Laken steps out of her dad's car at a quarter to six in the morning. She looks out at the familiar building of her church for a brief moment before heading to the trunk of her dad's car and grabbing her things. She slings her duffel over her shoulder and heads to check in. She says goodbye to her father and he drives away.

She's going camping for a week with the people at her church, and normally she would be excited. But this time she's terrified. She runs a hand through her hair as she answers the receptionists questions. After loading her stuff into the van, she looks around trying to find people she recognizes. She spots a familiar face and heads toward them. Laken goes up to her and says hello.

"Hey Laken! What's up?"

That girl's name is Sunny. She's been friends with Laken since pretty much forever. She smiles. "Hey Sunny."

Laken continues to share pleasantries to the rest of the group, running her hand through her short curly brown hair. Whether it be out of nervousness or she actually needs to she doesn't know. All Laken knows is that her carefree nature is going to be depleted once a certain person shows up. She keeps looking back nervously to the parking lot, a part of her hoping the girl she most desperately wants to see doesn't show.

Just as she's about to finish her joke, she falters and trips on her words. The person she was fearing of seeing showed up. Laken finishes the joke quickly and gets a laugh from the group. Once everyone notices the new arrival, they say hello and greet them with their cozy hugs. Laken wishes she could go up and embrace her too, bask in her warmth and soak in the scent of her perfume. Instead, she smiles awkwardly and manages to mumble a hey.

That girl is Adrian.

Adrian nods in her direction, smiling slightly and goes to stand next to another friend of hers. Laken swallows a lump in her throat. God, she loved that smile.

"Laken?"

Laken whips her head around in the direction of the voice, finding Sunny looking at her with a look of both amusement and concern. "Hm?"

"You spaced out, I thought you were dying."

Laken chuckles slightly and looks down and the ground smiling. She looks over at Adrian for a second before replying, "I might as well be."

Sunny follows Laken's line of sight. She nods, wondering what could possibly be going through Laken's head.

Laken's smile drops for a second and then is immediately plastered on her face, suddenly remembering something hilarious. She shares her story with Sunny and they both start guffawing loudly. Laken tries to stop but she can't. She immediately feels self conscious about her own laughter and tries harder to stop it. Laken hates it.

But Adrian doesn't. Adrian thinks it's the most beautiful thing in the world.

There's a strange stigma around Laken and Adrian's friendship now. Since Laken confessed her feelings of attraction to Adrian, things have derailed. Their friendship that used to be seen as goals by peers is now crumbling to pieces. Laken knows she wants nothing more than to rekindle it.

What she doesn't know is that Adrian wants that too.

"Okay girls! It's time to board the buses! We're going to sort you by age--"

Laken's attention is caught for a few seconds, but she loses it and looks back over to Adrian. They make solid eye contact for about five seconds. Laken looks away quickly and looks toward the bus, heading toward it. She gets in line right behind Sunny. When Laken finally gets on, she sees that the only seat available for her is the very front one. She sits as close to the window as she can and sets her drawstring pack on her lap, looking out the window.

A few seconds later, a familiar voice asks, "Can I sit next to you?"

Laken looks up to find Adrain standing there awkwardly. She mumbles a yes and looks back out the window. She can feel Adrian sitting next to her and sneaks glances every so often. Once the bus starts moving, she sighs. This is going to be an awful two hours.

Adrian had been looking at Laken since the bus left the church building. She wishes she could just say hello to her. It takes about ten minutes for her to muster up the courage and say hi.

Laken looks over in surprise. But she says hi back.

"Are we going to be awkward?" Adrian asks.

"We don't have to be," Laken says, sighing. "But I feel like that's inevitable."

The conversation burns out after that. Adrian misses Laken. She misses holding hands, she misses the late night conversations that she could seem to only have with Laken.

"Do you ever wonder about penguins? They can't fly so why are they classified as a bird?"

"Laken, is this what you think of at 2 am?"

She misses saying I love you. She misses Laken's smooth voice and the way her hand felt in hers.

"My hands are sweaty, Adrian."

"I don't care."

She misses hugging her out of nowhere.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just like the feeling of your arms around me."

Adrian feels her eyes get heavy. She tries to stay awake, but it's a losing battle.

Laken feels something against her shoulder. She looks down to find Adrian's head on her shoulder. She smiles and puts an arm around her, rubbing her arm. She misses running into Adrian in the hallway and seeing her face light up.

The only reason I go to school is to see you.

She misses wrapping her arms around her waist pulling her in close.

It's okay, you'll do great.

She misses running her hands through Adrian's soft hair and comforting her.

Nothing bad will happen to you as long as I'm there, I promise. I'll protect you.

She misses everything. But most of all, she misses her.

If only she knew that Adrian felt the same way.

But Adrian felt too little. And Laken felt too much.

And that was their downfall in the end.