The tires screeched to a halt in the Jauregui driveway, the sound more like screams of disappointment to Camila's ears and she was afraid to look back at Lauren. Ever since they left the department store with the credit card un-swiped, her eyes had been trained mindlessly out her window, forehead against the cool glass to calm her nerves. She hated herself. She hated herself for not being not able to do something so simple as buying clothes.

Lauren opens her mouth to speak but Camila throws open the passenger door and scampers inside before she can. She shuts her door and tears Lauren's flannel from her body, wadding it in a ball before throwing it to the floor and crawling on the bed with a pillow hugged to her chest and wrapped around her legs. And for the first time since she arrived, a single tear hit the pillow. Because she hated herself. She hated herself for not getting out of that jeep at the store.

There was a knock at her door and before she could hide, it opened. She didn't lift her face from the pillow as a loud thump met her floor along with a deep breath from Lauren.

"You never opened the boxes," she remembered seeing them in the coat closet downstairs and she didn't think much of it, maybe some old junk that her father had recently collected but now she knew they held her donated things. Lauren waited for her to crawl off of the bed or explain why she hadn't even so much as glanced at the boxes, but she never did. So, she sat on the floor with a sigh, resting her arms on the thick cardboard.

"Camila..." she called her name softly. The girl didn't budge.

"If you don't come over here, I'll call Dinah. You've met her twice but I'm sure you know how persistent that girl can be," she warns. Camila sits up with a sniffle and she felt weak. And for that, she hated herself. She hated herself for feeling weak; for being weak. So she told Lauren. She listened to her voice, so small as if she was almost whispering and her heart was crushed when she took in an unsteady breath to tell her. The jet-black headed girl told her in return how she was too. "And I hate myself all the time for it," she says. And once she had said that, the doe-eyed teenager felt just a little less alone in the world.

She didn't question why Lauren was weak, just like the latter didn't question why her boxes were unopened. Because both of them sorta knew. With one final sniffle, Camila crawled to the floor on the opposite of the other girl, her knees hitting the cardboard as the carpet left imprints in her skin. Lauren gives her a smile as she opens the box in front of them and the smile turns into a chuckle. She pulls the first shirt out and holds it up to eyesight with a laugh that made Camila giggle as well. The design was ridiculous, neon green zebra stripes on pink polka dots with a bright blue background, not to mention the huge iron-on eye in the middle.

"This is pretty cute," Lauren tells her and the brunette laughs even more as she sets it aside. "Come on, I'd wear it."

It wasn't shopping at a highly quality store where the jeans with jeweled asses cost hundreds of dollars, but Camila would rather wear baggy old band shirts as dresses than diamond dresses any day. They went through three boxes (the fourth being all books) and it had actually been kind of fun. If a pair of sunglasses showed up, Lauren would peer through them until she came across the next pair. Camila kept almost everything that was loose, not one for tight fitted things. And once they were done, Lauren gathered the clothes she didn't want and left her to be with her new wardrobe. She would buy the girl a phone later after school tomorrow.

The doorbell rang.

She thought it'd be another surprise visit from Vero Iglesias or maybe Normani was grounded from her phone again and just wanted to let her know in person. But she was surprised to find Lucy Vives standing in her doorway.

"Is that movie thing still on the table?" she asks with a smile. Lauren loved her smile, don't get her wrong, but if she had counted how many times she'd seen that grin, she would've lost count by now.

"Yeah, sure. Come on in," she opens her front door wider allowing the girl to step inside. How did Lucy even know where she lived? How did she get here? As Lucy looked around her small home with interest, she passed by Lauren to sit on the couch.

"I don't know what type of genre you're into, so I guess I'll just let you pick the movie," she clears her throat as she plops down next to her surprise visitor.

"You said 'or something'," she was really close. Almost uncomfortably close. Her words barely even needed to travel in order to meet her ear.

"Y-yeah I did," but Lauren hadn't implied that they would actually be doing anything other than watching a movie. However, she wasn't one to argue as Lucy's lips lightly kissed her jaw before meeting her own.

"My dad's gonna be home from work soon," Lauren pulls away from her, implying that maybe they should stop with the kissing. Honestly, all she could think about was how her show would come on in seven minutes.

"I should go anyway," she pecks her lips, climbing off the sofa to walk towards the door.

"I thought we were gonna watch a movie?" she questions and all Lucy does is shrug.

"So-so are we like... dating now?" she stutters.

"You act like that little scene earlier on the couch hadn't made it obvious," Lucy snickers, blowing her a kiss before walking out. Her eyes linger on the door before lowering to the ground and she sat in silence for another twenty minutes. Because shit, girls were confusing.

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[ edited on june 18, 2019 ]