Journals (Camren)

Chapter 13

What? Everyone's eyes widened. Everyone was uncomfortable. This was suddenly awkward. There was a giant elephant in the room. No one was speaking. Normani, Ally, and Dinah had been stunned into silence. All three of them were staring at Camila and Lauren with their mouths agape. Camila's hands started to get clammy, but Lauren still didn't release it. That spoke volumes to Camila, for some reason.

"Uh..." Camila broke the silence dumbly, looking at Lauren with furrowed eyebrows. She was probably the most confused out of the five, second only to Lauren. The only reason she'd said no was to protect Lauren, because she was certain she would say it first. But... She confirmed it. They hadn't even talked about it themselves. Of course they were together, but neither of them had formally asked. Was it technically still dating? Camila was horrified at that blunder. She wasn't so sure she wanted to stick around to see how it all panned out.

Lauren was regarding Camila with the same expression. What the fuck? What more did she have to do? She didn't think she'd have to flat out tell her. She thought it had been implied through her actions. But she saw then that Camila wasn't going to assume anything. Lauren would have to be straightforward. So she repeated herself.

"We are dating," Lauren reiterated what she'd thought was obvious. And it was, to everyone except for Camila.

Camila's mind was reeling. Were they really? She had never considered it. She just thought they were a thing, without labels or titles. Like, they weren't lesbians, and they weren't girlfriends either. To her, they were just Camila and Lauren. Except now they kissed and cuddled a lot more often. Then it dawned on her that that was what people who were dating did. Maybe they were dating after all.

"So..." Dinah trailed, still lost. "Are you? Or not...?"

"I guess," Camila nodded in a daze.

"Yes," Lauren said, quietly urging Camila to say the same thing.

"Yes," Camila said more confidently.

"Aww," Normani and Ally crooned together.

Lauren smiled and looked at her lap. Her gaze settled on their intertwined fingers, and she ran her thumb over the back of Camila's hand. Camila smiled meekly. An unfamiliar feeling started in her stomach, and she ended up laughing. All of the pent up butterflies found their release in the form of laughter. Nothing was funny at all, she was just so happy. Lauren laughed too, feeling the same sensation in her own stomach.

"Kiss if it's real," Dinah challenged with a smirk.

Lauren looked up at Camila. She raised her eyebrows, silently asking for permission. Camila only grinned wider. Lauren took that as her answer and leaned in. They were both smiling as they kissed. Normani, Ally, and Dinah started cheering around them, and they sheepishly pulled away.

"Nothing we haven't seen before," Dinah laughed.

"What?" Lauren questioned once she'd registered what she said.

"We've seen y'all kiss before," Ally giggled.

"All three of us," Normani nodded.

Lauren felt embarrassed. She really thought they were doing a good job of keeping it secret. Camila somewhat knew that they'd been seen before. Their spontaneous kissing happened quite often. She wasn't embarrassed at all.

"Where?" Lauren laughed.

"My room..." Normani answered.

"Just now..." Ally seconded.

"The stairs..." Dinah pitched in.

"Okay," Lauren giggled even louder. "We're shit at privacy, Camz."