My Favorite Camren One-Shots (Part 3)

Take the World it Hurt Inside (You Have to Give Your Blood and Tears and Time

"Hey, get out of the way," Lauren says, knocks her elbow into Camila's stomach and sends her tumbling towards the lockers, "ain't your mom teach you to stay out of the way?" she calls back once she passes her and Normani (one of the girls ever present in her group of friends) laughs and high fives her, before turning back and laughing at Camila's face.

Camila straightens herself, pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose and picks up her school bag, stuffs back the few papers that had scattered out into the floor. Other people bump into her, almost like she's not there. It's just another day for Camila.

Camila doesn't cry over it, because she's not dramatic and Lauren's just a girl with mean words and harsh jabs but other than that, it's not something Camila can't handle. She maybe even gets used to it. A bit, enough that it becomes familiar, something expected, a routine.
Until the dull pain of her shoulder colliding to the row of lockers is a familiar bloom spreading down her arm.

"Clumsy, ain't yah?" Lauren always asks, mean laughter just a breath away.

"Yeah," Camila always mumbles, pushes her hands into the cool tiled floor, tries to heave herself back up. But Lauren pushes her back down with her foot, laughs all loud and satisfied when Camila's cheek collides with the floor and she lets out a small ow.

"You gotta be careful," Lauren taunts, "you can get hurt if you keep being so clumsy."

Camila can feel the pinpricks of tears in the corner of her eyes and oh god that's the complete opposite of what she wants right now. She wants Lauren gone and she wants to be alone.

"Heard you're smart," Lauren says, leans down a bit so Camila can see her face, her green eyes, the thick gloss over her lips, "you're going to do my homework," she says and throws some papers at Camila.

The bell rings and Lauren pulls away, takes out her phone from her bag and leaves without another look at Camila.

There's people starting to trickle out of their classrooms and Camila picks herself up, rubs hard
at the tears welling and grabs her bag and Lauren's papers.

-

Camila doesn't get a lot of sleep that night, it's not hard work, it's a lot of it, that's the problem. It keeps Camila busy most of the night, until she falls asleep late at night, head slumped over her work desk, the light of the lamp fuzzy and soft over her head.

-

Lauren detaches herself from Ally and Normani, walks up to her locker, and spots Camila, head bowed down, eyes sleepy and doleful.

She smiles, almost rubs her hands together at how much fun she's about to have. She rams her shoulder into Camila, who stumbles back with a flutter of loose papers, legs spread out, hair over her face. She goes down with a low thud but it's enough for Lauren to laugh at, clutch at her sides and laugh loud and amused.

Camila's sprawled over the floor, her eyes fluttering and mouth a sad line. Lauren looks over her, at the plump lip that looks like it'll never stop quivering, the way her eyes look so sad and resigned under her lashes. It's a force enough to have Lauren take a couple of steps away, stop laughing and frown, a deep line on her forehead. It's a weird flutter and squeezing feeling in her lower stomach that Lauren does not approve of.

"Ow," Camila says, scrambles to get up, one hand pressing to the back of her head, wincing at the pain it brings and Lauren grabs at her wrist, digs her nails into the thin skin there and sits her up, pulls her closer and leans down.

"My homework?" she asks, notices the way Camila's glasses are crooked and taped from the many times Lauren has probably broken them.

Camila reaches for the papers, puts them together as neatly as she can and pushes them at Lauren's chest, blushes just the bit as she realizes where her hands are.

"Here," she squeaks and Lauren snatches them out of her grip.

-

Normani sends her texts all through her English class, but Lauren ignores them, ignores Dinah when she makes a joke about their teacher, spends the whole period (and most of the day) thinking about Camila and her mouth and her sad eyes. It's a bit of a thrill (probably a sick thrill) when she realizes she's the reason why Camila looks so miserable.

-

Camila turns on the hot water, strips her dirty gym clothes, hears the satisfying squelch of them hitting the wet bathroom floor. She runs a hand through her hair, takes off her glasses and places them on the soap holder. This is probably the best thing about having gym last, Camila can take showers alone, no one looking at her, no one making fun of her. It's relaxing.

She sighs, presses her fingers into the bruises Lauren's left on her arms and shoulder. A slow pulse of pain that almost feels good. She doesn't take her time to look herself over or even enjoy the warm spray of the water. She can hear the door opening and footsteps and she panics, stops the water and tries to grab at her clean clothes, at her glasses, at anything that could cover her. But there's soap in her eyes and her feet are slippery over the shower stall's floor, she ends up grabbing a towel, stumbling out of the stall and trying to hide behind the balled up cloth, trying to blend into the row of lockers (Camila's starting to think lockers aren't her friends).

"Oh," someone says, Camila's eyes are still stinging from the soap in them but she knows who she is, it's not hard to figure it out, not with Camila's luck.

"You don't have your glasses on," Lauren goes on.

Camila almost wants to laugh because she doesn't have a lot of things on. Her skin is starting to raise in goosebumps and she's sure she's sporting an impressive pair of headlights behind the towel she's got pressed against her chest.

"What are you doing here?" Camila finally asks but it's hard to concentrate when Lauren keeps getting closer to her and there's hands taking away the only barrier between her and the other girl.

"This is a public place," Lauren says, grabs at Camila's wrists and presses them against the lockers, digs her fingers where there's already fading bruises.

Camila winces, tries to look away, but catches the way Lauren digs her nails into the bruises when she sees Camila's reaction, almost like she likes it, like she likes the bruises Camila has, likes causing her pain.

"Lauren?" Camila whispers, almost scared.

"You're naked," Lauren says, eyes flickering to Camila's lips before she leans forward, slots their mouths together, leg finding itself between Camila's naked thighs, Lauren's skirt rising up, bunched up over where they meet.

Camila stays still, is pressed between the cool metal of the lockers and Lauren's warm body. Lauren bites at her bottom lip, almost painful before Camila gasps, opens her mouth a bit and can feel the way her hips hitch up a bit when Lauren licks the hurt away. She gets a couple of thrust against Lauren's leg, whines low and soft when Lauren licks at the roof of her mouth and her nipples rub against the fabric of Lauren's shirt.

That seems to snap Lauren out of it, pulls away and drops Camila's wrists, starts to back out, wiping at her mouth like Camila's left an awful taste in her mouth. Camila stands there for a bit, on wobbly legs before she grabs at the clothes she's left balled up on the floor, pushes her glasses on and wonders if she's imagined it all when the door to the locker room slams shut.

-

Lauren pushes her down the next day, a hard collision that hurts even more than usual. Her shoulder is aching and her glasses get knocked off her nose. She can hear the crushing of glass and plastic and she swallows, blinks in vain as the world still looks fuzzy and blurry and scary.

There's a hushed conversation over her head, but Camila's too busy trying to find the remaining pieces of her glasses.  Trying to figure out if this is the same girl that was pressed against her. 

There's another shove at her that makes her arms buckle and she almost loses her balance. She finds the frames and can hear the loud laughter and footsteps of Lauren and Normani.

Camila grimaces when she dumps the remains of her glasses on the nurse's desks. She's managed to find the office without her vision.

"What happened?" the old lady asks and Camila can see her chance, to tell all and get rid of Lauren. But instead she shrugs and says it was an accident.

"They fell down during the morning rush and no one saw them so they got crushed," she says, as steady as she can.

The nurse clicks her tongue, "I'll see what I can do then."

There's a lot of sniggers about her glasses, they're heavily taped, even more wonky looking, but at least she can see now.

-

Camila eats lunch alone, no one really sits with her and she can't bother to try to make friends. She spends her lunch time reading and eating absentmindedly. She flips the page of her book, goes to take a bite of her sandwich, but then there's a hand taking it away, a swift motion and Camila looks up and (of course she does) sees Lauren, looking through her sandwich.

"This for me?" she asks, takes a bite and scrunches her nose, drops the (mostly whole) sandwich on the floor and steps on it.

"That was mine..." Camila says weakly, looks at the dirty flat bread and the insides of it oozing out.

"It was awful," Lauren says.

Normani comes behind her, taps at her shoulder, "we've got a cheer leading meeting," she says, barely looks at Camila as she makes a waving motion at her, "dork can wait."

-