Love Me (Normani)

Chapter 49

On the car journey home, Normani felt sick. With Lauren being her cute, annoying and persuasive self, she'd managed to get Normani to eat the entire box of the small portion of pasta salad. Lauren was admittedly hurt when Normani got in the back and said Sofi could ride shotgun, but Normani was being stubborn and she was upset with her for making her eat. Lauren knew that, but at the end of the day she really wanted her girlfriend to get better, and Normani would realise that one day, hopefully one day soon. Camila had Normani's head resting on her shoulder as well as her hand in hers warmly, which spurred pure sadness and jealousy in Lauren. That should be her hand Normani was holding, not Camila's. Besides, Camila wanted Normani to eat too, shouldn't she be annoyed at her as well? She supposed at least in Normani's mind, Camila didn't actually feed her. Sofi had a good time at the beach and had forgotten all about the carnival and her friend, droning on about her adventures in the sea that weren't very interesting, but were extremely repetitive. It was cute the first time she told the story, and tolerable the second, but as it turned into the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and now approaching the sixth, they all couldn't wait to get home. Camila was praying to the Lord above that Sofi wouldn't continue her antics once they'd got back, or she would seriously consider making a deal with the devil on trading her sister for someone else. When Lauren pulled up outside Camila's house, everyone was relieved, Sofi of course was just oblivious though. "Okay come on Sofi, time to go." "Mila did you hear my last story?" Sofi asked as she got out the car to go to her side. "Yes Sof, I did hear." She didn't though, she was tuning her out. "I wanna tell you again! So I saw this crab and I-" Camila groaned and grabbed Lauren's door on the fully open window begging, "Please take me with you." "Have fun." Lauren smirked and gave a smug wave. "I hate you." Camila growled grumpily as she followed Sofi up the path, pretending to be interested as she heard how her little sister had supposedly rescued the poor creature from being trapped in seaweed. "That's nice Sofi." She sighed out as she rummaged for her key. Lauren chuckled and turned to Normani. "Sofi's gone now, wanna sit up front?" Normani rolled her eyes and looked out the window. "No thanks." Lauren sighed and pulled off in the direction of her house, just wanting to go to bed. It had been a long day. Lauren and Normani both entered the house, but they didn't speak. Lauren tried to talk to her girlfriend, but Normani wasn't co operating and Lauren was just tired. Lauren just went to her room, got changed and got into the bed. Normani had gone to the bathroom and came into the room a little later. When she entered the bedroom and saw Lauren cuddling her Nala, clearly looking upset, she felt guilty. She didn't want to sleep mad at each other, so decided now was a good time to make it up. Normani crawled over Lauren and lifted the duvet, cuddling up to her from behind. "I'm sorry Lolo." Lauren sighed, not even looking at her. "Please talk to me, I'm sorry I was grumpy with you." "Did you purge it?" Lauren asked, her voice wavering. "No." Normani told her honestly. She may have hated the fact that she'd eaten, and the voices in her head may have been screaming at her, but she thought of Lauren and how much she loved her and how hard she tried, and as much as she wanted to, she couldn't do it. Lauren smiled to herself. "You didn't?" "I couldn't, you're trying so hard to help me, so I'm trying too." Normani said sincerely. Lauren smiled widely and turned over to face her girlfriend. "So are we good?" "We're good." Lauren nodded and leaned over to kiss her. Normani breathed out a sigh of relief when their lips met and pulled the girl closer by her waist. "You look a little pale." Normani noticed. "Yeah I've got a stomach ache." Lauren mumbled. "Aw poor baby, can I help?" "There's some medicine in my draw, can you grab it?" "Sure." Normani agreed, getting out of bed and searching through the draw, she found the medicine and held it up victoriously. "Gotcha!" Lauren giggled at her girlfriend and picked up her water bottle. "Thanks." Normani sat back on the bed and waited patiently for Lauren to be done. "I'm really tired." Lauren said just before a yawn. "Go to sleep." Normani suggested. "Mmm but I wanna cuddle." Lauren whined, holding out her arms and making grabbing motions with her hands. Normani giggled and tackled the girl so they were both laying down. Lauren hummed contently with an adorable smile on her face as she squeezed Normani's waist in the hug. "Better?" Normani mumbled against Lauren's neck. "Much better." The two girls fell asleep, but Lauren woke up in the middle of the night in tears because her stomach hurt so bad. "Mani." She whimpered. "Mani wake up." Normani groaned and buried her head further into her pillow. "Mans please." A sob escaped and Normani started to stir. "What?" She mumbled sleepily and confused. "M-Mani?" Normani's eyes opened fully and she pushed herself up to look at her crying girlfriend. "Babe what's wrong?" "My tummy hurts." She cried. Normani pulled the girl into her arms and rubbed her back to soothe her. "Take some deep breaths baby, you want me to go get you some water?" Lauren nodded weakly, but she didn't want Normani to leave her either. "Do you feel sick?" Lauren nodded her head again. "Okay, just wait here for me. I won't be long." Normani promised, kissing Lauren's temple and getting out of bed. She liked being useful for a change. She liked that just for once, she wasn't the problem. Normani returned with a glass of cold water and anti sickness pills, but she figured it was a little late for that when she heard vomiting in the bathroom. Normani sighed, placed the two items on the table and went to tend to Lauren. Lauren's eyes were red, her cheeks warm and she was hunched over the toilet throwing up. Much like Normani would, except with Lauren, it was unintentional. Normani crouched down behind her and tied her hair in a bun, the way Lauren did for her. She rubbed the girl's back while she threw up mercilessly into the toilet bowl. After another few minutes Lauren sighed wth relief and sat back on her legs. "You feeling a bit better now?" Normani asked gently. Lauren nodded weakly and Normani smiled softly. "Get up, c'mon." Normani helped her girlfriend up and held Lauren by her waist, flushing the contents of her stomach away. "Go wash your hands." Lauren did so slowly while Normani got a washcloth and told Lauren to sit on the bathtub. She dabbed at Lauren's face the same way she had done for her at Camila's to cool her down, except lucky for her she didn't have to get any vomit out of her hair. Lauren watched Normani who looked concentrated on doing this perfectly. Lauren had done this for her, so she had to do it for Lauren, the right way, even better than she had done for her. But that probably wasn't possible. Lauren got up and went to her bedroom, taking the anti sickness pill and slowly drinking some cold water in case she threw up again. "Lay down now, try and get some sleep." Normani kissed her temple and got into bed before Lauren did. Lauren was silent as she had done all this. She was too tired to talk. "Goodnight." Normani mumbled as Lauren sighed heavily, her breath exiting her nose and landing on her face. The sick girl clutched her Nala to her chest and fell asleep instantly.