Unstoppable (Lauren Cimorelli x You)

Slow

Lauren's POV

As we walk out of the hospital, I rub the bandage on my arm from having my blood drawn. "I hope Jo made that easier on you. How are you feeling?" Y/N asks. "She was fine." My answer was short but my mind is all over the place.

We get in the car and I pull my phone out from my pocket. Eight missed calls I read on the screen. I sigh as I unlock my phone. "Amy has called me seven times and Chris has called me once. Do you mind?" I ask pointing at the phone. "No, go ahead."

I decide to call Christina because I know she won't be in panic mode. I can't deal with that right now. On the second ring, she picks up. 

"Lauren? Where the flip are you? Amy said you didn't come home last night and wouldn't answer your phone today." Christina says loudly through the phone.

"Umm... I'm with Y/N. I'm sorry." I say quietly, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"And what the rip have you two been doing that you can't answer the phone? Amy called me freaking out because she thought you were dead." Christina asks.

"I'm sorry. We were just hanging out and my phone was on silent." I try to lie without her catching on. I'm a terrible liar but at least this is through the phone so I have a chance of getting away with it.

"Is everything ok?" She questions me. Rip me.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" I ask nervously.

"I don't know, you tell me." Why do my sisters' read me so well?

"Everything's fine. Did you need anything else?" I sigh, ready for this conversation to be over.

"You'll be back home tonight, right?" She asks.

"Probably not. Can you let Amy know and tell her I'm fine?" I fidget with my seatbelt anxiously.

"I'll tell her you aren't coming home tonight. But we are going to talk about this later."

I say goodbye to my eldest sister before hanging up the phone. Y/N reaches over and places her hand carefully on my leg. "You can't keep this a secret from the ones that love you. Eventually, they will figure out that something happened."

"If they haven't already," I whisper as I shake my head. "I can go with you... if you need me there for support so you can tell them." She squeezes my thigh lightly as she glances over at me. "Can you just take me back to your house?"

She nods and I use my now free hand to hold hers. "If that's what you want." 

"I just need more time to process all of this before I can talk about it," I tell her, looking down at our hands in my lap.

When we get back to her apartment, I climb into her bed and bury my head in her pillows. The scent relaxes me a bit as I'm alone while Y/N is on another call. "I'm sorry. They really don't understand the meaning of taking a personal day apparently." She says as she enters.

"It's ok. It must be a lot of work owning your own business." I say as she sits on the side of the bed beside me. "Sometimes. Sometimes it's quiet. It just depends."

"When did you start dancing?" I ask curiously, watching her lean back against the headboard. "When I was three, my mom put me in ballet. Tap and jazz at six, hip-hop at eight. Literally all my life." She laughs.

"You must really love it." I laugh softly.

"I do now. Back then, not so much. It was all for my mom for a long time. I didn't truly enjoy it until about fifteen." She looks down and plays with her hands. "I hated being on camera and I wasn't getting the gigs she wanted anymore so she sent me to a performing arts school. It was fun though, I was on my own and I started to thrive." She winks at me.

"You hated being on camera, only to become someone who makes a living being on camera?" I giggle up at her. "It is different when I actually wanted to be there." She shrugs as she laughs back.

"Can I ask you something personal?" I ask quietly as she looks down at me curiously. "What happened to you? ... You said it's easy to recognize when you've been through it before."

A frown appears on her face as she glances around the room as she thinks about it. She sighs heavily before looking back at me. "I was nineteen, working a touring gig. One of the show's directors was a little too interested in me and eventually got what he wanted."

"Did you tell anyone?" I ask, moving to sit up beside her. "Only one of my friends on the tour. I ended up getting dropped after it happened. He had me fired to cover his ass." Y/N looks angrily at her lap. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"I wish it never happened but it shaped me into who I am today. I don't know if I would have gotten this far if things played out differently. The whole reason I wanted to start a studio was so I can create a safe space for people to... just dance." She smiles at me.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I press my lips against hers. She kisses back softly before pulling away suddenly. "We can't do that, Laur. Not now at least." She looks at me seriously. "Why not?" I feel my face heat up in embarrassment.

"I care about you, Lauren. I like you a lot. I can't take advantage of you after you've just gone through a trauma." I can see the care in her eyes as she pushes the hair out of my face. "I've had a crush on you since way before this happened. You're not taking advantage of me." I tell her honestly as I lean on her shoulder.

"Good to know." She laughs, wrapping her arm around my waist as she grabs the remote. I smack her playfully as I pull myself closer to her side. "We are still going to go very slow with this."