Shades of Blue.

chapter 4

After much deliberation-

(and by deliberation I mean random thoughts at three in the morning due to lack of sleep caused by extreme horniness and no way to get rid of the horny feelings because Lauren's life might be sad, but not sad enough that she's going to get herself off at three in the morning while the cause of all her frustrations is just sleeping a door away from her).

Anyway, after much internal deliberation, Lauren has come to the conclusion that what Normani did was messed up and there's no way on earth she's just going to let it go. Like, who the hell teases another person that much and then just leaves them hanging? That shit must be illegal or something. There's probably some law in the constitution against it.

She has never been particularly good at giving Normani the silent treatment. She always has so much to say to that girl, sometimes it's not even something that important. Just- talking to Normani makes her happy, okay? And she's bad at denying herself things that make her happy. But she sure as hell is going to try this time. It also helps that they're not dating, so she's not like- that interested in having conversations with Normani so that should make things easier.

(Lies. The voice in her head screams and Lauren groans. She could have sworn she strangled that twat).

She takes in a few long breaths before she gets out of bed. She can hear the sound of Normani cooking, singing something that sounds familiar but Lauren can't exactly place, and she fucking hates how warm her insides feel from hearing the domesticity of it all. She can remember a time when she'd wake up to Normani cooking every morning. A time when she was allowed to sneak into the kitchen and snake her hands around Normani's waist. Sometimes she helped her cook, sometimes she managed to convince her to abandon the food all together in favor of shower sex, or kitchen sex, or any sex really. She hates that she can remember those times so vividly, but more than anything, she hates that her mind is trying to tell her that she can have that again if she wanted.

(She's here, right? She's living with you. All you got to do is make a damn move!)

She almost goes straight from bed to the kitchen. Silent treatment is only rewarding if the person you're giving it to actually knows they're getting the silent treatment. So Lauren needs to be in Normani's line of sight for her whole entire plan to work.

But then her mind starts nagging at her like it always does, and if she could, Lauren would poison herself just to get rid of her conscience.

(So you're just going to go to her with morning breath, yesterday's clothes and your hair looking a whole ass mess? If I were her I'd beg for the damn silent treatment).

Lauren sighs and runs her fingers through her hair. The voice might be annoying, but it has a point. So she makes her way to the bathroom and takes a moment to look at herself in the mirror. She looks like seven different types of messes all rolled up into one giant mess.

It's not cute.

Her hair is sticking out every which way and it won't settle down no matter how much she tries running her fingers through it. Her eyes are bloodshot and literally trying to pop off her damn face, her lips are dry as fuck and she has marks all over her fucking neck.

She doesn't even know what to fix first.

(How about you try taking a bath. Hmm?)

"Shut the-" she starts to say before realizing that she's arguing with herself and she keeps her mouth shut. Her life might be in shambles and her sanity might be slipping away from her bit by bit, but she has not hit that low yet. She picks her toothbrush, hums under her breath while brushing her teeth to keep her mind quiet. Then she brushes her hair, puts on some lip gloss and walks out of the bathroom.