The Trio (Camren)

Ch. 13 (Part 1)

"Yes mom, I'm behaving myself."

Lauren sighed as she laid on her stomach. "I'll visit when I can...love you too, bye."

She hung up and turned over. Her parents had been urging her to visit soon and believe her, she did want to. But trying to balance school and life wasn't easy. Most think it's easy to have a life while being in school but it's not. Lauren had been wanting to visit since her spring break but hadn't been able to. Her parents didn't live far at all but distance wasn't the problem. It was when she got there, was where the problem was. They always wanted her to stay longer than she could and would result in her feeling bad when she had to leave.

There was a knock and she glanced at the door before getting up to answer. She expected Lucy so when she opened it to reveal James, she was a bit surprised.

"Oh...hey James." Lauren smiled after her surprised expression.

James rubbed the back of his neck shyly since he knew he came unannounced. "Hey Lauren, sorry I didn't text you first before coming."

Yeah, you've been doing that a lot lately... Lauren thought to herself.

"It's fine, what brings you by?" She moved aside and allowed him to come in. Lauren could immediately tell by his posture that he was nervous. "James are you okay?" Lauren then asked noticing his discomfort.

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine thanks." Lauren could tell he was lying but decided not to push it. "Uh actually I was wondering if we could have that lunch we didn't get around to the other day."

Lauren tilted her head confused for a moment until she remembered the day James had also showed up unannounced and suspiciously asked Lauren about who she was with. Lauren slightly frowned in thought. It's not that she didn't want to but lately James had been acting weird and somewhat annoying if Lauren must admit.

"Oh...yeah why not?" She finally decided. She didn't want to rude especially to James who had been sweet since they met.

Even though she tried to hide the fact she wasn't thrilled about this lunch date, James could automatically tell. As Lauren left to go changed he sighed and sat on her bed. He felt as if he ruined everything with his protectiveness over her. The whole point of this was so he could make it up to Lauren. Especially for the other day where he had basically interrogated her and made her feel uncomfortable. That wasn't his intention but he couldn't help his jealousy that was erupting when he saw Lauren with Camila. Even though he really didn't have the right to be, for that he wanted to apologize.

Finally Lauren came out the bathroom and smiled at James, signalizing she was ready. "I just have to grab my sweater and we can go." Lauren said and moved to her closet to retrieve it.

James waited patiently nonetheless. "Ready to go?" He asked softly once Lauren walked back to him. She nodded and they both exited.

As they walked to James's car, Lauren couldn't help but feel nervous. Before she used to really enjoy her time with James but now felt like she had to hang out with him instead of wanting to. Lauren felt bad that she felt that way since she didn't used to be like that before. She just hoped that they could rekindle their friendship back.

He opened her door for her and Lauren's breath slightly got caught as she instantly imagined Camila doing the same. She quickly shook her thoughts away and smiled at him before getting inside. James frowned at Lauren's reaction but ignored it and moved to his side. He got in and began driving to their destination. He knew this cute Italian restaurant and hoped Lauren would like it too.

He glanced at Lauren, "Do you like Italian?"

Her green eyes turned toward him. "Yeah, I love any food honestly." She smiled lightly.