Groupie

Chapter 1

Camila hated parties.
She hated the fact that college parties were always so packed there was hardly any air left to breathe or room to squeeze past all the sweaty frat boys. She hated that some girls would wear clothes they'd normally feel uncomfortable in purely for the unconscious hope that said frat boys would find a sudden interest in them and finally give them the time of day. She also hated that her best friends Dinah and Ally were two such girls.
Dinah had forced Camila to come to tonight's party, promising like she always does that 'this one's gonna be sooooo lit!' And like always, Camila pretended to believe her and showed up just for moral support. Except this party was different.
This party was crazy.
And not in a good way.
If she wasn't face to face with a slimy frat boy, she was being tugged around the party by Dinah and Ally, and if she wasn't being led around the party by the girls, she was observing the crazy. Freshmen doing lines of cocaine off each other's stomachs, a group of guys shot gunning beers. At one point Camila tried to enter the bathroom only to find she'd intruded on a major hotboxing session.
The music dipped between white girl party classics like 'Tik Tok' and a new era of supposed 'gangsta rap' that sounded more like gibberish to Camila. Artists like Young Thug and XXXTentacion made her feel like she was actively losing brain cells when she listened to them.
The music was so loud that after a while Camila made a beeline for the balcony, where she was met with more frat boys and impressionable girls. Leaning over the edge of the balcony, she took in the surrounding buildings in the party's vicinity, having never really explored this side of town before. She noticed a high school a few blocks away, a couple take away joints, and a music venue right beside the building she was in.
Camila always enjoyed people watching, because she enjoyed romanticising conversations and exchanges between passers-by to restore her faith in love and humanity in general. Yes, she knows she's weird. She was in the middle of doing so when one of the boys standing beside her suddenly forced a shot gunned beer into her mouth. Fuck. Camila had no choice but to down the beer, to which Dinah, who'd been watching from inside, runs up to Camila giggling and handing her another drink.
Next thing she knows, Camila's a few drinks deep and more than tipsy. But in standard Camila fashion, she decides to leave the party early and go home to binge eat while watching Netflix. Camila tries to find Dinah or Ally to let them know that she's leaving, but they're nowhere in sight. So Camila leaves the building and stumbles downstairs.
Realising she has no idea where she is, she decides to order an uber out of there...that is, until she realises she's either lost or misplaced her phone. But knowing Camila, she probably lost it in a tipsy haze.
Unsure of what to do, Camila walks up and down the street. Ugh, she can hear the party's dumb music from here. But she can also hear other music, music that sounds live. She looks up at the building she was leaning on and realises it's the music venue she saw from the balcony at the party. Listening more closely, she can make out the show's finale, based on the live band's excessive ad libs and the sound of crashing cymbals. 'Thank you New York!' She hears the voice say to a seemingly rowdy crowd. After a moment, the music stops but the crowd does not subside. Camila walks around the venue, looking down and placing each foot directly in front of the other as she paces around following her own footsteps, just as she did as a kid. She looked down concentrated and didn't even realise the sound of a door opening and closing from the venue beside her. She almost walked straight into a trash can she was so distracted.
Then she hears the sound of a lighter clicking and smells smoke in the air. She finally unglues her eyes from her feet to identify the person smoking beside her.
The girl had long wavy black hair and eyes so green and yet so clear they simultaneously reminded Camila of emeralds and glass. The girl was slightly sweaty, in black high waisted jeans and nothing but a black bralette underneath her black leather jacket. She had bright red lips and a smokey eye, and Camila had no idea how she took in the girl's appearance so quickly with only a simple glance upwards from her feet. But the girl was pretty hard to miss.
The girl took a drag of her cigarette and finally noticed Camila's glance, returning it. They both just stared for a couple seconds before the green eyed girl released a quiet sigh.
'Long night too, huh?'
'Oh, you have no idea.' Camila dragged out the last syllable for an unreasonable amount of time. Fuck, was she gone.
'What trouble did you get into tonight?' The stranger apparently noticed Camila's inebriation too.
'This is gonna sound impossible, but my first mistake was that I accidentally shot gunned a beer.'
'What, you tripped and fell onto a beer can? Did your body levitate and force you to do a keg stand as well?' She laughed at Camila.
'You know what, you don't even know me and you already tease me as much as my best friend would in this predicament.'
'Where's your best friend? Why did you leave the party? Looks like it was pretty lit, judging by your appearance.'
'What's that supposed to mean? Has my makeup run? Fuck-' Camila momentarily snapped back to her usual anxious, overthinking self, and manically ran her hands through her hair and rubbed underneath her eyes.
The other girl raised her hand to grab onto Camila's and stop her panicking. It worked. Camila froze at the other girl's touch.
'Would you stop that crazy shit? You look...great. You look beautiful.' She says with a subtle smile.
Camila wasn't prepared for such sincerity, which made the lingering silence that followed particularly awkward. She opened her mouth to finally respond, but the other girl had gotten so awkward about the silence herself that she changed the subject.
'Your friend, where is she?'
'I don't know, I just wanna go home and watch Netflix but my drunk ass lost my phone and my Dinah and now I can't get an uber and fuck-'
'Do you wanna wait in my bus?'
'What, like, your RV or something?'
The stranger's eyes widen and roll.
'Girl. You seriously think this-' she gestures at herself, giving Camila a moral justification to give the girl another once over '-lives in a fucking RV? And I guess my little brother's Josh Hutcherson too, huh?'
'Usually when people hit on people, they invite them over to their place. Like, their home, so I just figured...' Camila was so fucking bold when she was drunk. Did she really just imply the other girl was hitting on her? In such a forward way? Liquid courage never seemed to work in her favour though.
Until now.
The other girl's face transformed into an odd mixture of both nervous blushing and a filthy smirk.
'I mean my tour bus, dork.'
It takes her a couple moments to put the pieces together, the other girl grinning as she watched Camila's facial expressions finally evolve into clear understanding that the girl in front of her was in fact the musician that people had been cheering for in the venue.
She had no idea how to respond. Especially not when she wasn't sober. This was all a lot.
'What's your name?' Was the best she could come up with. Stupid.
The girl took Camila by the hand and led her around the side of the building. Camila tried to downplay the fact that when her hand was taken by the other girl, her stomach did a fucking somersault without her consent. But then again, nothing about this night was in her control it seemed.
The girl pointed up at the building and Camila's eyes followed her hand to read 'Lauren Jauregui - Sold Out' written in bold capitals around the top of the venue.
Camila was looking up in both shock and childlike amazement, which made Lauren giggle. Camila finally turned to look at her, to which Lauren gave a shy smile.
'So, tour bus?'