just a dream (camren)

fifty one

May 20th, 2017

Ally hums to herself as she heads down the aisle of the grocery store, ticking off things on her list as she goes. She remembers Camila mentioning that Lauren worked at the store, and wonders if she'll run into her, but apparently she works really early mornings, so she doubts it.

She's looking through her list for the last few things she needs, when she bumps into someone and immediately apologises before looking up. She puts on her usual smile, but it turns into a bigger, much friendlier one when she sees who she'd bumped into. Normani; a friend of Lauren's, and she thinks that friendship has extended to Camila, too. She'd met her a couple of times, but they'd never really interacted.

"Oh, hi," Ally smiles at her, "sorry about that. I wasn't looking."

Normani just shrugs. "It's okay. Getting your groceries, or...?"

"Oh, just picking up some stuff I'm short on. Mostly baking supplies since Camila won't stop asking for cookies," Ally laughs lightly, rolling her eyes at the mental image of her friend. "What about you?"

"Just walked here after school for some snacks," Normani answers easily, raising the bag of chips and the candy bar she's holding. "I've got a couple exams to study for and I needed the fuel."

Ally smiles. "I get that. Mila and Dinah are the same way, actually. But they just need the fuel in general. Especially Camila; remember that one time on the tour bus when she was being really dramatic because we didn't have time to stop for McDonald's?"

The words come out of her mouth before she can think about them, and for a moment, she doesn't realise where they came from, but then it hits her. Everything comes back, and she doesn't know how she could've forgotten, and how a simple conversation had made her remember.

She meets Normani's gaze, and the younger girl looks just as shaken up as she does. One look at each other, and it's like they know, and Ally ditches the groceries and grabs Normani by the arm. Normani drops her snacks and follows her out of the grocery store, dumbstruck.

"But how," is the first thing Normani stammers as she buckles herself in. "How could we ever have forgotten?"

Ally doesn't have the answer to that question; she doesn't know if she has any answers, to be honest. So, she shakes her head, and drives to her apartment building, wondering why she still knows where it is. She has all of these memories swimming around her head, memories that aren't hers, and she doesn't know why.

She parks, and gets out of the car, walking up the stairs to her apartment with Normani. She unlocks the door, and ushers her bandmate inside, before slamming it behind them and staring at the other girl with wide eyes. "What the heck is going on?"

Normani runs a hand through her hair and sits down on the couch. "I have no fucking idea."

"How could we have forgotten?" Ally sighs, sitting down next to Normani. "It's like...I don't- how..."

"You- you forgot first," Normani gets out, and Ally forces her mind to think back, and she remembers the days towards the end, where everything was murky. "Then... then me, I guess. But how did... how did just talking to each other make us remember again? Like, why wasn't it something important?"

Ally pauses, trying to think of a theory, but her brain is too muddled right now. She's overwhelmed; overwhelmed to learn who she really is, and overwhelmed at the fact she ever could've forgotten.

"Maybe... maybe it is something important," She finally gets out, "we didn't talk after we'd forgotten, right? We didn't know we knew each other. We've hung out at the same time, with the same people, but we'd never spoken, really. We just knew of each other. And... I don't know, I've been having these weird dreams about our real lives, but I kept brushing them off. I guess running into you... and blurting out something that happened... maybe that was enough to make us remember. We'd finally spoken to everyone in Fifth Harmony?"