Even If You Cross My Mind » CAMREN

Chapter 12 - Born to Die

                 

[Lauren POV]

The door of our massive tour bus hissed open, and Normani forcefully threw Camila and I at the front door, both of us crawling up the stairs. We sauntered our way into the lounge area only to see Ally and Dinah sitting down waiting for us. As we got settled on the couch, Mani quickly peeked out the door of the bus then clicked the lock closed.

"Alright, we good?" Normani called over.

"Yup! Just us," Ally responded as everyone spread out to give each other room.

"Cool. Alright, so... this is, uh... WEIRD, but we decided to call a family meeting," Normani stated with a frankness about her tone. She raised her eyebrows at Camila and I, folding her hands together.

"Uh...? 'Scuse me?" I furrowed my brow, so uncomfortable I wanted to disappear.

"We all need to talk and it doesn't matter how uncomfortable or awkward you feel, because I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's awkward for literally everyone. But it needs to happen," Ally piped in. It was weird hearing her be so... serious and concerned. She kind of sounded like a 4th grade teacher in that way.

"Yup, just gotta rip the bandaid off," Dinah bluntly stated, adjusting the blue LA snapback on her head.

"Lauren... Mila..." Ally took a deep breath. It felt like we were on the show Intervention and I wanted to blow my brains out.

"Oh my fucking God," I muttered under my breath, burying my face into my hands trying to hide my shame. Camila looked up at the ceiling and bit her lip, equally humiliated by the very cliché intervention.

"Wow, I don't even know how to start this-" Ally nervously laughed. She was stalling. Dinah immediately put a hand in her face, interrupting her. She spoke with a harsh sincerity; when pushed to a certain point, she wasn't afraid to dole out some good old fashioned tough love.

"Listen, we all know something's up with you two, and like... we're not dumb. We know it's hard because we're a group and our managers aren't really that chill, but I think y'all kind of owe it to us to just be honest and keep us in the loop. Because we love y'all, and of course we don't wanna look like fools who don't know shit. Basically."

Normani and Ally exchanged a glance through squinted eyes; Dinah's introduction wasn't exactly the strongest or most well-thought, but she essentially touched on everything that needed to be addressed. She just said it in a really casual manner, laced with some emphatic profanity - true to her form. Normani followed up smoothly with a more articulate, detailed statement.

"Yeah, and it's not like we feel entitled to know your business, or anything. I just... We just feel like this blew up into something, and there's a lot of tension and drama, and there totally doesn't have to be," Mani spoke confidently and clearly, "We want to know what's going on so we can be there for you guys. Like, we already knew for a little while... we didn't think we needed to bring it up, but now that management's onto you guys, it kind of involves us. It's also just kind of uncomfortable right now because you guys are sneaking around and-"

She was cut off by a sassy Dinah, who didn't really give a fuck about formalities or dancing around the issue anymore.

"Yeah, and you think you're being low-key, but you're not. So it's almost worse that you guys are basically pretending around us when we know - it's all just awkward to watch," Dinah frankly interjected, nonchalantly twirling her hair between her fingers. Mani smacked her blonde friend in the arm, gesturing for her to lighten up.

"We're like a little family. We can't help you or protect you, or anything like that if we don't know what's going on," Ally chimed in warmly.

There was an extended period of silence where I guess they expected us to talk. I know I was far too humiliated. I hated being put on the spot. Even more so, I hated feeling like I had something to prove. Camila remained silent, but I felt all their eyes burning holes through my skull. I began nervously messing with the sleeves of my leather jacket.