Seems that Laura would have been attracted to someone like Audrey who was independent and eccentric with a wild streak. Is their relation elaborated on during the series? (am currently rewatching from the pilot)

I don't think that was even an issue because Audrey wasn't even a character initially with the first draft.  And wasn't it more that Audrey and Laura "weren't friends, but I understood her better than the rest." 

And Laura in the first season when all this is set up is presented as an extrovert socially, whereas Audrey is an introvert; Laura living in the world and Audrey observing it.  Audrey bold moves are done privately behind the scenes so no one is aware they're happening.  And also, it's just damn plot device -Donna as good girl and friend, and Audrey as bad girl and enemy -and then the layers and layers come undone.

Wow, fest mode- I'm writing about Audrey again, how novel.

It happened with Laura and Donna, re the Secret Diary, because Laura was curious about sex and drugs and started exploring that while Donna stayed innocent. Laura, of course, was still drawn to Donna's innocence, and she was to James'. This attraction to innocence was a kind of envy- she was only compelled to be bad by the evil that polluted her when she was 12.

This is all a kind of metaphor, of course, for any child sexual abuse and the isolation and alienation it puts girls through as they mature.

There is, as mentioned in the Diary, a bit of a rivalry over Ben's attention. Laura is a competitive girl- in the Diary she also uses sex with Leo to one-up Shelley, a girl she finds threatening because, like Laura, she is beautiful, too.

Like Laura, Audrey defined herself through her sexual power, but for different reasons. Audrey was experimenting with a womanly identity,as most teenage girls do, even when they're not ready; whereas Laura was forced into womanhood early through abuse.

Audrey was a bad girl without being really bad, and I'm sure Laura was aware of this. She cut class and smoked in her locker, flirted with older men and played her music loud- a far cry from tricking, drugging and cheating on her boyfriend- but she was a virgin, and probably so exposed to alcohol around the hotel and her dad that it didn't even intrigue her.

Laura probably exploited Ben's affection for her, that started when she was a little girl and he bought he a pony and sang to her, because she intuited a Freudian desire between Ben and Audrey that she could displace with overt sexual manipulation. As we saw, Audrey could have *had* Ben in that forbidden way if she wanted, and Ben was so depraved he may even have allowed it. Laura's world, the world of mystery and darkness, was too threatening for Audrey.

Audrey sought mystery and adventure because she wanted to be rescued by a father figure who really cared.

Laura sought dangerous experiences that would destroy her, and was ultimately trained to enjoy the incest rape she endured in her self-destructive quest.

So they were opposites: Audrey was the Good Bad Girl- the girl who seems to be dangerous but is anything but; Laura was the Bad Good Girl- the girl who was twisted under her perfect exterior.

Laura's behavior shocked and excited Audrey, but she never would have participated.

i dont believe i've handed my gun over to anybody in my ENTIRE LIFE!!.......you wanna know something else i've never done?........I've never crossed the ocean.....Never got to China!

Yeah, it wasn't really a dislike for one another - there was some tension and jealousy there on both parts. But there was also a mutual respect. Laura cared what Audrey thought about her because she referenced in her diary that Audrey would probably never like her upon finding out her father bought Laura a pony. She liked to make Audrey jealous of her because she was jealous of what Audrey had that she didn't - a 'normal' life, free of sexual abuse, but the ability to still be sexy in a truly innocent way. But Laura also liked to please people, so it did dismay her, I believe, deep down that she and Audrey would never be friends.

I think Audrey respected Laura simply because Laura was so good to her brother Johnny. He was very receptive to Laura, more so than anyone else and Audrey mentioned to Cooper that she "sort of loved her for that."