Not Just One Night

Chapter 49

Camila's POV

"I can't just lay here," Lauren groaned, rolling over to where I was at in bed. I was on the left side, back propped against the headboard, reading a book I found on the shelf by the window in Lauren's old-room.

Her voice startled me from the last sentence of chapter seven. Her and I hadn't spoken much since earlier at the hospital. Only a few words over dinner, which I forced her to eat. "You're not helping yourself by skipping meals," I told her, practically dragging her into a small burger place on the way back to her family's home. "I know you're upset, but you have to eat."

Over a shared plate of fries and two sodas, we were quiet.

Since it had happened, I hadn't even grazed the topic of her grandmother. Although I could tell it was all that she was thinking about, and to be honest, so was I.

The sobs that escaped the moment the machine tied to her stilled body, echoed out, I will never forget.

They'll haunt me and so will having to hold Lauren as she literally caved into me. It was too much.

I would have stayed forever and held her but it was all just too much and far more than I could handle, so I motioned for Chris to take my place and as I slipped my arm from around her shaking body, he moved in. I whispered thank you, and after hushed 'excuse me's' as I exited the hospital room, I found myself alone in the hallway for at least another hour.

I had been so distracted by the flickering fluorescent light above me, that looked like tiny sparks of lightning, that I hadn't noticed when Lauren walked out.

It took hearing her voice to tear me from my distraction.

"Baby?" she whispered. Her voice was strained, her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and she had tied her hair back in a messy bun on top of her head. "Can we go home now?" she begged and quickly, I grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of the hospital to Chris' Jeep in the parking lot.

She didn't say much in the car. She'd say thank you, every once in a while with her forehead pressed to the glass.

I wouldn't answer because I knew she was only saying it to test my reaction to what I had seen. I guess to pacify her, I could have said you're welcome but I didn't  because I didn't need to be thanked.

I wouldn't have been anywhere else but there, even if given the choice.

And the same goes for being here now. We've laid awake for hours, in silence but I was content.

I closed the book, not bothering to mark my place. I laid it flat against my stomach and looked over at her. She was gnawing on her bottom lip. "Then what do you want to do?" I asked in response to her comment.

She shrugged her shoulders, her now free hair, drifting across her chest.

"I don't know," she said faintly. "I just need to go somewhere. Anywhere but here."

"Okay," I agreed and before I knew it we were both dressed in the clothes we had worn all day, tiptoeing down the stairs and out the front door. She had the keys and although I offered to drive again like I had on the way home from the hospital, she refused.

"I'm fine," she assured me, and I nodded only briefly watching her climb into the front seat.

Before ever pulling out of the driveway, she turned the ac up and the music even louder, expelled a heavy breath, and looked over at me.

"No judgement?" she questioned and it felt like waking up to your teacher's voice, realizing you had fallen asleep in class and had no clue what you had missed or what you were being asked.