Surreal Perfection (Camren)

Ch 22

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And life, it starts to feel like it's moving again.

Because I'm looking forward to tomorrow, instead of just waiting for today to end.

When I wake up in the morning, the world feels a little less heavy.

I glance over to my clock, and I'm up a lot earlier than I expected.

My eyes drift over to the pile of envelopes on my side table, and I decide to get out of bed on the opposite side, just to give them a wide berth.

If the contents of the rest of those are anything like the first one, then I'm not ready to put myself through that right now.

After a hot shower, I go to check my phone, and there's an email from Will with a schedule of appearances we need to make for some tour promos.

I start inputting the dates into my calendar, and as soon as I hit the month of June, my fingers freeze.

Lauren's 22nd birthday is coming up.

My first instinct is to stress about what to get her, then I remember that cheating exes don't deserve a birthday gift.

I roll my eyes immediately; this emotional  ping pong is exhausting.

Instead of dwelling on it, I decide to redirect. Lauren's birthday means Dinah's birthday is also coming up.

In true BFF fashion, I start sending a few texts out to the girls to firm up the plans we'd started talking about for our little birthday surprise for Dinah Jane.

The timing is actually perfect, because it's also going to work as a pre-tour kickoff celebration when we head out on the road in July.

Thankfully, Ally and Normani are more than happy to take care of the parts that involve actual planning, since my idea for a pizza party sleepover got shut down pretty much instantly.

I set my phone down, trying to decide what I wanna do today, but a minute later, it starts to ring, and it's Will.

"Yes?"

"Camila, good morning to you too."

I bite my tongue, and tone my grouchiness down a notch. "G'morning, Will. I got your email, and I've already added the dates to my calendar. What's up?"

I can almost picture him nodding with satisfaction on the other line. "That's better! Now what about the five other calls you ignored over the last week?"

I grimace, and roll my eyes, but Will doesn't wait for me to answer, and just continues, "Well, you can't avoid me forever, dear, so I just went ahead and scheduled a play date for you."

My mouth goes dry, and I cough a few times before responding, "What? What're you talking about, Will?"

He scoffs, and answers, "What, you think I didn't notice your little throwback thursday post with Shawn last week?"

I gnaw on my lip, and flip my phone to the other ear.

Will takes my silence for guilt, and keeps going, "Alright, well, to make up for that, you're going to have a wonderful time at the beach tomorrow. With Lauren. And of course, a conveniently available papz who'll just happen to be there around the same time."

"Will--"

"No buts, Camila. We're several weeks away from kicking off the tour, and you girls have rehearsals and appearances to worry about over the next couple of weeks, so let's get a bit of buzz going now."

I can tell by the tone of his voice that it's non-negotiable.

I decide not to fight it, because I remind myself that I signed up for this life, and not at all, because a tiny part of me, actually wants an excuse to see Lauren again.