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-the summer before senior year of high school-Camila stared blankly at the floor, her curtains blowing in the wind from the open window. She couldn't care less. Lauren had left through there and she couldn't bring herself to close them. There was a beer bottle in her hand, but she forgot where it was from. Camila sighed heavily. She gripped the beer bottle as tight as she could, wishing it would break and tear open her palm. It didn't. This made her only more frustrated as she wasn't even strong enough to break glass. She wasn't strong enough to get through this either. She couldn't be. The fact that Lauren was a vampire didn't surprise her. It was something she naively thought was "cool" when she first found out. Camila's eyes burned into the wooden floor and she suddenly brought up her arm and threw the bottle straight down. Strangely, she didn't hear the shattering. She felt pieces of glass hit her bare feet and lower legs but the pain didn't bother her. Lauren was going to be in the vampire version of the hunger games, is what she thought bitterly, letting out a dark laugh. Camila was generally a pretty upbeat, happy person. She didn't let anything get to her that much. Even through being bullied in middle school she had maintained a happy and loving persona. And when she lost her best friend in sophomore year, to everyone else at school it probably seemed like nothing happened. Maybe that's why she was reacting so strongly now. All the negative energy she withheld for so long was bursting forth, all-consuming. Camila glanced around her room furtively. Her eyes never stayed on one object for more than a second. She knew it was her fault that Lauren had left. She was just so mad at her for being willing to risk her life for a stupid clan tradition that she... broke up with her. It was weird to think of it like that. In her exact words, she had told Lauren, "we can't be together if you do this." Lauren, apparently, cared more about what her clan wanted than her own desires. Camila refused to believe that Lauren actually wanted to be in that vampire game more than she wanted to be with her. Camila felt a ringing in her ears and realized there were people in the room with her. They must've heard the glass break. She turned her head slowly to acknowledge them. Her mami was shouting at her with a worried look while holding an over-excited Sofi behind her. She felt a flare of pain in her chest at the thought of Sofi never seeing Lauren again... never calling her "Lamp". How could Lauren go off to die knowing what she was leaving behind? Once her eyes connected with her mother's, something broke in her. "Mami, help me" She whispered. Sinu turned to Sofi and told her to wait there and then she rushed towards her eldest daughter. She brought Camila in a gentle hug and then leaned down to survey the damage on her legs and feet. "Sofi, bring the first aid kit," she called. Sofi looked utterly lost at that and Sinu shook her head with a sigh. "Never mind, I'll get it. Keep an eye on your sister but don't go in." The rest of the night went by in flashes for Camila. One minute Sofi was studying her like she was watching an animal at the zoo. The next, her mom was carefully taking glass shards out her skin. It was over quickly for her. It was almost like she was paralyzed as all of this was going on. She was tucked in and told to go to sleep, but the next day came and her eyes remained steadily fixed on the dark ceiling above her. Camila had no idea what time it was when all of this was happening. For some reason, this thought was what broke her staring contest with the ceiling. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It was 1 pm. She guessed her mami wanted to let her sleep in after the events of the night before. For a while, she continued laying there in her own personal pity party. Then, something in her snapped. She couldn't just let her last words to Lauren be breaking up with her. She had to do something. And if it didn't work, at least she would have tried. Camila heaved herself out of bed and got dressed quickly in the dark. She didn't want her mother to know she was up. A part of her felt bad because Sinu would be worried sick once she noticed her absence, but this was something she had to do. She pulled on underwear and then a black band tee, one she dimly recognized as Lauren's from a The 1975 concert, black ripped jeans, and pulled her hair into a messy ponytail. She looked down at herself, knowing this was the exact kind of way Lauren liked to dress, not her. She was more one for light jeans and white tees. But dressing like her made her feel slightly better about the whole situation somehow. Lauren had a way of doing that. Camila crawled out the window, realizing that with her clumsiness this was a doomed mission. And she was kind of right. She managed to get herself to the edge of the roof, in disbelief that she hadn't fallen yet, and then she slipped. She waited to feel her arm break or something but it never came. Someone caught her. She opened her eyes, half-expecting it to be Lauren, but it was Lucy. "What the fuck?" She blurted out. Lucy grinned at her but with sad eyes. "I know you probably didn't want to see your girlfriend's ex right now, but these are crazy times." Camila glared at her, not mentioning that Lauren wasn't even her girlfriend anymore. "Thanks," she said, not sounding grateful in the slightest. "Whatever, the competition is set to start at midnight tonight, so we don't have much time to convince Lauren not to do this," Lucy said, setting her down. "And why do you care?" "Because I know she means a lot to you." Lucy turned quickly and started walking away, leaving Camila no choice but to follow. She ran over Lucy's words in her head. It sounded like she was doing this for her, but why? They did used to be friends at some point, but that ended when Lauren came around. Her heart ached just thinking about that time. -flashback to the beginning of sophomore year-"Lucy! There's a new girl in school and she's really hot!" Camila whisper-yelled, sliding in the seat across from her best friend at their regular lunch table. Lucy closed her math book and leaned towards her, smiling. "Really? Are you going to ask her out?" Camila didn't notice how Lucy didn't seem particularly thrilled about the notion. "Weeeell, I told her I liked her shirt so I pretty much flirted with her." Lucy raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh come on. You've flirted better than that with me, and you don't even like me like that."Camila flushed. To be honest, she did kind of have a crush on Lucy, but the other girl never hinted at feeling the same, so she never pursued it. "Well yeah, but I was talking to her for the first time. I was nervous!" Lucy laughed at that. "Really? When we first met, you told me I was the hottest girl you'd ever seen." Camila huffed and shoved a tater tot in her mouth. She leaned across the table to hit Lucy in the shoulder but ended up spilling her own water in doing so. Lucy threw her napkins at her, seeing as Camila had once again not thought to grab any. "You're so stupid," she said. Camila was about to hit her with a probably terrible comeback when she saw her new crush walk in the cafeteria. Lucy followed her obvious stare and sighed, her smile fading. Camila didn't notice, instead focusing on waving Lauren over. Lucy took the napkins back and cleaned up the water spill for her, seeing as she was too distracted by the newcomer to do so. Lauren surprised them both by sitting next to Lucy. "Hi Camila. Who's your friend?" She asked shyly. Lucy found herself feeling kind of happy at how envious Camila looked. It served her right for being so head-over-heels for some random girl. "I'm Lucy," she said before Camila could. "Lucy Vives." Lauren blushed just hearing her voice. "That's a really pretty name." She looked into Lucy's eyes for a couple seconds with a soft smile. Camila coughed, intentionally ending their little moment. "So, How is your first day going, Lauren?" Lucy eyed her friend and noted the way she was tensed up and how forced her smile looked. She felt terrible but she'd rather Lauren be interested in her than Camila. She didn't think she could deal with that. She was also not one to avoid conflict. After Lauren half-heartedly told Camila about her day, Lucy interrupted to say she was going to the bathroom. She didn't try to send a subtle message to Camila. The girl was oblivious. Instead, she just grabbed her arm and pulled her out of her chair and out of the cafeteria, ignoring how confused Lauren looked at the whole thing. Several people were heading to the bathroom, so she tugged Camila into an empty classroom "What the hell are you doing?" Camila asked in annoyance. She rubbed at her wrist where Lucy had grabbed her like she had suffered a major wound or something. She could be so dramatic sometimes. "I know you're mad at me. Tell me why." Lucy knew why already but she still wanted Camila to say it. "You two were flirting! It's bad enough that it was you, but my other crush too-" Camila cut off, having realized what she just admitted. Lucy stared at her. "You liked me?" She stepped closer to Camila and put her hands on her arms. Camila wouldn't meet her eyes. "Don't make me say it Lucy. You're baiting me." Lucy laughed and brought her left hand to Camila's chin, lifting it so she had to look at her. "Okay, maybe I was. So you like me, huh?" Camila shrugged, her cheeks as red as they could possibly get. "If you would stop looking like that, then maybe I wouldn't!" Lucy pretended to be angry at that. "So it's just for my looks? I didn't know you were so shallow, Mila." She knew the girl would take it seriously. She really had no sense of when someone was lying. "I'm not! I love your mind Luce, I swear." Camila looked desperately into Lucy's eyes, pressing closer to her like she was trying to prove something. Lucy shook her head. "I was joking, oh my god." "Lucy..." Camila started. "What?" All she could hear was their breathing as she waited impatiently for Camila to say something. "You're acting like you want to kiss me. And I really want you to, so don't tease me like that." Lucy's heart jumped into overdrive then. Camila started to pull back, thinking she didn't like her after all, but Lucy quickly leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, dangerously close to her mouth. Camila's eyes closed and Lucy leaned in again, this time kissing her on the lips. It wasn't a makeout or anything, it was a first kiss for both of them so they didn't really know what to do. After a few seconds, Lucy pulled back and drew Camila into a tight hug. It seemed like that would be it. They were best friends, and they liked each-other. Lauren was nothing but the catalyst for them to confess their feelings. But things were more complicated than that, people were more complicated than that. Lauren had a party a few weeks later and invited both of them. It was a bad idea, terrible actually. But, they didn't know that at the time. They thought it would be nice if they could all be friends still. The main problem was that Camila wasn't out to her parents or anyone except for Lucy, whereas Lucy was out and proud. She wasn't insistent that Camila come out, but she still wished she would so they could hold hands in public without being as afraid. At the party, Lucy got drunk and Camila abstained, not wanting to get too wild and accidentally kiss Lucy in front of everyone. That was, coincidentally, exactly what Lucy wanted to do. She kept trying to kiss her until Camila finally got tired of it and yelled at her to back off. Then she made possibly the worst mistake of the night, she left. By herself. The next day, Lucy came over with red eyes and a grim look on her face. Camila almost forgot there even was a party. She had just come home and gone to sleep. She suddenly felt guilty for not thinking to check on her best friend. They went up to her room and sat on her bed. Camila noticed that Lucy left plenty of space in between them, but assumed it was because of how she left. Before she could apologize, Lucy broke out sobbing. Camila went to hug her, but she flinched away and cried harder. "I'm so sorry," she said over and over. Camila stared at her in confused silence. Eventually Lucy stopped crying but she couldn't look at her. "What happened Luce? Are you okay?" Lucy finally looked at her. "Don't ask me if I'm okay. I cheated on you Mila. I know we're not dating technically, but I did, I did and I-" she choked on her words and looked away again. Camila felt her stomach clench at the words. Her heart was pounding as she imagined all kinds of scenarios. "Did somebody drug you?" She asked quietly. "No, I was drunk but that's not an excuse. She was drunk too, she didn't take advantage, you can't blame her." Her words almost blurred together, but Camila picked out the 'her' pretty quickly. "Who?" She asked. Her voice was like stone. She couldn't help but feel increasingly angry at the girl next to her. Part of her knew who it was already. "Lauren." Camila shook her head. "No, no, no. Luce, it wasn't her. Please. Tell me it wasn't her." She didn't even notice the tears rolling down her cheeks until she felt them drop on her legs."We had sex." Camila choked at that and stood up, shaking. "Get out." Lucy looked at her and left without saying anything else. Their relationship had ended before it even started.-end flashback-