The Girl Next Door ➸ camren

seven

Lauren crinkles her nose as Camila explains the plan for tonight, Halloween. "A barn party?" she questions.

Camila nods. "The whole senior class is going to be there. There's food, music, and beer. What else do you want?"

"For it not to be in a barn!" she exclaims. "Aren't there like pigs or cows or something in barns?"

Camila gives her a look that says shut up and sighs. "Just put on a costume, and I'll be outside your window to pick you up at eight."

She backs away from the windowsills Camila was standing at, and Lauren pulls it back down.

Forty minutes later, at eight o'clock on the dot, Camila knocks on the window, one hand over her eyes in case Lauren's not already dressed. She takes one last Snapchat selfie to send to Brad before she hops off her bed and makes her way over to the window, slipping her phone into the back pocket of her black jeans.

"Aw, you're a cat," Camila states as she slides out the window, flicking the black cat ears attached to her headband.

Lauren looks at Camila and scrunches her eyebrows together. "What are you?"

She shrugs. "I dunno. It ain't actually a costume party."

"Why did you tell me it was?" Lauren screeches.

"I thought it'd be funny," the younger girl explains.

Lauren crosses her arms and turns back towards her house.

"Where are you going?" Camila asks.

"To take off my fucking cat ears!" the pale girl screams.

Lucy comes running over to the two, dragging Luis along with her. "You came! Mila had me all worried that you were going to bail."

"She may or may not have dragged me part of the way here," Lauren says. ⠀⠀⠀

Lucy takes Lauren's hand and starts pulling her away from their two friends. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Stop staring at her," Luis says. "It's creepy."

"I'm not," Camila grumbles.

"Yes you are," he repeats. ⠀⠀⠀

"So what?" Camila asks. "You stare at Lucy constantly."

Luis shakes his head. "Yeah 'cause I've been dating her for almost six years. Just tell Lauren that you love her already."

"I don't love her," she mumbles, not believing it herself.

Luis cocks his eyebrow. "C'mon, Mila. We all know you do. It ain't a bad thing."

"Luis, she has a boyfriend. She's in love with him. Nothing good will come out of me telling her that I love her."

"I see the way she looks at you. There's no way she still loves her boyfriend if she's looking at you the way she does," Luis explains.

Camila shakes her head. "She talks about him all the time. She does love him, and I ain't about to tell a guy's girlfriend that I love her. That's wrong. How would you feel if someone told Lucy that they love her?"

Luis frowns and walks away from Camila, quickly making his way across the barn to where Lucy and Lauren are standing.

He wraps his arms around Lucy from behind and kisses her shoulder. "You're going to love me forever and only love me, right? You're not ever gonna love someone else, right?"

Lucy giggles. "Luis, what's going on?"

⠀⠀⠀"Camila is over there talking all kinds of crazy, and I just want to make sure," he explains.

⠀⠀⠀"Yes, baby, I will love you forever," she tells him.

Lauren looks over at Camila and walks over to her.

"What were you guys talking about?" Camila asks.

Lauren laughs. "She was asking me for advice about some anniversary thing. What about you guys?"

She replies, "Oh, nothing really."

"Sounds real exciting," Lauren jokes.

"Actually," she says, "I, uh, I need to tell you something."

She nods her head, indicating for Camila to go on.

In her own mind, she's reciting silent prayers for her not to make a total fool out of herself by what she's going to do.

Laurens phone rings, and she pulls it out of her pocket to check the caller ID. "Oh, shoot, can you hold that thought?"

Camila nods her head.

"Hey, baby," she says, walking away from Camila.

⠀⠀⠀By the time she returns from her call with Brad, Camila's moment of bravery has passed.

"What did you want to tell me?" she asks.

She shrugs. "I forgot."