behind the lights | camren

Chapter One

Conference rooms were always particularly boring, from the vomit stained rainbow carpets to the boring white, cement walls, Lauren couldn't help but feel like she was in prison when she attended various meetings. A table elongated the room, black chairs pushed in only halfway, and a run down fan whirred in the corner of the room. Lauren sighed, glancing over at her manager, Ally, who looked extremely pale under the fluorescent light, or maybe she was just going white from the awful stench of moldy books and moth balls. Ally tapped her french manicured fingernails on the sticky surface of the white table, and she exhaled heavily, obviously annoyed.

"Camila and her manager were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago," Ally said impatiently, averting her eyes to the clock above a water cooler, eying the clock as it ticked slowly.

"I told you she was unprofessional," Lauren retorted, crossing her arms over her exposed abdomen, "Every day on set, Camila shows up late. Her manager always has some sort of excuse, like she's just a young star trying to enjoy the tropes of Hollywood, but the movie is almost halfway through. You think the director would get onto her by now," Lauren huffed, glad that she was able to vent about her less than perfect coworker.

Lauren had been in the celebrity business for as long as she can remember. On her first birthday, Lauren's mother put her in a baby beauty pageant, claiming that her daughter had eyes bluer than a Ralph Lauren model, and deserved to be in the spotlight. Lauren won the competition fair and square, and at that moment, her acting career took off.

At age thirteen, Lauren was cast as a leading role in her own Disney show about a teenager who was a spy, but also doubled as a normal high school student. The show had a long run, and by the time Lauren was seventeen, the creators ended it on a lighthearted note, leaving the her character, Angelina, to fall in love with her male best friend. 'Double Time' had broke the barrier for Lauren, and four years later, she had twelve number one blockbuster films following her name like a crazed super fan.

Her latest sure fire hit was titled 'Girl Meets Girl', which was one of the first openly gay friendly teen romance films to be expected to smash the box office. When Lauren had gotten offered the deal, she immediately accepted (she barely even read the terms and conditions, that's how pumped she was), and at that time, she was unsure of who her other leading lady would be.

Camila Cabello was an up and rising star who annihilated the Billboard charts with her number one single, Taken Home. Before Lauren could even blink, the eighteen year old had turned into America's sweetheart, and all of the cameras that weren't tailing Lauren's ass were now chasing after Camila. Lauren had to admit that she was a fan of Camila's music at first, but after she had given her debut album, Bows and Breaks, a listen, she decided the young girl was too immature and sappy for her taste.

Shortly following the album release, Lauren found out that Camila would be playing the role of Ophelia Undine, a headstrong character who enjoyed wearing black and dating people who were unfaithful. Lauren was acting as Victoria Sophronia, a sultry Southern Belle who was a sheltered farmer's daughter and uber virginal. The characters were completely archetypical, and the storyline was as well, but since it was the first real lesbian film to have larger than life celebrities starring in it, the typicality was overseen.

Camila basically had her entire success handed to her by having one catchy pop song that the radio still overplayed, and Lauren had to admit, she was a bit jealous. Lauren doubted that the cutesy starlet had to suffer through hours of drama classes at the age of ten, or that she had to stay up until three in the morning to get a shot perfect for a show on the Disney channel. Lauren despised how easily the stars had seemed to fall on top of Camila's shoulders, while the stars struggled to reach back to Lauren until she had gotten her big break.