Don't Touch Me

"There's not a lot of people I'd trust with Lauren's safety."

Alejandro had taken off again to go visit his mentally ill wife in Iowa. And Lauren was sort of getting annoyed with this because he kept leaving his two minor daughters on their own in the hopes that they'd be okay.

And sure, Camila had enough money to ensure that they'd never want for anything. But the raven-haired girl still thought it was sort of shit that the woman who tried to kill her girlfriend was getting more sympathy from her father.

But that wasn't the only thing irritating Lauren as of late.

Her mother was back in town with her two siblings and more often than not, she'd been invited to go out for dinners. Paid exclusively by the money Camila was making by being away from Lauren.

And that was sort of becoming a regular thing as well. Camila was always off doing gigs here and there now, which Lauren totally supported because she sort of saw the light returning in her girlfriend's eyes.

But she missed Camila.

She missed her a lot.

So it was a whole load of things that was really peeving Lauren off.

The weirdest part was...she didn't really turn to Lucy with all of it. She still smoked with Lucy a lot, more so when she knew she had to be around her family, and she still let Lucy bug her with the most stupid shit ever, but...Lauren found herself talking to Normani more.

Like, a lot more.

They were sort of becoming friends...though only sort of. Because Normani was Camila's friend and Lauren didn't really know how that worked in a relationship. She didn't know if they could both be friends with the people one knew before getting with the other. But she found Normani listened a lot...and their personalities were pretty similar aside for Normani's poor music taste and lack of violent tendencies.

"I can't believe I'm meeting your family tonight," Camila rummaged through her wardrobe as Lauren sat behind her on the bed just...watching.

Because it had been a while since she'd been granted the opportunity to just observe Camila without wondering what time she'd have to skip out. Or without having Sofi beside her.

Because that was another thing that came with Alejandro leaving so often, Lauren was practically the only one left in the house and so Sofi was sort of her responsibility until Camila came back. And Camila always came back tired. This whole arrangement, to Lauren, was bullshit.

And Normani agreed.

She suggested Lauren speak to her girlfriend about this on more than one occasion but Lauren didn't exactly want the brown-eyed girl to think her career was suddenly a burden on Lauren's life. Lauren loved Camila, she loved that the girl was doing what she loved doing when she was younger.

She could physically see how much lighter Camila's shoulders had become since she started doing something she loved again.

"What if they don't like me?" Camila asked the most conventional question ever and earned a cocked brow from her girlfriend. "I'm serious! I'm so...annoying sometimes. And I ramble. Like a lot. And you have to tell me if I have food stuck in my teeth, okay? And-"

"You're fucking beautiful." Lauren cut her off and looked her girlfriend up and down.

The girl was dressed down in a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt. Her hair was up in a messy bun and her toenails had nail polish chipping off of them. And Camila's face was free of make-up and she was wearing that carefree smile she had when everything was just relaxed.

And Lauren was just so goddamn in love with the girl that she couldn't quite comprehend it herself.

"If that's you way of trying to calm my nerves," Camila turned her back on her girlfriend again and dug around in her wardrobe some more. "It's not working, they're your parents, Lauren."