Should Have Known (Camren)

Chapter 35

October, 2013

I knocked quietly on Camila and Dinah's door and waited for them to open it, Normani standing next to me, anxiously tapping her foot on the floor while Ally tugged on my hand nervously. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time- 11:45 P.M.

Just fifteen minutes later, our first ever EP would be released. After all the hard work that we put into writing, recording, and producing, it had finally paid off. The final product was completed and just moments away from being released to the public, and there was only one way we wanted to spend the countdown- together.

Dinah pulled the door open and allowed us inside with a smile, the anticipation building up inside all of us as we made our way over to where Camila was sitting on the couch in front of a laptop. I found a seat next to her and Dinah sat on her other side while Normani and Ally sat across from us. Camila stared off into the distance and I nudged her arm lightly, trying to bring her back to reality.

"Everything alright?" I asked.

"Yeah...yeah I just..." she trailed off, looking around the room at all of us as her eyes began to water.

"Have we even taken a second to step back and look at how far we've come?" she continued. "I know we've said it before but...have we actually let it sink in yet? I mean, look around. Look where we are compared to where we were a year ago. Look at what we've done together..."

I smiled as I let her words sink in. We had accomplished more as a group as I had alone in my seventeen years of life. It felt so surreal to be sitting on the couch surrounded by four girls- my best friends- that I barely even knew a year prior, and to know that we had stuck together to accomplish our goals, and we had done it. We were just moments away from the biggest occasion of our lives.

"What do you think would have happened if just one of us wouldn't have auditioned for the X Factor?" Camila pressed. "Do you think we still would have ended up together?"

Dinah furrowed her brow and shook her head in disagreement.

"We wouldn't have ever met," she said. "I mean, we were grouped together on the show. If one of us hadn't been there, there wouldn't have been a group in the first place."

"I do," I blurted out.

Camila turned to look at me, her deep brown eyes alive with more enthusiasm than I had seen in a long time. A smile slowly spread across her lips and I couldn't help but notice the same thing happening to me.

"I think we would have ended up together no matter what," I reiterated, speaking to the group but keeping my eyes on Camila. "It was fate. We didn't meet by chance. We met because we were supposed to. It wouldn't have made a difference if we had auditioned or not. Fate is inevitable. You can't avoid it."

Camila stared at me, her eyes flitting back and forth between my own and my lips. The silence grew between us until neither of us could take it and she cleared her throat, shaking her head to clear her thoughts and turning back towards the other girls.

"I think Lauren's right," she acknowledged. "Look at all we've accomplished so far. There's no way any of this is by chance."

Dinah leaned forward and placed a hand on Camila's knee, scanning the room and taking in all of our smiling faces.

"I love you guys," she chuckled. "I know I don't say it a lot...but I do."

"We love you too, Dinah," Ally grinned.

"Sometimes," Normani teased.

Dinah rolled her eyes and sat back against the cushions, removing the laptop from Camila's hands and placing it her own lap.