Mistress (Camren)

Chapter 17

Narrator's POV

"I can't feel my face," Lauren told Ally in the back of an SUV right after they escaped from the paparazzi.

"I know, Lauren. We're gonna get you home safely," Ally cooed, holding her hand and rubbing it.

Lauren didn't know what she was on but it was surely fucking with her brain. Nobody was surprised, she was like this every night. "Why didn't you drink anything?" she asked the blonde with a frown.

"Uh... didn't feel like it tonight," Ally chuckled a bit nervously, not wanting to tell the girls (besides Normani) that she was finally pregnant.

"I'm so ready for this break," Normani sighed, scrolling through her phone.

Lucky Normani, Lauren thought. She didn't get a break like the other girls did. Fifth Harmony had been doing tons of promo for their single, including a Billboard cover, and finally earned a short vacation. Camila and Dinah had already left, traveling to Paris to work more on Camila's fragrance. Ally and Normani had a flight for New York the next morning. But for Lauren.... well, her team scheduled her a promo run in Brazil starting the next day. She never got a break.

The girls got Lauren back in her suite safe and sound even though she didn't go to bed. She hadn't a full rest in almost three months. Not when she started taking drugs. She didn't get more than three hours a night due to how much was in her system. No wonder she was crazy all the time.

"I'm not eating, sleeping, or doing anything but working. My anxiety is going haywire whenever I'm not cracked up-"

"That's why you need Xanax. Why haven't you been taking it?" Mickey told Lauren in a private meeting in the conference room.

Lauren just sighed, not bothering to expect him to understand. She was about to snap but took a few deep breaths. There were only a few people she didn't rage at, two of them being Camila and Mickey. "Do I really have to go all the way to Brazil by myself?" she asked quietly.

"We need to cover that area, Lauren. We gave the girls time off but we knew you wouldn't back down from promo," he said.

"Can I at least have a few days after I return to go back to Miami?" she tried sounding calm as she desperately missed her family during this stressful time.

"Mmmm, I'm afraid not. You have meetings in New York and then back to LA to record the Fifth Harmony album that you want so badly," he reasoned. "And you still have promo and commercial shoots in the meantime."

"God, it's so much," she buried her head in her hands, holding back from going ballistic.

"I don't know what you want me to say, Lo. This is what you want but you can't expect it to be handed to you. You gotta work harder than everyone else to earn that top spot you crave for."

It was sad and annoying but he was right. If Lauren was going to be the best, she had to outwork everyone in the game.

"So, stock up on Xans and blow. Your jet leaves in two hours."

***

Lauren's POV

The minute I stepped into my hotel room in Rio, I wanted to die. Did I get sleep on the jet? No. Did I get sleep ever? Hell no. I was a living nightmare and everyone around me was just fine with it. But I couldn't stop.

*knock knock*

I opened the door to two hot Brazilian women standing with bright smiles. One of them held a bottle of wine as if it intrigued me.

"Hi," the other grinned.

I looked both left and right down the hallway, "Did Mickey send you?"

"What?" the two of them frowned and looked at each other.