Broken Memories

Family

"What'll ya have girls?" The waiter asked the group of 5. Everyone ordered and light chatter filled the air, Lauren was quiet though. Resting her head on Dinah's shoulder, she could barely keep her eyes open as she ate. Normani cast her eyes over to Lauren who looked ready to sleep on the spot. "Perhaps it's time we got the bill." She observed, Ally nodded and called the waiter over. As the girls rode in the taxi, Normani was playing with Lauren's hair while Dinah talked to Camila about nothing much. Ally had just fallen asleep on Camila's shoulder, which wasn't surprising. For a small girl she couldn't have as much energy as it always seemed. "Why are you so sleepy?" Normani asked Lauren who hummed, tiredness evident in her voice. "Just am." Normani suddenly sat up in thought. "Wait you didn't take anything did you?" Lauren shook her head and felt for her best friends hand draped over her shoulder. "No Mani, relax." She intertwined their fingers lazily. "I've just been having trouble sleeping is all." Camila turned around. "True that, when I wake up at 5am randomly, Lauren's almost always awake to say good morning before I fall back asleep." Dinah eyed Lauren, "How long haven't you been sleeping right?" Lauren shrugged. "Too tired to work it out babe." She mumbled, slurring her words from exhaustion. "Why don't I take you to the doctors tomorrow hm?" Normani suggested. "Whatevs." Lauren subtly agreed, too tired to care for an argument. They were soon enough in their own beds, or rather Lauren in with Normani, Camila in with Dinah and Ally by herself. "Chancho! You're taking up all the room!" Dinah whined, "Okay lemme do this then." Camila rolled over and koala hugged Dinah, Dinah smiled and wrapped her arms around Camila. "Better?" Camila mumbled with a smile in Dinah's neck. "Much better, goodnight Mila." "Night Cheechee." Meanwhile, in the other rooms, Ally had of course dozed off in seconds. But Lauren was somehow still awake, and Normani was worried. "Lo how the hell are you still up?" Lauren shrugged. "Just can't sleep," the girl turned her head to look at the eyes of her concerned best friend. "Mani come cuddle." Normani shuffled closer to Lauren and lay her head on her chest. "Why aren't you sleeping babe? Is it something in particular?" Lauren ran her fingertips lightly over Normani's arm making her sigh gently in content. "Not really, but when I close my eyes, it seems so different than it used to be. Dark." Normani listened, "Dark?" She questioned, Lauren gave a small nod. "Yeah, and then, it's bright. I see the headlights and, you know, I-I get hit. And then I wake up a-and I don't sleep anymore." Normani frowned. "What do you think will help?" Lauren looked at Normani at her question. "I don't know," she gulped before looking around the room frantically. "Where, where's Dinah? Mani where did Dinah go?" Normani pushed herself off of her best friend and got up. "She's just in the other room with Camila." Lauren started to claw at her head frantically and then she just started to scream, "GET DINAH, PLEASE I NEED DINAH!" Normani flung open the door and literally dragged Dinah's ass out of bed. "Mans what the hell?!" She groaned as she fell on the floor. "Lo needs you." Camila toppled onto the floor with Dinah and groaned. "Why in God's name are we on the floor?" She asked as she got up. "Chancho listen!" Dinah said, Camila became aware of Lauren's screams and followed Dinah as she rushed out of the room to her girlfriend. "Woah be careful!" Camila caught Dinah when nearly slipped and helped her up. "Thanks." Dinah said quick as a flash and picked Lauren up from the floor into her arms instead. "Hey! It's me, it's me babe I'm here. It's Dinah, I'm right here Lauren look, and Mila and Mani are here too open your eyes." She shook her but Lauren still clawed at her head and tried to pull her hair out. "MAKE IT STOP! NOW, YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT STOP!" Lauren shouted, Ally came running into the room. "Holy..what the heck is going on in here?" She gasped, "We don't..know, Dinah?" Camila questioned, Dinah met Camila's eyes and shrugged. "It's never, she's never been like this before!" The Polynesian had to shout louder than Lauren's screams which was quite he challenge. "I've never seen this happen! I mean, flashbacks are different to this! This is more extreme!!" Normani held Lauren at arm's length and looked up at the ceiling. "I'm sorry in advance." She muttered before she full on slapped Lauren. "Mani!" Ally gasped "I thought it might help!! Do you have any better ideas?!" Camila nodded. "Get her in the car, we're taking her to the hospital."
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"She's asleep, I gave her a sedative. I'd say it's PTSD. Very extreme though, in all of the cases I've seen, this is a pretty big one. I'll put Lauren on some med-" Normani looked at what he typed into the screen. "Not those." Dinah looked at her "Why not Mani?" "-Look just not those, okay?" She snapped viciously, Dinah took a step back and moved to stand behind Ally. Even though she was small she was very protective of her friends. "How about these then?" He asked Normani who nodded. "Yeah, they're fine doc." She mumbled, feeling embarrassed after her outburst. "Good. Right well we'll be keeping Lauren in for the night so I'll suggest one of you makes yourself comfy, while the rest of you head home to get some sleep." He said before going out the room to tend to another patient. "Who's staying with her?" Normani asked and the other 3 girls backed away from her. "You can." Camila said before she grabbed Dinah's hand and started to lead her out after Ally. "Dinah you're her girlfriend." She reasoned but Dinah didn't even make eye contact with her. "Did I scare you? I didn't mean to-" Camila shook her head with a pissed off expression on her face. "Goodnight Normani." "Night Camila." She mumbled before she sat in the chair and watched Lauren sleep. "I don't know if you're like, conscious enough to hear me, but I don't get what I did that's bad enough to scare Dinah so much." Lauren's eyes fluttered but didn't open, Normani sighed. "I hope you sleep well for once kid." Normani smiled sadly before she lay her head on the edge of the bed and fell asleep too. The next day, Lauren was aloud to go home with Normani. Although she did get a good amount of sleep the night before, all she wanted to do was cuddle up with Dinah. She had heard how her best friend yelled at her and she needed to check on Dinah. If Normani scared her that bad by shouting at her, Lauren could figure out what went wrong. "I'm home!" Lauren shouted but the house was quiet due to it being only 7:30 on a Saturday. Dinah's head peered around the bedroom door and she watched her girlfriend take her coat off, and then she saw Normani go upstairs into her own room. Dinah quickly hid behind the door again and kept as silent as she could. So when Lauren had opened the door she nearly jumped out of her skin. "Oh fuck!" Lauren gasped as her hand flew to her chest before she laughed at the situation. "What were you doing behind there?" Dinah didn't say a word, she just wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and nuzzled her head in her neck. "Waiting for you." Lauren smiled. "You could've come downstairs." Dinah laid back on the bed comfortably so of course Lauren followed. Dinah shook her head at Lauren quickly. "No I didn't want to see Normani." Lauren frowned. "She didn't mean to shout at you babe. Did it trigger something in you?" Dinah nodded shyly. "Lauren pulled the duvet over the pair and cuddled up to her. "I love you Dinah, but right now it's early on a Saturday morning. Hospital beds aren't all that comfortable, so I say how about we get some more sleep?" Dinah nodded and wrapped her arms around Lauren, burying her face in her neck and closing her brown eyes. "I love you too." Dinah mumbled into her shoulder before Lauren fell asleep. For whatever reason, whatever stupid reason in her head, Normani's little snapping at her got to Dinah. So she would try all she could do to avoid the girl, technically she had been warned not to piss her off. But Dinah just couldn't think of anything that she had done to properly annoy the girl. Lauren shuffled a little closer to Dinah in her sleep and stroked her hips lightly to lull Dinah into sleep. Dinah couldn't deny no matter how bad she felt, Lauren could always made her feel like she was safe, like they could do anything, and conquer everything.