june 27th | camren

three

On Lauren's twenty-second birthday, Camila sees her from across the street in downtown Miami, hanging off the arms of Dinah and Normani, two of their high school friends. All three of them are obviously well on their way to getting drunk, their steps unsteady and laughs too loud.

Something twists inside Camila's gut at the sight. She was only supposed to drop off the present—a vintage polaroid camera—and get back to the house, but she can't tear her eyes away from Lauren now.

She hasn't seen Lauren in three years, which, considering that she's likely going to be around for at least a few hundred more, shouldn't feel like forever. But it does.

Lauren looks different. Her hair is dyed black, and it's loosely bouncing against her shoulders with every step she takes. There's a certain air of maturity surrounding her, and when she speaks her voice is lower and huskier than Camila remembers. She's beautiful.

Normani says something that makes Lauren laugh, and Camila's mouth goes dry at the sight. She has to remind herself that this is Lauren, not some random girl she can approach and bite down on at the end of the night. Her body's reactions to Lauren are completely unrelated to the vampiric side of things—this is what it's like to be attracted to someone when the endgame isn't drinking their blood.

But when Lauren, Dinah, and Normani turn the corner and disappear from Camila's field of vision, she can't stop herself from spinning around and following them from a distance. Her eyes are glued to Lauren's back, like she's on the hunt and watching her prey's every step until it's the right moment to attack.

From the corner of her eye, Camila catches sight of a clock that reads 4:32 AM, and she knows that Ally is waiting for her to come home. She also knows that she didn't bring a phone with her, which means she can't text Ally to let her know she's not in trouble, but as much as she's dreading a speech from Ally about how she can't trust Camila if she doesn't give her a reason to, she can't bring herself to turn around.

Lauren and her friends eventually enter a bar a few blocks down, and Camila follows them inside without a second thought. A wall of body heat and the smell of fresh blood hits her the second she steps inside, and her mind grows foggy as her vampire instincts take over.

One girl in particular, a blonde wearing a low cut shirt that perfectly exposes her neck, catches her attention. Camila's fangs dig into her bottom lip and she carefully inches closer to her, already thinking of ways to lure her away from the crowd. She closes the distance between them, subtly placing her hand on the girl's swaying hips, and bats her eyelashes with a flirtatious grin on her lips. The girl's eyes turn playful and she presses closer to Camila, the scent of her skin becoming almost overwhelming in such close proximity.

Camila instinctively leans closer to press her lips against the girl's neck when a glass falls from the bar and shatters on the floor. The sound immediately pulls Camila back into reality, and she not-so subtly pushes the girl off of her.

"Sorry," she mutters, ignoring the indignant look on the girl's face, and before getting distracted again she starts making her way to the bar Lauren is sitting at.

She climbs onto a bar stool and slaps a twenty onto the bar and orders some colorful cocktail, keeping her head down as much as possible to lower the risks of someone recognizing her. This bar isn't too far from where she grew up, and the chances of running into someone she knew are a lot higher than she wants to admit.

Although the bartender blocks her view on Lauren most of the time, Camila is still highly aware of how this is the first time they've been in such close proximity in over three years. The realization is enough to make Camila's head spin, and she quickly downs her drink. (Alcohol needs to come in much higher quantities to make her feel its effects now, and even then it's not as good as the high after drinking fresh human blood.)