HMU

one hundred thirty eight

Lauren closes the door behind her, tossing her useless phone and bag onto the ground before kicking her shoes off. With a tired sigh, she grips the apology flowers she'd stopped at the store to get for Camila, glancing around the front of the house. "Camz? Where are you?"

When there's no reply, she begins to head up the stairs, thinking Camila's gone to bed early. She knocks gently on her bedroom door before turning the knob, frowning when the door doesn't budge and she realizes it's locked.

"Babe? You in there?"

"She doesn't want to see you, Lauren." She recognizes Dinah's voice through the door.

"What? Why not?" Lauren was confused; surely she wasn't this pissed that she'd missed dinner. "Please, just let me in. I have something for you."

"There's a blanket and a pillow on the couch."

"What?" Lauren leans into the door, flattening her free hand against it and closing her eyes. "Baby, I'm sorry I missed dinner but this has to be a little extreme."

"Oh, yeah." Suddenly the door is opening, and Lauren stumbles as she keeps herself from falling. Her heart breaks when she sees Camila, standing before her with puffy red eyes and smearing makeup. Lauren's first instinct was to kiss her and fix whatever was hurting, but she had a feeling Camila wouldn't quite appreciate that in this exact moment. "You just 'missed dinner'."

"Yeah, I brought you these to say I'm sorry." Lauren speaks softly, offering the flowers. "They're your favorite."

"If you just 'missed dinner,' why didn't you answer your phone?"

"Because—"

"Why, when I called Halsey to ask where you were, she denied having seen you while she was panting and moaning into the phone? She moaned your name before she hung up, Lauren! So where the fuck were you?" Lauren tries to hold it back, but she can't help it as her own anger starts to bubble up in her chest. "Were you with her?"

"No, I wasn't." Lauren hisses between gritted teeth. "I would never do that to you, Camila. For your information, I got stuck at work because my supervisor was being a hard ass for the billionth time this week. I would've called to let you know I was going to be late, but my phone didn't charge properly last night and died halfway through the day. What you probably heard was Halsey with her girlfriend, Dua." Lauren was fuming, unable to control her anger. Didn't Camila trust her? "So, no, Camila. I wasn't with her. She didn't know where I was because she left work before me, because that is where I was."

Camila opens and closes her mouth several times, unsure what to say.

"I got these for you to apologize for missing dinner. Sorry." Lauren says curtly, handing the flowers to Camila before turning towards the stairs.

"W-Where are you going?"

Lauren pauses, glancing up at Camila. "To sleep on the couch."

***