chapter twenty-one - still has a chance

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After the hectic events the previous night, the girls decided to shelve the discussion of the tour until after Christmas. It was too much stress and brought too much tension onto the little family who needed peace to be restored before the Christmas party.

This, however, did not mean that Lauren was entirely okay with her band members. She spent more time out with Willa and had begun to invite Ashley (aka Halsey) on their mini dates out for meals or just window-shopping. Willa really liked Ashley and all but begged Lauren to let her dye her own hair an aqua blue, something Lauren refused to let her daughter do because she knew her own mother would have her head for letting the child do something so drastic.

It was a week from the Christmas party when Lauren realized that Willa would be putting up her first tree with her 5H family. The woman decided to call Ashley and have the three of them go to buy some new ornaments so Willa would be able to decorate the large tree with something of her own.

Lauren informed the three other women in the house that she was leaving to Target for a while, receiving a nod from Ally, a thumbs up and request for cookies from Dinah, and an eye roll from Normani.

"What? I can't go with my daughter to buy some ornaments for later?" Lauren asked the darker woman, cocking an eyebrow as she locked her emerald eyes onto chocolate brown ones.

"Are you just taking Willa or is Ashley going too?"

"What does it matter if she comes?" Lauren asked, thinking that her friend was acting irrational over the presence of her other friend.

"What about us? We've been with you and Willa from the start and now you're icing us out from your lives. I get it, we said some shit you didn't like, but that doesn't mean that you can take that little girl and start a new life with someone else."

Ally sighed and walked out of the kitchen, not ready for another argument. Dinah was quick to follow, getting the dogs to follow her as she offered treats, calling for Ally to wait up for her.

"If you wanted to come you could've just asked. I never said you weren't invited."

"Yeah, but you never offered either-,"

"Well, Jesus, Mani I can't read your mind. Do you want to come? Is that what you'd like to do?"

"No! I want you to stop acting like you're the fucking victim here. We never said that Willa was holding us back. We were just trying to find a solution to allow us to do our job and give Willa the best possible chance at school and making friends and what not. Unlike you, who wants to keep sulking about it, we are trying to please both 5H and Willa."

Lauren watched Normani the entire time the woman ranted, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what was wrong with her.

"You're jealous of Ashley," she finally decided, realizing that before the meeting Normani was the second closest to Willa, but now the woman was being replaced by the other music artist.

"Oh my god, Lauren! I'm not jealous of Ashley! I could care less about her. You and I – we would never work. There is nothing going on between us!"

Wait. Normani thought that Lauren was talking about the two of them being together? The woman that Lauren was in love just flat out said no to them ever working and suddenly she felt like her whole heart was sinking.

"I'm just disappointed that the child that once looked to me like she could trust me now won't even let me hug her because she's worried I've changed over the time we've been apart."

"I've got to go," Lauren said, walking out of the room, not addressing Normani's final comment as she moved towards the front entrance where she left Willa to get her shoes on. "Did you get your boots on, my love?"

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