The Price Of Fame

Chapter 8

"Dinah, what did she mean when she said management controls her?" Ally took a sip from her mug. Dinah and herself went out to grab a coffee the next morning to discuss the events that occurred the previous night.

"Umm. Well when she broke her guitar, she was showing me a song she wrote. And she mentioned that she signed a new contract."

"Wait. To get the ball rolling for her to leave the group?" Ally placed the mug back onto the table looking concerned.

"No no! Management made her sign another contract, she said she's not allowed to release any solo material. She's pretty upset about it too. I've never see her like that." Dinah chewed the inside of her cheek.

"But she's releasing the song with Shawn?" Ally was confused.

"Yeah because it was already finished and it's a duo not her singing on a track by herself. So she can still do collabs with other people." Dinah clarified.

"When does the song come out anyway?"

"Tonight actually. I'm surprised you don't know!" Dinah laughed knowing Ally knew full well that the other girls had been complaining all morning about Camila. Especially when she didn't show up for breakfast with the rest of them. That really pushed them over the edge.

"Haha yeah well I guess I should. Is she excited?" Ally pushed her chair back a little, the bottom squeaking along the cafe's rubbery floor.

"I think more nervous than excited. I think since she's kind of upset about everything going on with us that she's feels more worried about people liking it." Dinah took another sip from her cup.

"Well, let's go see her?" Ally stood up abruptly and smiled at Dinah, "Let's go make our little child happy. She deserves to be happy, especially today."

The two girls made their way back to the hotel and soon found their way to Camila's door. Dinah knocked once. There was no answer.
She knocked again and waited for the door to open.
There was still no answer.
"Camila?" Dinah knocked again almost banging on the door, getting frustrated. "Camila hurry up and open THIS DAMN DOOR!"

The door swung open.

"Chill. What's your problem?!" Camila rolled her eyes at Dinah and walked back inside her room. The two girls instantly noticed Camila's mood.

"Don't give me attitude, we came here to support you." Dinah followed her into the room followed closely by Ally.

"Yeah, well maybe you shouldn't have. I've got things to worry about." Camila grabbed her phone from the bed and stared intently at it. She groaned.

"What's going on?" Ally sprawled out on top of the double bed.

"Nothing." She looked up at Ally biting her lip. "Fine. Roger wants me to do a live stream with Shawn tonight for the release."

"Umm hang on. It's being released at midnight. We have a gig tomorrow." Ally sat up.

"Don't you think i know that!" Camila shouted causing both Dinah and Ally to jump at the sound. Camila arched her neck like she was in pain.

"Hey! Don't talk to me like that. What's going on with you today?" Ally stood up making her way over to Camila. She placed a hand on her neck rubbing gently trying to release some of the built up tension.

"Nothing." Camila pushed Ally's hand off her neck creating space between the two.

"Well it doesn't look like nothing. Your outbursts and behaviour lately tells us otherwise. Don't think we haven't noticed." Dinah moved towards Camila cornering her, knowing she will try anything to get out of the room if there's any slight hint of confrontation.

"I can't do this anymore. I-I-just- between the media and Normani, and you guys. I just can't seem to get anything right these days." A tear escaped the corner of Camila's eye dripping down her face. She turned sitting down at the small desk in front of her laptop.
She opened the screen.

"Camila what the hell are you looking at?" The screen was covered with her Twitter feed. "How many times do I have to tell you to get off Twitter?" Dinah snatched the laptop from the table earning an annoyed groan from Camila.

"What's the point, it's what everyone thinks anyway so I might as well get used to it." Camila sunk down in the chair.

"No it's not. And you know it." Dinah closed the Internet bar on the laptop screen leaving the screen open on Camila's music software.

"Really? Pretty sure over half of the fandom hates me. So I'm pretty sure it is." Camila took the laptop back.

Ally and Dinah opened their mouths to speak but no words came out. They have never seen Camila so negative before, they had no idea what to say. Usually Dinah knew what the girl was thinking every second of the day, but now... it was different.
Ally looked around the room, the normally messy girl, had the whole room spotless. There was no clothes lying around on the floor, her makeup was packed neatly away on the bench, and even her guitar was leaning against the wall. It was usually lying around on her bed. Ally frowned at the girls sudden neatness. Something was wrong.

Dinah saw Ally frown and made a mental note to ask her about it later. Camila sat, clicking away on her laptop. Once again she was playing around on her music software.

"Mind if we listen?" Ally nodded towards the laptop.

"Uh yeah sure if you really want to. This is a song I've been working on with MGK."

"Wait MGK!? Seriously? Haven't you heard about his reputation? He's a bad guy Camila, I don't think you should be getting involved in this." Dinah's eyes grew wide in shock.

"He's fine. You haven't even met the guy. Stay out of it." She sighed, "Just listen." Camila clicked play.

'Am I out of my head, am I out of mind?
If you only knew the bad things I like
Don't think that I can explain it
What can I say? It's complicated'

MGK's voice rung out through the speakers in a sort of aggressive tone.

"It's not finished, we just started working on it."

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Dinah looked hurt that Camila hadn't even bothered to talk to her about the song.

"I didn't think you guys would want to know. So I didn't tell you. I know, I'm sorry okay please don't be mad." Camila closed the laptop. She slid it slowly back positioning it right in the middle of the table.

Ally noticed this neatness again, she decided to test her. "We're not mad... just upset you didn't feel like you could tell us." She kept down next to Camila and bumped the laptop slightly so it was off centre.

Camila grew nervous and immediately shifted the laptop back into its previous position.
"I've got to get ready for this live stream. Do you guys mind if we catch up tomorrow?"