beyond the monotonous city

thirty seven

Lauren woke up around lunch time and that's when she felt how tired out her body is. Her muscles were sore.

She looks and sees Camila up already, watching TV. It was tuned on to National Geographic. Her back was facing her and Lauren was suddenly reminded of last night and it instantly. She tried to shake it off.

"Camila," the girl turned to her and she looked refreshed. It hit her that Camila was the type not to harbor any feelings of animosity towards anyone. She wished she could say the same for her. "I'm not feeling too well, would you mind if we leave around the afternoon? Don't think I can drive yet."

"It's fine Lauren." she turned back to the TV.

Lauren felt the mixed emotions she had from last night right up her gut and felt that she was still too tired to make any rational decision so she found herself resting her head back on her pillow before succumbing to sleep.

The next time she woke up, she was alone in the room. She groaned when she checked the time, that it was 2 PM already. She slept in for around 5 hours, and basically wasted crucial parts of the day she could be spending with Camila instead. She groggily got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up and to get dressed. She realized Camila's case was already gone, only her stuff remaining in the room. She grabbed some of the clothes she wore last that found its way on the floor, and put it back in her luggage. She bit her tongue to stop her thoughts from going back to last night because it was too painful for her, to completely bare herself for one person to only set her spirits back down. She felt the tears well up but she blinked them away, reminding herself she had to drive back all the way back to Miami.

When her luggage was all fixed, she got out the room, not giving the room one last look before she left. Why would she want to attach herself to a room that just gave her temporary memories with a temporary girl? It was stupid.

She checked out and paid the man at the front desk and made her way to the parking lot. She saw Camila leaning at her car hood, looking at something in her hands, Lauren figured it was her bucket list, her travel case near her feet. She hated how beautiful Camila looked then, when she felt she couldn't forgive the girl for last night.

Lauren made her way to the front door and unlocked it. Camila turned to her at the movement and quickly went in her way at the shotgun seat. Lauren packed both their bags at the trunk and headed out.

Realizing none of them ate lunch yet, Lauren stopped at the nearest cafe she found. When they got in, they ordered their food and ate in silence. Lauren was very willing to be passive aggressive, making her utensils drop at her plate and crumpling the paper napkin before throwing it on the table. Camila was just silent until when they waited for their bill. Either she didn't notice or just pretended not to see.

"Lauren, can we go to the beach?" she asked politely. The way her voice sounded like melted candy made Lauren's heartstrings melt, that she was acting like such an asshole in front of her but she couldn't do anything about it. Her mind was twisted like that. She nodded anyway.

Lauren drove her to the public beach she knew that was closest to them. When she parked and got out, she saw that it was fairly less occupied than most beaches they had passed. Lauren locked the car doors and looked up to see Camila already near the shore. Lauren carefully followed.

Camila was just looking at the afternoon sky, arms wide open. If she wasn't feeling so conflicted, she would have taken another photo of the girl right then. Camila was wearing a white knitted cardigan over jean shorts and a tank top. If she didn't know her, Lauren would just think she would be an ordinary girl you'd see at the beach.

She took a deep breath and soaked in the afternoon sun, feeling the warm breeze of the sea. She felt her head start to clear a bit.

She saw Camila sit down, her arms a wrapped around her knees. Lauren came up carefully and sat down beside her, watching the look on the younger girl's face. She looked calm, peaceful, serene and part of Lauren wished she would stay like that forever for she didn't want to see any ounce of pain on her face. Lauren looked at her feet, suddenly self conscious that she let herself stare for too long.