Pure Innocence (Lauren/You)

Chapter 9

As soon as Lauren finished eating, she was laying down in the fort while playing with her toy. I went to throw away our trash and get out Lauren's ice cream from the freezer since she had asked me to. There was a movie playing in the background but I didn't really pay attention enough to see what it was since Lauren picked it out. I grabbed the quart while leaving the lid on the counter, the spoon already in the ice cream while also managing to grab a glass of water for myself before I went to bring Lauren her dessert. I somehow managed to slide into the fort without spilling or dropping anything so that I was sitting next to Lauren. "Thank y-you Y/N/N." Lauren leaned over to place a kiss on my cheek.

A subconscious smile formed on my face at the action along with a blush. I cleared my throat and leaned back on one of my elbows, turning my body to the side so that it faced the shorter girl. She ate her ice cream while singing along and mouthing the words to her new favorite movie, Coco. I knew she had to have some Latina bones in her body with the way she was able to pronounce the words I could have only wished of saying. Happiness coursed through my body knowing that she felt the same way. I didn't ever want to see her with a frown on her face or sadness in her eyes; I wanted her to be this carefree and happy, and I wanted to be the one to provide that for her.

The two of us sat in the fort for what seemed like forever, but in reality had only been a couple of hours. I continued to allow Lauren to pick whatever movies she wanted to watch, making sure she was taken care of. She had finished her ice cream a while ago, so as I gathered the trash and the spoon to put away, my phone started vibrating in my pocket. I set the empty quart on the counter before placing the spoon in the sink so that I could answer my phone. "Hello?" I held the phone against my ear and my shoulder so that I could throw away the empty carton and clean the spoon. I could hear sniffling on the other side of the line so I quickly pulled the phone away from my ear to check the caller ID again. "Clara?"

"Oh, Y/N, I'm sorry to call this late but I just needed to ask another huge favor from you. You've just already helped us so much and I don't want to overstep any boundaries but I think we need this more than ever. Can you watch Lauren for a couple more nights?" Lauren's mother's voice sounded through my ear and all of my senses were on high alert. I didn't know what was going on and I was becoming anxious with the way Clara was acting. I've only ever heard her cry happy tears, and now didn't sound anything like that.

"Yes, of course, that's okay." I rambled on awkwardly. "Is everything okay? I don't want you to worry about us because we're doing just fine and I'm sure Lauren won't mind staying a while longer." I tried to comfort the mother as much as I could because I honestly didn't know how else to react in a situation like this. I could still hear Clara sniffling on the other side of the line as I awkwardly stood in my spot, waiting for her to reply again.

"I'm not sure if everything will be okay. I just wanted to make sure Lauren was taken care of before anything else happened." Clara paused and I could tell she was holding back a sob. "If she becomes too much, please let me know and we can arrange for her to stay with someone else for a while. I just- we need her calm for a little while longer before we decide how to approach this new situation because we're not sure how she's going to take it. Y/N, Mike has cancer now. We don't know if his time is limited but it's pretty bad. We need to go through chemotherapy and arrange for all different kinds of things and it would just be a lot more difficult if Lauren was upset. I don't want to push her on you but we need some time." Clara's crying intensified and I was practically frozen in my spot with the news she had just revealed to me.

"Lauren should be the least of your worries right now, Clara. She'll be just fine with me and I don't mind one bit. I'm so sorry to hear about what's going on but I understand what you need to do. I'll take care of Lauren and I won't tell her about anything unless you want me to. Don't be afraid to ask because I know how much help you're going to need now with her. I don't mind at all, and I don't know how many times I have to say it for you to believe me but it's true. I love spending time with her and if she's comfortable with me then that's perfectly okay. You don't have to worry. Anything else I can help with too, don't be afraid to ask." After my little speech, Clara thanked me before explaining that they had to go in for Mike's first chemotherapy so she had to hang up.