mean girls

xiv. #PaureguiGate

The second time it happens, Camila lifts one eyebrow and stares. Ever since they'd got stuck together for AP Lit, things had been different between them. Courteous, even if still distant. A little more careful, a little softer, despite nothing else happening after they'd both given in to the sexual energy between them once more.

Lauren is in her corner of the library, comfortably installed in the couch in front of hers. She's reading To Kill a Mocking Bird, and Camila says nothing.

It happens again, a few days later.

When Camila reaches her favorite spot, Lauren is already there, barefoot and with furrowed brows, gaze focused on a textbook that Camila recognizes from her study sessions with Normani.

"Hi," she says, timidly.

Lauren looks up and smiles at her, a genuine smile that reaches her eyes.

They stay there together in silence for another hour and Camila finds that Lauren's presence, quiet and peaceful like this, makes her chest tingle with warmth.

It happens another time before things change for the worse.

Camila is reading The Fault in Our Stars and she can't see what book has Lauren so concentrated. Before Camila knows it, she's crying, real tears that run down her face and wracking sobs that she can't hide.

Lauren startles in her seat, and after a moment of indecision she comes closer and kneels in front of her, eyebrows knit together in concern. "Hey," she whispers, fingers wrapping around Camila's elbow. "What's wrong?" Her green eyes are peppered with speckles of amber and Camila thinks they're even more beautiful when she's seeing them through a sheen of tears.

"This book," Camila stammers, rubbing furiously at her eyes with her free hand. "It's just so sad."

Lauren lets out an 'oh' and sits down next to her, fingertips tapping the cover of her own book until she starts speaking in a soothing tone. "I'm reading The Book Thief now," she says, pushing it towards Camila so she can take a look at the title. "It's so dope because it's from Death's point of view, you know? But what I like the most about it is how it portrays colors. Every time someone dies, Death sees different colors in the sky and it's just such a powerful detail. It's made me pay more attention to the colors around me every day."

She goes on and on about colors, and about what it means to be human, and about how there is life in reading, and how kindness could save the world, and her eyes are alight with excitement and her hands can't stop demonstrating her words. Camila has stopped crying long ago but she doesn't have the heart to tell Lauren that she's read The Book Thief and that it's one of her favorites.

She thinks she might even like it a little more now.

* * *

Mr. Keating had said in the beginning of the week that the grades for the assignment would be up on the school's online platform by Friday, and now Camila can't stop checking the damn website. She's curious. She'd put a lot of effort into that thing and she owes her new dynamic with Lauren to it. Or the new layer to her dynamic with Lauren - as if their dynamic needed any more layers.

But alas, here they are. Maybe not quite enemies anymore, not quite friends either, but definitely something.

It's a good thing the debate and the election will be done in about two weeks. Maybe they'll get a chance at being something else.