The Voice (Camren)

7. Lunch time

Camila and Louis spent the whole morning listening to new contestants and taking notes about them. Eventually, Harry joined them with a notebook of his own, but instead of writing, he drew. His skilled hands only needed a couple of lines to portray the singers in front of him. He was quite talented, Camila often found herself lost in Harry's sketches, when she should be noting down what she thought about her competition. Harry soon got tired of portraying the contestants and focused his attention on the coaches. Since they were in front of him most of the time, he was able to make a more accurate drawing. He started with Lauren and Camila couldn't help peeking every now and then into Harry's draft.

The Blind Auditions soon came to an end and a break for lunch was announced.

"Harry and I were planning on going to an Italian not far away from here, wanna come?" Louis kindly offered.

"Uhm... I don't know, maybe you two wanted to spend some time alone..."

"Nonsense. You're coming with us" Harry stated. 

"Ok" Camila happily agreed.

"Oh. And here you are" Harry said, handling Camila his portrayal of Lauren. "I noticed how you looked at it as I drew it and I figured you'd like to have it"

"If you only had noticed how she looks at her" Louis muttered under his breath. Luckily, Camila didn't catch his words.

"Oh. I can't accept it. It's yours, it's taken you time to do it and..."

"Nonsense" Harry said again. He gave Camila the drawing, smiling widely. She thanked the lovely boy as she stuffed the piece of paper in the tight space between her belt and her dress.

"Now, let's go" Harry said.

The three of them quickly collected their things and walked down the stairs. Camila was actually excited. She was about to eat her favorite food, the incomparable, impossibly delicious pizza with two awesome guys. And then she got to come back and listen to more music and maybe glance at Lauren a couple (or triple or multiple, why not?) times. Speaking of the devil, she was approaching them at a fast pace.

"Hey. Wait a sec!" Lauren commanded.

The group stopped and turned around at the sound the coach's order.

"Camila, Louis" she greeted. "And you are...?" she said addressing Harry.

"I'm Harry, Louis' boyfriend. Nice to meet you" he introduced himself confidently.

"What a lucky guy you are" Lauren pointed out boldly.

"I am indeed" Harry said, putting his arm around Louis's waist. The two guys behaved as a madly-in-love couple. They couldn't be happier.

"Anyways, it's lunch time and I've got a couple of issues I wanted to discuss with you, Camila. I was wondering if you'd like to join me for lunch?"

"Actually, I was going to go wi-"

"She'd love to" Louis chimed in, preventing Camila for declining the offer. "We were just leaving" he added, taking Harry's hand in his. The couple walked hurriedly to the exit, abandoning the two girls, who now standed  awkwardly in front of each other in the middle of the empty stage.

"Come. We will eat in my office"

"Do you have an office here?"

"Oh yeah. I don't know why because I spend most of my time in the studio, but it comes in handy from time to time" Lauren said smirking at the thought of the last time she'd been in that office. With Lucy. All by themselves.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"Well... Nothing important" Lauren dodged the question. "By the way, I ordered pizza. Is that ok?"

"More than ok. It's my favorite food, actually" Camila stated grinning widely. After all, she got to eat pizza today.

"I knew it" Lauren stated smugly.

"How?"

"It's written all over your face. Just kidding. It's on you contestant file. In the "Others" category, more precisely" she added.

"So you took a look at my file, uh?"

"I had to. And so did I with your teammates' as well. So don't flatter yourself, kiddo"

"Hey, hey. No need to "kiddo" me" Camila said, feigning being offended. She was surprisingly pleased with the dynamic her conversation with Lauren had taken on. They were now talking as if they were old friends, who knew each other from kindergarten. No palpable tension, just a relaxed chat between two people who clearly got along.

"Ok, ok. But Camila's still too long to address you every time" Lauren complained as an adorable pout was drawn onto her features.

"Are you kidding me? It's three syllables long" Camila said in disbelief.

"Oh shut up, Camz"

"Camz?" Camila felt a warm wave flood her chest as she pronounced her new given nickname.

"Do you like it?" Lauren asked hesitantly.

"Yeah. Whatever rocks your boat, you lazy person" Camila said grinning involuntarily.

"You love it" Lauren stated boastfully.

"You wish" Camila replied. Although she secretly knew Lauren was right.

They arrived at Lauren's office, which had a beautiful mahogany door. Lauren opened it letting Camila go in first.

"Thank you"

"You're welcome, Camz" Now that Lauren had found the perfect name to address Camila, she couldn't help to say it out loud as many times as possible.

Lauren's office was a spacious, rectangular room. It had a very big window which almost filled up the wall located opposite to the door, a large mahogany desk and black leather couch next to the wall which was furthest from the door. Camila noticed the windowsill was full of pots with different kinds of plants. So Lauren was into gardening. Weird, she thought. Nevertheless the most important item of the room was on top of the desk and those were two large boxes of pizza. Without thinking about it twice, Camila leaped on the food, hungry as a wolf. She was about to take a bite of her first 'Quattro Formaggi' slice, when she felt Harry's drawing slip off her belt and slowly fall on the floor. Lauren immediately kneeled down to pick it up, curious about what was on the piece of paper.