between heaven and disaster | camren

chapter 4: brad

She's been avoiding Camila like the plague lately, which is likely why she doesn't find out sooner. In fact, it takes Dinah asking Camila if she's still going out with Austin that night for Lauren to realize something is going on.

"Who's Austin?" Keana asks from beside Lauren, who's only half listening to the conversation as she twirls her spoon in her yogurt distractedly.

Camila doesn't get the chance to reply before Dinah does, a teasing tilt to her voice. "He's Chancho's boyfriend."

Lauren's head snaps up, and she nearly spills her yogurt all over her tray as she looks over to the farthest corner of the table, where Camila is sat with a grumpy expression as Dinah elbows her on the side.

Lauren can feel Normani's glance her way, but she's too busy noticing the blush starting to spread across Camila's cheeks at Dinah's teasing to pay attention to her.

Camila doesn't even try to deny it despite how much Dinah teases her and shares the details with the table. If that wasn't confirmation enough that Dinah was telling the truth, the next few days certainly prove to be.

As it turns out, Lauren actually knows Austin, even though they hardly share any classes. Camila doesn't tell her, but Lauren finds out from Normani that Camila had met Austin through the school's band.

She also learns that Austin has a knack for accompanying Camila to her classes, getting her bag for her and giving her dopey smiles as he wraps his arm around her. Not that she wants to know, but for some reason she can't seem to stop bumping into them every time she's switching classes.

It makes her feel numb, at first. Other than the shock of finding out at their lunch table, she almost thinks she's fine with it. She'd been shocked, because somehow it'd slipped her mind that of course Camila wouldn't tell her—she's not Camila's person anymore; she's not the one Camila tells her secrets to or shares her crushes with. She'd been shocked, because she'd forgotten Camila could fall for someone that wasn't her—that she didn't have a monopoly on Camila's heart, even though Camila has one on hers.

After that first moment, though, she carries on with her days, resolutely ignoring every attempt from her friends to talk to her about the topic. She averts her eyes when she sees Camila, and tries to ignore how she now has to look away from Camila's boyfriend, too.

The bitterness she feels when she thinks of that word should be enough of a clue about how unpleasant it would be to actually be faced with him.

And yet, when she sees Camila dragging him to their table to eat lunch with them, Lauren is met with a stronger desire to punch him than she's ever felt. It's even worse than when she sees Camila and Dinah acting like nothing's wrong, like nothing's ever happened.

It feels like he's encroaching on her space. Their space—Lauren's and her friends. He's not her friend. He's just the guy Camila is smiling at when he wraps and arm around her waist to whisper something close to her ear. The red hot anger that curls low in Lauren's gut at the sight makes her food go bitter.

She stabs at her potatoes with more force than necessary, gritting her teeth and pressing her lips together to keep herself from saying anything. Keana fidgets uncomfortably next to her, and Normani throws Lauren a pointed look when she can't help scoffing loudly when Camila laughs at whatever joke Austin just told.

She doesn't even manage to laugh when Ashley leans into her side when they're discarding their tray and asks her if Lauren wants her to stab him to spare her the trouble, too busy burning holes on his back with fuming eyes.

It's when they're all parting ways after discarding their trays that Lauren is first met with the sight of someone else kissing Camila—the sight of him kissing Camila. She's met with the sight of Camila not pulling away and smiling genuinely up at him with a spark in her eyes that Lauren remembers from when Camila was six years old and just understanding why people kiss each other.