The Onstage Phenomenon (The Backstage Pass Sequel)

Chapter 1

Camila's POV

"Great, just great." Dinah mumbled, lowering herself onto the black leather couch beside me.

I slowly turned my attention from my laptop over to the rather disheveled brunette. She was clearly a bit bothered about something. Her arms were firmly crossed and pressed against her chest, her forehead was crinkled up in dissatisfaction and she had a very blatant pout upon her lips.

"Do I even have to guess what you're upset about?" I raise an eyebrow at her, amusement written all over my face.

She just huffed and chuckled slightly, shaking her head and looking down to her feet and shrugging.

"I'll take that as a no," I bite back a laugh. "What now? You get put in the dog house again?"

"I'm never in the dog house you noodlehead, we just keep having these petty little arguments that tend to escalate into something more than what they should be." She shoves my shoulder in protest.

"None of this would be happening if you would just ask her to be your girlfriend, you know?" I smirk.

"Mhm, and why do I have to be the one to do it? Why can't she ask me? Are you implying that I'm the man in this relationship?" She asks sternly, glancing over to me incredulously.

"You sure have the hands of one." I mumble under my breath, catching a pillow square in the face once she caught on to what I said.

"Seriously though, don't turn this into a gender role thing, all I'm saying is that it's been three years is all. I'm surprised you guys kept up this silly friends with benefits things but now, it's just getting plain ridiculous. You two are basically in love, why not ask the girl out?" I shrug, popping a couple pieces of skittles in my mouth from the bowl on the table.

"We don't like labels." She responds almost instantly.

"Neither do I, but guess what? People are going to label you for the rest of your life and that's wether you like it or not. So I say stop letting the labels define you and ask Normani out, call this what it really is...officially."

She takes another stubborn exhale, another pout forming on her face as she sinks further into the couch. It was obvious that she knew I was right, but besides the labels, she was only really worried about her pride if she was the first one to cave and make their relationship...well, exactly what it is, an official relationship.

For the past three years the two young women have had this on and off (but mostly on) friends with benefits relationship. That included the hand holding, making out and all three of the other girls (including Sofi once) walking in on one of their casual hook ups. They seemed quite happy with their little arrangement to begin with only having a few disagreements here and there over simple things.

It's all just been getting a bit out of hand lately. See their first argument was over Normani taking a friendly picture with Diggy Simmons. Dinah of course was a bit jealous because the picture seemed to comfortable for her pleasure. For the past week though, Dinah has been reproaching Normani over her recent mini-cation in Hawaii with her friends. For the most part she was just mad that she couldn't tag along, but on the other hand the Poly girl was upset that all she could do was stare at pictures of Normani in bikinis while her friends were there to see up close and personal which didn't sit well with Dinah. That didn't sit well with her at all. She hated the idea of other people being able to ogle at Normani's body when she couldn't do so herself.

And the struggle with that was that she couldn't get mad because she and Normani aren't together. They're not a couple. So she couldn't be mad, but she was still mad. And that itself is a struggle within itself.