It Started With Hello ⇒ Camren

Fifty Two

Trigger Warning

Saturday Night

[Luce - 10:53 p.m.]
I'm still in shock.

[Laur - 10:54 p.m.]
I'm fine now, Luce.

[Luce - 10:54 p.m.]
Yeah now you are. But for nearly five years you weren't.

[Laur - 10:55 p.m.]
It's fine. The past is in the past, it's over now.

[Luce - 10:55 p.m.]
Lauren you were raped, harassed, assaulted, abused, more than a handful of times. For Christ sake it's not "fine".

[Laur - 10:56 p.m.]
Yup, I was there. I remember very clearly.

[Luce - 10:56 p.m.]
I was friends with him and I shouldn't have been. God, I could've stopped it if I knew.

[Luce - 10:57 p.m.]
And I should've known. I should've been smart enough to put the pieces together.

[Luce - 10:58 p.m.]
All the times you would want to come to my house or Mani's house after school instead of going home was because of the stalking. The way you would drown yourself in school work was to forget about everything else going on around us. The random bruises on your arms that you claimed you just ran into something and you're an easy bruiser were from the way he would grab you.

[Luce - 10:59 p.m.]
I should've fucking known.

[Laur - 11:01 p.m.]
I'm glad you didn't. He would've hurt you.

[Luce - 11:01 p.m.]
I would've rather had him hurt me instead of you suffering alone.

[Laur - 11:01 p.m.]
Now you sound like Mani.

[Luce - 11:02 p.m.]
Because we both care about you Lauren! We love you to death! You're our best friend!

[Luce - 11:02 p.m.]
We never wanted anything like this...

[Luce - 11:03 p.m.]
You, Alexa, Mani, and I were all so sure if anything like this ever happened, we'd be there for each other.

[Luce - 11:03 p.m.]
I wasn't. And it kills me knowing I could've done something.

[Laur - 11:05 p.m.]
Lucy. Stop beating yourself up. I never would've told you. Hell, I never would've told anyone if it weren't for Camila showing up in the middle of it all. And you never would've magically found out because I was good at hiding things. So stop beating yourself up because it's not fucking worth it.

[Luce - 11:07 p.m.]
Fine.

[Laur - 11:20 p.m.]
I'm sorry, okay? I know you care. I know you love me. I know you would've put a stop to everything immediately if you knew, just like Mani would've. You wouldn't have given two fucks about the way he would threaten you to scare me shitless into not saying anything.

[Laur - 11:22 p.m.]
And I appreciate it, Lucy. I appreciate it so much and I love you to death, but please stop beating yourself up about something in the past. It's not worth it.

[Luce - 11:25 p.m.]
I'm sorry.

[Laur - 11:27 p.m.]
Don't be. You have no reason to be. Like I said, I appreciate everything you do for me and would've done for me and I love you to death. You did nothing wrong.

[Luce - 11:28 p.m.]
I love you too.

[Laur - 11:28 p.m.]
So let's just drop it now, yeah?

[Luce - 11:29 p.m.]
Okay.

[Laur - 11:29 p.m.]
Okay.

[Luce - 11:30 p.m.]
So this Camila girl...

[Laur - 11:32 p.m.]
Yeah.

[Luce - 11:33 p.m.]
Who is she?

[Laur - 11:42 p.m.]
A friend.

[Luce - 11:43 p.m.]
How'd you meet her?

[Laur - 11:43 p.m.]
She texted me on accident after a party.

[Laur - 11:44 p.m.]
Someone gave her a fake number and it just happened to be mine.

[Luce - 11:45 p.m.]
Is she a good friend to you?

[Luce - 11:45 p.m.]
I mean she must be considering she stopped everything.

[Luce - 11:46 p.m.]
Shit. Sorry, sorry I forgot we're moving away from that topic.

[Laur - 11:47 p.m.]
It's fine. Well actually, I'm not really sure what we are right now.

[Luce - 11:48 p.m.]
What do you mean?

[Laur - 11:50 p.m.]
She kind of...distanced herself from me.

[Luce - 11:50 p.m.]
Any reason?

[Laur - 11:53 p.m.]
Her friend Dinah was assuming her sexuality at lunch and I asked her about it and I kinda pushed it too far when she denied liking girls and I reminded her that when she texted me she was actually trying to text another girl.

[Laur - 11:54 p.m.]
And ever since then she's been off.

[Laur - 11:54 p.m.]
My fault.

[Luce - 11:56 p.m.]
I'm sure she'll come around.

[Laur - 11:59 p.m.]
Maybe.

[Luce - 12:00 a.m.]
Give her time, maybe she's trying to figure some stuff out.

[Laur - 12:00 a.m.]
Sure.

[Luce - 12:01 a.m.]
Alright I won't push.

[Laur - 12:03 a.m.]
Thanks.

[Luce - 12:05 a.m.]
Wanna get lunch tomorrow?

[Laur - 12:05 a.m.]
Yes.

[Luce - 12:06 a.m.]
Okay text me when you're up.

[Laur - 12:06 a.m.]
Okay.

[Laur - 12:07 a.m.]
Goodnight, Lucy. Sweet dreams.

[Luce - 12:09 a.m.]
Night, Laur. Love you.

[Laur - 12:09 a.m.]
Love you too.