Tempting Fate

Chapter 3

The shrill sound of the phone in lauren's ear woke her up at 6:30 in the morning. This did not help her massive hangover as she reached
over the answer her cell phone.
"Hello?" Lauren was still groggy and not sure who would have the audacity to call her this early in the morning.
"Hey."
"Camz?" Lauren started to become more alert of
her surroundings and began to look around.
"Yeah. Sorry. I probably woke you up, didn't I?"
"No…well, yeah, but it's fine. You can call me anytime. You know that. Is everything okay?"
The more Lauren looked around, the more she
realized how unfamiliar everything was.
"Yeah…I'm fine. It's just, well you left so
early last night. I didn't even get a chance to thank you."
"Thank me? For what?"
"For everything. For just being there, even if
you did bail out early."
"Yeah…I'm sorry about that. I really shouldn't
have left. It's just…"
"I know. You met someone. I saw you leave with
him," said camila, with a hint of sadness in her voice.
It suddenly clicked for lauren. She had forgotten she left with someone until camila
had just pointed it out to her. Lauren didn't know what to say. She felt horrible. "Yeah…
I'm sorry. I know that's no excuse, but in my defense you really shouldn't have had an open bar."
Camila laughed. "It's okay. Really. I'm used to it by now. No guy has ever been able to resist
the charms of Lauren Jauregui," said camila. "And I've met Ryan. He's an okay guy." For some reason, camila found it difficult to choke out
that last sentence.
"Who?" asked lauren.
"Ryan. The guy you left with."
Lauren looked down at the bed and then slowly
turned over to see a strange guy sleeping
soundly next to her. "Oh God," she whispered
to herself.
"What?"
Lauren put her head in her hand. "Oh…nothing.
Umm….look, I should go," she whispered. The
last thing she wanted was camila to hear
'stranger boy' wake up and start mumbling.
"Okay. But I leave tomorrow. I mean, we leave.
For our honeymoon. Do you think we can meet
for lunch today? I'd love to see you."lauren thought for a minute. "Um…sure. I think
I can arrange that." Lauren looked over at Ryan,
who was beginning to stir.
"Great. David and I will meet you at one."
"David?" It hadn't crossed lauren's mind that
David would be joining them. 'Of course he
would,' she thought. 'He's her husband.' She
started gathering her clothes as quickly and
quietly as possible.
"Yeah…David. You know…that guy I married 15
hours ago," replied camila.
"Right. Of course. Ummm…" Lauren really
wanted to see camila. But she didn't know if she
could handle seeing her with-well, the visual
became too much for lauren. It was different
last night. She was able to numb her emotions
with alcohol, but after this hangover, lauren
wasn't planning on drinking again for a very
long time. She just didn't think she was ready
to accept that camila had slipped away from
her. Lauren had seven years to tell camila how
she felt and now there was no chance of ever
being anything more than friends. Lauren blamed
herself. And she knew it wasn't fair to camila
and she knew it wasn't right to blow her off,
but this was all too real for her. And she
didn't think her heart could take it. She sat
down on the corner of the bed. "Actually camz,
I don't think I'll have time to meet you. I've
gotta pack."
"But I thought your flight was in a few days,"
protested camila.
"Well, I actually bumped it up to today. I
really have a lot of stuff to take care of."
Lauren felt like the worst person alive. She
hadn't bumped her flight up yet, but she
definitely was going to now. The only reason
Lauren would have to stay in Evanston longer
than she had to was camila. No one else and
nothing else ever mattered to lauren. But with
Camila leaving for two weeks and now currently
attached at David's hip, there was really no
point in lauren staying any longer.
Camila was silent for a moment. "Laur?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you hate me?"
Those four words cut lauren in half. She felt as
though the wind had been knocked out of her.
"No. No, I don't hate you. I could never hate
you. I just have a lot going on right now. And
so do you." Lauren's mind was racing and all she
could think was 'Tell her you love her. Tell her
you love her.' But the words never came out.
"Well, yeah but…"
"I promise we'll see each other again soon. I'll
be back before you know it," reassured lauren.
"And in the meantime, we'll call each other."
Camila sighed. "Okay."
There was a silence on the phone until lauren
finally broke it. "I really hope you and David
will be happy." It was the biggest lie lauren had
ever told.
"I'm gonna miss you, laur."
"I know. I'll miss you too."
As she hung up the phone, lauren grabbed the
rest of her stuff and made a mad dash for
the door. She looked back at Ryan, who was
sound asleep again, and then she turned and
walked out the door without giving him another
thought.
Two months had gone by since the wedding.
The girls hadn't seen each other since the
wedding, but they had talked on the phone a
lot. Even more often than they used to. Camila
loved hearing lauren talk about her travels and the strange people she meets along the way.
Camila always looked forward to their phone
calls. And when they weren't talking on the
phone, she found herself thinking about lauren.
A lot. Things hadn't been going to well with David and camila would always tell herself to
'find a happy place.' Her thoughts would
always fall on lauren. It seemed to make things
okay for a little bit.
Right now, camila was sitting on the couch, trying to drown out the sound of David yelling at her. She knew he had a temper and had witnessed it a couple times before but really didn't understand what the big deal was about this.
All she did was get her guitar out of
storage and arrange to perform one night at a local club.
"Are you even listening to me?!"
David's question finally brought camila back to the here and now. "Yeah. I just don't understand why you're so upset. It's one show."
"So this is what you're going to do? You're going to be a musician?" asked David.
"David, you knew that about me since you met me. Yes, this is what I want to do. I put it aside recently. For you. But you can't expect me to be satisfied with a desk job the rest of my life. I mean, I know it pays well, but it's not
what I want. I at least have to have this on the side. It's just one night, okay?"
"Yeah, and one night will turn into two. And then twelve. And then you'll quit your perfectly good job and I'll have to fully support you financially…"
"Hey, if this is about money, I can take care of myself," insisted camila , who was growing increasingly tired of David's opposition to her
music. "What happened to you? I mean, who are you? Because I'm not so sure I know anymore."
David was silent for a moment. Camila could tell he was just seething. He looked at her and
shook his head. "I gotta go."
"Where are you going?"
"Out," he replied curtly and slammed the door.
She picked up her guitar, which was right next
to her and started playing. It managed to
soothe her. She had been in need of a lot of
comforting in past couple weeks. Once they had
gotten back from their honeymoon, things
seemed to start going downhill. It had only
been two months, but camila was increasingly
beginning to believe she'd made a horrible
mistake in marrying David. But she knew she
couldn't just walk away. How could she?
They'd only been married such a short amount
of time. She didn't want to appear like she was
just giving up. And she didn't want to look like
a failure. Her fingers stopped moving along the
neck of the guitar and the music stopped. She
sat there for a moment, feeling like she was
ready to cry. Not because of David, or their
fight. But because lauren's face had suddenly
appeared in her mind. And though the thought
of lauren made her smile, she could feel the
tears welling up because she felt an intense
longing inside of her. She missed her friend.
She missed her badly and wanted to see her.
Camila put her guitar down, reached over,
picked up her phone and called lauren.
"Hello?"
"Laur?"
"Hey camz! That's so weird. I was just about to
call you."
"Really?" said camila, wiping her tears and
trying to mask the quivering in her voice.
"Yeah. I had this strange feeling that I should
just…call you. But I guess you beat me to it.
Is everything okay?"
"Umm….well, no. Not really. But I can honestly
say that hearing your voice is already making
me feel better."
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, David and I had a fight."
"Again?"
"Well…yeah. He just stormed out."
"I'm so sorry. What happened? He didn't hurt
you or anything, did he?"
Camila smiled to herself. She loved it when lauren showed her protective side. "No. Nothing
like that. And I'm actually not that upset about
it. He's just a sad little boy. He doesn't like not being in control."
"So if you're not upset about it, then why are you crying?"
"Well, I was thinking about you."
"I made you cry? Wow, sorry. I know…I have that effect on people. Just be glad you're not here in person. You wouldn't be able to stop the
tears. I'm hideous. Just don't look directly at
me, and the crying should subside," joked
Lauren.
Camila lay back on the couch and laughed. "I'm sorry, are you really inferring that you, lauren jauregui, are in some way….UNATTRACTIVE?"
"Well, at the moment…yes. I haven't had my
morning coffee and I somehow fell asleep with
my face on the remote control. Yes. I am that
sexy."
"Where are you?"
"I'm crashing at a friend's house," replied lauren.
"Okay. But I meant WHERE. Like in what city?"
"Oh. I'm in Kalispell right now. Montana," said lauren, as she was preparing a pot of coffee.
"It's beautiful out here. It would be a perfect
place to have a ranch."
Camila smiled. She knew exactly what lauren was
getting at. Lauren always had an impeccable memory. Things that camila said years ago
somehow stuck in lauren's head like superglue.
"Oh really. A ranch, huh? That does sound
nice."
"Camz."
"Yeah?"
"Are you happy?"
Camila sighed and sat up. "I don't know."
"I don't like that answer," said lauren.
Camila paused for a moment. She knew what
she wanted to say, but really didn't know how
to put it into words. Her voice lowered. "I'm
happy when I'm with you."
At that moment, lauren needed a chair. Any chair. She felt weak and knew her knees would give out on her. Since she knew she couldn't make it to the table, she sank down with her back against the kitchen cabinets and sat on
the floor. The linoleum floor was cold and she was only in shorts and a tank top, but she didn't care. She managed to somehow form a
sentence. "I…I'm happy when I'm with you, too."
Immediately, lauren banged the back of her head against the cabinet. 'Nice, jauregui. Real smooth. Just repeat exactly what she said to
you. Real articulate. Idiot!'
Meanwhile, camila was reeling from what she
had just said to Lauren.  She heard lauren's response, but was dwelling on the fact that she
didn't even know why that came out of her mouth in the first place.
"You're my best friend, lauren."
"I know." Lauren closed her eyes and took a
moment to remind herself that camila was taken. Very taken. Sworn to someone else.
"When are you coming back to Evanston?"
asked camila.
"When do you need me there?"
"Well, I have a show coming up in a couple
weeks. Can you make it?"
Lauren was ecstatic. "You're performing? That's
so great! Yeah, I'll be there. I promise."
"Good. It'll be nice to have a familiar face
there," said camila.
"Well, David's coming too, right?"
"I don't think so. That's kinda what we fought
about. He doesn't want me to do it."
"What the hell is wrong with him?" asked lauren.
"I mean…has he HEARD you sing?"
"I don't think he hears anything I say. He's
just…I don't know. Absent," said camila.
"Absent?"
"He's never home. And when he is, he ignores me. Unless, God forbid, I do something he's not happy about. I mean…we get along okay. I
guess." Camila paused for a second. "He doesn't have a sense of humor. He does not laugh. I like to laugh, lauren. You know this. And
I like to surround myself with people who like to laugh. He used to laugh. But now, he just doesn't."
"Wow. I'm so sorry, camz.You know, if he's not treating you right and if you're not happy, maybe you should get out of it."
"Out of what?"
"The marriage. If it's this bad two months in, I
don't even want to know what the rest of your life will be like with him. Camz, you're smarter than this. You're way too independent to let
someone try to run your life."
"I'm not letting him run my life. I'm just
trying to carve out a life of my own…with him.
Things don't always turn out the way you plan,
but…
"What do you mean?" asked lauren.
"Nothing. It's fine. It'll all work out," assured
Camila. "In the meantime I could really use a
friend. I miss you. I miss you more than you
even know."
"I'll book my flight now," responded lauren..