XYXX (Camren)

Chapter 12

A long nap, a thirty minute phone call, and a cup of water later, Lauren found himself sitting in the dining area of the hotel, in a bit of a daze. Normani and Camila approached him with bowls of cereal and Camila slid a cup of orange juice towards him before sitting down. Normani looked a bit apprehensive but she smiled at him anyways, and Lauren took that as a good sign.

“How are things with Ariana?” Normani asked, trying not to sound judgmental.

“I called her this morning.” He mumbled, taking a slow sip of orange juice.

“Oh, how did that go?” Camila asked.

“I think I… have a girlfriend?” He said. “I just want to see where this goes, maybe make sense of all these weird emotions going through my head. I don’t know what I’m doing, really. I just want to know and if this is a way to, then –“

Camila smiled, although her eyes didn’t seem to reflect it, but he figured she was tired from the long night they spent talking. The emotional toll being honest about her struggles during that long year couldn’t have been easy, not when he felt a million times heavier himself. She nodded and gently patted his hand.

“Figure yourself out but don’t… hurt Ari.” She said.

“I don’t plan on hurting anybody.” He muttered.

He looked up and noticed Camila looking down at her toast and taking a quick bite, and how Normani sent him another chilling glare before her features softened and she sighed.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep and just figure your shit out as soon as possible, okay?” Normani said.

“Yeah.” He replied, looking away from the girls.

“Call me crazy but I’m like 90% sure Ariana just tweeted your initials and a heart?” Dinah shouted, taking the attention away from Lauren as she approached the table and swinging her phone in front of her.

“Oh, come on Dinah, it could mean anything.” Ally quipped, following closely behind. “Right, Lauren?”

“Um.”

Lauren awkwardly took another slow sip of his orange juice as Ally’s jaw dropped and Dinah excitedly swung her hands up in the air.

“You’re joking!” Ally said.

“She’s my… girlfriend, I guess.” Lauren mumbled.

“Oh my gah this is actually happening right now.” Dinah said.

As Dinah went on about how shocking everything was with Ally, Lauren risked a glance across the table. Normani looked a little irritated but she continued eating her toast, refusing to look back at Lauren. The girl next to her had an unreadable expression on her face as she spread more jelly on her bread. A part of Lauren wished he could read the girl as easily as he thought he used to be able to, but a small fear crept into his mind that maybe he never really could read Camila.

“Does she know?” Ally asked. “You know, about the whole situation.”

“No. Let me just see where this goes first. How was your visit to your boyfriend’s?”

Lauren’s abrupt change of topic was met with curious expressions but Ally complied with his question, excitedly explaining their picnic date despite the slightly chilly winter. She continued talking until everyone finished their food and ended up relocating to Dinah’s hotel room, the girls leaving one by one until eventually, only Dinah and Lauren were left.

The laptop between them was blasting a playlist of all older Nicki Minaj songs, something that was a reoccurring event for the two. Dinah was singing along to the raps, taking pictures of herself for snapchat while Lauren scrolled through his media accounts, noticing that his absence as “real” Lauren was going noticed. Fans were freaking out about him possibly being dead or quitting, so he typed out a hasty reassurance from his twitter account that he, Lauren Jauregui, was sick and would be back soon.