Or Is It Real?

Chapter 46: It's A Wrap

Lauren's PoV

Getting back together with Camila proved to be more of a roller coaster ride than a quiet romantic boat date along the River Seine, but, then again, that has always been part of the charm of our relationship anyway. Ours has always been exciting, it was never stagnant, never boring. And roller coaster rides are hella fun!

So yeah, we were living it up, enjoying our tour, making sure we share hotel rooms whenever possible, sneak out to make out when no one's looking, have little impromptu dates whenever Sinu wasn't around, or even with her lurking, Dinah and Mani were always willing to pretend that all of us were out on a "group hang" so we could have some alone time.

Of course, we'll have occasional fights here and there, but it's part of any kind of relationship.

Initially, we have decided to come out to the public. We were all like, fuck what they say, it don't mean shit now, fuck the label might as well come out now. We were so ready and excited. New era, new beginnings, you know? But then, Roger, perfect timing as always, told Camila that she has to collaborate with some rapper with twigs for legs who calls himself Washing Machine Kelly, or something to that effect, and claimed that Camila announcing to the whole world that she's in a relationship with another girl will clash with the image that they are pushing for. They need to at least leave a sliver of doubt in the minds of the people that, even if she doesn't have chemistry with that rapper with the stupid name, at least there's a possibility that they could click. It is a love song, after all. A toxic depiction of love, yes, but still a love song. And any love song requires a certain thrill of an affair between the collaborators -- my chick and some dick, how thrilling. Simply put, she couldn't come out, and Roger forbade Camila to not do anything that will jeopardize her career. Even after Camila had basically dehydrated herself due to the river of tears she cried and the tantrums she pulled in front of her manager and Sinu, she even refused to continue performing in one of our concerts and went missing for the rest of our set and we had to cover her parts for eight freaking songs and had to tell the audience she had a wardrobe malfunction, still, they wouldn't budge.

So what else can we do but concede, right? It's not like we have the power to do something about it. So, me, being the perfect girlfriend that I am, I let Camila do her thing, while we focused on rehearsing for our tour.

As it turned out, this collaboration for Bad Things, which, if I was being honest, should have been called Terrible Things, was truly a bad idea. I really hated this Gundam X Kelly especially when he lurked around my girlfriend, acting like he has swag, when he literally looked like a hungry chicken with tattoos and a blonde toupee. He kept on staring at Camila like he was undressing her in his mind whenever they had interviews, and it really pissed me off. When I told
Camila what I thought of him, she dismissed it so casually, saying that I was being paranoid.

Paranoid my ass!

But as much as I wanted to bitch about it, I kept my mouth shut. It's work, we have to be adults about it. I do admit that I was kind of passive-aggressive. I have always been, actually. And me being the queen of pettiness, I decided that if Camila can dismiss my jealousy as unfounded, then maybe I could do some harmless flirting myself. So I started being friendlier to my fans and with other people in my IG. One time, a fan threw a bra at me and I accidentally caught it, and instead of getting annoyed by it like I usually do, I acted chill and even winked at the screaming girl jumping up and down in the front row while I danced provocatively in her direction. When I watched clips of that performance the next day, I can't help but feel smug when I saw Camila glaring at the poor girl. She was so jealous, but she didn't talk to me about it and we pretended that everything was fine as we continued our little game of who could be more petty.