thin walls (are calling me home)

Chapter 21

tw for some anxiety.

--//--

Camila took a deep breath with closed eyes before the sound of chatter brought her back to the real world.

"Cabello, Mendes, that was great. I'd say keep it up but you two don't seem to need the advice." Simon joked from his seat on the audience, making some of their colleagues laugh.

Camila smiled, feeling her cheeks get a little warmer. "Thanks, Simon."

The older man just waved her off with a small smile of his own before turning to talk with one of the crew members.

"Simon loves you, man." Shawn laughed, throwing his arm around Camila as they exited the stage.

Camila escaped his embrace almost immediately, leaving her brother with a confused frown.

"I'm too hot for hugging, Shawn." Camila explained, trying to sound apologetic, but she guessed she didn't do very well as she grinned at the lost puppy look on his face.

Shawn grimaced then, his frown melting as he raised his eyebrows suggestively. "A little cocky now, are we?"

Camila threw her head back in laughter as she went down the steps to get backstage. She shook her head and turned back to find Shawn smirking at her.

"You know what I meant, dumbass." She said before reaching for her water bottle on the table and taking a large sip.

Shawn only shrugged, smirk still intact, before throwing himself on one of the couches. "How's Lauren?" He asked, the complete change of subject making Camila almost choke on her water. "She didn't seem that well on the party."

Camila felt her chest constrict at the mention of her girlfriend, but more specifically at the mention of the state Lauren had been in a couple of days ago. It hurt her to see how one incident had had such a negative impact on the green eyed girl, how one drunk guy with a gun had the power to change a life for the worse. Thankfully Lauren had been well on Sunday and Camila hoped that today was being as calm as the previous day. And as much as the brown eyed girl loved her job, she couldn't wait to go home and make sure that Lauren was okay.

Camila snapped out of the introspective moment she'd been in and wiped away the drops of water that had fallen on her chin before sitting by her brother's side on the couch.

"She's not great, but she'll get there. I think it's starting to dawn on her that she didn't just scrape a knee. It's a process, y'know?" Shawn nodded, his brow furrowed. "But Lauren is incredible, I'm sure she'll be fine." Camila finished, giving the boy a tight lipped, hopeful smile.

"With you there to support her I'm sure she will, sis." Shawn said, squeezing Camila's knee and making the girl's smile grow.

"Thanks, Shawn." She said quietly, a moment of comfortable silence following the pair soon after.

"More importantly though." Shawn started in a serious voice, making Camila look at him inquisitively. "How're her fans holding up?"

Camila let out a loud chuckle. "They'll be fine. I haven't received desperate DMs in a while, so." She shrugged, but narrowed her eyes a moment later. "Well, not about this, anyway. I've been receiving more and more messages on like, every social media platform. Especially after I ran into that girl on the supermarket, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I saw her tweets. You should hire her, she's better than Hiro at advertisement." Shawn chuckled and Camila followed soon after.

"That's mean, Hiro's doing a great job!" Shawn furrowed his brow with a doubtful expression, making Camila continue. "He is!" She gave him a light slap on the knee. "Stop being ungrateful, you're all over the internet, dumbass."