you keep robbing my heart like a bank ~camren~

8.

#laurentops

(no this doesn't mean there's smut calm down)

and i guess trigger warning for a little violence.

~~

After they spend a couple more hours at the mall and grab dinner together, they part ways, Zayn offering to drive Camila home so he can find out all the details of her new (old) crush.

He asks Camila how she's going to woo Lauren, but she replies that she wants to start with just getting close to the girl first, never mind asking her out. Zayn, in true Zayn fashion, jokingly calls her a pussy, and Camila, in true Camila fashion, punches him in the arm.

The amount of relief Camila feels from being able to talk about her crush with Zayn has her mentally berating herself for not doing so earlier. She had informed Dinah first at the beginning of their junior year and Normani had found out sometime during that year's winter break, so she's not sure why she never told Zayn.

He's kind of her person and she almost feels like an asshole for the situation coming across like she didn't trust him. If he thinks that, though, he doesn't comment on it, for which Camila is extremely grateful.

Camila is aware that Lauren and Zayn are pretty close, and she's happy that the girl is coming out of her shell and making new friends. Zayn had told her that Lauren and him text quite regularly, not about anything too personal or deep, but mostly just regarding art or something they have in common. She knows he's being 100% honest with her and also giving her an opportunity to tell him to back off if she wants.

When Camila instead encourages him to keep being a good friend (he laughs at her emphasis on the word friend), he smiles gratefully and Camila doesn't feel that familiar twinge of jealousy anymore. She's not going to go preventing people from being friends for her own selfish reasons, and she trusts Zayn to set the clear boundaries between friend and crush.

Call it weird but, like she said: he's her person.

~~

The first two days of the next school week go by pretty uneventfully. The only difference is that Zayn is playing his part as both wingman and obnoxious best friend, teasing Camila about her crush whenever Lauren isn't paying attention. Camila would get mad at him but he's also talking her up to Lauren and just all around being generally supportive, so she can't complain.

Wednesday comes around (also known as the day Camila gets to see Lauren in gym shorts) and at this point they've all officially made the move to crowd one lunch table together. It's a tight fit because technically there's only eight seats and they have nine people, but they'll usually just squish three people onto one bench.

Currently, Lauren is talking up a storm with Ariana who's paying rapt attention and Camila can't help but feel happy that the girl is getting along so well with her friends. In just the few weeks they've known each other, Camila has already seen a lot of growth in Lauren with the way she interacts with people who aren't Ally or Tori. The girl still stutters around Camila sometimes, but she chalks that up to the fact that Camila shamelessly flirts with her. Plus, Lauren has been getting bolder in initiating conversation and contact which has Camila's heart soaring. The girl is definitely more confident in texts than in person, but Camila knows that with time and encouragement, Lauren will improve even further.

Just as Camila is about to join in on the conversation, she feels two hands pressing down on her shoulders and gets a whiff of too much Axe body spray. Sighing to herself, Camila turns around to see Austin and Brad looking down at her.

"What do you guys want?"

Austin's soft smile disappears and he looks kind of upset instead. "You haven't really been talking to us lately... I mean, we are friends, right? Or at least we were."