Thinking of Your Skin: The Truth Behind Camren - Book Two

Chapter 22: Four Against One

March 11th, 2017

6:00 P.M.

Lauren

"Do you think we'll see her, though?" Ally asked.

"I feel like she'd be pretty easy to avoid." Normani offered.

"Guys, we all texted her on her birthday right? I really don't think we have much to worry about even if we do bump into her." Dinah said.

With that, Dinah spun around to look at me.

"Except maybe Lauren.", she said, wrapping an arm around me.

"That doesn't really count." Normani laughed.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It's not like you guys are really ever ok."

"But—"

I stopped myself, still not sure if I was ready to reveal everything about Camila just yet. We were getting ready to head over to the KCA's where we knew Camila would be attending. It had been a week since our dinner, which had gone way better than I even imagined it ever could've, and we had actually been...good since then.

It was so weird to actually be on good terms with the brown eyed girl without actually being with her romantically. It had been so long since we'd been friends, or at least tried to be. It wasn't like we had been talking every second of every day; we were way too busy for that. But we had caught up a bit at the end of every day, and one time she even called. The girls had no idea.

"But what?" Normani asked.

It was time to tell them.

"We are ok right now..." I said slowly.

They all stared back at me, unblinking.

"What makes you say that?" Normani asked.

"We...well, we had dinner last week." I confessed.

"What?!" the three girls exclaimed.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you! I just—"

"Lauren, we are a new group here, alright? No more secrets." Normani interrupted.

"I know, guys, I'm sorry. I just didn't know what you guys would think and—"

"Lauren, honey, you know we love you no matter what. And we don't hate Camila, either.", Ally chimed in, "We just know that we're better off now because there are no secrets, no toxic energy, and no...well, Camren."

"Yeah, I mean...", Dinah spoke up, "It's not like we don't want you to be friendly. Shit, I wish I could be friendly with her, too, but that's sort of the issue. Camila kind of made it clear that the only one of us she really cared about was you...and even then, she still left us all."

"The point is, getting close to Camila is dangerous, Lauren.", Normani said, "For all of us, but especially for you."

"Jeez, you guys act like she's a fucking bomb or something. What else could she possibly do to us?" I asked.

"It's not what she can do...it's what she's already done. It seriously amazes me that you continue to look past everything. Why do you do that?"

"Because I don't want this weird feud thing, guys! I don't want to give the media bullshit to work with."

"It's not really bullshit." Dinah sighed.

"Why can't we just forgive and forget?"

"Lauren, that's what we're trying to do. If you keep dragging her back here, then we'll never have time to move past it." Ally explained.