POWER TRIP

Chapter Sixteen

       "What the hell was that?" Camila roared.

       Lauren's back muscles tensed as she took a minute to register the tone she hadn't yet experienced from the small model. "How? Wait, what? Back up."

      "Back up? Lauren, you just got out of the hospital this morning, then you fucking fainted during that damned photo shoot, and to top off this wonderful shit cake you got going here, you beat the living crap out of my ex-boyfriend and managed to get hit in the process. Now your stitches are ripped to fucking shreds, your head is probably spinning, and all because of that fucking bastard!" Camila was raging to the extreme. All of the pent up emotions from what happened before, during, and after the fight had taken their toll on the young Latina. "I can't take this anymore!"

     "Take what? I'm not following Camila. I know I've been hot and cold with you and like I said earlier, I think it was earlier today, I truly am sorry for being the stubborn asshole I've been. Seeing you with that scum of a man made my blood boil in ways I could never begin to explain to you even if I tried." The older girl sighed and allowed herself to slide down the wall before looking up at the model. "You drive me absolutely crazy and you haven't the slightest clue, ya know? I'd do anything for you, even, well, this." Indicating the physical harm she had gone through not too long ago.

      "I can't, it just, ugh!" Camila spun around and gripped her hair tightly, looking as if she was tempted to just rip it all out. She took a breath and turned back around again. Sitting beside Lauren against the wall, she sighed sadly and stared off into space. In a small voice she muttered, "You have no idea how much I've wanted to hear those words come out of your mouth, and how scared I was that they never would." You almost left me for good.

      "Why is that? I do have a heart buried deep down princess, it just doesn't like to show itself to just anyone. Who would've thought, that me, being as hell ridden as I am could've been blessed with an angel like you? It's beyond me. However, I know I've only proved just what kind of hell fire I carry tonight, and I'm sorry if I scared you. But you need to know, I do care Camila, I care way more than a friend should."

      "I never said that I just wanted you to be my friend." The model replied, still not moving her eyes. As if on cue, she heard Lauren choke on what seemed to be nothing but thin air.

"What? You can't be, you just, did you...?"

       Turning her head to face Lauren, Camila smiled a tiny smile. "And I never said I was straight either."

     "Well you seemed, you just, you uh, kinda, um radiated this chipper attitude from the get go and I had never seen anyone who adored anything but men as happy go lucky, and well, me, Lexa, and well Raven- oh, we, we're so broody. And then Clarke was well, Clarke. And then you, you uh. You said, boyfriend, and I just well, um, I shutdown."

    "My lord you're really fucking flustered there, babe." The brown-eyed woman chuckled. Truthfully, Lauren looked as if she was in the middle of having some sort of stroke.

    "You see, um, you can't say things like that and expect anything less." The fighter gulped visibly and shook under Camila's look of honesty. She hated it, she really did. No one ever, ever, made her stutter like her former third grade self. That was up until the younger of the two started to notice the way Lauren hesitated to move any closer than a foot away when they watched some sort of movie on Netflix. That was before Camila knew exactly what was going through the green-eyed fighter's mind.

   "Things like, I wish you would just hold me because I think I might honestly breakdown in the next few minutes?"

   "Yes, exactly things like that. But if you're serious, and need to have your breakdown, let me be your structure to hold you together when all you want to do is fall apart. Please, mi princessa, I promise, I'm not going anywhere."