Wishes (A Camren Story)

Chapter 10

Lauren has experienced a lot of pain throughout her years of living. Everything from heartbreaks to broken bones and burns to deaths of family members, but none of that compared to the pain she was experiencing today. 

She barely even knew Camila but yet she felt so connected to the young girl like they've known each other since the diaper days. For a majority of the day, Camila stayed miserable and barely uttered a few words. The only time she spoke up was when Alejandro would make a random comment about Paul. The comments were always so unnecessary and made everything more awkward than it needed to be.

At one part of the day, Chris and Taylor tried to pull Lauren away and distract her by going Expedition Everest, but Lauren refused to leave Camila's side.

The worst part of the day was during lunch. Lauren talked for the majority of the conversation as she tried to distract the young mother. The green-eyed girl didn't know how much she was helping but the occasional smile from Camila made Lauren keep going.

"What's next?" Michael asked as he held out the map of Animal Kingdom.

"Something with air conditioning," Taylor whined as she tried to fan her cherry red face with the Disney mist fan they bought yesterday.

"We were just in air conditioning for two hours," Michael stated as he nodded towards the Rainforest Café they just came out of.

"What about Expedition Everest," Chris suggested for the tenth time today.

"No, The Lion King musical," Taylor spoke up.

"I'm not going to waste a hour of my vacation by watching some dumb musical about animals."

"The Lion King isn't dumb," Taylor replied angrily.

Lauren stood off to the side, rolling her eyes. The last thing Lauren wanted to hear was another argument. That's the only thing today has consisted of, and she was sick and tired of it. All she wanted to do was go back to the resort and forget this day even happened.

"Enough you two," Clara said irritated. "We're going to see The Lion King musical first, and afterwards we'll go on that Everest ride," she negotiated. "Does that make everybody happy?"

A choir of "yes" came from the group. Together, Michael and Alejandro mapped out where the building was located before they all started walking in that direction.

"Wait," Camila whispered as she grabbed onto Lauren's wrist before Lauren could walk away.

"What's wrong?" Lauren asked concerned. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," the brown-eyed girl reassured. "I'm just supposed to go meet Paul and I didn't want to go alone, or have my entire family come with me, so I was wondering if you'd come with me.

"Yeah, sure," Lauren agreed even though she really didn't want to be anywhere near the man. The only reason she agreed was for Camila.

Lauren held onto Camila's hand as the young mother pulled her to the spot where they were supposed to meet Paul and Alexa. Lauren took a seat on the stone fountain out of the Florida sun while Camila stood impatiently, tapping her foot. 

"Camz, why don't you sit down?" Lauren suggested as she watched the young mother pace back and forth. 

"They should be here by now."

"It's a big park. They probably lost track of time or something," Lauren said, trying to defend Paul. "You look like you're going to pass out."

"All I want is my daughter," Camila said as she looked up and down the path for her four-year-old. "I'm rarely away from her and if she's not with me than she's usually with my Mom or Ally."