Come Back, Be Here (Camren)

Chapter 7

The two pans of pizza, one Hawaiian and one pepperoni, finally arrive at the table and Ally pulls up a chair to eat with her three best friends and her one new friend.

"Well if no one else is going to eat, I will." Camila shrugs and reaches out to get a slice of the delicious Hawaiian pizza in front of her. In the process, the sleeve of her shirt rolls up a bit and reveals a nasty purple and black bruise on her left wrist.

The green-eyed girl notices this and before she can stop herself, she reaches out and takes Camila's thin arm in her hands. She quickly rolls the sleeve up, ignoring Camila's protests, and inspects the bruise that seems to wrap around her slender wrist.

"Who did this, Camz? Did he do this?" Lauren's blood boils and Camila jerks her arm away quickly. She hastily pulls her sleeve back down and grabs a piece of pizza.

"It's nothing." The younger girl promises. "I just tripped."

"Chanch, you don't trip and make a bruise in the shape of a handprint on your wrist." Dinah states as she scans her best friend's face for answers.

"Mila, is Austin hurting you?" Normani asks quietly. All four girls are scared to hear the answer, but they know they need to.

Camila's eyes shoot up at the dark-skinned girl and immediately she shakes her head. "I'm not doing this right now." She quickly stands up.

Dinah stands up to try to reason with her. "What about lunch, Mila?" The Polynesian knows the way to Camila's heart is through pizza. Everyone knows that.

"I'm not hungry anymore." Camila throws her napkin down on the table and storms out of the restaurant.

Oh no you don't. Lauren thinks as she stands up and follows the brunette out of the restaurant. When she makes it out of the door, she sees the young girl walking down the sidewalk. Lauren jogs to catch up to her and her heart breaks when she sees the tears clouding her favorite pair of chocolate eyes.

"Hey why don't you let me drive you home?" Lauren offers as she clutches her fists together in attempt to stop herself from reaching out and comforting the teary eyed brunette.

"It's so frustrating not being able to remember." Camila allows the tears to fall as she stops walking. The green-eyed girl stops alongside her, Camila's response catching her off guard. She racks her brain to try and come up with the right words to say to Camila, but she realizes that sometimes there simply aren't any right words. Lauren has been in these kinds of situations a lot and so she knows that sometimes what people need most is the comfort of knowing that someone is listening to what they have to say and understanding them.

"I bet it is. I can't imagine going through what you went through." Throwing all restraint aside, Lauren reaches out and extends her hands to touch Camila's face. "You are so strong Camz." She states as she uses the pads of her thumbs to wipe away Camila's tears. Her heart soars when she realizes that the younger girl didn't pull away from her.

After a couple of moments of staring into Lauren's eyes, Camila finally speaks up. "Do you umm have any pictures of us?" She mumbles and Lauren barely hears the request, but when the words actually register in her mind, a smile spreads across her face.

"I have a million." Lauren answers confidently as she fishes her phone from her pocket. She scrolls through her pictures, trying to decide which one she wants to show Camila. She finally settles on showing her one of her favorite pictures of the two of them.

Flashback

"I wanna do something spontaneous with you." Camila blurts out as she comes to a stop in front of a well-known nightclub. Lauren quirks an eyebrow at her girlfriend and then follows her gaze to a sign on the nightclub marque that says 'closed for private wedding party.'