Serendipity // Camren

Chapter 31

The alarm on Lauren's phone woke them up an hour and a half before Nicole's party. Camila groaned and swatted at the device, annoyed that she was being woken up when she had just fallen asleep, and Lauren chuckled softly as she reached over the brunette's body to turn the offending noise off.

"Better?" Lauren whispered as she pressed a lingering kiss to Camila's cheek.

"Mmm," Camila mumbled, nodding sleepily as she relaxed. "Whatimeisssit?"

"Time to take a shower and get ready," Lauren answered, smiling down at Camila as she ran her hand lightly up and down the brunette's arm. "If you still want to go with me, that is. You can stay here and sleep if you want, baby."

Camila groaned and shook her head as she shifted on the bed so she was laying on her back and looking up at Lauren's smiling face. "I want to go. I just really, really, really want to sleep too."

"Me too," Lauren whispered, dipping her head down and claiming Camila's lips in a slow, sweet kiss. "Thank you for snuggling with me. The guest bath is in the hall?"

Camila shook her head. "No. You're staying with me in my room and I have my own bathroom."

Lauren frowned and pulled back so she could see more than just Camila's eyes. "But your dad-"

"My father," Camila interrupted, "was being a jerk. And I told him that. And I also told him that you were moving into my room when you woke up."

"Camz, sweetie, I'm not worth you fighting with your father," Lauren murmured, her eyes dancing over the brunette's face as she smiled somewhat bashfully at her.

"And that's where you're wrong," Camila whispered, slipping her right hand between their bodies so she could press a finger to Lauren's lips. Since the night of their first 'date' at Lauren's house the subject of Lauren thinking that she wasn't worth a fight hadn't really come up again. Everybody on set was more than supportive of their relationship and they avoided reading the articles that were written about them so they hadn't seen anything negative, but it was something that, when life finally slowed down to a manageable pace, still haunted her. "You are worth that fight and so many more, Lauren," she said, staring intently into her lover's eyes. "I will fight for you – be it with my overprotective father or the world – because you deserve somebody who will do that. Lucky for you, I am so completely head over heels in love with you that that job has fallen to me. So, get used to it, Jauregui. You're mine and I'm not giving you up." She pulled her finger away from Lauren's lip and bopped her on the nose with it for emphasis. "Kapisch?"

Lauren's lips quirked up in a shy smile and she nodded as she leaned in to kiss the brunette tenderly. "I love you."

"I love you," Camila murmured, as she cradled Lauren's face in her hand. She took a deep breath and bit her lip as she looked up into smiling green eyes. "Thank you, for answering their questions earlier. Lord knows they weren't polite about it."

Lauren shrugged and kissed Camila again softly. "It was fine. If I was them and you brought me home as your girlfriend, I'd have a lot of questions about it too. Let's face it, Camz; I wasn't the nicest person when I left here."

"You were," Camila argued. Lauren gave her the eyebrow that never failed to drive her wild and she couldn't help smiling as she rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. You had moments of unpleasantness, but even then I could see that you were hurting and didn't know how to fix whatever was wrong."

"I was a bitch," Lauren said flatly.

"No," Camila argued. "You were a confused kid with no support whatsoever, trying to find her way in the world. And, you can just swallow that argument I can see building in your eyes now because you know, deep down, that I'm right. I already told you that I've forgiven you for our past, Lauren. You need to do it too."