Souled Out ➳ Lauren Jauregui

nineteen

I guess Dinah was dissapointed because she hurried out of the car to start walking inside, and the other girls took it as a sign to leave with her, but I didn't want to. I came this far and I was still aching for some type of revenge. There's was still so much more to be done and the only way I could have a clear conscience is if I finish what I started.

"I'm not leaving." I said to the man up front while bucking my seatbelt across my chest. "I have to see this all for myself."

"But Lauren-" He said.

"No. I'm going, sir." I leaned back in the seat and reached up for the seatbelt to fasten myself in. Camila gave up and closed the door, and I knew the girls would be pretty pissed off at me for ditching them, but I didn't come all this way to not continue.

As he drove off, he looked up at me with his brown eyes from the rear view mirror and sighed, "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

I didn't reply because I didn't know how to. I just stared out of the window and watched the passing cars.

YOUR POV

I was sitting up in the hospital bed with my eyes glued to my phone screen as I scrolled down the page of the story.

I hadn't spent a lot of time reading stories about the girls since I met them. Now that I've hung out with them and know their personalities, it's so much harder to picture them as story book characters.

But I love to read them anyways.

I flicked the pages of Met Her Through Omegle just as Joan walked in the door with a gift wrapped box in her hands. "My baby!" She exclaimed, jumping to take a seat on the bed beside me. "This is for you. I thought since you've officially got everything you've ever wanted, you could get something you never would've expected to get."

I shook the box and looked at her, "Joan, you don't even get me a present on my birthday. What's the occasion?"

"Nothing." Her face was serious. The other night when I was on my way to my Mother's house, I saw this on the way so I had to get it."

I ripped the wrapping paper off to find a flap in the box to pull on. Once I opened it, I looked in and saw a black cube standing at about seven inches all around. I was confused. "You got me a big, black spray painted rubix cube?" I tried to seem excited, but I still didn't understand.

She chuckled and took the black box out to hold it up. "I was picking something up at this place in the mall that has a lot of kids toys because my oldest daughter is bringing her kids to town next week. Well, I don't really have anymore toys at my house anymore so, I went out to get a few." She was looking at the bottom and searching on the edge to click a button. "And this was something I knew you would love."

For a second nothing happened. It was just a black box staring back at me. Then a light flicked on inside and shined through whatever material inside to create little galaxies and stars all around the dark material. It was actually pretty cool. I always loved stars but living around the city is hard because you don't see much of the sky.

I turned to her and I could feel a smile forming on my face. I pulled Joan into a big hug and muffled into her shoulder, "Thank you so much."

She rubbed my back and hugged me just a little tighter before starting to pull away, "Okay, honey. I know it's time for you to rest and relax. Plus, I have a lot of things I have to do tonight before I head back to the house. So, I'll see you later. Okay?"

I nodded, and watched as she turned to the right and left the room as quick as possible.

I kept my eye on the box and just looked at the little electronic stars as if I was discovering new galaxies. It was a cool gift and I never really expected something so nice from Joan with the way she's been treating me lately. But maybe people can actually change.

After I turned off the box and set it aside on the bed tray, four girls came shuffling into the room looking exhausted. They all took the same seats around my bed that they've been sitting in and took deep breaths.

"Woah, what happened to you four?" I curiously asked and then I noticed that there was one-fifth missing. "And where's Lauren?"

Ally sat up in her seat and put on a smile, "Lauren wanted to stay back for a little bit because she was waiting on a phone call from one of her friends back home. She'll be here in a little bit."

"Oh." I didn't want the girls to know I was disappointed that Lauren didn't show up, but it wasn't hard to see. "Well, then what about my Dad?"

Camila cleared her throat, "Oh! We saw him at the house, but he was finishing some last minute work. He said he'd be here soon."

"Sure he will." I rolled my eyes and sunk deeper into the bed, pulling the sheets up over more than half of my body. "So, in the meantime. What do you five want to do?"

"The only thing I wanna do is sleep." Camila shot up from her seat and started crawling on my bed. She took a spot beside me and pressed her back into my side. "But you're gonna have to stop hogging the pillow."

I looked to see a tube sitting underneath Camila and decided that I needed to secure this bed for myself. I began gasping for air and crying out in a hoarse voice, "Oh Camila! You're sitting on my oxygen."

I was faking breathlessness pretty well because Camila shot up off of the bed and looked at me with those big brown eyes. "Oh my lord, are you okay?!" At this point, I was hysterical because the look of complete terror on that little Cuban's face was enough to make me die of laughter. Her eyes narrowed at me and her lips pursed, "Very funny, Y/N. But you forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"I know where your room is." Her eyebrow raised at me. "Don't expect it to look EXACTLY the way it did when you left it." That warning was enough to shut my mouth and keep it shut.