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Chapter 20

Camila had gotten one text from Lauren in the last 12 hours. One. One text that she loved her and she promised she'd call. She hadn't called. She hadn't texted. She'd gotten calls and texts from everyone else. Friends had called her to tell her to both check out the news immediately and to warn her against it. She was confused by it. She didn't quite understand what the angle was, but there was no way in hell Lauren was dating Ariana Grande. Not a chance.

She'd seen it. She saw the look on Lauren's face. When Lauren looked at Camila, there was a softness. She always smiled a smile that seemed to grow slowly and steadily. She tilted her head and she licked her lips. Camila always felt like she was being drank in, like there was a static in her gaze. She could feel it when Lauren looked at her. And, she most certainly did not look at Ariana that way. She didn't in the TMZ video and she didn't in person. Lauren didn't look anything other than surprised. Whatever this was, it was had Ariana written all over it in bold gold glittery letters.

That didn't explain the near silence on Lauren's part, though.

The lack of communication also didn't stop her from staying up way too late. It didn't stop her from finally passing out with her phone clutched in her hand. It didn't stop her from worrying a little. Not because she didn't trust Lauren, but because whatever was going on must be really serious if she hadn't called.

When she shuffled into to the kitchen to pour some cereal the next morning, she was surprised that Normani had picked all her crap up out of the living room. She must feel really bad for her. She was really concerned when she'd first seen the scroll along the bottom of the Kardashians rerun she swore she wasn't watching. She'd spent a lot of the night just watching her watch the phone silently. Sometimes, Normani was really good about just being around. But, eventually, she had gotten a phone call and disappeared for the rest of the night. She didn't want her to worry, so she knocked on her door to insure her that she was fine. When she opened just enough to peek through, she found she wasn't even there. Everybody must have had a crazy night.

So, she ate a bowlful of Lucky Charms in silence. No speakerphone while she crunching through the marshmallows. No furious texting as she got dressed. No listening to Lauren sing Amy Winehouse over FaceTime as she gathered her things for the day. It was so quiet. Too quiet. She fed Lord Pumpkin without the usual 'Camz, remember portion control' from Lauren. Even Pumpy seemed to know something was up, but it didn't stop him from meowing pitifully until his morning meal. Something was off, she just couldn't quite put her finger on what yet.

It was a Saturday, but she still had to go into work a few hours. Not too long, just a couple hours to finish up some stuff the team had started during the week. She liked to start fresh on Monday. She thought the best thing for her to do was just to go to work. Take her mind off of all this Lauren stuff for a little while. Not that her mind was ever far from Lauren for very long.

Either way, it didn't work out so well.

"Camila, I'm so sorry," Louis said as soon as she entered the office. He was waiting on her with a basket of muffins. "You poor thing," he said pathetically as he hugged her.

"It's not true, Louis."

"It looks pretty true, Mila." He straightened his bowtie from where it had been smushed by the hug. "What does she have to say for herself?"

Camila blew out a deep breath, "I haven't talked to her yet."

"Ouch," Liam said as he leaned against a desk in the open office space. He was giving her the same look she gave him for months.

"She hasn't even called?" Louis asked. "That's just-"

"That's those celebrity types, Camila," Shawn said just after he rolled by. "They're all alike."