Walk A Mile (Camren)

XVI

"So... You tried to break up with him last night, but instead he's coming to my house..?" Lauren tried to process the shit Camila had just shared with her, but she was still disoriented. That was not something she wanted to hear upon first waking up. Or ever. She was just starting to get over her brief cold, but now this was giving her another headache.

"Basically..." Camila mumbled a small affirmation as she picked at her breakfast. The two were situated in the kitchen. They were supposed to be eating breakfast, but Camila's confession had stalled them both. Camila was pushing her food around with her fork. Lauren was staring at her incredulously.

"If you couldn't tell him on the phone, why didn't you just text him..." Lauren frowned at the way she was choosing to handle it. The more she thought about it, the less sense it made. "Seriously! If you could've texted him my address, you could've texted him that you wanted to break up..."

"Nobody wants to get broken up with over text, Lauren..." Camila said, reserving some sympathy for him. "Of course I could've done that... But I didn't want to. That was the whole reason I ended up calling him. Doing it afterwards would've defeated the purpose."

"Why would you think he'd want to drive all the way down here just to get broken up with anyway?" Lauren rephrased her point irritably. The brooding girl only regarded Camila with furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips.

"I don't understand why you're mad at me right now. I'm doing what you wanted. It's just taking an extra step, that's all..." Camila muttered, largely resembling a scolded puppy. She kept her head bowed and her gaze trained on her plate just so she wouldn't have to look up at her.

"I'm not mad at you, Camz... I'm just... Why would you allow him to twist your words like that? You don't even want to see him," Lauren scoffed, then became insecure. "You don't want to see him... Right?"

It wasn't that Lauren was mad or even hurt by the prospect of Darren joining them, it was the fear that it instilled in her. It made her nervous. She felt threatened. She knew they had history and to be quite frank, she didn't want anything to do with him. She'd be forced to be polite and to accommodate him when she didn't want to. And on top of everything, from the way Camila described him, Lauren felt like she'd be highly pissed off if she saw them in action. Seeing him kissing and hugging her would burn Lauren to her core. She was definitely the jealous type. And she was discovering that she was overwhelmingly possessive, and Camila wasn't even officially hers. Not yet, anyway. These things didn't happen that often to her and she didn't want some curly headed dingbat coming in and ruining everything for her when her stars were finally aligned for once.

"No, I don't really want to see him. But it's not like I could just say 'I don't want to see you.. Funny story, I was actually planning on breaking up with you'. He literally had just told me that he missed me," Camila expressed with a little remorse, now feeling guilty that she didn't reciprocate any of it.

Well, good. That was relieving.

"You're still leading him on, though. I thought that was what this whole thing was about," Lauren tried a softer, less obvious approach. All motives for objecting to this stemmed from her pettiness. Without ever seeing or speaking to the boy, she already had a deep-rooted dislike for him. It was senseless.

"I'm trying, Lauren. When he comes, I'll just tell him then. Give me a break," Camila sighed and turned away from her. She didn't like being guided on how she should handle her relationship. She kind of wished Lauren would mind her own business about it. But she knew her frustration with Lauren was terribly misguided. She was only trying to help.

"Okay, sorry," Lauren apologized and backed off.

"No, you don't have to apologize. Just ignore me," she instructed and occupied herself by stirring around the coffee Lauren had made for her a few minutes earlier. To discourage any further conversation about it, she lifted the mug to her lips and tentatively sipped it. It was an action she immediately regretted. It was still scalding. It hadn't even cooled off a little bit. Camila swore harshly and brought her hand to her lips, as if that would help alleviate the burn.