Thats The Way Love Goes (Norminah)

Prologue

Fifth Harmony was never meant to last forever. Everyone knew that, even if the fans didn't want to face it. Every girl in the group eventually wanted to break away and do their own thing. Unfortunately for them, and the fans, the opportunity came a lot quicker than either imagined.

Arguments are expected when you force five young girls to be together 24/7 for months at a time, for multiple years. Insecurities, relationships, hormones, and then adding the stress of touring and being in the spotlight, it would drive anyone crazy. It doesn't take long before the five of them are no longer each other's support system. I mean people grow apart as they get older, it's life. But with a life like there's it can also be dangerous when people begin to find other means of dealing.

Unfortunately that's exactly happened and became the catalyst for what would eventually be the break up of Fifth Harmony. The world was almost as sad as when The Spice Girls broke up, that's how much popularity and fame the girls had reached in their short six year career together.

Camila had always taken the fame and the bullying harder than the rest. Maybe it was because she got the most, who knows. Unlike Lauren, who didn't enjoy the fame aspect either, writing didn't work for her. She tried reading, she tried working out and everything else a person could think of. Even her psychiatrists were running out of ideas. Normally she would have gone to the girls but they were all dealing with their own demons. Truth be told, ever since she had broken away to do that duet with Shawn Mendes, it seemed like there was a strain between her and the other four. Sure they still laughed and talked and hugged each other, but there was a wall and Camila had never regretted anything more in her life.

Well until the night she found drugs. It was something she had never, ever planned on touching. Not only was she not interested but her mother would kill her. But all it took was one night. The wrong guy found her on the wrong night and all she could think of was 'it'll just be this once.' She had been having a shitty few weeks anyway and a nice pick me up might be exactly what she needed. It was definitely what she needed. She needed it so bad.

Once turned into twice turned into any free time she had. At first she tried to hide it from the girls. Going out to parties with them and disappearing then reappearing a few hours later. Finding different hiding places on the tour bus which wasn't easy. But like any addiction it started to affect her life, especially her professional life and the girls got suspicious. It didn't take long for them to figure it out and all it did was cause the split to widen within the group.

At first the four tried to help. Promising to help her break this addiction she had. She wasn't interested though. The drugs made her feel better, it made her happier, like she could conquer life the way she used to before everything went to shit. So she brushed them off even though they begged and pleaded for her to let them help. She didn't need them. She had her salvation.

But like true friends the four didn't want to give up, especially Dinah. Dinah had always been her closest friend in the group. Even after the Mendes duet happened and the other girls were angry at her for betraying them without her knowledge, Dinah stuck by. Things might have been a little uncomfortable but the younger girl always tried to ease her worries and let her know she still loved her just as much as she always would.

That's why Dinah made it her mission to start following Camila and attending all the parties she did to 'watch' her. That was the intent but it didn't take long for things to go from bad to worst. It was at one of those parties that Dinah found alcohol. Well, not found., it wasn't like she had never drank before but it was different. This time she drank until she couldn't feel the sadness anymore. The thoughts of Camila heading into a downward spiral, the group heading towards its no doubt end and the idea that her four closest friends were no longer close anymore. One shot became two became three and soon there was nothing but blackness. She liked it like that.

Fortunately most of this was kept on the DL. At least for a minute but like everything that is done in the dark, it eventually comes to light. Eventually, the media finds out what's going on and the news spreads like wildfire. Dinah, Camila and Fifth Harmony's name as a whole is plastered on every tabloid and TV screen. TMZ hasn't left them alone in months. The other girls are frustrated, it's obvious. More often than not it seems any time the group has to make an appearance, it just ends up being the three of them. When Camila and Dinah do show up it's obvious their addictions are getting worst rather than better. There's just a tad more bags under Camila's eyes or Dinah's hair looks a little more sloppy than it did the last time. Everyone knows it won't be long before this thing crashes and burns, and they're right.

It's a Tuesday morning when the other three decide they have had enough and call a group meeting. They're a little surprised when both Camila and Dinah both show up and are both sober. Still, they know it won't last long. Ally is the first to speak because out of the three of them, she's the most gentle. She explains the issue and the problems the three have with the two while Lauren and Normani sit back quietly. It doesn't last long though. Dinah and Camila are quick to deny their addiction and issues which pisses Lauren off. Without any tact whatsoever she calls them idiots and tells them that they're ruining their lives. Normani agrees. Camila bounces back with the fact that all the other three are worried about is the group and not their friends. Dinah points out that they're not friends anymore, just coworkers. Normani tries to explain that they're more interested in their well-beings and not the group. Things quickly get loud and soon insults are flying, there is shoving happening and Ally is having to push herself between four girls to keep the peace.

It's Lauren that says the two words that everyone else is thinking. The End. And that's it. All of a sudden the group is over, right there in the middle of Ally's living room. No one argues because they know it's been over for a while. Instead they nod, a silent agreement before they all leave and head back to their own respective apartments. It's over.

The fans are crushed but many were able to see it coming. The only thing they can do is wait to hopefully support the solo careers of the other three girls, pray that Camila and Dinah work out their issues and hope that they'll eventually get a reunion tour in the future. Things don't look promising though.

The rift between the girls becomes even more real as everyone breaks apart to do their own thing. Normani continues to record and make music, venturing out on a solo career. Ally gets a call to work on Broadway and immediately accepts, something that has always been in her heart. Lauren doesn't do anything. Instead she disappears for a while without a trace before Normani assures an interviewer that she's just find, she went college and the two are still very good friends. When asked about the other members, the singer shrugs. She is and will always be close friends with Ally but the other two, not so much.

Dinah and Camila struggle after the split but eventually find their way out. Although Normani and Lauren are no longer apart of their lives, Ally never leaves. With the help of Ally and family, Dinah is able to kick her drinking habit and get her life back together before things get too off course. Camila isn't so lucky. It takes her hitting rock bottom, Ally finding her asleep in random alleyways of NYC before she has enough and works on kicking the habit. It takes months of her sleeping on Ally's couch and the smaller woman holding a trembling body in her arms through the night before she begins to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel again. Dinah helps too, her own addiction struggles helping Camila beat her own and she's never been more thankful for her two bandmates than she was then.

Eventually the other two re-enter the spotlight on a positive note. Dinah as a well-established and popular songwriter and Camila as a spokesperson for drug addiction and other issues close to her heart. She can't help but think Lauren would be proud. But the truth was she hadn't spoken to Lauren or Normani since that night. Neither had Dinah. The only link the two of them had to the other two was Ally, who was the bridge between the crater that became Fifth Harmony. Always having been the glue that kept the girls together, it was no surprise that she still talked to all four of them. It helped though since even if none of the others knew, she was constantly assuring two that the other two were fine. She still had hope that there would be a reunion in their future. If not for the group then just of the five friends. They had gone through too much together just to not be in each other's lives anymore.

She was so sure of it that a few years later when she gave birth to her son she named him Michael Cameron and named Dinah and Normani the god-parents. This way her son had a piece of each of them in some sort of way. It became inevitable. Eventually the five would have to be together again. She made it her mission to get them in the same room again, knowing that's all it would take for them to start talking again. She would make sure it to do it or she would die trying.