Lazaretto (Camren)

N I N E T E E N

"We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life." –Tennessee Williams

CAMILA

It had been two weeks since the alarm testing and the snowball fight. Austin and I had tested it out again the next week, and I was progressively getting better. I could tell that my anxieties with the alarms were gradually subsiding, and there was a reason for that and one reason only: Lauren. Whenever I was with Austin inside the room, I would picture him as the green eyed girl. She just had this calming aura about her that radiated endlessly.

I hated that Austin couldn't help me in that way, but I wasn't about to tell him that what he was doing wasn't helping me. He had gone through all of the trouble to set up the room in the first place, and I could tell he genuinely cared about my well-being. So the least I could do was let him think and feel that he was helping me. And speaking of Lauren, I hadn't seen her around the warehouse at all. I figured she was spending majority of her time at the facility or at home at Eighth and Main. To be honest, I kind of missed her.

I had been spending as much time as possible with Austin, staying with him almost every night. I liked the way my hand fit into his. I liked the way my heart flipped every time he said my name. I liked the way his eyes lit up when he would talk about something he was passionate about. And I liked him. Just him and everything that he was.

Austin and I jolted awake at the sound of a loud banging on his metal door. I sat up quickly and glanced at the alarm clock. I groaned when I noticed how early it was. Austin yawned and leaned over to turn on the small bedside lamp. When neither of us answered right away, the banging began again.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" I yelled. I lethargically walked over to the door in nothing but one of Austin's oversized shirts and a pair of shorts you could hardly call shorts. I figured it was Normani waking us up for an early morning workout. I slid open the door and was met with a pair of green eyes.

"Lauren?" I whispered, instantly feeling self-conscious in what I was wearing. My cheeks turned a bright red.

"Camila?" she returned in the same hushed tone. "I, uh, just came to wake Austin up." She shyly averted her eyes from my body, looking down the dark hallway. The silence was quickly turning awkward. "But since you're here," she added, scratching the back of her neck. "Since you're here, we're meeting in the workout room in thirty minutes. Derek has something special planned for today."

"Okay," I said, fumbling with the hem of Austin's shirt.

"Okay," she returned, walking off towards the other rooms, not once looking back at me.

I slowly slid the door closed and walked back over to the bed, bewildered at what just happened. The girl I had been envisioning in my mind over the past two weeks had finally shown her face...and she saw me in hardly any clothes...in Austin's room.

"Who was it?" Austin asked.

"It was Lauren."

"Lauren?" He sat up straighter in the bed. "What did she want?"

"She came to wake you up, but she found me instead."

"I'm sure she was super jealous seeing you in my clothes and my room." Austin reached up and slid his arms around my waist, pulling me into his lap. He tried to kiss me, but I stood up before he had the chance to.

"Maybe, but I don't want to rub it in her face." I ran a hand through my hair. "That's not fair to her."

"Personally, I don't care what—"