New Beginnings

Chapter Thirteen

                   

<LAUREN POV>

Lauren tried getting up to stop an embarrassed Normani before she left but it was no use.

"Fuck!" the raven-haired girl cursed, "I knew we should have been more careful, she could've come back at any minute, ugh I'm so stupid."

Connor sat up and adjusted himself, still just as caught off guard as Lauren, "I don't understand why you couldn't just tell her we were together."

Lauren groaned pressing her hands to her forehead, "I told you I was waiting for the right time."

Connor tilted his head a little confused, "what exactly is the right time? She is your best friend, why would she care? Unless...does she not like me??"

Lauren was pacing around the room with her hands on her head trying to think of what she could do or say, "No, I mean she thinks you're cool, but I just got my best friend back and I don't know I don't want her to think she's already losing me in her life because you know how people can be when they get in relationships and they only ever talk about their significant other and they push all their friends away and I don't want Normani to think that I am pushing her away because I'm--"

At this point Lauren was practically sprinting around the room talking so quickly the words jumbled together and Connor had no choice but to get up from the bed and walk over to her placing his hands on her shoulders to stop her from moving.

"Lauren," he said calmly, "relax, just breathe."

Lauren looked up at the brunette and shook her head, slowly taking some deep breaths and collecting her thoughts.

Connor pulled her into a hug and leaned down towards the panicked girl's ear to talk to her, "Normani is your best friend Lauren. She's going to be happy for you because she cares about you, she just wants to see you happy. You need to talk to her, and you need to tell her about us. More importantly you need to tell her all of this so she knows why you didn't just tell her about us in the first place because she is probably very confused right now."

Lauren broke the hug and looked up at her boyfriend, whoa it felt kind of weird saying that out loud, she nodded looking at him and picked up her phone from the night stand to text her roommate.

<NORMANI POV>

Normani didn't know why she ran off like she did after walking in on Connor and Lauren but she didn't know what else to do and she couldn't think so she needed to go somewhere to process it all for a little. She ended up running out of the building into the freezing cold air and making her way to the place she had spent most of the past month, the library.

She began by wandering the aisles of books running her fingers along their spines while thinking of everything she had just seen and trying to understand why it might have bothered her so much. Eventually she found a chair in the corner facing a window and sat down looking out onto the snowy grass quad in front of the library.

"Is this seat taken?" a familiar voice behind her said and Normani turned around to be faced with Jessica the girl from her law class she had eaten lunch with some hours earlier.

"Um, no of course not, it's all yours," Normani said politely giving a half smile to the redhead.

Jessica sat down in the chair and reached into her backpack pulling out her laptop and books to study, Normani assumed considering that's why most people come to libraries.

"Are you studying for something right now?" the somewhat acquaintance asked confused why Normani didn't have any books or material with her.

Normani realized she must look a little odd doing nothing but staring out the window at the library, "oh, no I was just...I just came here to...um sorry but do you mind if I ask you something, like hypothetically?"

Jessica closed her laptop and set it down on the ground and then politely nodded to Normani as a signal to ask whatever she was going to ask.

Normani was unsure of how to state her question, she didn't expect the other girl to want to listen so she was quiet for a minute trying to think of the best way to approach the thing that was confusing her so much.

The redhead was very patient and waited until Normani finally spoke up, "So I have this friend...my best friend actually, and we were just recently reunited in college and became really close again, and I am so happy to have them back around but I find myself getting jealous any time they hang out with other people a lot because we had so many missed years together and I want to spend as much time with them as I can which means other people kind of interfere with that. Anyway, so this friend they met someone a few months ago and they hit it off but I didn't think they were dating just friends and I just walked in on them making out and I panicked and ran out of the room as fast as I could and here I am. I guess the reason I am saying all this is because I don't know why I reacted like that, I mean I know I said I get jealous when other people hang out with them but this feeling was different, I almost felt hurt and betrayed seeing them kiss like that, and I just don't know why."

Normani had finally finished her rant and she realized she never once looked at Jessica she had spent most the time starring out the window but when she looked at the redheaded girl she was beaming at her clearly listening to every word she had said.

"It sounds like you have a crush Normani." Jessica said bluntly.

Normani froze in her seat. No, what?? A crush? Why would she have a crush on her best friend? Friends care about each other like that all the time, it's normal. Right? To think she would have a crush on Lauren would be crazy...I mean why would she be attracted to her? Of course, Lauren was beautiful, almost flawless really, her dark locks and her piercing green eyes were pretty much hypnotizing, not to mention her perfectly sculpted eyebrows and her lips, when moisturized, were really nice too. Plus, she had a nice ass...wait what? Anyway, of course Lauren was gorgeous but Normani couldn't possibly have a crush on her. She had Kevin. And yeah Lauren was funny and cute and witty and smart and passionate about a lot of things and she was very musically and artistically challenged too, Normani was mesmerized with how her mind worked and...wait, was it normal to think all these things about your best friend?

"So this guy, your best friend," Jessica said snapping Normani out of her trance, "does he know you have a crush on him?"

"Actually, um," Normani was thrown off, she left out any names so Jessica assumed she was talking about a guy, "uh no, I don't think he does, you know what Jessica I actually have to go, nice talking to you."

Normani got up in a hurry without saying another word she rushed out of the library her head spinning. Lauren was a girl; this wasn't right she didn't have a crush on her best friend she was just confused. The dark-skinned girl's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her phone. She grabbed it out of her pocket to see a text message from the one person she was trying to avoid right now.

Laurenza❤: Hey Mani...I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Connor, can we talk? I don't want you to be mad at me and I need to explain myself. I'm really sorry. I love you.

Normani read the message and then stopped in her tracks.

Oh my god, she had a crush on Lauren.

A/N: Okay so I finished the chapter and was advised to post the update now instead of waiting so here it is the last chapter for a little while until I feel more motivated. I know it's short I wrote it in less than an hour sorry if it's sloppy or whatever I wanted to finish this part that I already had written. Comment, let me know what you think, whatever, just know I don't know when I am going to pick back up again. Anyway happy holidays and hopefully 2017 treats you a lot better than that shit show 2016. :) -Jauredramatic