Walk A Mile (Camren)

XIII

Lauren woke up without the presence of Camila the next morning. Groggily, she felt around for her and missed her warm body. She rolled over - right off of the couch she'd unfortunately been sleeping on all night. She was disoriented and obviously not used to sleeping on the slim width of her couch. Camila appeared right when Lauren was in the process of leaning up off of the floor.

"Good morning," she said, taking in the adorable view of Lauren in the morning. Her hair was messy and tousled and her eyes were all squinty. Camila was endeared with her.

Lauren rubbed at her eyes and heaved a great sigh as she steadied herself on the floor. She looked up at Camila, who was towering over her with a steaming hot cup of coffee in her hands. "Good morning," she yawned. "You made coffee?"

"No, my dad did," Camila answered softly. It was apparent to Lauren that she'd just woken up as well - her voice was still husky and low.

"Oh," Lauren nodded. "What time is it?"

"I don't know, like seven..." Camila guessed, because she'd seen her dad dressed and ready to leave. He always left around seven to go out into the work field - but she assumed he was searching for employment now. She then lowered herself onto the couch. Lauren yawned again and rested her sleepy head on Camila's knee. "Did you fall off of the couch?"

"Yeah," Lauren nodded insignificantly, earning herself a raspy giggle from above.

"It's okay. I did too," Camila admitted with the knowledge that she wasn't the only one. Fortunately, she didn't wake her up with the loud thud.

"You don't have an excuse, though. You used to sleep here for the first week and a half," Lauren called her out.

"But lately, I've been sleeping with you in your bed. So I forgot what sleeping there was like," Camila countered with a defiant smile, still holding her coffee with both hands.

"Yeah, I know. It's great," Lauren smiled up at Camila. "We should've slept there last night."

"Probably," Camila seconded and cautiously lifted her mug to her lips. After sipping it once, she set it back down and glanced at the window. "Hey, you know what we should do?"

"What?" Lauren entertained her question briefly.

"We should go outside so we can watch the sunrise - if we're not too late," Camila suggested with a hopeful smile, still holding her mug with childish grace.

"I think that's a great idea," Lauren beamed at the thought of it.

"Come on, before we miss it," Camila coaxed her and set her half-full cup of coffee down on the table and held her hand out to Lauren, who gladly took it to hoist herself up.

-

"I really love watching sunrises and sunsets and stuff," Camila commented blithely, letting out a content breath of relaxation. She was sitting in the middle of Lauren's driveway with the green-eyed girl by her side.

"I don't wake up early enough," Lauren shrugged. "But it's nice whenever I do."

"When you can, you should. It's so quiet and peaceful outside in the mornings. It's beautiful," Camila said wistfully, looking up at the illusion of pink clouds. Due to her sleepy haze, Lauren really wasn't paying her words any mind. She was just enthralled with watching her speak. She was much more focused on her features than what she was saying, but that was a recurring practice.

"You're beautiful," Lauren replied lamely, still finding Camila more interesting to stare at than the rising sun overhead.

"Wow," Camila laughed, but didn't dismiss her compliment. "It's too early for this," she said in regards to the butterflies she was eliciting. It was a lovely thing to be feeling first thing in the morning.