Blame It On Bad Luck (Camren)

Chapter 24

There was an odd sense of familiarity and comfort sitting in Lauren's car with her. Camila would have assumed it to be much more difficult than it was to fall back into a sort of routine with the raven haired girl but she quickly discovered coming back home was nothing short of unremarkable. It was like she had never left.

At least on her end, anyway. Camila was never accustomed to feeling she quite fit in anywhere she inhabited. And, okay, Dinah's place while more often than not a touch overcrowded was something close to a second home but it would always remain just that; a second home without even having a first.

Lauren was unwelcoming when she first moved in and there was no other way to describe it. She had made it perfectly clear that Camila was not only unwanted but also an unfathomable burden raining down on her life at the most inconvenient of times as if she had planned it out specifically to spite her. She didn't belong there and she was going to make sure she was painfully aware of it.

Perhaps it was more subtle than she realized. Because even looking back on the few months living together she couldn't pinpoint an exact moment in the given time frame where things began to change or when Lauren softened around the edges—so to speak—and put an end to her seemingly never ending crusade to drive her out of there for good.

She didn't know when Lauren started to be more aware of their living situation, aware of the fact that she wasn't alone anymore, aware of the fact that she was starting to enjoy her company rather than resent it.

And she couldn't figure it out either. She couldn't figure out why certain things started to matter or when. But they both knew that it worked. It worked because somehow they did. It was easy, like they'd lived together for years and it was all of a sudden strange if they didn't.

Camila pondered this, thought of their weird little home they'd inadvertently made by themselves in such a short span of time, as she watched Lauren drive them away from the record store and to the supermarket nearby to do something as menial and domestic as grocery shopping together.

And it was weirdly content despite everything that had transpired.

Lauren was quiet, uncharacteristically so. She had been ever since Camila walked in through the door with the sole purpose of making sure their overweight cat didn't starve and nothing else. And if it weren't for Camila's countless attempts at conversation, she wouldn't speak at all.

"I talked to Steve by the way," was the first thing she had said to the green eyed girl that actually piqued her interest.

"Who?"

"My manager. He wants to meet you sometime this week, if you're still interested."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. So just stop in whenever, chat him up, kiss some ass...you know, give him the ol' razzle dazzle," she said cheerfully, purposefully, eying her roommate through her peripheral for any hint that she was struggling to contain some snarky insult or even just a swift roll of her eyes.

"Um...okay." Her voice was controlled, her tone calculated, and she kept her gaze on the road with both hands on the steering wheel giving no indication that she even actually heard what Camila had said. She nodded, going along with whatever nonsense she was spewing. "That sounds good."

"Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Nothing, you're just..." she started, the questions and curiosity boiling and burning the tip of her tongue. But she held it, sighed, and shook her head. "Nothing, never mind."