Counting Stars // Normila

23

The heat was sweltering. Normani felt hot and sticky yet Camila still held her tight. Their current state of warmth bothered neither. They were together and no matter how gross the Alabama weather made them, neither cared.

Eventually they detached but Camila still had her arms around Normani's neck. "I miss you so much." She admitted biting her lip due to her vulnerability. "You have no idea." Normani sighed placing a hand on each of Camila's hips. "If not for Dinah I would have gone insane. All my old friends are just so stupid. We had just separated. Did they seriously think going to party after party would cheer me up?"

Camila smiled sympathetically and brushed a rebellious strand of hair behind Normani's ear. "As someone who attended party after party I can confirm they don't help." Normani nodded, a fleeting look of guilt flashing across her features. Before addressing it a car behind them drive down the lawn.

It slowly pulled up beside them and Taylor rolled down her window from the driver's seat. "Hey Mila we're going to go home, give y'all a chance to catch up."

Camila smiled brightly at Taylor and reached a hand down to touch her outstretched one. "Thanks babe. For everything." Normani sensed a deeper meaning behind the sentence but decided to broach it at a later date.

"Anytime. Normani, I can genuinely say it was great seeing you today." Taylor acknowledged the dark skinned girl who just smiled shyly in response. "Okay well text me later. Maybe we can all hang out sometime." Taylor concluded motioning to Camila, Normani and Selena. Accepting Camila nod as a valid response she began to drive again.

Once the car was out of sight Normani turned back to Camila. "Sorry about earlier when I assumed you went back there. You two were cuddling though."

Camila shook her head. "I get it. You never met Taylor my best friend. You met Taylor my ex-girlfriend who was jealous and petty. It's understandable you assumed that."

Normani sighed and closed her eyes. She leaned forward so her forehead was resting on Camila's. "It doesn't excuse the accusation though. God I hate that I hurt you. How are you this forgiving?"

Camila scoffed and pulled Normani into a hug. "Babe I should have known you didn't accept yourself. You never had the support I had and no matter how much I loved you it wasn't going to be enough. You needed to come to terms with your sexuality yourself. You needed to love yourself first before you could even contemplate loving me." Camila planted a kiss on Normani's cheek. "We should talk though. Figure out what's going on here."

Normani exhaled once more and then stepped back. "You're right. Are we just going to stand in the drive and talk or what?"

Camila shrugged and then scrunched her face in thought. Normani watched amused. Eventually Camila grabbed her hand and began pulling her toward the house. "First we'll get some water and then I know where we're going."

Normani followed bemused. She was just glad to be back in Camila's presence.

They strolled hand in hand down the fields, filling the awkward silence with awkward small talk. Both were anticipating the oncoming conversation, trepidation over the tsunami emotions that would soon occur evident.

"Yeah Regina's a great kid." Camila agreed as they arrived at the barn.

It was the place that they had met, the place where they had first kissed and it was now the place that would make or break them.

Camila led the way inside and upstairs. Once they were situated sitting opposite each other, using the bales as back supports, neither knew how to begin.

"So how long are you here for?" Camila asked cautiously fiddling with the cap on her bottle. "A week." Normani replied staring at her feet. "My Mom rang your Mom and she said I could stay here. If you're okay with that obviously." Normani added hastily.