unexpected | camren au

CHAPTER 4 || photo shoot

She doesn't sleep anymore at all. Which is great. Okay, no, actually, it's awful, waking up at 5am after sleeping for about half an hour. Camila feels like a zombie. Probably is one by now.

It shows on her face, too. Obviously. The bags under her eyes are the size of oranges. She tries to cover them up with makeup, spends ages in the bathroom every morning. But at some point, even the that can't work any more magic. Once it's reached its limit...

Camila barely smiley anymore. Because it's just too much. Too exhausting. The problem is just– she's in the middle of a photo shoot right now, and she might have had the thought already but– her insomnia really, really couldn't have hit her at a more inconvenient time. Her face is going to look like she's ill. Terminally ill, probably. On the pictures, that is. Her face feels like such a mess right now. Which is frustrating. Because she can't do anything about it. Damn that stupid makeup. Isn't makeup supposed to cover up anything? Not this makeup, obviously. She realizes Zayn will kick her out immediately, and it'll be all over. Her being kicked out means she won't see Dinah again. Or Ally.

Or– yeah, Lauren.

Lauren. The cause of– well, everything. Her confusion, her anxiety. They haven't talked that much since that first – and last – time during the group date, but Camila has definitely run into her quite a few times since then. And every single time messed her up. Her heart began racing. Her throat became dry. Just thinking back to it makes her feel all– weak. Yeah, that's a good word. Lauren makes her weak.

And it's all because she's going to lose this competition to the woman sooner or later.

"Honey, you seem a little out of it there." The words abruptly pull her out of whatever world she's in.

She blinks as she tries to find out who said the sentence. Her eyes scan the crew that's a few feet away from where she's standing directly under a tree. It must have been one of the photographers; they're all looking at her expectantly. Waiting for her to reply, probably. "Uh," she stutters, "Yeah? I mean– no." She shakes her head. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" another crew member asks skeptically.

"Yup," she replies with an all-too-bright smile and gets back into her pose. Her hands find her hips, just like earlier, and as she hears pictures being taken, she hopes that she won't look too awful later. Which is wishful thinking, at best. Maybe if she– maybe if she could do something cooler, instead– something that makes people – Zayn, especially, of course– "I have an idea," she interrupts her own thoughts.

She tries not to notice how annoyed the cameramen and photographers look.

"Can you somehow– uh," she bites her lip while she thinks about what exactly she wants to do, "I don't know– do you, like, have ropes or something? Maybe you could somehow make it look like I'm– um– flying? You know, like I'm floating in front of the tree." Their reactions make her flustered, nervous, because what if they think it's–

"A good idea," someone finally replies, "we could do that, I guess."

She doesn't really process everyone suddenly running around to get the things she's going to need for her– her idea. She keeps standing there, staring longingly at the sea behind the still-present cameramen. She sighs. Spending her life here, just appreciating the sun and ocean and sand is– it sounds perfect. Especially if Lauren–

"Alright, let's get you up there," another – different – someone says once everyone has come back.

Again, she doesn't really know what exactly they're doing, but she knows she must be tied to one of the branches so she– so she looks like she's floating in the air. Right in front of the tree. Now that she thinks about it again, it's probably going to look ridiculous but– but at least it's going to distract from her zombie-like appearance, right? So this is definitely better than just looking awful.