The Stage Door (Camren/Norminah)

Green Grass and a Guitar

Camila pulled out her phone and started a new group chat to Dinah, Ally, and Normani. 

Camila: Need. Help. Meet me at the Ecology Garden behind the library.

It was Wednesday afternoon and the sun was hot, almost too hot. Camila had been sitting in the Ecology Garden since the beginning of her Music and Composing class, which had ended almost three hours ago. The first assignment, her first solo, was due on Monday and she was no where near prepared. 

She heard faint sounds of talking and placed her guitar on the ground beside her, leaning back heavily against the large oak tree that sat in the middle of the large green area. 

"Mila," Dinah said sitting down in front of her. "What's going on, are you okay?"

"Maybe we should wait for Lauren," Ally said taking her seat in the grass. "That way she doesn't have to repeat herself."

Camila waited for Normani to sit down before she pulled out the journal Lauren had given her on the weekend and took a breath. "Lauren isn't coming, I only text the three of you," she said causing the other three girls to look at her curiously. "Lauren's going to see if she can get her second language class changed from French to Spanish, so I figured now would be the perfect time to do this."

Dinah looked at Camila, noting the nervousness in her voice and on her face, "Mila, what's going on?"

"It's now or never," she thought to herself, taking a deep breath. 

"I like Lauren."

"We know," Ally said cautiously, Normani nodding beside her and Dinah laughing.

"It's not funny DJ," Camila said, feeling a little hurt by her response. 

Dinah stopped laughing immediately and cocked her head to the side. "Mila, look, you might not have seen it, hell, Lauser doesn't see it either, but you're not the greatest actress in the world. We see the way you look at her."

"Am I that obvious?" Camila questioned, not looking up to see the response. "I'm not gay," she whispered, scared of her own voice.

"Mila, there is more to life than just gay or straight, you know that don't you?" Ally asked her. "I know you're scared, but you have no reason to be. Well, maybe you do, I don't really know, but you have my support, I promise you that."

"Mine too."

"And mine, obviously since I'm the Captain of the S.S. Camren."

"I wrote a song," Camila stated pulling her guitar back on to her lap. 

Normani laughed, stopping herself and looking at Camila seriously. "Well I'd hope so, our assignment is due in four days."

"It's about Lauren."

"Oh," Normani and Dinah said together. 

"I've been trying since we got the assignment to write it and I was struggling for a long time, I couldn't write a song about her. It wasn't coming out right, so I settled with writing a song about how I feel and that turned back into a song about her." Camila said looking up at her friends. "I keep playing it over and over and I feel like it's not right yet and I can't put my finger on why and I was hoping maybe if I played it for-"

"Play it," Dinah interrupted impatiently, wanting to hear what Camila had come up with. 

Camila positioned her guitar and began to run her fingers down the freshly tuned strings. "Don't laugh okay?" She said before the instrumentals began to flow through her fingertips. She took a breath her voice shaky as she began to sing, picking up more confidence as she went on, her eyes closed and voice filled with every emotion Lauren had made her feel since the first day she had walked through the door of their shared dorm room.