The Way to Love (Camren)

Chapter 18: The White Rose

XVIII. 

When Camila woke the next morning, she was alone. Panic seared through her instantly, and she sat up far too fast for the strain in her back. The girl looked around, hoping to god that whatever had happened the previous night wasn't a just a terribly unfair figment of her imagination. When Camila looked over to the bed, it was empty, and she didn't know whether to be relieved, or to start panicking even more.

"Hey there lazy bones. You're finally up." Camila looked to where the familiar voice was coming from, seeing Normani standing at the other side of the room. She was dressed like she had just come from a class, with her hair up in a messy bun and a set of comfy clothing on her body. "It looks like you might have been turned into a human question mark last night. Why didn't you sleep in the bed?"

"I... I don't know. I guess I just fell asleep here." Camila shrugged as she struggled to her feet to look around. "Where's Lauren? What are you doing here? Are the others here as well?"

"Relax." Normani stepped over, revealing she had a white paper bag in her hand. "Here, I brought you a little something for breakfast from the adorable cafe on campus. I figured you might be hungry."

"Thanks." Camila stretched the muscles of her back, wincing as a dull pain began to shiver through her spine. She took the bag, peering inside and removing the large blueberry muffin. "Ok, now my questions. Answer them."

"Lauren's doing just fine." Normani started, watching Camila sit down on the side of the cot and begin picking little pieces from the top of her muffin. "The nurses told me they came in this morning and were horrified to find her out of bed and literally in your arms."

Camila sighed in relief. "Good." She mumbled. "So I didn't just dream that."

"Nope." Normani smirked. "Apparently she tugged out the IV, and took off the heart rate monitor just to get to you. And she's feeling way better, although her hangover is going to take a few hours yet to subside. I got an email from her parents, apparently they decided not to fly down, and they're just going to give her a stern talking to over the phone, so that should be fun for her."

"Mmm..." Camila agreed as she chewed.

"And she's with the doctors right now just to make sure that the level of toxin in her body is manageable, and to get a cast moulded for her hand. Her wrist is broken, but she has no idea how it happened... obviously."

"Oh." Camila looked down at her muffin. "That's terrible."

"Yeah." Normani agreed. "But the good thing is that she's safe. One of the doctors was telling her that if she had spent any more time with that high a level of blood alcohol in her body, she may not have been so lucky. We got her here just in time."

"Wow..." Camila couldn't believe how fast her life had gone from one to one hundred over the events of a few hours. "And what about the others? Are they here as well?"

"Ally was here earlier, but she had to head to the clinic, and Dinah should be back any minute from a coffee run. I heard that you had a pretty traumatic night last night... I'm sorry we all couldn't be there for you." Normani continued with a sympathetic look.

"No, don't be." Camila smiled up at her roommate. "Honestly, there was just so much going on... things happened right when I didn't expect them to happen... everything turned out okay." She said, focusing carefully on her words.

"I bet." Normani hesitated, biting her lip as she looked down at the floor. "Mila, there is one more thing you probably should know about Lauren."

"What's that?"

"She's— god I don't know how to put this." Normani met Camila's eyes. "She's very... shaken up right now. The doctor told her what happened from start to finish. All the events of the ambulance, then how things went down here and in the ER."