Catalyst

XV

Dinah stares at the file in her lap for a long time.

Her curiosity is trying so desperately to get the better of her, but... she trusts Normani. And if she trusts Normani, then there is absolutely no way she can give in to this file. So, she tucks it under her mattress and squeezes her eyes closed, wrapping her arms around her knees and bringing them tightly against her chest.

Normani wouldn't lie to her. They had moved past secrets in the past few weeks. They're open. Honest. As far as Dinah is concerned, Normani hasn't given her a reason not to trust her.

So why does she still have the file in the first place?

Dinah decides she's had enough of this. She rises from her bed and marches rather aggressively towards Lauren's cell block. Ally is nowhere to be found, and Dinah knows it's because she'd been spending a lot of time with Frangipane in the last few days. Dinah isn't exactly sure why, but she suspects it has something to do with the fact that Lauren and Camila are always together, and she would rather hang around a lunatic than be around Lauren right now. Dinah thought she understood and agreed with Ally's anger, but after Camila came to talk to her she's not so sure.

When she arrives, Lauren is alone. She's sitting up with her legs crossed, a book resting in her lap. Dinah recognizes it immediately as the book Camila was raving about last week. Dinah remembers Lauren hating it so much that she nearly threw it away.

She scrapes her foot on the ground to announce her presence, "Are you re-reading that because Camila enjoyed it?"

Lauren keeps her eyes focused on the pages in front of her, "I'm giving it another shot, yes."

Dinah scuffles her feet against the floor, edging closer. She looks at Lauren's indifferent expression and thinks back to the file, getting frustrated, "Can you tell your girlfriend to back off? She's taken this to an entirely different level by giving me the file. Where did she even get it, anyway? She's been here for, what? Two months? And she's already trying to get thrown somewhere worse?"

The way Lauren narrows her eyes tells Dinah that Camila had left her out of the loop on that one, "She gave it to you?"

Dinah is too angry to focus on the fact that Lauren didn't deny the title girlfriend, "Yes! And I'm a little—" Dinah looks around, realizing she should make their conversation more private. She sits down next to Lauren, lowering her voice significantly, "I'm a little ticked off that she stooped this low.

"She only did it to protect you."

"I don't need protecting!" Dinah snaps. Lauren glares at the raise in her tone, and Dinah releases an exasperated sigh, "I don't care if she worries about me, but this was too far, okay? I just need her to understand that there are boundaries."

Lauren rolls her eyes, "I'm done talking about this," Dinah tries to interrupt, but Lauren keeps going, "No. I'm done," Dinah slumps back and grunts, "You can throw a fit all you want. If you had actually read the contents of that file, you wouldn't even want to speak to her anymore. I promise you that."

Lauren offers her a pointed gaze, "Now I'm done."

Dinah lets Lauren's words sink in as a silence settles over them. She knows if the roles were reversed between her and Normani, Normani wouldn't invade her privacy like what Camila and Lauren were suggesting she do. Would she?

Is the fact that she's questioning it a problem? Dinah's heart is telling her it's wrong, but her mind and gut... they both are starting to say something different. Lauren has never given Dinah a reason not to trust her; she's always watched Dinah's back. Always.