Lauren Jauregui Imagines |ABANDONED|

How Could You Leave Us (2023)

Rework Publish Date: May 7, 2023
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"Mom! Stop!" Y/N yelled out, jumping in front of her baby brother, clenching her jaw as she takes the blow that was meant for her brother. She didn't hate her mom, she loved her, but she hated when she got like this. When she got high, or drunk, and started beating her and her younger siblings.

"Y/N get out of the way. This isn't your punishment." Y/N's mother slurs to her thirteen year old daughter.

"No, mom. If you want to beat Nathan, beat me instead." Y/N says and her mom shrugs before socking her in the jaw, Y/N falls to the floor out of surprise and watches as her mom hits the floor as well. She turns to her little brother and points to their baby sister. "Nate, take her to Lauren's house, okay?" She asks and Nate nods.

"What about you?" He asks and Y/N shakes her head.

"I'll call the ambulance for her and I'll be there when she's gone. Okay?" She asks and Nate nods.

"Y/N/N!" Nate calls out, pointing at their mom, who was sitting up again.

"Nate, go! Now!" She commands and he nods, grabbing his little sister and running across the street to the Jauregui's house.

-

Two hours later, Y/N still had not shown up after the ambulance left their house. So, Lauren, Y/N's best friend, walked across the street with Nathan resting on her hip and her sister Taylor following her. When she gets into the living room, she hands Nathan to Taylor, telling her to go back home when she sees a pool of blood and a trail leading up the stairs. She waits until Taylor leaves with Nathan before following the blood trail to Y/N's bedroom door, which she opens to see her best friend laying on the floor in her own pool of blood. 

Seeing the sight, Lauren rushes over and drops to her knees in the pool of her best friend's blood, fighting back tears as she feels for a pulse and presses her ear to her best friend's chest to listen for breathing. 

"No." Lauren gasps out as the first tear falls when realization hits her like a bus, and a scream rips itself from her lungs as she hugs Y/N's limp body to herself. "No, please!" Lauren screams, begging her best friend to come back. Asking why it had to be Y/N to go. After a few minutes of Lauren screaming the word no over and over as she cries over her best friend, the entire Jauregui family had gathered in Y/N's bedroom and Chris pried his big sister away from Y/N with the help of his father.

"Y/N/N?" The family heard a small voice and everyone looked over to see Nathan looking at his older sister with tears in his eyes. He moves to run to his big sister, but Clara catches the little boy and picks him up, letting him sob into her neck as Lauren sobs into Chris's chest.

-
Lauren
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Nine years. It's been nine years since I lost my best friend; the girl I had fallen helplessly in love with. Nine years since her mother murdered her in a drunken, doped up stupor. Nine years since she died to save her siblings. Their mom has gotten better, kind of, she still pops pills, smokes and drinks, but she doesn't hit Nathan or Kimberly. Neither of them remember Y/N. They don't remember their big sister, the girl who was their guardian angel.

"Lauren?" I hear someone ask and I look up to see Dinah, my bandmate. "You okay?" She asks and I shake my head, running my thumb over Y/N's death date that was tattooed into my skin in roman numerals and Dinah gasps. "That's not today, is it?" She asks and I nod and let myself start sobbing when she hugs me tight.

-
Nathan
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I sighed as I got home and saw mom passed out on the couch, so I went up stairs and to my room so I can set my backpack down before going back downstairs to clean up after her before I have to go wait for Kim to get out of practice so we can walk home together. As I washed my hands of the grime mom left everywhere, I nod my head to the music in my head and start rapping the rap that I wrote today during lunch and dry my hands before leaving the house to go get Kim. When I get home with my little sister, I tell her to go up to her room and lock her door until I come up with her dinner and hug her tight when she nods before I go start on our dinner. After we had eaten and I had washed the dishes, I looked into the living room to see mom sitting up again, so I quickly and quietly make it up to my room and look at the old picture of the strange girl I've been looking at since before I could remember. She looks like me, but I don't know who she is, I've never seen her in my life. I jump when I hear a pounding on my door and look at it as I put the picture under my pillow as my mom yells at me through the door.

"Nathan! Get out here!" She yells out and I stay quiet. "Nathan! I know you're in there!" She yells out, but I stay still and remain silent because a voice in the back of my head always tells me the same thing every time mom comes banging on my door. 'Be still, Nate, don't make a sound and it'll all be over soon.' The voice says and I listen, every time. The one time I didn't, she beat me, so now I listen to the voice. I wince as the pounding intensifies and close my eyes.

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Dinah
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"Hey, Laur." I say, walking over to her, and she looks over at me.

"Hey, D." She says, sighing.

"So, have you heard of that new rapper? NF?" I ask and Lauren looks over at me.

"No, why?" Lauren says and I sigh.

"He's our opening act for our next tour, and he's here to meet us and the other acts." I say and Lauren shrugs.

"Okay? Cool." Lauren says and I nod.

"Yo, Nate! Come on!" I call out and furrow my brow when I see Lauren's expression change as I spoke and look over when I hear Nate walk up beside me and look back at Lauren to see her covering her mouth with tears in her eyes.

"N-Nate?" She asks and Nate furrows his brow.

"How do you know my name?" He asks and Lauren shakes her head.

"I-I gotta go." She says before leaving quickly. Nate looks at me and I shrug before taking him to meet everyone else.

-
Lauren
-

I curled up on the bed as sobs wracked my body, remembering seeing Nathan's face after all this time and how I could only see Y/N in his face, the way she protected him, the way he looked up to and adored his big sister.

"Lolo?" I hear Ally asks as I feel her rest her hand on my back. "You okay?" She asks and I shrug.

"I don't know anymore." I say and let loose when Ally hugs me tight.

-

She's dead now, too. Their mom died. She overdosed. How do I know? My folks told me. So here I am, standing in the middle of what used to be Y/N's room, looking around at the walls that used to hold so many memories. So many smiles, laughs, and even a couple fights, then I look down at the dark spot on the floor, Y/N's blood that seems to have never been cleaned up. I don't know what to feel anymore. I miss Y/N, so much. I still cry over her and it's been twenty years. Nate is 25 now, and still doesn't remember his big sister, Kim is in 22 and away at college.

"Lauren, honey." Mom says behind me, so I look over my shoulder at her. "Come on." She says and holds her hand out to me. After another moment of looking at the spot Y/N died, I take it and walk back across the street to our house with her.

A few weeks later, Nate came out with a track called How Could You Leave Us and it was all about his life with his mother. While I wrote about their mom and how she killed her first born child. I knew the label would never go for it, it was too dark for Fifth Harmony. But I needed to get these twenty years of pain off of my chest. And it felt good, it felt great letting out what I've kept inside all these years. It lifted this weight off my chest I didn't know I'd been carrying, putting everything into words. I'd never be able to let her go, but I wasn't just waiting to burst anymore. Catharsis.

"Lo?" I hear Camila ask as she walks into my room and freeze when she hugs me after hearing me as I cry. "You okay?" She asks and for the first time in twenty years, I let out a genuine smile that isn't caused by fans, and whole-heartedly tell her the truth.

"I'm fine, Camz." I say and she hugs me tight and I hug back.

-

When the song was finished, I put it away and went on with life, until we were called into Simon's office and looked at the piece of paper in his hand and looked at the girls when I saw the big bold words at the top.

"Lauren, you wrote this?" Simon asks and I nod.

"Yes, sir." I say and sigh.

"Well, now you're going to record it. All five of you." He says and I snap my head up to him.

"Seriously?" I ask and he nods.

"Yes, so serious that you guys start recording immediately." He says before we're escorted to a studio to start recording.

This one's for Y/N.