You Complete Me (Camren - Norminah - Vercy)

Chapter 13: #FriendZoned

Lauren's POV

Though the rivalry between Camila and I had dissolved, we still never directly talked to each other in light of what had happened on the couch. We'd still hang out with the other girls when we ate, roamed the city, and made YouTube covers; but, whenever we ended up next to each other—which happened a lot for some reason—we both got extremely nervous.

I don't know what made me kiss Camila that day. She was comforting me and making me laugh; I was feeling good; she came closer; I was busy picking out the different shades of brown in her eyes; her tongue darted out to wet her lips; I wanted a taste; next thing I knew she was on top of me and I was feeling her ass. That ass, my God! Camila's butt fit so perfectly in my palms that it was like the Universe had personalized it just for me.

But surely both of us just got carried away with all the overwhelming emotions. I was so used to using hook ups to feel good that I tried to do the same with Camila. But I never wanted to hook up with someone that was a part of my everyday life. I didn't want any feelings involved. I lost myself in the party scene again and decided to let things settle to normal before I confronted Camila about what'd happened.

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March 2017 (2 months later)

Camila's birthday fell on a Friday, and to celebrate, her high school best friends, Marielle and Sandra, came to spend the weekend with us. The seven of us had a lot of fun going around Boston and doing crazy things to provoke strangers.

Marielle and Sandra were sleeping on the pull-out couch in the living room during their last night in Boston. In the middle of the night I got thirsty, so I tiptoed downstairs in the dark to grab a glass of water. Marielle and Sandra were laying down and whispering.

"Karla seems so comfortable. I'm glad she found a nice set of friends here."

"Yeah, I was worried about her having to start over and make new friends in college."

"Do you remember how she used to be when we met her for the first time in high school?"

"She was so nervous and shy all the time."

"Yeah and then she started therapy because some girl made her life hell during the summer."

"OMG! I remember some Laura chick gave her an anxiety attack and Karla had to quit her music camp cuz she was too scared to go back."

"Karla's doing so well for herself here, no thanks to that bitch."

"I know. I'm so proud of her."

My heart was racing and waves of guilt swept through my body. I caused Camila to have anxiety attacks? She was in therapy because of me? Forgetting the reason that I'd come down in the first place, I tiptoed back upstairs, quietly contemplating the consequences of my past actions. I spent the rest of the night trying to think of ways to apologize to Camila so that I could lessen the disgust that I felt for myself.

Camila's POV

My life was divided into phases of unreasonable obsessions. I was either obsessed with a TV show that I binge watched till I finished (when Friends came on Netflix, my grades had suffered significantly). Or an artist who I would stalk for days on the internet (the highlight of my life was when Ed Sheeran liked one of my Instagram posts). Or a dance craze (I drove Dinah up the wall with my dab phase). Or a person who I had a crush on and I'd spend hours coming up with unlikely scenarios in which they would fall in love with me. My latest obsession was Lauren Jauregui.

I guess when your impression of a rival changes in a positive manner, it doesn't take long for feelings of like to settle in. And the day I heard Lauren sing her heart out, my impression changed. Lauren intrigued me because after all these years, she wasn't the person who I thought she was. Naturally, I developed a little crush on Lauren and wanted to get to know her better. Too bad I was always too flustered around her to speak coherent words.