Fortune (Camren)

Chapter 13:

Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness." - Euripides

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When Lucy opened her hotel door to a solid knock, she had expected a maid instead of her best friend. "Hey, Jauregui," she said in surprise. "I thought you'd be at Camila's." Lauren only looked at her briefly before stepping past her and into the room.

Carson's adjoining room door was closed, and Lauren could hear him snoring soundly. She envied his ability to sleep while she had been unable to. She pulled out the flask she'd shoved into her jacket pocket; it was warm from where it had been snuggled up to her body on the destinationless path she'd wandered throughout the night. Listlessly, Lauren put it back in her pocket without drinking any and crawled onto Lucy's bed, pulling her knees up to her chest and making herself into an unmoving ball.

Lucy studied Lauren, trying to determine the cause of the oddly quiet mood and why she'd shown up so early in the morning. Putting her hands on her hips, she posited, "Are we planning how to get back at that manipulative waste of a perfectly good face? I mean, you should have seen how she hung all over Carson last night. And he is such a dumbfuck that he probably thinks she really likes him. But Frosty the Snow Queen only likes herself, and I mean serious self-love-"

"No. It doesn't matter now."

Lucy frowned at the comment before laying down on the bed next to Lauren so she could look her in the eyes. "Wanna tell me what's going on? You're seriously freaking me out."

Lauren sighed, and the hands she tucked under her cheek moved the sheets away from her mouth as she responded. "My life sucks, Luce."

"What the fuck does that mean? You were great last night. You have everything. We have the number one song in the country. You just bought a badass condo. Your girlfriend is gorgeous. How is that possibly suckage?"

The singer closed her eyes and began emotionlessly relating the events of last night, reciting them as if she were reading out a list enumerating how Camila had lied to her, how callous she'd been when she found out, how she had actually agreed to the whole ridiculous situation, and how she'd wandered around town last night in a daze, unable to sleep. "I'm gonna go to New York for a few days," she finished, "I said I'd go along with it, but I can't do it here."

Lucy touched Lauren's hand in empathy, "Do you want me to come with you?"

Lauren subtly shook her head negatively, "No, I'd rather go alone. I want you here to keep an eye on Taylor. Camila trusts her, and that just makes the whole thing more fucked up."

Lucy reached down to pull the blanket up over Lauren. "If you're doing this to prove to Camila that it's dumb, then you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. If you're doing this for the band, I appreciate it, but it's not worth it- at least not to me." She patted Lauren's hip then, "But I know better than to try to talk you out of it, you bullheaded fuck, so just go to sleep for a while because you look like something a cat puked up."

When Lauren simply closed her eyes in answer, Lucy scooted off the bed and crossed the room to Carson's closed door. She was going to need his help.

When Normani finally gave up calling and knocking the next morning, she unlocked her friend's door using the special spare key entrusted to her, and gasped as the door swung open. Camila was still in last night's dress, huddled against the wall across from the front door, her knees tucked under her chin. Normani immediately ran across the room to her friend. "I've been looking all over for you. Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Lauren and I had a fight last night."

"What happened?"

"I told her our relationship couldn't be public, and I told her why. And now she's gone."