XYXX (Camren)

Chapter 5

Timing the pill’s effects was getting easier to do, as was dealing with the soreness that came from the transformation, and Lauren found himself wearing a watch almost every day. Before this whole situation, Lauren couldn’t be bothered with watches, especially since his phone had the time on it anyways. It just seemed unreasonable. His eyes flickered down to his watch, and he waited until it was exactly a minute to five before he took another pill.

As soon as Lauren found herself back in her original body, she quickly made her way to the wardrobe department, where she was clothed and had her make-up done within ten minutes. Simon set aside a personal crew to handle dressing her up and getting her ready moments before any events, knowing well that time was of the essence when it came to the pill’s effects.

As much as Lauren hated not being able to appreciate her time back in her body elsewhere, she knew she had to keep the illusion up for the sake of the band, so she (literally) swallowed the pill and hoped it would be over soon. The scientists were still long ways to go in redeveloping the final prototype, but she tried not to waste energy thinking about it.

“And now… Fifth Harmony!”

The performance flew by as quickly as it started – they were on stage for a combined length of three songs. She loved these shows hosted by radio stations the most because they weren’t on stage for more any more than twenty to thirty minutes. The next artist was being called up by the time she was in the Fifth Harmony dressing room. The other girls were still at the stage, watching the other performers from the sides, but Lauren had to return to the dressing room and wait out the pill.

At this point, she just wanted the pill to wear off quick so she could rejoin the girls and watch the next performances. She glanced at her watch and sighed in relief as she noticed she was a minute away, and so she quickly stripped down to her underwear, another thing she was way too used to doing.

She took to wearing boxer briefs full time now, because there was nothing worse than the one time the pill wore off as she was wearing a thong.  Laurence would never forgive her for that one.

As soon as it reached a minute to six, her body began feeling the now-familiar tingle and soreness, and so Lauren made sure the door was locked and took a seat on the couch. Closing her eyes and humming, she waited until the uncomfortable feeling passed, and by the time she opened her eyes, everything was back to the way it was before.

“This is so annoying.” He muttered to himself.

He pulled on gray sweatpants, a tight, black v-neck, and a blue zip-up hoodie before looking in the mirror and debating whether to style his hair or not. Deciding against it, he grabbed a gray beanie and pulled it on over his head. Confirming to himself that he looked presentable, he made his way out the Fifth Harmony wardrobe and towards the back stage. Before he could go through to the sides, a girl slipped out and ran to one of the exits. The tied back ponytail was very familiar.

“Ariana?”

He’d met the girl a few times before, but as Lauren, and he knew that she was good friends with Camila. She had been the much anticipated opening act, starting up the radio show with a five song set featuring other artists, and Lauren had assumed she’d either left or stayed backstage to watch the other acts.

Against his better judgment, which was telling him to leave the girl to her own devices, he made his way to the door and pushed it open. Ariana was sitting on the steps leading up to the door in her glittery dress from her act, shivering against the wind and with an unhappy frown etched onto her features.

“You okay?” Lauren ventured, closing the exit behind him.

“Hm. I’m fine. Please leave me alone.” Ariana muttered, not bothering to look up.