My Other Half (Camren)

Chapter 19 (Part 2)

Camila and Normani drove in silence back to Camila's house. She didn't want to make Normani even more mad then she already was, so she just kept silent.

Normani on the other hand, was silent because she was still processing everything that had just happened. She knew that Camila loved Lauren so she was shocked that they just caught her with Austin. They all knew that Austin was an absolute jerk since that whole incident in the cafeteria. So to think that Camila would have the thought of cheating on Lauren with him, did not make any sense whatsoever.

They pulled up at Camila's driveway and they both got out of the car and headed inside her house. Camila tried to call Lauren once more, but it went straight to voicemail. She sighed in sadness and sat down next to Normani.

"Okay I know that  looked bad and I know what you're thinking. But I swear, I did not cheat on Lauren." Camila said with a pleading tone. She was desperate for Normani to believe her so she could help her talk to Lauren.

"Then why were you with Austin?" Normani asked, trying to get a reasonable explanation from her best friend.

"The only reason that I was with him, is because I'm tutoring him. I'm not doing it out of choice though." Camila paused to see Normani's reaction. Normani nodded in signal for Camila to continue on with her explanation.
"My teacher said that I can get extra credit if I tutored one of her students so that I could make up for my lost credit."

Camila took a breath and continued once more.

"You probably know by now, but last year I've had problems with being bullied. There was one time that they went too far and.. beat me up." Camila said as she nervously fiddled with her fingers. "I stayed home for like 3 weeks simply because I was just scared of showing up at school. Only Lauren knew about this, and that's why we told you guys that I was out of town."

Normani thought back to that time and recalled that she did in fact think that Camila was out of town.

"Lauren got super mad and eventually beat the crap out of Alex and her group and I guess it was enough for them to get scared since they moved schools."

"Anyways, since I missed that much of school, I was behind in math and unfortunately failed the course. That's why I am taking two math courses this year and that's why I took the opportunity to get extra credit. Sadly, my teacher didn't tell me that I would be tutoring Austin."

"And for why he was hugging me, I really don't know why that was happening. I felt so uncomfortable and I was pushing him off but he just gripped tighter because I think he saw Lauren before I did." Camila finished and looked down in disgust of the topic.

She waited a few minutes for Normani to respond before she spoke up herself.

"Mani? Please say something" Camila said as she nervously waited for Normani to speak.

By surprise, all Normani did was scoot over and engulf Camila in a hug. Camila was very confused with what was happening, but nonetheless, she returned the hug.

"I'm sorry for thinking that you would ever cheat on Lauren, Mila. It honestly just looked that way." Normani said as she paused before finishing what she was saying.

"I had no idea that you went through that. I don't mean to judge you about this situation. I just hate seeing either one of you upset." Normani finished as she looked down in guilt.