XYXX (Camren)

Chapter 13

The night started as unexpected as it was turning out to be – Camila had agreed to the arrangement when Ariana called to ask, although with a little bit of hesitance, and Lauren found herself swallowing a pill for something other than a concert or a signing. She was sure that Simon would consider it a waste of a perfectly good hour of being back to normal, but she couldn’t think of a way to get out of this situation, not with Camila agreeing to it.

To be honest, it felt good being in her body again. She’d only been taking the pills for necessary occasions and performing took a lot out of her; she didn’t necessarily have time to enjoy being back, even if for an hour.

Ariana and Camila were already in the dining room of Ariana’s house, with the excuse that Lauren would be arriving a little later. She was able to sneak in thanks to Camila slyly leaving the door unlocked. She took the pill in the bathroom, a change of clothes in a duffel bag that she hid in the cabinet underneath the sink. She went with a comfortable pair of sweats and a loose knit sweater, hair tied back.

The hard part was sneaking back out, but Camila was already at work distracting Ariana with animated conversation. When Lauren was properly back outside, she rang the doorbell, waiting until Ariana eagerly came to open the door.

Fifty-seven minutes left until the pill wore off.

“Lauren!” Ariana exclaimed, pulling the taller girl into a hug.

“Hey!”

“You took your sweet time.”

Lauren threw an exasperated look at her best friend, who merely grinned at Lauren’s obvious discomfort at Ariana’s friendly embrace. It was so strange how platonic Ariana’s touches felt, especially when a day ago, Ariana was anything but that. To be fair, Ariana wasn’t aware of the whole situation to begin with, but Lauren was hoping the night wouldn’t go as badly as she felt it would.

“Sorry, I had a few things to finish up.”

“Are you hungry? I ordered pizza.”

“Hawaiian pizza.” Camila said, obviously giddy at the prospect. “I don’t even really like ham that much but I need it more than I’ve needed anything in my life right now so hurry your butt, Jauregui.”

The three made their way to the pizza resting on the island table in Ariana’s kitchen. She pulled up three stools to it and passed cold soda pop their direction, looking a bit nervous as Lauren grabbed a slice of Hawaiian.

“Laurence likes Hawaiian so I figured that you might…?” Ariana said.

“You guessed right, although her favorite is plain. What a loser.”

Lauren laughed and kicked at Camila’s feet, feigning anger at the girl.

She was glad Camila was there – she was definitely making things a whole lot more comfortable than it should’ve been, but frankly, that seemed to be the girl’s special ability in any given situation. Camila had the uncanny ability to make Lauren feel completely at ease with herself, although in some weird way, make her feel doubly uncomfortable. It was something that never made sense to her, but given the situation with Ariana, the only vibe she was allowing herself to pick up from Camila was one of comfort.

“So, not to be rude, but what’s the reason for this random invitation?”

She wanted the elephant in the room addressed immediately – maybe it’d make the ‘talk’ happen faster and the night end quicker. Ariana looked up from her plate in shock at the blunt question before putting down her slice and tilting her head cautiously; Lauren muttered a quick curse under her breath, wondering if she came across in that disconnected, uninterested way Ariana was talking about before.