If I Were A Boy (camren)

Chapter Thirty-One

The bags under her eyes revealed obvious distress and the raspy tone that was added along to her remark made me realize that this girl hadn't gotten her desperately needed sleep. She noticed the cowardly position I was in; my legs pulled upwards and my arms wrapped protectively around my own chest. Normani sighed and shook her head before approaching me slowly and at a cautious pace. 

"I mean it, Lauren," she confessed, her voice dropping to become softer. "I only want to talk, honest. I'll leave right after. I promise."

Her dilated brown pupils scanned the room urgently, settling themselves on the familiar armchair in the corner of the hospital area. Normani quickly rushed over towards the chair and scooted it closer to my bedside, but far enough way to ease the awkward yet tense feeling growing inside of me.

There was a long moment of silence until the lost girl spoke up with a clap of her hands, "So, where do you want me to start?"

"What?" I laughed in a circumspect manner, careful not to rouse the suspicious woman. "S-seriously?"

Normani frowned and furrowed her eyebrows at my response, "What's up with you? Usually I'd expect some grand explanation from you or a parent versus child discussion about how angry you are at me."

"Can't talk," I narrowed my eyes intensely in her direction. "Fire. Accident."

Her eyes grew out widely in final realization, "Shit. Did I really screw up your speech?"

Normani immediately regretted her profess and clamped her palms over her mouth in hope to cover up the exposed secret, but it was already too late.

"You!" My legs were no longer banded together and my frightened body language vanished into thin air. I was off my sheets in no time, already marching towards Normani while the rage finally took over me. Jabbing my pointer finger directly in her face, I continued, "You did! Jesus Christ, Normani!"

The plethora of words shot out of my mouth like reloaded bullets.

"You could've killed me! For fucks sake; you could've killed Camila! You know I found her barley alive and being crushed by her own ceiling? A-And you fucked up my fucking God damn speech! The doctors don't even know if I'll be able to talk again! What the-"

"Lauren," Normani breathed heavily.

"No! You listen to me you asshole! You had this planned all along, didn't you? You knew I was on new medication and needed someone to watch me, so you drugged me up and ditched right when I fell asleep so you could go start the fire! Fucking brilliant, b-but not brilliant because you could've killed someone! You injured so many innocent-"

"Lauren!" The dark skinned girl cut me off with a much more fierce and menacing tone this time. She waited for a few seconds to make sure I wouldn't start up my rant again before telling me the obvious situation I hadn't recognized, "You're speech sounds terrific."

I opened my mouth, not to say anything, but to reveal how shocked I felt. 

"Well damn," I reached my right hand up to rush my fingers through my tangled head of hair in confusion. "I g-guess you rattled me up."

"Can you maybe shut up for a couple of minutes?" Normani asked as politely as she could with a delicate smile. Once I allowed the request to process throughout my mind, I nodded in a confirming presence. She visibly sighed and clasped her hands together to stop the clear amount of nervousness running over her body.

"I-I didn't want to hurt anyone, but I was stuck in a really desperate time, Lauren."

"And you're not desperate anymore?"

"What did I say about talking?" Normani pointed out, causing me to promptly apologize as she started her answer again. "I was recently fired from my job about six weeks ago and I couldn't find myself or the hour to go searching for a new one. I was loosing a lot of money due to the rent on my apartment being scheduled for this month and even next month's. Also, I needed to pay for food and insurance and all that other crazy, adult-type shit."

"A couple of Friday's ago, the one before the fire was set I found myself coming to visit you to finally tell you all about it- hoping for some moral support. I don't know why, but I honestly couldn't do it. Ally knew about my problem, although I never told her on purpose. It was a drunk confession. So, I ended up calling her in the hallway of your apartment on my knees and in tears," Normani's voice cracked at the disclosure and wiped it away with a sorrow-filled laugh. Her eyes were lined with water, meaning she could burst into sobs at any moment. She didn't seem to care though because she kept going, "That's when he came out. God, Lauren he offered me so much money that I couldn't say no. He had heard my entire conversation with Ally and knew what to say to convince me into doing it."

"Mani, who was it?" I questioned her anxiously, backing away from the older girl one step at a time. "You n-need to tell me. I have an idea of whom, but I have to k-know for sure before I do or say a-anything."

At that moment, the door swung wide open; both of our slumped bodies lurching upright to face the opened entrance.

"Hey Laur, turns out your therapist is out with the flu so you won't be seeing-" Dinah froze instantly at the sight of Normani sitting by my bedside and her protective instincts immediately took over. "What the fuck are you doing here you inconsiderate, no-good lying hoe!?"

"Dinah!" I hissed at her profanity with the most disregarding voice I could find. "Normani was just c-clearing the air, alright?"

"Holy shit," Dinah stepped her entire body into the room and closed the door behind her so no one outside could hear the three of us converse. "You can talk! Holy shit! Holy fucking shit!" The nurse then tilted her attention away from me and towards Normani with a straight face, "What'd you do."

Normani shrugged and rubbed carelessly at her eyes for a short moment, not effected in any way by the deathly glare Dinah was staring her down with, "She needs emotion in her. All I did was rile the Latina up a little bit."

"A lot," I mumbled and shifted back around to collapse safely into my fluffed pillow. "Normani actually created the fire, Dinah."

Dinah's eyes were filled with a burning anger once the confession left my tongue. Her eyebrows bent over her eyes in frustrations as she clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles were shining a pale white, "I'm gonna' give you a fucking Poly-beat down you little mother-"

"It wasn't my fault!" Normani placed her hands in the air as a sign of defense just when admitted, "It wasn't her fault!"

"How could it not be her fault when she physically started it?" Dinah loosened the grip on her hands so that the usual tan color returned. "Wait, how do you even purposely start a fire? I mean don't get me wrong I've done it multiple times, but they've all been accidents and-"

"Someone blackmailed her," I simply answered for Normani after seeing the grief in her eyes that told she honestly didn't want to declare the heartbreaking story again. I angled my eyesight back to Dinah who was now standing at the end of my bed so that I could advance further, "She was about to tell me who it was until you danced in here."

"It was Austin," Dinah announced with a firm timbre. "I'm pretty sure of it because of the way he's been acting around Mila lately. I was actually with him a few minutes ago, and he seemed all jitery and apprehensive around her."

"It wasn't Austin," Normani confirmed, sending my frame to tumble off the bed in disbelief. To be honest, I was pretty confident with my answer of Austin being the mysterious fire-starter.

"Jesus Lauren, are you okay?" Dinah hurried over to the side where I had dropped, assisting me back onto my feet and onto the hospital covers. The nurse slid me over to the right side of the sheets so that she could position herself comfortably beside me. After we both agreed on our spots, Dinah turned her concentration back over to Normani, "Well, then who was it?"

"Brad Simpson."

*

[A/N] I don't really plan on ending this story anytime soon, but when it does come to a close; I already have another set up and ready for action. the real question is: do you all prefer sequels or new stories? also since this was a more recent update, i won't be updating for a while. pip pip cheerio - xoxo, lil