Secrets

Reunited

I sat up quickly, instincts taking over, other hand coming to the rescue to wipe off the substance. More fluff.

"Did you take the picture?" I heard a familiar voice say.

"Of course!" Lauren excitedly said followed by a laugh.

I heard more laughter come afterwards, some new and oddly familiar. I immediately recognized it: Christina Nicola Costanza! I instantly used my shirt to escape the white substance impeding me from getting a view of my best friend. Once I met her eyes I quickly stood up and tackled her down with a hug.

"I missed you." I said in the crook of her neck.

"Me too, J." she squeezed back equally hard.

"Okay, but these are going on insta." I heard Camila say.

"No!" I turn around trying to reach for her phone and failed.

"No?" she said teasingly with a cocky smirk.

"Please?" I said now trying to sound as sincere and endearing as possible.

"I asked you to sleep in my room, not the couch." she said trying to look offended.

I huffed giving up now.

"Fine."

"Wait really?" Dinah jumped in now surprised as ever.

"Yeah. Gotta make those memories, you know?" I nodded.

"Why is it so hard to make her mad?" Lauren said rolling her eyes playfully.

I smirked and hugged my best friend again. That's when I realized the three guys were missing. She must've noticed because she did some type of snoring noise and I understood quickly. I checked the time on the TV because the news was playing and I realized we were currently on time. I smiled in pride.

I told the girls to get ready, and Chrissy and I went to our room and got ready ourselves. Today was suppose to be an off day for them, but she said we needed to do some catching up so I let her come along. I met the girls in the bus as I told them we would. The ride was more of a bunch of small talk. Normani was youtubing, Lauren on her phone, Ally eating desserts, Camila chatting away with Dinah. Chrissy sitting next to me and watching it all go down.

"The reason we came early was because something.... happened." Chrissy finally broke me from my strance.

"What happened?" I asked giving her my total attention.

She was hesitant and and fidgety. Two signs that intended this was not going to be good as I saw it coming.

"Hey. Are you okay? Are the guys okay?" worry and an increased heart rate were taking over by now.

"Calm down, we're all healthy, I promise." she said with a sad smile.

I gave her a confused look. If everyone was physically okay, what other thing could possibly go wrong? Chrissy was not the type of person to overthink or worry about the little things, so if this was bothering her, it was something of more importance than she was giving off.

"Is your family okay? Are my parents okay? Are-"

"EVERYONE IS OKAY. IT'S JUST YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE." she suddenly yelled back.

Everyones head in the bus turned, and suddenly we were engulfed in silence.

"What do you mean?" bewildered and dazed I inched on.

She looked around the bus. She started shaking her head uncontrollably. One-- no two-- three? Too many to count now, tears rolling down her cheeks.