#fuckyeah-fifthharmony

Lauren frowns and gives the phone back to her. “Weird. I didn’t see anyone taking pictures,” she mumbles.

Camila who has been listening into the conversation, can’t contain her curiosity anymore. “What’s that?”

Lauren shrugs it off a bit uncomfortable. “Someone took a picture of Keaton and me at the Mall. You know how people are with these things.”

“Yeah…” she says uncertain.

They fall silent for a moment, as Normani keeps scrolling through twitter.

“Are there any more?” Lauren asks trying to sound disinterested.

“Haven’t seen any,” she answers, although the first one has quite a lot of retweets.

“Girls please, go back to your reading,” the teacher finally interrupts them.

Normani quickly hides her phone and they all turn their heads back to the papers without another word.

  Hours later, Camila finds herself alone in their little living room and bored out of her mind. Dinah is with her mom and Ally has gone to the guys’ room and dragged Normani with her. As soon as the two girls disappeared, Lauren announced she was going to take a shower and Camila found herself with her feet up on the back of the couch and her head hanging upside down out of pure boredom. 

She takes a selfie with a goofy face and posts it on Instagram, distracting herself for a few minutes reading the comments. When that gets old, she rolls out of the couch and makes her way into the halls, to see if she can find someone to talk to. The only person she finds is in the common room, headphones on and dancing shamelessly to some tunes.

Camila sits on the love seat unoticed, her back to the armrest, and watches the unaware CeCe practicing with a smile on her face. Her bleached blonde hair is up in a bun and she’s wearing sweat pants, a t-shirt and no make up. Camila is caught up in the moment; there’s just something so special about watching someone do something they are passionate about without them knowing.

The blonde starts singing softly, first humming, then belting out some of the words. She turns mid verse and falls mute at the sight of Camila. Her eyes widen comically and she chukles at herself, taking the headphones off.

“Warn a girl!” She whines a little embarrassed. “You sneaky little… thing.”

Camila laughs openly. “No, but you looked so into it. It was fun to watch.”

CeCe sits on the couch next to her, her eyes squinted. “Watch it, kid.”

Camila sticks her tongue out at her.

“So, what’s up? Where are the girls?” CeCe asks as she rolls the cord of the headphones.

“Some are hanging out with the guys. Dinah’s with her mom. And I think Lauren’s in the shower.”

CeCe looks up at her through her eyelashes. Camila's sure she’s not intentionally trying to be coy, but it’s just something CeCe does without knowing. She’s a bit like Lauren with those eyes. They don’t realize the effect they have on people. They just flirt accidentaly.

“Why aren’t you with the guys?”

Camila shrugs. “Dunno.”

CeCe clears her throat and sets her phone and headphones aside before turning towards her and clasping her hands. “Can I ask you something?”

Camila’s brown eyes widen nervously. “Sure. I guess.”

“Do you like Keaton?” Camila wrinkles her nose confused. “I mean, do you have a crush on him or something?”

“No,” she answers honestly. “Not at all, no. I mean, I’m not saying he’s not cute or whatever,” she quickly amends, waving her hands around, “but I- no. Just no.”

CeCe leans back and tilts her head, like she’s pondering something. Camila squirms a little in her seat under the scrutinizing gaze of the other girl.

“Okay,” she finally says. She puts her hand on Camila’s knee and squeezes before standing up. “Alright, munchkin. I’m gonna go eat something and then to bed. I need to be rested for rehearsals tomorrow.”

“Okay, have a good night.”

CeCe smiles genuinely and Camila wonders fleetingly how could anyone think this girl is a bitch. “Thank you. You too.”

She watches her disappear around the corner and lets her eyes wander around the room and through the big windows. The sun is barely a speck in the sky and it has taken a beautiful purple tone. Camila stands and lazily makes her way to her room. There’s no one in their living room or the kitchen and she pouts. Deciding Lauren has had time enough to shower, she goes to her room and knocks.

There’s no response so she knocks again, and being the impatient creature that she is, when after that there’s still no reply, she pushes the door open a few inches.

“Lolooo,” she drawls, “can I come in?”

She hears a quiet curse and then, “yeah, yes come in.”

When she opens the door she’s met with something she didn’t expect. Lauren is sitting on her bed, wrapped in a towel and her hair still wet. But that’s not what shocks Camila; it’s the fact that her eyes are red and so is her nose and she’s avoiding eye contact.

“Lauren?” She asks worriedly. She closes the door sofly and approaches her. Lauren sniffles, wrapping her arms tightly around her towel-clad torso. Camila sits next to her and puts her hand on her back over the fluffy white towel. Lauren is still warm from the shower and she smells strongly of peaches and vanilla. A shuddering breath shakes her figure and Camila nudges herself closer, wrapping her in a side hug.

“What’s wrong?” Camila asks, forehead all furrowed.

Lauren shakes her head. “Nothing, I’m just-“ her voice breaks and she swallows. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously something.” Camila argues gently. “You're sitting in your bed, wrapped in a towel and crying.”

Lauren looks down at herself like she just noticed this fact. “I… came out of the shower and I got distracted.” She pulls at the edge of her towel embarrassed and glances at Camila for a fraction of a second. It’s enough for the other girl to see the sadness and hurt reflected on her eyes, the same eyes that are always so full of life and fire. She puts her hand on Lauren’s cheek and turns her towards her.

“What happened? Tell me. Do I need to kill someone?” That tears a tiny smile out of Laruen. “I will.”

“I know you will,” she answers gratefully. Lauren sniffles and glances at her phone on the night stand. “It’s nothing. I shouldn’t even care.”

Camila quickly grabs the offending object. She unlocks it and realizes what Lauren was looking at that got her so upset.

“This is…” she mumbles as she read one after another. Lauren looks away, her lip trembling. “Bullshit.”

The curse falling from Camila’s mouth tears a giggle out of Lauren. Camila looks up at her shocked. “You can’t be- don’t tell me this-“ she’s so mad she can’t even put words into sentences. “Lauren these people are irrelevant.”

“Are they?” She asks. “Isn’t the public opinion the most important thing right now?”

“Yes, but our fans'! Not this- this-“ Camila reads some of the tweets again. They are all mentioning Lauren and some of them are pretty ugly.

‘i hope u die bitch. u dont deserve keaton @laurenjauregui’ 

‘@laurenjauregui your so ugly. who would want to date you? lol’

‘@laurenjauregui STAY AWAY FROM KEATON OR ILL FIND YOU AND KILL YOU'

‘Your a joke. You can’t even sing. Bitch. Keaton’s gonna realize soon @laurenjauregui’

“Pathetic losers!” She finally cries. Camila puts the phone away and looks at Lauren seriously. “Lauren, your fans love you. I mean, like, they adore you. And why wouldn’t they…?” She trails off. Lauren smiles up at her unsure. 

“You’re so sweet, and so, so, so talented.” Camila gets lost in her rant. “You sing like an angel. Seriously, sometimes I listen to you and I think to myself ‘damn, she can’t be human’.” Lauren lets out a chuckle. “And you are so nice and so funny and so lovable. But you take crap from no one, I love that about you.”

Without noticing, Camila has trapped Lauren’s hand between both of hers and is looking at her with so much passion that Lauren feels overwhelmed.

“And don’t get me started on how gorgeous you are. ‘Ugly’? Please, nothing about you is ugly. Your eyes, your hair, your- your…” Camila trails off as she notices how stalkerish she’s starting to sound. “Your everything. I mean, really, Lauren. You know this, these bitches on twitter know this, everyone knows this.”

“I’m just… I’m not as strong or confident as I think I am. We’ve gotten hate before and I ignored it, but seeing all this,” she points at the phone, “directed at me. It just mined my self-steem. ”

“These girls are just jealous. They would’ve said the same to any of us,” Camila says somewhat uncomfortable. She’s reluctant to mention Keaton because that means addressing the fact that they might be dating and she really doesn’t want to talk about that.

“Of what?” Lauren asks frustrated. “Of me and Keaton?  We’re not even dating! Just because we hang out and spend time together, doesn’t mean we’re dating.”

“Oh.” Camila blinks, not sure of what to say. Suddenly a weight she didn’t know existed is lifted from her shoulders. “Well they- they don’t know that and they are jealous of the fact that… you two are good friends?” She asks more than affirms.

“That’s what pisses me off. They don’t even know anything.” Lauren waves her hands around, quickly getting her fire back. Camila's distracted for a second when her towel slips half an inch lower.

“Right…” She quickly averts her eyes when Lauren looks at her. “Right. They are stupid, you shouldn’t be bothered by them, like, at all.”

“I know…” Lauren rolls her eyes at herself. “I’m just really emotional and the contest is getting harder and it’s just the first time I’ve been, like, bullied this way.”

“Ignore them, babe.” The pet name is out of her mouth before she can really dwell on it. “You have us and your fans and we love you and we think you’re rad.”

Lauren chuckles, “yeah”. She looks down at herself and her half-dried hair. “I should change.”

Camila glances at her, from her legs, to her arms, her chest and her face. A face that is looking at her with a cocked eyebrow right now. “Stop checking me out.”

“I wasn’t,” she replies way too fast, then blushes to the tip of her ears. Lauren raises the other eyebrow. “Shut up. I’m gonna go.”

She stands to leave, properly chastised for her oogling, when Lauren calls her.

“Come here.” She steps into Camila’s personal space and hugs her tightly. Camila closes her eyes and hugs back just as hard. “Thank you, Cams. I love you so much and I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Camila presses her face to fresh skin and wet hair, feeling her heart drumming hard against her ribcage and a stream of words that want to escape her throat. She presses her lips together tightly and just nods against Lauren’s shoulder.

She steps back, letting out a slow breath she was holding through her mouth. Lauren captures her hand as they end the hug and she's locked in place by that simple touch. They look at each other for what feels like an eternity. Camila doesn’t know what’s happening; she only knows Lauren’s thumb is rubbing the back of her hand and she’s looking at her so intently she’s afraid she’s going to burst into flames. There's that tension building and she panics because suddenly she doesn't want to resolve it, she wants to go and never speak of it, but those eyes have a magnetic pull that’s so hard to escape.

When Lauren drops her hand and looks away, Camila finally regains control of her body. She realizes they have only been standing there for a few seconds but it’s enough to leave her mind a complete mess. Lauren goes to change, seemingly unaffected, and she leaves the room without another word, closing the door behind her softly. With quick steps, she gets to her room, shuts the door and falls back on her bed.