High School Reunions; one of the cheesiest and most pointless things to exist. If you weren't in touch with people from your high school, you obviously didn't want to be. That's what Y/n thought anyway.

Except, there was someone she wished she was still in touch with, but she was pretty sure the other person did not feel that way. It had been her who'd drifted, but the other who hadn't bothered to bring her back. They hadn't bothered to try and make her stay.

They had a name; It was Lauren.

It always seemed weird to Y/n, how Lauren had changed so much in those last... well, it was a matter of weeks really. She was always a bit goofy, playful, she always wore a smile, and although her wardrobe's hues were a little darker than the average teenage girl's, she brought brightness to her demeanor with those sparkling eyes.

About a month before the end of senior year, though, something changed. It was like there was a lightbulb behind those eyes that shone so brightly, but then whoever lived in there had turned their lamp off and gone to sleep and left nothing but the darkness in which shadows loomed. Y/n wouldn't lie; it scared her.

She was always a touchy person too, always wanting hugs or to simply be close to other people, specifically Y/n. During those last few weeks she hated being touched. It started with tending under Y/n's embraces, and led up to the point where their hands brushed, she'd quickly pull hers away. It was like she was flinching at any human contact.

Once, she'd yelled at Y/n for simply asking her what was wrong. They were in the cafeteria, and the entire lunch room went silent as Lauren rose from her seat. She stared down at Y/n with dull eyes for a moment before grabbing her things and storming out of the building. She'd skipped the rest of her classes that day. Y/n knew because she'd been late to all of hers after waiting for the girl to emerge.

That had been the final straw. Y/n decided that if Lauren didn't want to be touched, she wouldn't be touched; if she didn't want to be cared for, she wouldn't be cared for; not by Y/n at least.

In hindsight, she should have seen the warning signs right there. She should have pushed through the girl's newly-built walls and  woken up whoever lived inside her head and turned that light back on. She should have at least tried-

But she didn't. She was selfish. She let herself drift away and she was surprised when it worked. They hadn't spoken since that day. They had barely even looked at each other in that last week of school, but there were a few fleeting glances between the two.

Everyone assumed they'd broken up, and so they acted like they had and eventually they guessed that it had become the truth.

Now, though, Y/n hoped to god that she'd spot that brown hair and those green eyes somewhere in the sea of friends and strangers. She hoped to god that she'd be able to apologize for leaving the obviously broken girl. And, selfishly, she hoped that she'd be able to find out that she hadn't been the reason the girl had changed, as she so often convinced herself... tortured herself with the thought of. It didn't happen so often anymore, though. She'd started moving on, but even that felt wrong.

"Hey, have you guys seen Lauren?" She asked a group of people she somewhat recognized, but they only shook their heads before returning to their conversation. Y/n sighed and tried again on another group of unsuspecting ex-classmates of hers. Maybe it was a little pathetic. Oh well.

"No, sorry." A girl Y/n believed to be called Dinah replied. She and Lauren had been pretty close in school, but it seemed they hadn't spoken for a while either because Dinah quickly added, "If you find her send her over here!"

"I will." She nodded, spinning on her heels. With a sigh, scanned the crowd once more for a person she thought she'd recognize anywhere.

Finally, her eyes fell on another person she thought she could ask. The woman was sitting on one of the barstools facing away from her, black hair falling down her shoulders in a tousled waterfall as she took a shot of whatever it was. Y/n thought that if she couldn't find her ex-girlfriend, perhaps she'd join this mystery woman in her drinking escapades. Whoever had thought to rent out the local bar for this reunion was a genius.

"Excuse me," Y/n began before she reached the girl, "I don't mean to bother you but have you seen-"

The woman turned to face her and- How had she not seen it before? Those emerald eyes were far from anything she'd seen on anyone else... even with their light still out.

"-Lauren?" It did not come out as the end of the previous sentence, but as it's own.

The raven-haired woman tossed back another shot before hissing a little with the burn of the alcohol, keeping those eyes locked on Y/n's.

"Long time no see." She rasped casually, as though it hadn't been three years since they'd said a word, and the last was a yelled 'Leave me the fuck alone!'. Y/n had to keep her jaw from dropping.

"I- Yeah." Was all she could muster as she allowed herself to take in the rest of Lauren's appearance.

Her face was a little more matured now, though perhaps that was the makeup she wore: smoky eyes, perfect brows, and glossy, deep red lips that almost looked like they were coated in blood, not lipstick. She was paler now too, her skin almost porcelain. The whole ensemble only accentuated those brilliant eyes of hers. Pair that with her now-black hair and that widow's peak of hers and she almost looked like a Disney villain.

She was wearing a pair of very-distressed white jeans (seriously, the were more like loose pieces of fabric really) that still managed to hug her in all the right places, a black mesh top with a lacy black bra beneath, and a black bomber jacket. On her feet were a pair of pointed black high heel boots that led up above her ankles a little ways.

Y/n thought for a moment that perhaps she hadn't known about the reunion and had dressed up simply for a night out at the local bar (it would explain the drinking alone part, anyway), but then she thought she remembered Normani, another friend of Lauren's, telling her that she had moved to LA a few months after graduation but had come back to Miami for the reunion, so Y/n had continued her search in hopes that the information was correct and she could expect to find the girl. Apparently it was.

When her eyes landed back on Lauren's face the woman wore a smug smirk as one of her hands idly played with the rim of an empty shot glass before her.

If looks could kill...

She saw the Cuban's lips moving before she processed what she said, but then realized it was a simple, "Are you okay?"

Lauren tilted her head down a touch, looking up slightly at Y/n now, and the other girl's cheeks instantly flushed.

"Shit." She accidentally hissed aloud, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine, sorry. So, uh- I hear you moved to LA?" She recovered with an attempt to start a casual conversation.

Lauren, though, had other plans.