Stood Up [Camren]

One

Camila looked down at her cell phone. It lay locked, face up on the table. She glanced around the restaurant before picking it up once again. She pressed the home button and the screen lit up. No texts, no calls. The time read 7:58 PM. Austin was supposed to be here almost an hour ago.

She laid it back down and sighed. This wasn't the first time he had been late to one of their dates. But being an hour late? That was not like him at all. Camila was worried. Was he working late? Was the traffic bad? Those all seemed reasonable, but he would have texted her by now if that had been the case. Maybe his phone died. That set her a bit less on edge. But what if he was hurt? That thought made her mind race a mile a second. She didn't know what she'd do if he was hurt. He was her first boyfriend, the first boy she had ever kissed. He was so important to her. She pushed that thought to the far recesses of her mind, it scared her too much. But the she thought, what if he had just stood her up? Her stomach dropped, what if he was with another girl? Oh no.

A waitress walked over to Camila's table with a pitcher of ice water.

"Are you ready to order?" the waitress asked as she filled up Camila's glass.

"No, I think I should wait a bit longer," Camila said hurriedly.

The waitress looked over at the empty seat across from the girl she was serving,
"Okay, let me know when you're ready," she sympathetically smiled down at her.

Camila could tell that the waitress knew something was wrong. She looked around the restaurant again to see people glancing over at her table. She saw someone whisper over to their group, who were all looking over at her. Her cheeks went red and she began to fidget with her napkin, trying to take her mind off it. But she couldn't. She kept thinking that Austin had stood her up. She couldn't take it anymore, so she snatched up her phone and dialed his number.

"Hey! This is Austin. Sorry, I can't get to the phone right now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you!"

Camila sighed deeply and leaned back in her seat. She closed her eyes and waited for the beep. When she heard it, she left a message.

"Hey, it's Camila. It's 8 o'clock and I'm, uh, waiting at the restaurant. Please call or text me as soon as you can, I'm a little bit worried. Okay, love you," Camila said into her phone, trying to sound as un-worried as possible. She knew she wasn't convincing anyone. If Austin wasn't coming now, he probably wasn't coming at all.

-

Lauren looked over at the girl sitting alone. She felt awful for her. The restaurant was crowded and everyone in it had whispered about her at some point, including the wait staff. She'd been waiting to be seated for about thirty minutes, and she'd spent the whole time closely watching everything that happened to this girl. Lauren watched her as she put her phone down after the call, as she ran her hand through her long dark hair and sighed. Lauren bit her lip, she knew the girl's situation. She had been stood up before. But she was confused, how could someone stand up such a cute girl? But just as that thought entered her head, her stomach rumbled. Loudly. Her cheeks went red as the people in front of and behind her in line looked at her. She had had it, she was starving.

She quickly walked up to the host and asked, "How long until the next table for one is available?"

"Umm... about a half hour," he responded, flipping through his book of tables.

Lauren sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She had expected that the hottest new restaurant in town would be packed on a Saturday night. But she still didn't make a reservation. And she was starving.

I should just leave, she thought, It's probably not worth it anyway. She walked back over to where she had placed her bag, and took one last look at the girl sitting alone at her table. Her brown eyes filled with disappointment and sadness as the waitress returned to ask if she was ready to order yet again. And then Lauren got an idea. A weird one, but an idea nonetheless. That girl was lonely, and Lauren was hungry, so she decided to just go for it.