Chapter 13
What do you call a seagull that flies over the bay?
Lauren furrows her brows at the note, looking up to smile confusedly at Camila who gestures towards the paper.
I don't know, what? Lauren writes back.
Camila snickers to herself as she hands the note back after jotting down her answer which has Lauren staring at her funnily.
‘Read it,’ Camila mouths, nodding her head towards the paper once more.
A bagel.
Drawn next to the answer is a very poor rendition of a seagull with a bagel for a body. The ridiculousness of the joke and the fact that Camila is genuinely proud of it makes Lauren break out into giggles, unable to contain her reaction. She catches a quick glimpse of Camila’s broad grin, clearly proud that she made Lauren laugh.
“Have I ever mentioned that you’re a dork?” Lauren says out loud because they’re sitting next to each other in class and there’s really no need to pass a note or whisper right now since the teacher hasn’t arrived yet.
Camila shrugs. “Maybe once or twice.”
“I feel like I need to constantly remind you.”
“Hey, I’m only a dork for you.”
Pausing for a moment, Lauren pretends to think it over. “That’s fine with me. Plus, we wouldn't want everyone knowing that big bad Camila is actually just a softy, right? It would ruin your reputation.”
“Excuse you. I'm not a softy. I'm very tough and scary.”
Lauren stares at Camila's defiant stance, her arms crossed over her chest and an adorable pout on her face.
“Right.” Reaching forward, Lauren pats her palm on the top of Camila's head. “What a sof- I mean badass.”
Camila can't hold her frown too long at the sight of Lauren's cheeky expression, her tongue trapped between both sets of her teeth. The girl cracks a grin, just causing Lauren's smile to widen.
“Damn it,” Camila sighs with a fond eye roll. “I guess I can only be a softy for you.”
“To be honest, I think I'm more than okay with that.”
“Really?” Camila asks seriously, eyes slightly widened as she stares at Lauren.
“I– yeah,” Lauren replies as she smiles softly at Camila. “Really.”
A slap to Lauren’s back snaps her out of the intense eye contact she was having with Camila as she jumps in her seat, banging her knee against the underside of her desk.
“What's up, lovebirds?!” Dinah greets, not at all quietly.
“Holy shit, Dinah, you scared Lauren,” Camila exclaims as she leans towards the girl. “Are you okay?”
Lauren waves Camila off as she rubs at her sore knee. “Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm fine.” The initial pain has already disappeared, and she didn't really hit it all that hard.
“Oh damn, sorry about that, Lauser,” Dinah apologizes as her and Tori take their seats in front of Lauren and Camila. “I guess you scare easily.”
Gesturing with her head towards the two girls, Lauren scrunches her brows together. “Since when did you two hang out?”
“Since I found out how much this girl–” Dinah explains, throwing an arm over Tori’s shoulders, “–and I have in common.”
“It's awesome. We already have a hair day planned for this Saturday,” Tori says with a grin.
“I mean, have you seen this girl’s hair? It's so luscious… I'm mad jealous.”
Tori turns towards Dinah with a scoff. “Please, your hair is to die for.”
Camila catches Lauren’s eyes, a weirded out expression on her face as she subtlety points at the two complimenting girls, making Lauren giggle quietly.
‘What even is happening?’ the girl mouths to her. Lauren just shrugs because honestly she has no clue when or how this happened.
They tune out the two girls, instead spending the rest of the period trading notes in between the teacher’s droning. Lauren almost gets caught multiple times for laughing at Camila’s lame jokes during class, but she can’t find it in herself to care.
~~
Lauren is alone and preoccupied at her locker, changing some books out, when she feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns around and comes face to face with a boy, most likely a senior too, with perfectly messed up brown hair and a black ring through the right side of his bottom lip.
“Hey… you’re Lauren, right?”
“Um, y– yeah,” she stutters, unsure who this boy is or why he’s speaking to her.
He offers a crooked but warm and charming grin at her nervousness which actually comforts her a little. “I’m Keaton. We don’t share any classes together but I’ve seen you around the school and I wanted to say that I think you’re really pretty.”
“You… oh– I…”
“I just wanted to tell you that. I’ll let you go since you probably need to get to your next class but maybe I’ll see you afterwards? My locker is right across from yours,” Keaton explains, pointing behind him at the row of lockers.
Lauren briefly wonders how she never noticed him before but brushes that thought away. “Yeah, I uh– maybe, yeah,” she awkwardly replies, gripping the strap of her backpack tighter.
“Alright,” Keaton says with his boyish smile, seemingly unfazed by her shyness. “I’ll see you around, Lauren.”
Watching as he walks off presumably in the direction of his next class, Lauren attempts to make sense of their brief encounter, slightly thrown off by the randomness of it and the fact that she got complimented (she honestly doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to it).
Lauren shuts her locker door, mindlessly heading towards her next class as she ponders over the strange things that have happened to her so far this year.
The biggest one was definitely finding out that Camila Cabello has feelings for her, with Zayn Malik liking her a close second. But all of a sudden, Lauren has all these friends who seem to genuinely care about her as well as people suddenly noticing her and acknowledging her (and not just in a bad, bullying kind of way).
It’s definitely been an unusual year so far.
~~
It’s possibly the greatest coincidence ever that Camila and Lauren share the same free period. They had finally swapped schedules the week that Camila and her friends started sitting with Lauren at lunch, and were pleased to discover that they had quite a few classes together, including gym (which Lauren is now really thankful for; she’s never been a very athletic person, even though she’s always wanted to play softball). They always spend it together, either doing homework in the library, taking a walk outside if it’s a nice day, or finding an empty classroom to hang out in.
Today, they’re occupying one of the covered courtyard tables because there’s a pleasant breeze passing through that makes the warm weather bearable. It’s only October which means that Miami is still slightly too hot to be comfortable outside under the sun with no wind.
They’ve got their homework laid out on the table although only one of the girls is actually doing it, the other attempting to spin her pen on her fingers, mostly just dropping it.
“Camz, you haven’t even touched your homework yet.”
Camila pouts, not looking up from her task. “Well I mean, it is homework, so…”
“Yeah, but I know you care about your grades and you’re always really good with your studies,” Lauren argues. “Are you just not feeling it today?”
Clicking the pen closed and setting it down, Camila sighs as she props her head up on her hand, her cheek squishing comically against her closed fist. “Not really. I’d rather talk or something.”
“We can do that,” Lauren says as she shuts her textbook. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Nothing in particular. It’s just, talking to you is way more fun than homework.”
Lauren grins softly as she tucks some of her loose hair behind her ear. “That’s sweet. But okay, fine. How about… you tell me another one of your jokes? At least I won’t run the risk of getting detention if I laugh out here.”
“Alright,” Camila agrees with a smile. “Let me think… okay, how did the hipster burn his tongue?”
“How, Camz?”
“He drank his coffee before it was cool.” Camila delivers her joke so proudly, hands frozen in a finger guns position as she waits for Lauren to react.
Lauren knows the joke is dumb, probably one of Camila’s worst today, but she giggles anyways because she finds Camila adorable and she can’t not laugh at her jokes.
“Damn, maybe I should get a job as a comedian. I’d make millions.”
“Uh,” Lauren chuckles out. “Not to be rude but… I don’t think you’d be very successful.”
She expects Camila to argue, but surprisingly the girl agrees lightheartedly. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m pretty sure you’re the only person besides my sister who genuinely laughs at my jokes.”
Lauren goes silent for a moment. “I’d really like to meet your sister one day,” she voices quietly.
“Yeah?” Camila asks, smiling widely. “That would honestly be… she’d love you. My parents would love you – I just know it; you’re way too likeable – and I’d love for you to meet my family. I guarantee that by the end of the day the rest of the Cabello family would be just as smitten with you as I am,” the girl admits with no shame whatsoever.
“You really think they’d like me?”
“They’d love you. It, uh… it wouldn’t be hard.”
Lauren furrows her brows. “What wouldn’t be hard?”
“To lo– you know, to… I mean… like, to um, f– fall in love with you,” Camila finishes nervously.
Both girls go silent, unsure of what to say. The silence between them is not awkward, but it is loaded, as if more wants to be said or discussed but neither knows how to initiate it.
“Um,” Lauren begins as she clears her throat. ”I’d really love for you to meet my family too. My siblings are a little bit older than your sister but they’d still like you. Plus, you know, I could show off my really cool friend so they don’t think their big sis’ is a weirdo,” Lauren jokes.
“Please, with my sense of humor, we both know that you’re the cooler one here.”
“Well… if you say so…”
“Hey!” Camila exclaims adamantly. “You’re not supposed to agree.”
Lauren can’t really argue with Camila’s pout so she has no choice but to relent. “Fine fine, we’re both equally cool.”
“Agreed.”
It’s silent again for a moment before Camila breaks it.
“What would your parents think of me, though?”
“I mean, I’m sure that after they’d meet you they’d b–”
“No, I mean…” Camila interrupts. “I don’t exactly look like the kind of person you’d want to bring home to meet the parents.” Realizing how she phrased that, Camila flushes slightly and glances away for a moment. “I mean like, what if they’re worried that I’m not good association or something?”
Lauren looks more confused by the second. “Why would they think that? I’m sure it’d be fine.”
“Lo, come on. I wouldn’t be surprised if they heard rumors or not-so-false rumors about me. And even if they haven’t… I don’t exactly look very, you know… family friendly.”
“Hold on,” Lauren says, putting one hand up to halt Camila. “Are you talking about your tattoos and your reputation?”
Camila shrugs and nods as if to say ‘duh’, not making eye contact with Lauren.
“Camz, if there’s one thing you should know about the Jauregui’s, it’s that we never judge a book by its cover. My parents are not ignorant; they’re not going to let other people’s personal opinions affect their views. And if you’re worried about what they’ll think regarding your personal appearance, you don’t need to be. They’re going to introduce themselves to you and wait to see what kind of impression you make on them – just like everybody else. They save their personal opinions for after they’ve gotten to know you.”
“I–” Camila stutters, slightly speechless. “I should have known that only the nicest people would have raised someone as sweet and caring like you.”
“Camz…”
“It’s true. If you’re any indication to what your family is like, then I’m not worried.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Lauren smiles. “I can’t wait to meet your family.”
Camila returns it. “And I can’t wait to meet yours.”
~~
Lauren is too busy staring down at her feet to look where she’s going and nearly ends up walking into an open locker door until someone pulls her away at the last second.
“Whoa there, better watch where you’re going,” she hears chuckled out right her left and looks up to see Keaton smiling down at her, his hand on her shoulder from where he had steered her away.
“I’m sure that the last thing you want to do is to hurt your nose again,” he says, gesturing towards the fading bruises around her nose.
“Oh, uh, thanks. I wasn’t paying attention,” Lauren mumbles because she’s still really shy around this practical stranger.
Keaton shrugs. “Good thing I was paying attention, huh?”
“Yeah. This bruise is… I wish it would go away already.”
“That really sucks,” Keaton replies as he falls in step next to Lauren on her way to her locker. “But it looks like it’s well on its way to healing completely.”
Lauren nods, nudging her glasses up her nose. “At least it doesn’t really hurt anymore.”
“That’s a relief. Oh, here we are,” he comments as they arrive at their respective lockers. Lauren can’t believe that for a month and a half he’s had the locker right behind hers and she’s never once noticed. Has she always been that oblivious...?
Switching her books out so that she has a little extra time during lunch, Lauren shuts her locker and begins to head to the cafeteria, assuming her… conversation with Keaton is done.
“Hey, wait up!”
She stops walking because Lauren might be a little bit of a pushover and she can’t really say no to people (it’s as much a blessing as it is a curse).
“So,” Keaton begins as he catches up and they start walking. “What do you like to do for fun? Got any hobbies? Or… secret talents? Stuff like that. I want to get to know you better.”
Lauren fiddles with her backpack strap because she doesn’t really want to keep speaking with him but she doesn’t know how to shut him down.
“Look, Keaton… you’re uh, you’re really nice and all. It’s just, I’m not really… I don’t want… um–”
“Wait, hold on a moment.” Keaton reaches out for Lauren’s arm, gently pulling her to the side right before they enter the cafeteria. “I… look, I know this is probably kind of sudden for you. Maybe I’ve been coming on too strong. But, I do think that you’re really pretty and you seem like a nice, genuine person that I’d really like to get to know better. Even if we could just become friends, I’d be more than happy with that.
A little stunned into silence, Lauren blinks her wide eyes as she tries to process his words. “Y– you want to be friends? Why?”
Keaton shrugs, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “I uh, I know people picked on you before but I’ve seen from afar how cool a person you seem so… I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to find out for myself. It uh, it helps that you’re easy on the eyes,” he chuckles out awkwardly.
“I… uh… um–”
“You don’t have to answer now. I’ll find you at your locker when school is over and you can let me know then.” He offers an easy smile and squeezes her arm softly one last time before walking away, heading through the cafeteria doors.
Lauren is still a little stunned from everything that’s happened with her and Keaton today and she doesn’t really know how to take it. She enters the cafeteria lost in her thoughts, grabbing her lunch before sitting at their usual table. Camila notices that she’s is kind of unusually quiet but Lauren blames tiredness on her weird mood and the girl doesn’t question her again.
~~
The rest of the school day passes with no run ins with Keaton; not even a sighting of him down the hall or something. She doesn’t know how she feels about that, because he seemed like a kind, genuine person to her. She had seen a lot of Camila though since they share quite a few classes together. But because they didn’t have the same last class of the day, they had promised to meet up at Lauren’s locker when school was finished.
Lauren makes her way over to it, happy that school is over and she can finally go home. Her and Camila are planning to spend the rest of the day together at Camila’s house since her parents went with Sofi to go visit some relatives, a trip that Camila couldn’t make due to school. Of course, Lauren had wished that her family was home so that she could finally meet them, but they had upcoming plans for that since somehow they’ve both managed to avoid meeting each other’s families.
Double checking that she has all her homework (and then later checking to make sure that Camila has hers too), Lauren zips her bag closed and shuts her locker. She spins around to find Keaton at his locker behind her, switching some books out, and figures now is as good a time as any to approach him.
“Hey,” Lauren greets, taking the few steps across the hallway.
“Oh, uh, hi?” Keaton says, and while his reaction confuses Lauren slightly, she carries on with her objective.
“So, um, I thought about what you said earlier and, if you’re still up for it, I wouldn’t mind hanging out and getting to know each other.”
Turning around from rummaging through her locker, Keaton puts on a half confused, half amused face. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he says way louder than necessary, attracting the attention of a few nearby students.
Lauren furrows her brows because she has no idea what’s going on right now. “Uh, remember our conversation from earlier?”
“What are you talking about, loser?” he repeats. “Why would I ever want to be friends with you?”
“Wait, what’s going on? Is this some sort of joke?”
Keaton scoffs, taking a step closer to Lauren which has her feeling uncomfortable. Everyone gathered in the hallway is now watching the exchange between the two curiously. “The only joke here is you. I don’t know how you could think anyone would ever want to be friends with someone like you.” He takes a second step. “It’s hilarious that you think I’d ever actually be friends with you.” Another step. “You’re a fucking freak. Some people were definitely right about that.”
Lauren realizes what’s happening, coming to the conclusion that Keaton is playing a cruel prank on her to embarrass her in front of everyone watching. He takes on final step as she moves backwards too, feeling her back come into contact with her closed locker. Keaton is staring down at her with such an unapologetic expression, and that coupled with how mortified she feels causes the tears to gather in her eyes. She attempts to fight letting them fall, however, because she’s done letting people think that her angry or frustrated crying is instead their vicious words or actions getting to her.
Keaton takes one more menacing step into her space, and the fact that Lauren has nowhere left to go makes her panic slightly. The tears finally slide down her cheeks but she doesn’t reach up to wipe them away because she’s afraid to even move. She hears a couple of students near them let out a laugh at the situation unfolding in front of them.
“You’re pathetic,” Keaton spits out. “Don’t ever speak to me again.”
Lauren swears that Keaton turned around to walk away but the next thing she knows, he’s sprawled out on the ground, his right hand cupping his eye as he groans in pain. Looking over, Lauren sees a fuming Camila towering over him (even with her small frame), her hand clenched in a fist as she breathes hard through her nose.
“What the f–” Keaton starts to get out but never finishes because Camila kicks him straight in the gut, effectively cutting off his words.
The girl crouches down next to a pained Keaton, and Lauren is just close enough to hear her quiet but threatening words.
“I don’t know who you are or where you got the idea that you could so much as breathe a nasty word in Lauren’s direction, but I’m telling you right now that you are never going to do it again. You’re never going to touch her, you’re never going to speak to her, you’re never going to look at her, you’re never going to so much as think about her. Ever. Again. You’re a piece of shit compared to Lauren. She’s better than you can ever dream about being, and if I catch you so much as walking down the same hallway as her, you’ll be wishing you had switched schools when you had the chance.”
Lauren simultaneously feels chills and warmth run through her body at Camila’s words, because on the one hand, the girl is defending her so strongly, but on the other... she's fucking intimidating.
“Do you understand me?” Camila asks way too calmly.
“It– it wasn’t even my idea!” Keaton exclaims as he clutches his most likely blackening eye with one hand. “Fucking Brad and Austin put me up to it, promised me fifty bucks if I humiliated Lauren for them. This shit wasn’t even worth it,” he says angrily.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah… fuck! This shit hurts!”
Camila ignores his cry of pain, straightening up as she turns to the students who are dead silent from the commotion that they had just witnessed (Lauren briefly wonders how no teachers have noticed what’s been going on).
“Apparently, it wasn’t clear enough to everyone how things are going to go this year, so I’ll break it down for you dumbasses. No one, and I mean no one, is going to harm Lauren in any way, physically, emotionally, mentally, verbally. If I catch anyone breaking these very simple guidelines, what I did to Keaton over here is going to feel like a hangnail compared to what I will do to you. The same goes for anyone who runs off to tattle to a teacher. Am I understood?”
There’s collective nods through the still silent crowd as they all take in Camila’s very serious words.
“Good,” she says as she cracks the knuckles she didn’t punch Keaton with. “Now spread the word.”
The crowd scurries off in fear, the students who have to get past Camila moving as fast as possible. Keaton struggles to stand up, hobbling off away from Camila as swiftly as he can.
“Come on,” Camila says, leading Lauren away from the hallway to an empty girl’s bathroom, locking the door behind them. As soon as Lauren turns around to face her, Camila pulls her in for a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around Lauren as her tears fall.
“You’re okay,” Camila mumbles comfortingly. “You’re okay.”
They stand there in their embrace for a few minutes until Lauren’s tears stop falling and her sniffles have subsided. The two girls pull apart but Camila doesn’t let go of Lauren, instead reaching up to wipe her wet cheeks gently.
“As– as much as I hate v– violence… thank you for doing that,” Lauren shakily gets out, swallowing down the lump in her throat from crying.
Camila smiles warmly at her. “You know that I would do anything for you,” she says, and Lauren doesn’t miss the extra emphasis on anything. “I am really sorry that I resorted to violence, but… it just got me so mad that he thought he could treat you like that. Or, that the people around you thought it was okay and even laughed! I don’t get how people can’t see how fucking great you are. Because you’re amazing, Lauren.”
Pushing her glasses up her nose, Lauren feels the warmth in her stomach multiply at Camila’s sincere words. “Well, apparently you think I’m pretty great, so… that’s enough for me.”
The look Camila is giving her is almost overwhelming, something between adoration and tenderness.
“You do know that we’re going to have to do something about Brad and Austin, right?” Camila asks with a sigh.
“I figured,” Lauren replies. “But maybe without violence this time. I don’t want you getting into trouble or hurting yourself, please.”
Camila glances down at her bruised and slightly bloodied knuckles from punching Keaton, clenching and unclenching them. “That’s probably a good idea.”
“But, we’ll worry about that later. For now,” Lauren says as she interlocks her fingers with Camila’s non-busted ones, leading the girl towards the bathroom door. “Let’s get you home so that I can clean that hand up for you.”
“It’s not that bad, Lau–”
“No, I want to,” Lauren interrupts. “You take care of me, so I want to take care of you too.”
~~