Pure Innocence (Lauren/You)

Chapter 18

Lauren and I had sat in silence for about another hour, meaning that everyone else in the building should have been gone by now. Eventually I had finished with my work so I just sat there looking at my crush over my laptop so that she wouldn't expect anything. Within that time of me stopping my work, Lauren was just finishing up her drawing. She would pause for several seconds at a time, up to even a couple minutes before she found something that she needed to fix. I grabbed my phone out as soon as the thought of her mother entered my mind. I had to send a text to Clara explaining that Lauren was still with me and that she was okay. I wanted to keep her updated as much as possible because I knew she was still on edge about the whole situation. I mean she woke up this morning and her oldest child was just gone. Nobody could prepare for that kind of situation.

As soon as I was done sending the text, I looked back up at Lauren just in time to witness her look away like she wasn't just staring at me. I smirked to myself before getting up so that I could gather my things. I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible now that Lauren was done with her drawing. I was hoping that if we got back to my house and Lauren was feeling more comfortable, she would tell me why she had left home to find me. I still needed answers from her. She could have gotten in a lot of trouble had the wrong people found her, meaning she could have been seriously hurt in some way. Lauren stayed in my chair as she watched me clean up in confusion. "If you want to take some pens you can, but I have more paper at my house so you can draw some more. We're going to go back to my house and eat dinner, is that okay?" I asked quietly once I was finished. Lauren looked at me as if I had grown a second head.

"You're not- You're not going to take me back- take me ho- take me back home?" The smaller girl stuttered over her sentence more than usual. I briefly wondered why the raven haired beauty would question why I wasn't going to take her straight home but I couldn't dwell too much on the fact. I instantly shook my head to answer the question before coming to squat down in front of her. Lauren still seemed very confused as to what I was doing when I picked up both of her hands in my own. The action made her nervous, that much was easy to see. I knew Lauren wanted to fiddle with her hands and fidget since her hands were twitching as I held them but thankfully she didn't try to pull away. I kissed them for good measure before setting them back down in Lauren's lap. She needed a lot of reassurance, that much I was sure about.

"No Lauren, I am not going to take you home just yet. Unless of course, you want me to." Lauren immediately shook her head in protest before I could even finish my sentence. That caused a smile to reach my face. "I think it is a good idea that we just go eat some dinner and relax at my house. You came here for me, right?" I asked rhetorically but Lauren switched to nodding her head to respond. I copied her action a couple of times. "Good. So we can hang out a bit more since that's what you came for and you can tell me when you want me to take you back home. I do know that your mother is a bit worried about you since you didn't tell her anything before you left so I think maybe if you went home at some point tonight that would be good for her. Sound good so far?" Lauren continued her nod. My smile widened a bit and I stood up straight again. "Alrighty then, let's go if you're ready."

Lauren stood up from my chair for the first time all day and collected her belongings which honestly was just her paper and pens. She clutched them to her chest tightly before reaching one hand up to chew on her nails. Eventually we both headed out of the room and I was glad to see that the building was relatively empty so that we wouldn't have any trouble leaving. My mind quickly recalled to Normani and Camila wanting to know why Lauren was here but I would have to wait until tomorrow to explain everything to them. Right now, Lauren was my only priority. I grabbed her hand so she couldn't chew on her nails anymore and interlaced our fingers together for the rest of the walk to my car. I helped the smaller girl get into the passenger side, shut the door, and made my way over to my side after putting my things in the backseat so that they were out of the way. I started the car and took off towards my house.