Touched By You

"Now go break our wives up."

"Do you hate me?" The brown-eyed girl looked to her friend with wary eyes and an anxious heart.

"No, Vero, I don't hate you," Lauren smiled, her eyes turning to where the other girls had disappeared to and lingering on Camila for a moment as the brunette danced along to the beat of the music playing in the club. "You make her happy, I can't hate you for that."

"She's your wife, trust me, you can hate me." Vero took a sip from the glass in front of her, cringing at the strong burn of the liquor travelling down her throat.

"You drink more now," Lauren observed, her eyes targeting the glass that her friend set down. "Since Lucy died."

"You noticed?" Vero frowned, because no one else had so far. Not even Camila.

"You used to lap Lucy's head when she had more than three glasses of wine and now I've seen you go through three glasses of hard liquor," The green-eyed girl shrugged. "You started at her funeral, I almost stopped you but I was too..."

"Yeah, I know," Vero sighed, eyeing the drink in front of her. "I don't rely on it, if that's what you're thinking."

"It's not," The raven-haired girl shook her head. "Because if I had been thinking that, you wouldn't be anywhere near Camila with that shit."

"Kinda sounds like a threat, Jauregui."

"It's a warning," Lauren took a sip of her own drink. "I was a shit wife, Vero, but I'll be damned if that turns into her type."

And before Vero could speak again, an arm was tossed over Lauren's shoulder with a very drunk Normani attached to it.

"This looks so serious," The dark-skinned girl slurred. "Is there gonna be a punch up? Dinah! I think there's gonna be a punch up." She called over her shoulder into the crowd.

"I put my money on Jauregui! I've seen her mean left hook." The Polynesian appeared beside her ex-girlfriend with a lopsided grin.

"There's not gonna be a punch up," Lauren shrugged her friend off of her shoulder and scowled. "Vero's a friend, that hasn't changed." The green-eyed girl met the eyes of the girl across from her and offered her a smile.

Because as much as Lauren wanted to resent her, she couldn't. She'd left the door open for Vero to step in, she'd made the decision that allowed someone else to take her place in her wife's heart.

Lauren felt her arm being pulled at and saw Ally at the other end, a lazy smile settled on her lips and with a roll of her eyes, Lauren relented and allowed her friends to pull her onto the dance floor just as she caught Camila making her way over to Vero.

Lauren accepted what the pair were to each other, it didn't mean it didn't leave a gaping hole in her chest seeing their lips touch. But she turned her eyes away quickly and allowed Normani and Dinah's constant banter to settle over her, enveloping her in a false sense of normalcy.

Alessia was waiting for the on the dance floor and the green-eyed girl caught her gaze as she, too, watched the pair of brunettes she left behind locked in intimacy. Lauren saw the pain written so clearly on Alessia's features and she understood. In the perfect world, Alessia would be with Vero and Lauren with Camila but they'd long established that they were definitely not in the perfect world.

"Still hanging onto that hope for fate?" Normani chuckled into Lauren's ear as she also eyed the couple behind them.

"Always." Lauren replied, because it was the only thing she could do to stop herself from breaking where she stood.

So with that in mind, she let her mind be consumed by dancing and alcohol and her friends that still stood by her despite everything she'd put them through. She allowed herself not to linger one what she might have completely lost because she knew it would not lead anywhere good for her.