Souled Out ➳ Lauren Jauregui

fourteen

Around one the next afternoon, Camila was in standing in front of my bed yelling out to me, "Y/N, wake up!" My eyes finally opened, but I still felt so exhausted. I probably could sleep another four hours. "How wasted were you last night? I've been calling you from outside of your room for a good four minutes."

I turned over to feel on the other side for Normani, "Where did she go?"

"Normani walked over to Ally's room this morning to tell her to clean up your room." Camila snickered a little. "She woke up and didn't realize where she was, and she sat up and just puked all over your floor. Ally said she was still pretty drunk."

I sniffed the air and groaned, "Oh, God."

"Yeah and I didn't wanna come in here, that's why I was trying to get you to come out." She smiled down at the ground in front of her, but then quickly drew her eyes back to mine, "But looking at it now, I kinda wanna go downstairs and tease her because that's a huge mess."

"Don't tell me that." I told her, getting out of bed to hurry to my closet, away from the smell of the vomit. Camila stepped into the walk-in, after me, and I started to rummage through the messy sets of hangers to find a sweatshirt.

I'm actually nervous about today. Dad's coming back tomorrow and I don't know how much that will change anything. Usually, when Dad is home, he's home. He doesn't worry about work or what appointments he has later. He's there around me. Well, he was before I stopped coming out of my room.

After my Mom passed away, my Dad didn't want me to have to sit at a house alone. So, for a good twelve years, I went with my Dad everywhere and did virtual school. If he had a business trip to Japan, I was having a vacation in Tokyo. If he was scheduled to see a client in England, I could bet that my Dad had a trip planned to go see the London Eye. And I was happy about that. He raised me, and he did it while balancing a Empire on his back. But since Donny had gotten more aggressive, a couple of months ago, I just didn't want to talk to my Dad about the new injuries I had gotten. After the first fight when she broke my nose, my Dad told me to just push it off. After that, I just didn't want to talk to him. I hated feeling like a victim, and he was the one encouraging me to just sit back and take it. So, I decided that he would only add to my lonely thoughts and I started to keep to myself. I just never thought he would take it as far as to buying five girls to bring me back downstairs.

After slipping on a pair of joggers and and a different t-shirt, I slummed my way down the stairs to see the girls making food. And a lot of it. No, I'm serious. Multiple people helping them. Familiar people. I just couldn't put my mind to figuring it out quite yet.

That was until I heard someone from the living room, as I peeked in, yelling towards the kitchen. "Milika, did you turn on my noodles like I asked?" A short lady with an iPad walking passed the doorway to get into the kitchen, so I hit behind a nearby corner to safely watch and not get caught. In all honesty, I didn't like the sound of what was happening today and I could make a run for it.

Just as I was about to slowly back my way to the garage to get a car, my back hit a wall. Well, except this was a long hall, so it couldn't be. I turned my head and was face to face with Lauren. I had to cover my own mouth so I wouldn't scream because I was very startled. She lightly snickered, to try and keep quiet, and grabbed my arm, "Where do you think you're going?"

I looked down at her hold and I was actually a little sensitive to her touch so I couldn't really speak. I was just frozen up. It wasn't just her. Physical contact that isn't abusive just takes a lot of time to get used to. Finally, I mustered up the courage to begin to lie. Just like I do to my Dad. "I actually left some pages that I needed for an essay at school. I was just going to go and get them."