Still Around (A Camren Fic)

chapter 2

"Mila? Mila come on wake up"

Camila groans.

"She's coming back around"

What are these voices?

"Come on Mila please wake up"

Oh.

Things start coming back to her slowly, but surely, like the pieces of a distorted dream after you disorientingly wake up.

The small fragile form of her best friend lying in that ugly hospital bed.

The sickening beeping of that heart machine.

The nervous attires of everyone and everything around her.

The doctor, the news.

Three months.

The wary voices of the people seemingly hovering over her start penetrating their way into her head, slowly making more sense, becoming more distinguishable.

Bits and pieces start clicking into place.

No. No no no no no. This had to be a nightmare. A sick, ugly and unforgiving nightmare.

Surely she would wake up in a cold sweat soon, gasping for breath, grasping her bed sheets as relief washes over her because it had only been a dream.

Surely her mother would come and gently wake her up soon, her soothing maternal voice telling her it had only been a nightmare and that she would be late for school.

Surely Sofi would jump on top of her, shaking her out of that horrific slumber, whining because she was late for their tea party.

This wasn't reality. It couldn't be.

"Mila, please"

Her heart feels like it's being squashed in her chest upon hearing the voice of one of her best friends calling her so desperately.

It sounded agonized, hurt, nazally. She had been crying. Dinah, strong, unvulnerable and fierce Dinah, had been crying.

Camila squeezes her eyes shut tighter, willing it all to go away.

No. This wasn't reality. It couldn't be.

Sobs. Heart-wrenching sobs echo in the room.

The source of those is obvious. Mama H sounded like she was breaking into pieces, kind of like Camila felt at that point.
Even Jerry's crying could be heard over the noises of people suffering in that room

She couldn't open her eyes. She couldn't. It would make everything so much realer. (a/n passed out real and I woke up realerrr SORRY I HAD TO)

But no matter how hard she tries to grasp at denial, everything continues to hit her like a truck.

She's not even in shock. She knew this was going to happen. She knew she was going to lose her best friend. She just wasn't prepared to deal with it.

Even as she continues to squeeze her eyes shut, tears form under her eyelids, spilling past the corner of her eyes, forming trails of moister at the sides of her head.

"Mila" Dinah whispers yet again, her voice shaking.

She tries to surpress a sob, her chest constricting painfully.

"Give her a moment, the young doctor -who seemed like he had also been on the verge of crying- says. She'll wake up when she's ready. He brain is just trying to protect itself."

She can feel him leaving. she can feel dinah taking her hand, squeezing it. She can feel her brushing her sweaty locks of hair back, off her forehead.
She can hear her sniffling.

And she breaks down into sobs, right then, right there on the ground.

Dinah immediately pulls her into her lap, bringing her into an embrace so tight she would've suffocated if she already hadn't been.

she grasps Dinah's shirt and cries, until a puffy eyed Jerry tells them that they should leave before Ally wakes up.
She'd rather wake up in her room, not a hospital bed.

She can't remember the ride home. In fact, everything happening after Dinah helped her up from the hospital floor, still holding her, was a blurr.

One second she was in that white, awful batiment.
The next she was sitting on the Hernandez's kitchen table, staring at nothing.

Several sets of footsteps bring her out of her daze, and she slowly looks up to see Dinah and Normani walking into the kitchen.

Normani is also a close friend of hers, Dinah and Ally's.

Dinah and Mani, being the sassy, hot chicas that they were, met in dance class. One day Dinah invited the darker girl to sit with her friends at their lunch table at school, wanting her to meet her 'squad', and they kicked it off right away.

That was two years ago. They were inseparable. Five high school girls, with nothing on their minds; until a shitload of complications started dropping on them like relentless rain from the heavens above.

Yes, they were five.

Camila, Ally, Dinah, Normani and...Lauren.

It was all fine, before said complications came in.
Now it wasn't fine anymore.

Five became four...and four are about to become three in such short months...

"Earth to Mila"
"MILA!"

The voices of her friends and dinah shaking her hand in front of camila's face bring the brunette out of her dark speculations.

She looks up, blinking several times as she notices that her vision is blurry from tears.
She didn't even realize tears had formed in her eyes.

Normani, noticing the smaller girl's distress, brings her into a warm hug, while a puffy eyed Dinah takes her hand as a sign of consolation.

After a while, they pull away, Dinah keeping a hold of Camila's hand while Normani stays by the latina's side.

"Is Ally awake yet?" Camila speaks for the first time since hearing the news and passing out. Her voice comes out scratchy and strained. She grimaces, clutching at her throat.

Dinah understandingly grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and hands it to her, from which she sips gratefully.

"She's still knocked out, poor little thing, Dinah says fondly. Such a lightweight"

Normani laughs while Camila smiles a little, her cheeks sore from the lack of muscle use.
She hasn't smiled in a while.

It's true, poor little Ally is such a lightweight. She's just this tiny little ray of sunshine who you'd think couldn't do any harm.

But boy is she feisty.
For someone so small, the little bubble of rainbows could turn a place upside down in a matter of seconds.
You'd think she's a kid having a sugar high.

Which she is.

There's a comfortable silence as everyone drowns in memories and happy days.

A silence which is broken by the door bell.

The girls nonchalantly make their way into the living room, Normani plopping down on the couch and turning the tv on, probably looking for a distraction from reality, as Camila and Dinah make their way to the door, Camila wanting to hang her jacket which she just noticed she was still wearing, and Dinah getting the door.

Opening the door, Dinah drops the apple she was eating.

Her jaw drops.
Wait, what?

Camila, hearing the thud, curiously turns around to check out what happened.

Dinah is still frozen at the door. Staring at the person behind it.

Camila prepares to apologize for her friend's weird behavior before her eyes catch the figure nearly frozen at the doorstep.

Holy shit...

Lauren...