Visitor (Normila / Laurmani)

Chapter 8

Normani and Lauren were in the second half of their senior year in high school with their one-year anniversary coming up soon. Other than dealing with a few intolerant students and teachers, things were going fine with their relationship. Normani's parents loved Lauren and Lauren's parents loved Normani. Their friends did support their relationship, but were a bit perturbed at being ignored all last summer. The two girls were inseparable and would often forget that there was a whole world around them when they were together.

Lauren's cousin, Ana, was having a quinceañera and, of course, Normani was Lauren's date. The family had rented out a ballroom for the event. Lauren was wearing a dark purple dress, and Normani was wearing a dark pink dress. They had fun dancing, eating, and sneaking a couple of cups of the alcoholic punch for adults. When she got the chance, Lauren went over to talk to the birthday girl and catch up with family members she hadn't seen in a long time. Normani went to get more punch, but the non-alcoholic version this time. She didn't want to get drunk and get caught.

As she was ladling the refreshment in her cup, Lauren's cousin, Anthony, approached smiling. Normani and Lauren knew that Anthony had a crush on her. They had met last summer when Lauren brought her along for a family fishing trip. If the dancer wasn't already in a relationship, she could have seen herself dating Anthony. He was handsome and an accomplished soccer player. They were the same age, and he had been offered an athletic scholarship to college. However, Normani was happily in a serious relationship with his cousin. Anthony knew this, but didn't care .Every time he was able to talk to Normani alone he would flirt with her.

"You look beautiful, but when do you not?" Anthony complimented Normani.

"Thank you. You look pretty good yourself. I like your suit," responded Normani.

"I can wear it again when we go out on our first date," said Anthony.

Normani sighed, "Anthony, do you not care that I'm dating your cousin? She's blood. You should be ashamed of always hitting on her girlfriend."

"It's not that I don't care. I know this is just a phase for you two. You'll eventually break up and go back to dating guys, and I want to be there when you do," Anthony revealed.

"Ugh. Go somewhere and leave me alone," Normani said disgusted by Anthony's revelation.

Ignoring Normani's request, Anthony got closer to her and wrapped his arm around her waist resting his hand in the small of her back. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. How about we go out and dance as friends?"

Before Normani could answer, Anthony quickly let go of his grasp after seeing Lauren walk toward them. Lauren looked furious. She knew about Anthony's flirting with Normani and asked him to stop. She felt disrespected and hurt that her cousin would try to take away the girl she loved.

In an attempt to prevent any type of confrontation, Anthony spoke first. "I was just leaving. Have a good night."

Lauren wasn't ready to let this go. She grabbed a knife off the table and lunged at Anthony. She was much smaller than him, but the force at which her whole bodyweight hit him knocked him to the ground. Now lying on his back, Anthony put up his arms to defend himself from Lauren's attempts at lowering the knife to his face. She didn't really have a plan for what she wanted to do. She was just determined to hurt him somehow and send a message. After suffering a few defense wounds on his hands, Anthony was finally able to get a hold of Lauren's wrists and hold her arms up away from his face.

Normani was frozen. She had never seen Lauren react so violently. Several family members quickly flew by her and pulled a non-cooperative Lauren off her cousin. It took two of her uncles to pin her down and remove the knife from her hand. With the aid of another cousin, Anthony got up from the ground and inspected the cuts on his hands. Blood was dripping on the floor, and he knew that he would need stitches. The boy furrowed his brows at his attacker who was staring right at him while being held down on the floor.