Love Me (Normani)

Chapter 5

Normani was dancing her ass off in the big dance show. She could see all the proud smiles of her two friends, her mother, and especially her father. Their grins were her motivation, and she did it. Camila, Lauren, her Mom and Dad crushed the girl in a group hug backstage and Normani hugged them all back with a smile on her own face. "You did so good sweetie, really well done tonight." Andrea smiled. "Amazing." Camila gushed. "Good job Mani." Lauren smiled widely. "Come here, you did wonderfully precious." "Thank you Daddy." Normani was squeezed in a hug. "Now, let's all indulge. What do we all feel like?" "Pizza!" Camila shouted excitedly. "Pizza it is! On me." Normani smiled up at her father. "Eat as much of whatever you want as you feel like." Normani hugged her father again. She really wanted to make her parents proud, and tonight, she had. Lauren and Camila wrapped their arms around the girl's waist and walked with her to the nearest pizza parlour. They all ate and chatted, some more than others. Strangely enough, Normani didn't eat much. "You okay?" Camila asked with a small frown. "Yeah, I'm just tired from the show." Normani said, pushing her plate away from her and leaning back in her seat next to her mother. "Maybe we should take you home so you can get some well earned sleep." "Thanks." Normani smiled shyly. Her father pulled her to one side and frowned. "Are you feeling alright? I thought you'd love pizza." "Yeah, yeah I'm just tired." "Okay, if you say so." Her father held out his arm and Normani took it and walked with him to his car. "We'll come by tomorrow, we can go somewhere." Lauren smiled with Camila. "That'll be nice." Her mother commented. "You're lucky with your friends." Normani nodded and got in the car to go home. The next day came around and Normani tore down the poster behind the tapestry, throwing it away. No more hard practising, or hard dieting. "Normani! Your friends are here!" Her father called upstairs. Normani came downstairs and smiled when she saw Lauren at the door. "Hi, I hope you don't mind, I brought a mutual friend of mine and Camila's. She wanted to come, is that okay?" "Sure." Normani nodded. "Hi, I'm Dinah, pleased to meet you.." "Normani." "Normani, that's a pretty name." "Thanks, so is Dinah." Dinah blushed and looked at her feet. She didn't often get many compliments. "Shall we go?" Camila asked, all the attention going to her. "Where are we going?" "Bowling!" Dinah grinned. "And then we're all getting McDonald's." Camila added cheerfully. Normani and Lauren tied winning bowling, so they were both deemed the winners, earning Dinah and Camila buying them each a drink. "Two Sprites please." "I actually want a bottle of water." Normani said. "You always have Sprite." Camila said, puzzled. "Well today I feel like water." Normani shrugged. "Okay, then water it is." Dinah said. "I'll get your Sprite." Camila said, talking to Lauren. "What do we want to eat?" "Just a small fries please." Everyone looked at the girl with eyebrows raised. "Normani is everything okay?" Lauren asked. "I'm fine. Just a small stomach ache." Normani explained. When the food arrived, Normani started to really feel sick. "You don't look so good. Do you need to go home?" Dinah asked. Normani looked at the brown eyed girl and nodded. "Yeah, I think I do. Sorry guys. Enjoy the rest of your day." "No wait, I'll take you!" Lauren called out, but Normani was gone. "Well that was odd." Camila said, her mouth full of chicken nuggets. "Ew Mila, gross." Dinah rolled her eyes. "Don't talk with your mouth full Camz, it's disgusting." "Sorry." She said, with her mouth full. Dinah groaned. "I know I barely know her, but should I go after her?" Lauren hesitated but shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Leave her be." "She'll be alright." Camila waved her hand, swiftly popping another nugget in her mouth. "Jesus, do you ever stop eating Camila?" Dinah scoffed, sitting back down. "No." Lauren and Camila said simultaneously. "Damn, you guys are in sync." "Yep." They said again. "Stop it, that's scary." "Sorry." They did it again. Dinah stood up and shuddered. "That's it, chasing Normani wherever is more appealing that you two freaky weirdos." Dinah got a chicken nugget thrown at her head for that by Camila. She left the fast food restaurant and found Normani waiting for a bus alone. "Normani!" Normani turned her head. "Hi Dinah." "Are you alright?" "Yeah, I'm sure I will be soon. Thank you." Normani said, checking the time anxiously. "Waiting for the next bus will take a while. Let me walk you home." "You don't have to do that." Normani started, but Dinah shook her head, cutting her off silently. "I insist." Normani sighed and nodded. "Alright, thanks." Dinah offered a warm smile and they got walking side by side. "So, tell me about yourself." Dinah said, breaking the mildly awkward silence. "Uh, there's not much to tell you really. I'm 16, I love dancing, that's really it." "Ah come on, what about your family, where you came from or grew up. What you like to do in your spare time. Who you have a crush on?" "Ask me again when I'm not so tired." Normani said as they came to her door. "That was a quicker walk than I thought." Dinah said, somewhat disappointed. "Sorry?" Normani said questioningly. "I really need to rest, but bowling was fun with you today. Well, you know, all of you. Not just you-but you're cool! Maybe I'll see you around." "Definitely. Here, let me give you my number." Dinah got out a pen and scribbled it on her hand. "Text me sometime. I'd love to hang out with you again, maybe alone next time. So we can get to know each other a bit better." Normani half smiled and looked down at the phone number on her hand, meeting Dinah's hopeful eyes after. "That'd be nice." Dinah's worried face broke into a smile. "Great! Well, I'll see you Normani. Hope you feel better soon." "Thanks. Bye Dinah." "Bye." Dinah waved with a smile on her face as the girl went inside her house and disappeared from her sight. "Man you need to chill." Dinah screamed and jumped before she saw it was Lauren. "Don't do that!" "You totally like her." "We literally just met." Lauren nudged her arm and giggled. "Trust me, I know these things. You'll see in time." "Sure I will." Dinah rolled her eyes. "Anyway, how did she seem to you?" Lauren pressed. "I don't know, I don't know her well enough to judge, you know?" "I get it, I'm just worried about her." "Maybe she's got a bug or something. I'm sure she'll be right as rain soon." Dinah smiled. "Yeah, probably." Lauren was clearly unconvinced despite her words. "Stop fretting Lauser, let's go back to yours and chill." "And I can tease you more about your little crush-" "Oh-okay, screw you, I'm going home." Dinah walked away. "I'm kidding!" Lauren called after her with a lighthearted laugh. "Byeeeeeee!" Dinah extended the word. Normani watched the two girls from outside her window and smiled slightly before going to bed to take a nap. Lauren saw her friend leave the window though, wondering if she'd heard anything.