and we will be okay

motherly love

Ally sits in the school parking lot with her phone in hand. She and the other girls are meeting at Lauren's in an hour, so she has time to spare. She sighs when her mother texts her that she won't be home until early in the morning for a couple hours. The woman had been working for nearly 24 hours, and now she was still heading off to her third job. The blonde texts her back saying that she'd seen her in the morning before pulling out of the school lot.

On the road, Ally begins to mull over the English project. She feels terrible for Lauren and frustrated with Dinah. Had Dinah not pushed her, she sure it would have gone smoothly and they could've gotten at least something like the title done, but the five just sat there silently for the rest of the hour.

Ally heads back to her house for a little while before needing to go to Lauren's. The blonde opens her front door carefully and quietly. After hearing nothing, she tip toes into the front room. She stops holding her breath when she sees her dad asleep on the couch with the TV playing some 80s show. Ally studies the man to make sure he doesn't look sick.

She collects the empty glass bottles from the coffee table and shuts off the TV. Ally disposes the bottles and throws a blanket over him and draws the curtains, figuring he'll complain of headaches when he wakes up in a few hours.

The teenager takes one last look at him before going into the kitchen. Ally grabs sandwich ingredients and sets one ham sandwich on a plate and sets it in the fridge with a note for her dad. She then fills a glass with water and sets it on the coffee with a few painkillers and a sticky note telling him that there was food in the fridge.

After checking on him one more time, Ally grabs her school bag and leaves the house. She practically skips down the steps down to her car. The teenager texts the group one last time to tell them she was on her way and would probably be a couple minutes late. Ally turns on her aux and selects a playlist and immediately begins to hum an Adele song that comes up.

Ally safely arrives at Lauren's house twenty minutes later and is certainly surprised at the size of the girl's house. She parks behind another car, which she can assume is one of the others. Ally feels her jealousy rise up at the size of Lauren's home. It was nothing short of a mansion in her eyes. The garden lining the front of the house was well taken care of and Ally wouldn't be surprised if they hired their own gardener.

Ally rings the doorbell, and within a few seconds the door is opened by a young girl. Ally smiles at her.

"This is Lauren's, right?" she asks. The girl nods and opens the door wider when Lauren appears behind her.

"Scoot, Tay, go finish your homework," Lauren directs with a soft look. As Taylor walks past her older sister with a nod, Lauren squeezes her shoulder. As soon as Lauren meets Ally's eyes, her face hardens back to its usual expression at school.

"You can take off your shoes there and put them on that rack," Lauren directs, pointing to a metal shoe rack by the door. Ally nods and slips off her sneakers. Ally can't help but gaze at the spiral staircase leading upstairs. Lauren then leads her to the dining room and kitchen, which Ally is sure is bigger than the whole bottom part of her house.

The other girls are talking at the table and Ally joins them by taking a chair nearest to Camila. Lauren sits further away, looking quite uncomfortable.

"Before you got here, we decided that Lauren is doing the cover design, because she's the best at art. And all of us can choose one thing to focus on individually," Normani explains. Ally listens carefully and nods.

"We're going to think of more, but for now we should just get the basic idea to get started," Camila chimes in.

"Sounds good to me," Ally approves.

The five work a little more and debate on topics. Their discussion, however, is cut off when the front door opens and closes. Lauren shoots her head up and stands to peer through the kitchen door. When she hears no giggling or laughing, Lauren bites her lip nervously and mutters a curse word. The other girls stop writing when they see Lauren's attention is on something else.

Through the door walks in Lauren's mother, whom Lauren closes her eyes at. The woman drops her purse on the counter and makes an unpleasantly surprised face.

"Oh, Lauren, who are these people?" She asks, keeping an even tone, to which Lauren knows is her 'you're in trouble' tone.

"Some people from school for a project, that's all," Lauren mumbles, looking past her mother. Clara nods, trying to conceal her frustrated look.

"Come with me Lauren Michelle, I need to talk with you," she orders. Lauren nods and follows her out of the kitchen.

Ally and the girls stare at each other anxiously and awkwardly. They hope to wait for Lauren to continue, but that hope becomes slim when they hear yelling from the other room.

"I told you this morning that I didn't want to see your face or hear you when I got home. And what did you do? Violated that. You are not a baby. You are not your sister, grow up and start acting like a damn adult. Stop crying Michelle! This is your fault, stop fucking up and I'll stop having to put you back in your place. Grow a grip, and start acting like a daughter of mine!"

Each girl in the kitchen looks at their hands, the second hand embarrassment crawling up their skin. And they couldn't help but feel terrible for Lauren. Her mother already sounded brutal.

And their guilty feelings increase when they hear a loud slap and heels clicking. Clara reappears in the kitchen to grab her purse. She stops and pauses at the students. She puts a business like smile.

"Girls, its getting late. It's best you all start heading home," she says.

"Of course Mrs.Jauregui, our apologies for causing an uncomfortable situation," Normani says quickly. The woman grimly smiles.

"No, it's not you. It's that insubordinate daughter of mine who knows better. I apologize for her, she can be mindless at most times, and speaking of which, she will see you all out," Clara says before leaving the kitchen. The girls quickly gather their stuff and shuffle to the door to put on their shoes where Lauren is standing. They all can't help but notice a growing, bright shade of red on her right cheek. Lauren opens the door and hesitantly raises her head. She swallows the lump in her throat, but Ally can see the dried tear tracks left behind.

"I-I, next week," Lauren mumbles with a dispassionate face.

"Are you su-" Camila begins, but Lauren just opens the door wider.

"You guys should really go," Lauren says. The girls just nod and lower their heads without any more words.

When Ally gets into her car, she really understands why Lauren wants no one in her house.