Honey, Art

Chapter Two

Making her way with her books against her chest, she walked down the hallway of her apartment building until she got to the elevator. This semester had been oddly rough on her. Normally, she was good at keeping up with her classes, but for some reason, she wasn't doing too well right now. For the first time ever, she got a score below 90. She prided herself off of her good grades and although an 87 is still passing, to Lauren it was like failing. Never in her life had she gotten an 87. Then again, with the year she's had, she knew it was coming. It was bound to happen at some point. No one can go their entire life only getting 90's, right?

Taking a deep breath, Lauren unlocked the door to her apartment and immediately, she felt a shift. Like something was different. She didn't like it. And it only took her taking one single step into her apartment to know what exactly it was, because when she stepped, she heard a crumple of something. Looking down, she saw a white envelope under her foot and she bent down to pick it up. There was no writing on it, not saying who it was from. But when she opened the tucked in envelope, she saw a single key laying in there in the corner. Not taking another second to guess what was going on, she walked fast to the back of her apartment to her old bedroom. What she saw made her throat dry.

Camila's things were gone. How she knew that just by looking into the room was because Camila's favorite lamp wasn't sitting on the bedside table anymore. She walked into the room, taking cautious steps because she couldn't believe it had actually finally happened. She looked over into the closest, seeing it was empty. Completely empty other than hangers sitting there on the rod with nothing on them. She saw that her ex had taken all of her old shoes and boxes that were lined up at the bottom of the closet.

Lauren knew this was coming, she did. She just didn't know when and even with all the time apart, she didn't prepare herself for it to actually happen. And then she thought... what was the date? Walking over the calendar that sat above Camila's old desk, it was September 23rd. And seeing the old red pen markings on the day before, it was the end of Camila's tour. She had lost track of the days since the break up, and to be honest, she didn't think Camila would get her things first thing after coming back. She thought her ex-girlfriend would go stay in California with some friends or go back to Miami for a couple weeks with her parents and little sister. Lauren felt stupid. She thought Camila would relax afterwards, but Camila just wanted her things back.

Trying to take her mind off of it, Lauren decided that she would get out of the apartment and go do something. And as she walked on the sidewalk, heading to the diner, she couldn't help but feel a little pissed off at her ex-girlfriend. Although she had a key to the apartment, Camila hadn't been there for nearly a year and to Lauren, she had no right to just come into the apartment without telling the current person living there. Out of respect and decency, Camila should've called to at least give her a heads up, even if it would've been a last minute call. At least it would've something.

As she walked into the diner, she took a seat at the booth she always sat at. In the very back right hand corner, nearest to the bathroom. It was away from most of the people that came in and she liked that. The only thing bad about this spot was being close to the bathroom, because on a few occasions, people would open that door after using it and it'd smell pretty awful. Countless times, Lauren had lost her appetite. Still though, she doesn't ever change where she sits. It's like tradition for her by now.

The waiter approached her, giving her usual black coffee. "Hey, dude." He said to announce his presence. "You want anything else?"

Shaking her head, "No, I'm good, but thanks, Nate." She gave him a small smile and watched as he walked away.

One thing was for sure, being here always made her feel a little better. Almost everyone has a safe haven, a place that just helps them feel better from whatever the hell is going on in their life. And well, this very diner was that for Lauren. She had been coming here since she first moved here to Seattle with Camila when she was just 18. Camila had still been in high school, but she came to visit quite often due to her parents being a bit loaded. It was quite the commute for their relationship, but they made it work back then. Which is why they believed they could make it work while the younger girl was on tour.