Love like War (Camila/You/Lauren)

chapter 17: the puddle

"Dumbass. Dumbass. Dumbass." I repeated as I walked through the rain, hitting my head with each word.

"Y/N, wait!" I heard behind me, but I ignored it. I knew it was Lauren, but I didn't want to talk to her. I had just confessed my love to her, and broke her ex's heart. Why would I want to talk to anybody?

I pulled the hood of my hoodie up and crossed my arms as I sped up my walk. I didn't know where I was walking to, but it definitely wasn't towards the gas station. In fact I was going the opposite way of the gas station.

"Stop walking away!" She yelled, but her tone changed to a lighter plead, "Please?"

I slowed down a bit, contemplating whether I should, but I quickly shook my head and kept walking, putting one foot in front of the other and trusting wherever my feet would take me.

I started to hear loud splashes coming from behind me, louder then the rain drops hitting the sitting puddles on the road.

"Hey, stop-" I felt her hand on my shoulder, turning me around to face her. "And talk to me."

I threw my hood of and let the rain fall on my hair.

"Talk about what, Lauren?" I snapped, noticing her sigh. I met her green eyes, but I couldn't read them. She took a step towards me and I clenched my jaw, hating the fact that my heart was fluttering nonstop for Lauren, and not Camila, who had done everything right.

"You love me." She said, holding her arms out so her hand brushed my own. I furrowed my eyebrows and opened my mouth.

"No, no, no. Don't say anything. Just listen." She cut me off, making me snap my mouth shut and glance at her bottom lip that was caught between her teeth.

"You love me." She repeated again, almost as if she was telling herself. I watched, her waiting for her to say something more.

"Oh my god." She said, closing her eyes as she thought of what to say. She turned around, the rain falling onto her dark hair.

"Lauren, I-"

"Y/N, I need you to shut up for two seconds." She said softly, like talking to a baby. She turned back around and put her hands together.

"Okay, okay, okay. Wow, I'm really gonna do this. Okay. Okay? Okay." She continued to repeat. She took a deep breath in, and from her feet, her eyes trailed up to meet mine.

"Ever since we talked on the roof of that nightclub almost a year ago, I was never able to get you out of my head." She said quietly, stepping a little closer to me. My furrowed eyebrows turned down even lower as I tried to register what she was saying.

"I'd think about you all the time. It was like you were some neurological disease that I was infected with, you kept taking over parts of me that I never knew I could surrender to somebody." She bit at the inside of her lip.

"I'm with Ty. I have been with Ty for almost two years. Before Ty was Camila. And Camila... when we were together- even after I made my mistake, I had believed I would never love anyone as much as I loved her. But then you came along."

Where was this going?

"And I tried, Y/N. I really tried to be normal around you, but this-this disease seemed to affect my emotions and every time you were around, I couldn't control myself. You had become a part of me, that I had- I have no chance of getting rid of." As she finished, I opened my mouth to say something, my eyebrows raised and my eyes wide. But just as before, I couldn't form words. My body was too busy trying to figure out the intense feeling that had started growing at the pit of my stomach as I realized what Lauren was getting at.

"What I'm saying is... I feel the same way about you."

I felt my throat go dry. I gulped, my eyes opening as wide as they could go.

"You what?"

"I-I love you. I'm in love with you." She confessed, her eyes dropping to the growing puddle that sat between us.

"But I can't be with you right now." She quietly mumbled. I was still trying to process what she had just told me to the point where I almost didn't catch it.

"I'm still with Ty, and you shouldn't do that to Camila." She said, starting to a ramble a bit. I shook my head, trying to clear away confused thoughts as it really set it.

Lauren felt the same way about me, that I had felt about her this whole time. She was in love with me, and had been for so long. But as time went by, we never had a chance with each other. Maybe this was our chance.

I took her hands in mine, causing her to look up at me. I studied her beautiful face, and how the light drops of rain fell upon her skin.

"We don't have to be together now. We don't have to rush anything. If you want to be with me as much as I want to be with you, we should wait. At least until I can apologize properly to Camila." As said softly, cupping her cheek in my hand. My fingers rested on her cheekbone perfectly, as if they were sculpted as a paper weight, to hold down her fare face.

"I want to be with you." She said simply, causing a smile to grow on my lips.

"Then we wait."

I watched her eyes quickly glanced down to my lips, and saw her tongue run between her full pair.

If this wasn't the time, then our time would never come.

I slowly leaned down, giving her many chances to pull away if it wasn't okay. My chest tightened when she stood her ground, watching as I closed the gap between us.

My hand made its way to the dip of her back, pulling her closer into me. We ended up in the puddle, but I could hardly feel the cold water seeping into my shoes, soaking my socks.

Our lips were closer then they had ever been. I stopped, studying her eyes as I burned the feeling of being so innocently close to Lauren, and yet so emotional, into my brain.

She took a small breath, pressing her lips against mine. It was a soft kiss, just lips touching lips, and yet tingles erupted in my fingertips, and my whole body warmed up. It was like I was I had no control over my body, like I was glued in place, left to live out eternity with someone I was so connected with.

It was like fate was on our side, and coincidence was rooting for us. Destiny was the goal, and I could tell anyone, anywhere, that Lauren was mine.

Just as it started, it ended, and I found my heart trying to convince my brain not to pull away, and to forget Ty and Camila. But in the end, Camila had also held a piece of my heart and her happiness was also a factor.

I slowly ended the kiss, disconnecting our lips. Her hands were in mine, and my smile was wide. I took a step back, running my thumb across her knuckles before letting it fall as I took another step.

"I love you." She said, the words sending chills up my spine. My heart fluttered, my brain taking mental pictures as I nodded and turned, leaving Lauren there as I put my hood up, dug my hands in my pockets and walked back to the buses.

—————————————————————
this is the shortest chapter but only because i wanted this scene to have its own chapter since it's so cute and i'm proud i wrote it
BUT HOLY SHIT GUYS YOU AND LAUREN HAD YOUR FIRST KISS? HOW WAS IT LOLLLLL

until next time ❤️