Cheerleaders

Let's call it a truce

"Girls, we'll be there in another five minutes max," David announces. I glance at Camila who is curled up next to me asleep and nudge her gently.
"What?" she whines, not opening her eyes.
"We're almost there, babe," I say softly. She sighs and sits up before starting to pull her converses onto her feet seeing as she had taken them off.
"Lolo?" she asks, making my heart melt.
"Yeah Camz?"
"Is something going on with you and the other girls?" she questions slowly, fidgeting with her fingers.
"Yeah," I admit with a sigh. "I don't want to talk about it though," I quickly add. I don't want her to be angry at me too. She nods without a word and the silence lasts until we get to the hotel we're staying at. We get our keys from the reception and David announces that we can all split up and rest until the afternoon. The lift is oddly quiet as we go up to to the 9th floor where our rooms are.
"Lauren, can I talk to you?" Ally asks softly. I nod and when the lift doors finally open I follow her down the carpeted corridor and past the rooms so that we can have a bit of privacy.
"I'm really sorry about yesterday," she blurts out sincerely as soon as we stop walking.
"Don't be, I shouldn't have lost my temper," I apologise, feeling increasingly guilty.
"Let's just call it a truce, okay?" she ask with a small laugh. I smile back and nod. I'm about to turn around and walk back to the room when Ally grabs my arm.
"39," she tells me in a serious tone.
"What?" I ask in confusion, furrowing my brow.
"39 kilos, now don't tell anyone," she says before starting to walk back to the room. I feel my heart sinking at the number. I walk into the room that Ally and Camila are sharing which is next to the room which I am sharing with Mani and Dinah. Camila has already unzipped her bag and laid her cheerleading outfit out on her bed. She's frowning at it furiously when I finally break the silence.
"Camz, if looks could kill then your cheer outfit would be way past dead by now," I try to joke. Ally looks up from her phone,
"No kidding," she mumbles. She finally tears her gaze away from the clothing and climbs onto her bed. I sit next to her, draping an arm around her waist.
"We should probably go get some lunch," Ally says, glancing at her watch.
"I'm starving," I say dramatically.
"I'm don't feel like co-," my girlfriend starts but I quickly cut her off.
"Camzi, you have to!" I whine. She laughs nervously as she pulls her knees up to her chest, showing no signs of moving.
"No, I'm serious," I say, letting my smike fade instantly.
"So am I," she mutters.
"Mila, can you go tell Dinah and Mani that we're leaving in five?" Ally asks.
"Did I not make it clear that I'm not co-," she starts again but Ally cuts her off.
"Yeah, you made it clear that you don't want to come but that doesn't change anything so go tell Mani and Dinah, okay?" Ally says sternly yet kindly. She sighs and nods before leaving the room.
"Team Alren, yeah?" she says with a smile. I smile back and nod before bending over to strap on my sandals.
"Ready?" she asks, grabbing her handbag and glancing at her makeup in the mirror one last time.
"Yes, Mrs. Pageant queen," I joke as she applies another layer of lip gloss. She rolls her eyes at me and I laugh as we walk out of the room. Camila, Dinah and Mani are already waiting in the corridor. Mani is leaning against the wall with her eyes glued to her phone screen and Dinah is having more of a one-sided conversation with Camila who is pacing back and forth. I grab her gently by her shoulders and she looks up at me with flashing, bewildered eyes. The aggressive look quickly fades out of her eyes and she looks away from me.
"Are we leaving?" she asks, tapping the sole of her trainers against the floor more anxiously than impatiently.
"Um, yeah," Mani says in a confused tone.
"Come on," I say, slipping my hand into hers. We walk around until we come across a small restaurant.
"You guys wanna eat here?" Dinah asks.
"I don't care where we eat," I say.
"Yeah," Mani chimes in.
"I'm good with this too," Ally says. Camila frowns when nobody asks her opinion before walking into the restaurant.
"Aren't you coming?" I ask softly.
"Yeah," she mumbles. We walk into the restaurant and to the table where the other girls are.
"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Camila tells me.
"Okay, babe," I say, kissing her cheek. She quickly walks away.
"Guys, you could be a bit nicer," I say with a sigh. "I mean, nobody asked her if she was okay with eating here," I say.
"Laur, she would've said no anyways, she didn't even want to come for lunch in the first place," Mani defends, skimming the menu.
"Mani's right, she's so tense around food now a days," Ally agrees.
"Hi, can I talk your order?" a smiling waitress asks.
"Yeah, five cheese sandwiches," Mani says, seeing as nobody else has bothered to look at the menu yet.
"Anything to drink?" she asks.
"I'll have a sprite," I say.
"Me too," Dinah chimes in.
"I'll just have water," Ally says.
"Me too," my girlfriend says as she slips into the seat next to mine.
"Coming right up," she says befire quickly hurrying off.
"Are you guys nervous?" Mani asks.
"I am," Camila admits.
"Me too, first comp of the season," I say.
"Mm...," she mumbles, rubbing her arms rapidly with her small hands.
"You're cold? It's like 30 degrees Celsius in here," Dinah remarks as Ally hands her her jumper.
"Thanks," she says gratefully, pulling the jumper on and zipping it up. I frown at the way the jumper hangs loosely around her frame but I don't have much time to think about it as the waitress is putting our food and drinks in front of us.
"Thanks," I say with a smile before she walks away. "Camzi, you want some sprite?" I offer. She ignores me completelely.
"You guys ordered for me," she states more than asks.
"Um, yeah...Mila, you like cheese sandwiches," Ally reminds her, taking a bit of her own.
"Forget that, Mila, you like everything," Dinah jokes with a laugh. "For someone your size, you've got a pretty amazing appetite," she continues, clearly amused. I laugh too before going back to my sandwich.
"Camz?" I ask after 15 minutes of watching her playing with her napkin.
"What?" she asks, snapping out of her daze. I bite my lip at her aggressive tone.
"Eat a bit faster," I say plainly, already having finished my sandwich. She sighs and picks the sandwich up before dropping in again and staring at her fingers. She quickly peels the bread off and scrapes off every morsel of cheese from the thin slice of lettuce and dabbing it with a napkin to remove any oil. She finally puts it in her mouth and chews it at least twenty times before swallowing it.
"Um...what about the rest of the sandwich, Chancho," Dinah asks with a raised eyebrow.
"We're going to be late for the last run through before the competition," she says agitatedly, and everyone knows to drop the topic.
***
Lauren's POV
"I'm glad you managed to switch rooms with Ally," Camila says gently as we lay in the double bed of our hotel room.
"Yeah," I mumble, slowly tracing circles on her palm with my finger. I feel her legs pressed against my bare ones as we talk and I feel an urge to be even closer to her.
"You were really good today," she tells me softly.
"Hey, I wasn't the one being thrown into the air," I joke.
"Yeah because you aren't a flyer," she says uneasily.
"Well it must be hard to be a flyer, right?" I ask curiously.
"No, it's not. You have to be fit and strong and make sure we don't fall and stuff like that, all a flyer has to do is trust their team mates and make sure they stay thin and chant loud enough and-," she says but I quickly cut her off.
"Stay thin?" I ask, turning off my phone which I was scrolling through and giving her my full attention.
"Yeah, otherwise you guys won't be able to lift us," she explains as though it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well you'd never have that problem," I assure her in a joking manner.
"What makes you say that? She ask unsurely.
"You're tiny," I say with a giggle. She leans over and kisses me gently. I deepen the kiss and sit up so that she can straddle me. I place my hands on her waist and frown into the kiss when my hands come in contact with sharp hipbones. I ignore it seeing as she's always been pretty thin and proceed to running my hands further up her top so that I can take it off. I feel my hands running over pertruding ribs. I trace them gently in shock to make sure that it's actually her rib cage. This is a new extreme, isn't it? She suddenly pulls away from the kiss and climbs off of my lap, backing away from me.
"What are you doing?" she asks in a scared tone.
"I...um, I...," I trail off, staring at her small figure curled up at the end of the bed.
"I thought you were ready to take the next step," I say softly, hoping she didn't notice how shocked I was to feel her rib cage. I try to move forwards to take her hand but she shifts back slightly so I refrain from toughing her.
"Let's just go to sleep," she says quietly, crawling to her side of the bed.
"Should I turn off the lights?" I ask quietly. She shakes her head and I sigh as she turns over in her part of the bed and stays as close as she can to the edge. We lie in an awkward silence for five minutes until I speak up.
"Camzi, can we just talk about this?" I ask, not daring to shift closer to her. She doesn't reply so I continue.
"I really thought you were ready to take the next step and-," I start rambling but she cuts me off.
"Lauren, I wasn't," she says, her voice made raspy from fatigue. 
"Yeah, I know that now but-," I try to continue but she cuts me off again.
"It's fine".  She stands up and turns off the lights. I listen to her soft footsteps leaving the room and turn the lights back on as soon as the door swings shut. I climb out of bed and leave the room. I knock on the door of the room next door and Ally opens the door.
"You don't look surprised to see me," I note as I walk into the room. "Where's Dinah?"
Ally and Mani exchange knowing looks.
"Uh, she's with Mila," Mani answers vaguely.
"Right, are you going to tell me where Mila is or should I just guess?" I say, flopping down onto the bed.
"Well, she called Dinah and Dinah freaked out and went to find her," Ally elaborates for me.
"You gonna tell us what happened?" Normani asks, sitting up slightly. I shrug,
"Nothing," I say, not wanting to relive the moment.
"Do you guys ever think that Camila is a bit...I don't know, thin?" I ask hesitantly.
"Of course we do, she's a freaking twig," Mani says with a laugh.
"No I mean too thin, like unnaturally thin," I emphasize.
"Laur, this is our Camz we're talking about," Normani counters calmly.
"What're you suggesting, Lo?" Ally asks, furrowing her eyebrows.
"I don't know," I say quietly.
"I think she's on a bit of an extreme diet," Normani says. "But that's not a bad thing," she adds.
"What do you mean not a bad thing?" I demand.
"I mean we're athletes, Lo, it can't hurt to be a bit healthier," she explains.
"Guys," Ally says urgently from behind us. I ignore her.
"She's not fat," I say defensively.
"Yeah I know she's thin as a stick but she used to eat so much crap and-," Mani starts but Ally cuts her off.
"GUYS!" Ally shouts again. We turn around to see her standing in front of Camila and Dinah who probably just returned.
"Camz!" I exclaim in a relieved tone, running over to her and wrapping my arms around her neck. She hugs me back tightly. I glance at Dinah who looks kinda shaky but brush it off, she's probably just tired.
"We should get to bed," I say, rubbing my girlfriend's back before pulling away from the hug.
"Yeah, I'm exhausted," she says with a yawn.
"Why don't you guys just stay here," Ally suggests sleepily as she climbs back into her bed. I nod,
"Camz?" I ask. She hasn't even unwrapped her arms yet and is leaning on me dependantly.
"M tired," she mumbles. I nod and carry her to one of the beds before lying down next to her and immediately falling into a deep sleep.
***