In The Dark

Mourning

TW! Mentions of suicide, death and intense grief and mourning.

Lauren and Camila were a duo that no one expected.

In 4th grade, Dinah started hanging out with other people.

Camila assumed it was because of her awful mood swings.

She sighed because she simply could not help it. Every time she told her dad to stop, the beating got longer and worse.

She walked around the playground and kicked a rock and sighed as she felt tears well up in her eyes.

"Hi!" A girl said, startling Camila, making her fall down.

"Oh...hey Lauren," Camila said. Lauren was a popular girl and Dinah had always told Camila to stay away from Lauren. Because popular girls are mean.

"Do you wanna play?"

"Are you gonna be mean?" Camila asked and tilted her head to the side. Lauren giggled.

"No silly! Plus since you're a princess, I can't be mean to you anyway!" Lauren said, arms flailing all over as she spoke.

"Me...a princess?" Camila asked and fixed her glasses.

"Yup! Because you're really really pretty!" Lauren said and booped Camila's nose.

"What do you wanna play?"

"Don't you wanna be with your friends?" Camila was extremely confused.

"No!" Lauren said. "I only wanna be your friend," Lauren said and crossed her arms.

"Wanna play...family?" Camila asked.

"Sure! I'll be the daddy!" Lauren said excitedly.

"No, I wanna be the daddy!" Camila whined. Lauren sighed.

"Fine." Lauren deadpanned. She clasped Camila's hand in her own and Lauren giggled every time Camila spoke in a low voice.

"This is my wife everyone! Look at my wife!" Camila said and Lauren burst out laughing.

"You're funny. You're coming to my house later!"

"Okay." Camila smiled.

-

When they were 12, Lauren had the biggest crush on a boy named Harry. Camila hated Harry Styles and she honestly didn't know why. All she wanted was for him to keep is long, greasy hair AWAY from Lauren.

"So I was thinking...you like Harry so you should practice kissing," Camila said as she sat at Lauren's desk. She contemplated how to be casual about the whole thing but it just came out as an unexpected and random question. She cringed internally.

"Yeah but with who? Also, what did you get for  X?" Lauren asked.

"Uh, I got 13," Camila said and looked at Lauren as the then taller girl looked at her paper. Lauren's face contorted weirdly when she saw that instead of writing answers to the problem, she wrote Lauren Cabello all over the problem in different colors, fonts, and sizes.