot. She could have thought about the thin walls before letting herself go like that...

"It was such a heart-wrenching sound... I could literally feel the pain..." Lauren looked up, her once green eyes were a shade of gray. "I tried to talk to you the day after, do you remember?"

She shook silently her head. It was most likely that she had ignored Lauren. She always thought that someone had an ulterior motive to talk to her. It had always been that case. The last few months she hadn't been in the mood to get taken advantage of.

Lauren sighed. "I tried to make small talk, but you just passed me as if I was invisible... and then I figured that it wasn't any of my business. You obviously didn't want to talk to me, so I just shrugged it off... but I heard you crying almost every night since then..."

Camila bit her lip. This was getting too personal for her liking.

"And yesterday I couldn't brush it off any longer. I thought, what if she just really needs someone to talk to? Someone to ask her if she was okay?" Lauren ran her hand through her hair. "And then I had this weird feeling in my gut that was telling me, I should go over there. The worst thing, that could have happened, was you slamming the door into my face."