Counting Stars // Normila

7

Camila climbed down the ladder quickly, her somewhat inebriated state ineffective in slowing her down. She had explored this barn in much worse states.

Sofi leaned against one of the unused horse stalls and stared at the ground while brushing loose straw absentmindedly with her foot. Camila was aware Sofi was biting her inner cheek to prevent herself from crying, a classic Cabello defence mechanism.

Hopping down from the last step Camila moved toward her sister giving her weak smile. Walking past Camila to go back up Zayn winked at her, a sign of reassurance they had had since childhood.

Upstairs Normani was lying on her back staring out at the stars when Zayn resurfaced and lay beside her.

"Is Sofi okay?" Normani asked, surprised she was genuinely concerned about the young girl.

"Oh just preteen drama. Probably Sinu's fault. Woman doesn't think. Who knows really? Camila will sort it out though. She's the best thing Sofi has for a Mom." Zayn sighed and grabbed the gin bottle on the ground.

"Yeah, she pretty great." Normani murmured closing her eyes for a second letting the memory of the kiss linger.

"Mmmhmm." Zayn agreed, "And she seems to like you too."

"Oh how'd you gather that?" Normani asked a sly grin on her face. Oh she knew Camila liked her.

"Well me and Mila have this running competition going on. For every straight girl she can get to kiss her willing I owe her an extra unpaid hour of work. Last summer I had to work an extra day free. But since she refused to kiss you tonight she obviously doesn't want you involved in the comp." Zayn smiled at Normani and then returned his gaze to the sky.

Normani's heart stopped and her stomach lurched. "So if she thinks a girl is straight she kisses her for a competition?"

"Yup." Zayn nodded reaching across to grab Mrs. Jackson.

Normani breathed deeply to stop tears before she whispered "Unless you want splinters but the guitar down."

"Hey baby girl what's up?" Camila asked Sofi sitting on the ground and signalling for her sister to join.

"Well firstly you smell like a brewery and hand sanitizer combined," Camila scoffed and rolled her eyes "And secondly I was just talking to Chris on Skype -"Sofi began.

"Wait isn't it like one a.m.?" Camila cut across her pretending to check her non-existent watch.

"It's two but that's beside the point." Sofi said glancing back to her feet.

"Okay, whatever. I just found out my sister of thirteen has webcam sex but that's fine." Camila said grinning at her and then burping.

Sofi rolled her eyes but then smile at her sister. She was really lucky Camila was so awesome. "Anyway sweetie, continue."

"Okay so we were talking and something came up about attractive girls. And he was saying that the world's hottest girl lives with us and I don't know why but I kind of got my hopes up but then he started talking about Normani." Sofi's voice broke and she sniffed trying to repress a wave of tears.

"Oh honey." Camila sighed and moved to enclose her sister in an embrace. "Sof boys are dumb. I bet he didn't even realise what he was saying. Chris is crazy about you. You know that!" she assured her rubbing her back and planting a kiss on her head.

"But I'm never the hot one. I'm never even the pretty one." Sofi cried into Camila's shoulder. Camila could feel her heart breaking. Her baby sister was self-conscious and insecure and she hadn't noticed.