Cant Always Make Reality Exceed Non-reality

heartmony

Lauren pov
" Wait what? I have got to clean my ears out, cause all I'm hearing right now is bullshit," I say sarcastically to Simon as I stand up from the table that all of the girls and some guy I don't know are sitting at.
"Lauren. I said, since you're all adults now, me and your management have full control of everything you do, say, type, post, wear.. really almost everything. So from now on, Camila is going to have a solo career on the side of Fifth Harmony. I'm sorry girls, that this seems unfair to you all.. but look at it this way, as more attention is brought to Camila, more attention is brought to Fifth Harmony," Simon finishes and he takes a sip of his coffee.
I sit back down, not because he told me to, but because I literally couldn't take in what he was saying. They get to control how I look? This is insane, almost inhumane.
I look at the rest of the girls to see what their reactions were but most of them were in as much disbelieve as I was. Except Camila, who's reaction I couldn't tell because her head was facing the ground and I couldn't see her eyes.
"Camz?" I speak up, wanting to know if she was going along with this.
She looked up, not at me but at the guy who was sitting by Simon, he was staring at her already. When their eyes met Camila finally looked at me and....smiled? S-she's actually smiling right now?
She opens her mouth and clears her throat," um, I know you guys don't like the idea, and I don't—"
The guy who was staring at Camila coughed.
Camila looked down and started talking again,"..and I don't really mind it..just like what Simon said, it'll be good for not just Sico but for Fifth Harmony," she clasps her hands in her lap and looks at them, her hair covering her face so now all I see is a brown and black shadow.
"There you have it, even Camila agrees. A lot of changes are coming, and good ones. First, I want to introduce Camila's new manager, Roger," and motions towards the mystery guy,"second I want to tell you all that there will be a meeting tomorrow at 6 am in here, be there on time," Simon sips his drink again and then says," class dismissed, you can leave now," and turns to his office door.

Roger gets up and leaves also. And then..then..Camila? Oh no she's not getting away that easily.
I run up to her as she's exiting the room and grab her wrist, pulling her back in, closing the door and then locking it.
"Oh no you don't, I'm calling a Heartmony," I state, and the other girls understand that that's a heart to heart meeting between all 5 of us.
Camila looks at me, almost with a scared look of her face," Lauren..I have to go—" and I interrupt her by pounding my hand on the desk 3 times and saying,"order in the heart please", smiling and sitting next to Dinah.
Dinah looks at me, doesn't smile, but looks at Camila," Walz...what just happened?"
Camila sighs when She noticed that ally and normani are just staring at her waiting for her to say something true, something to make us feel better.
"I... listen, I'm doing this for you guys, don't you understand? Once Roger makes me do a song with Shawn, we will get so many—"
"Shawn?" Normani asks, speaking up for the first time today.
Camila looked really scared now, almost sad..I can't help but want to hug her right now with her biting her lip and her fidgeting with her hands.
"Uh, Shawn..Mendez...but please don't tell anyone I told you we're doing a song together," she added quickly,"we don't want the secret getting out so don't even hint about it to anyone, at all."
We all look at her as if she has a second head. Probably cause she's acting like a stranger right now. The camz I know would never take on a solo career aside from us, she would be too nervous or she would know that it would hurt us and our harmonizers too much.
I grab her hand and say,"Camila. I know this sounds crazy, well not as insane as what just happened but...did they drug you?"
"What? No!" She says yanking her hand back.
"I can't find any other explanation as to why you did this..." I say, not joking anymore, and I look at her in her chocolate pooled eyes, which seemed to have gotten a little heavier since yesterday. I really don't believe that Camila, the cutesy little dork that wears banana socks and bows, would be so...so...disloyal, so traitorous.
She opened her mouth but nothing came out, so I opened mine," I mean, we're just now coming out with our 2nd album, we're doing a tour this summer, how are you supposed to catch up with choreography? How are you going to know when something changes last minute? How...how are we supposed to keep the bond that we have?" now I'm starting to get heated, thinking about having to do things without her, seeing her sing with someone other than me- I mean us.
"Camila we're just getting to the good part and you want to go and risk the 'good' part for a 'great' part that could end up being a flop? Just what the fuck is wrong with just us? Shawn can fuc—"
"Lauren! I think you should stop now...she doesn't seem to be changing her mind," Ally, of course, stops me right when I was just about to start using my favorite word A LOT.
Camila hadn't batted an eye while I was talking to her, she hadn't flinched or changed her expression at all. She was still just staring at the ground and biting that god damn lip.
"Camila?" Ally asked, and Camila finally looked up.
"Is this really what you want to do?" Ally asks, all of us waiting for the answer.
Camila closes her eyes and covered them with her hands in a distraught way...but then she nodded her head....yes.... this is what she wanted. She can't even look at us that she has to close her eyes? If this was so difficult why did she want to do it? We've given her plenty of chances to fess up. This was her decision, she knows the consequences, she knows what's going to happen. She's going to get hate from harmonizers, she's going to get love from camilizers, and she's going to get separated from us.
The room was tense as we all realize that the moment has come where one of us has given into the pressure of the music industry. The moment we used to say would never come because we are sisters and sisters don't let moments like that happen.
All five of us sat at that table for a good 3 minutes in silence, which is a verrrry long time to be silent.

The first on to leave was Normani, she and Camila never had the closest bond so it made sense but when the door shut it felt like a weight dropped on my heart.
I hate the sound of a door shutting. Hate it.

Ally was the second to leave, I heard a sniffle as she opened the door so she's most likely about to bawl right now.

Third to leave was Dinah. Believe me when I say I have never seen Dinah so, so sad? Like the dog she fed just bit her hand.

Now it was just me and camz—Camila. Her head still in her hands. Why did I wait this long for her? She didn't hesitate to agree with a solo career. She didn't wait this long to think about my feelings, our feelings. But. She's my best friend. She has held me and made me laugh longer than I've ever laughed, she's made me as frustrated as I've ever been, and she's made me sing louder than I've ever sung.

"Lolo" I hear her quietly say.

"Yes." I reply shortly, not knowing if my voice would be able to carry on longer without cracking.

"Please tell the others I'm sorry...I'm so...so," her voice cracking now,"sorry" she says and lifted her head to look at me.
Her eyes are blood shot, as if her hands weren't just holding back the tears but punishing them for even thinking of coming out.

Not noticing what I was doing, just seeing Camila cry was enough for my brain to stop thinking and to forget what just happened. My body started making decisions on itself and I made her stand up with me and I put my arms around her, bringing her head to my shoulder with one hand in her hair and the other wrapped around her shoulder. She wrapped my arms around me and took handfuls of my band shirt into her hands and hugged me as tight as she probably could. It almost hurt how tightly she was holding me but I didn't let go because I needed this just as much as she did. Even though she's the cause of my pain right now, she's the only one who can make it go away. I know I'm going to see her tomorrow but everything will change once I walk out of this room, as long as I'm in this room with her everything is okay.
Knock knock
I loosen my grip on Camila and look up at the door, expecting someone to walk in but remembered that I locked the door, "no" she mumbles.
"Camila" I whisper into her hair and she pulls me in closer, as if that were possible, clutches her hands in my shirt so tightly that I swear she was shaking, and mumbles into my shoulders, "please don't...don't answer the door".
I almost give in, but whoever it is wiggles the door knob.
"Camila," I grab her hands that are wrapped in my shirt and pull them so that she lets go,"I'll see you tomorrow" I say in a dry voice, coming to realization that that was probably the last hug I'm ever going to get from her.
I unlock the door and Roger swings the door open so fast it almost hits me.

Camila is standing where I left her and she's now looking at the floor with her hands behind her back and it looks like she's biting her lip again.

"Are you ready?" Roger asks Camila but she doesn't respond so I answer for her.

"She's all yours" and I glance back one last time at her and then walk out of the door.
Seeing her look at me with her big round doe-ey eyes and the shadow of the man who is now bossing her around gave me the chills, just because of how isolated she looked. I shut the door and walked down the hallway.

Everything has changed.