Every Single Way (Laurinah)

Chapter 5

I was all in my head. This shower was about to do me so much good. I told Lauren that she could stay the night if she wanted to sleep on the floor or couch.

I stepped into the shower and let the warm water run on my skin. I tried to listen to my Drake playing in the background and let the warmth help me escape from all the thoughts in my head.

I still couldn't help thinking about my ex every now and then, I wasn't completely over what happened between us. We just started to make amends, but Kaipo was making it really hard for me to trust anybody. I didn't want to penalize the next relationship I had, just because of what Kai did.

The thing with Lauren was just so unexpected. I never thought about liking a girl, not her, not anybody. All that I've been thinking about lately is heartbreak. That's why I've been drinking more, partying more ...

This shower was not helping me forget about my situation. I was just thinking about it more and more.

I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. When I finished brushing my teeth and getting dressed, I walked out into the front to see Lauren sitting on the couch.

She watched me closely, and I felt her eyes still watching me even as I looked down at my phone.

"You know, Ally text me." I told her as I walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah." Lauren replied blankly.

"She asked if I made it here safely."

Lauren got up from the couch and I heard her come into the kitchen behind me.

"It's late, I think I should leave." Lauren started, "It's late and..."

"But you already said that." I told her.

"Yeah I know, it's just, Camz will be back soon. I don't want her to worry." She explained.

She was just standing there staring at her, opposite the side of the kitchen as I was.

"Why would she worry?" I asked her. I must have said it with either envy or attitude because Lauren changed her facial expression really quick.

"I'm sorry," I said. "It's just a new place, and I get nervous. Plus I have a lot on my mind right now. I really just need to talk to Mani, but she has her own problems." I explained.

"I can listen." She told me nonchalantly, as she leaned against my counter scrolling through her phone with her hair covering the better part of her face.

I was studying her, and I guess she was acting like she wasn't the reason why my head was going at 90 miles per hour.

"It's about my ex." I told her.

"Mhmm, continue." She said to my surprise. She walked over to my fridge and stood in it for a few seconds. "May I?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure go ahead." I said walking to my room, leaving the door open.

"I'm coming." She assured me as I was walking out.

I sat down on my bed and looked at my phone. It was 2:30 in the morning and I wasn't even tired. I'll probably be sleeping all day tomorrow to catch up on my rest for school on Tuesday.

After about 5 minutes of me scrolling down my Twitter feed, I heard Lauren walk in and close the door.

I gave her an unsure look, because she had a huge bag of chips and a bowl full of mango.

"Sorry, open doors freak me out." She said in response to my expression.

"Oh no, it's just that I didn't even know that they got me food." I responded.

"Oh okay." Lauren said, sitting on the edge of my bed. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" She finished with a smile, as she ran her fingers through her hair parting it to get it out of her face.

If you only knew.

"I don't know Lauren. I really don't." I started, expecting her to say something. Instead she just watched me and waited for me to respond.

"How many relationships have you been in?" I asked.

"2." She said in a really straight forward tone.

"Really?" I said in shock, causing her to raise and eye brow.

"Yes, really." She laughed.

"Well, you're gorgeous and I just would have thought that," I noticed her looking at me with a grin and I didn't really want to finish my sentence. Nothing good ever comes out of emotional 3 am conversations anyway.

"Aren't you tired?" I asked her once again.

"Not if you aren't."

"Okay." I said shyly in a hushed tone as I looked down. "You ready?" I asked her, and she moved a little closer to me then nodded her head.

"Okay, well there was this boyfriend that I had. His name was Kaipo, but everyone called him Kai. We dated for about a year and six months. We had been friends before we started dating, like best friends." I said remembering how close we use to be.

Lauren noticed me spacing and she offered me the bowl of fruit which I accepted with a smile.

"Well, he cheated on me with a girl that he went to school with. I go to WHS and he goes to Pineville,"

"You know Camz goes to Whiteside's High too right?" she asked me.

I shook my head no, the school was really big and I only knew my friends really.

"Yeah, well, she does. Go ahead though, I'm sorry." She said in a really sweet voice.

"He cheated, and we broke up like a month ago. I think that I'm forgiving him, but I keep shutting everyone out. I cried to my mom that one night, but I couldn't open up to anybody but Mani."

"Your friend from the party." She said, trying to piece together faces and names.

"Yes, Normani. Well, I guess I don't know what's bothering me."

She looked at me for a few moments. Then said "For a while, that's how I was with a friend of mine. I was a junior in high school then. I'd just gotten out of my last relationship,"

"So, you haven't dated anybody in two years Lauren?" I asked her in disbelief.

"No, why?" She said doing that eye brow thing again.

"Nothing, nothing." I replied waving off my last comment.

"Yeah, well I couldn't exactly explain the way I was feeling after I'd gotten cheated on. One night, I just had to tell somebody what was going on in my head you know?"

"Mhmm, yeah of course." I told her, prompting her to continue.

"I came to the conclusion that I'm just a girl. And in any relationship I have in the future I don't really want all of the material stuff. I want somebody who really loves me, someone that I can trust. They don't have to know what I'm doing 24/7, but they just want to love me. I want to feel needed, missed, and wanted by whoever I'm with. Just being cared for is literally the best shit ever. That feeling when you've just kissed the person you're with but all you want to do is kiss them again? I mean it's cool to be single, you do fine on your own. Especially you Dinah, you're beautiful, but you have to know what I now know." She finished, with a sigh.

"What's that?" I said, still trying to take in everything that she was saying.

"Sweet talk, cute and expensive gifts, all that fun shit is fine. But at the end of the day if the person in your life isn't all that you think about when you're lying awake at night staring at the walls of this cool ass apartment ..." she trailed off opening her arms to emphasize her point of how the room was going to help her make her point.

She allowed them to fall into her lap, making a sound that didn't really get my attention because she was looking into my eyes with her own.

"Dinah," She started

"Yes?" I asked. It felt like I sounded helpless because I was hanging onto her every word at this point.