The Stage Door (Camren/Norminah)

What Did I Do?

The voice was all too familiar to me and I turned to see Normani asking to be excused. Our teacher was hesitant, but nodded her head and I saw her quickly turn and run into the change room. Part of me wanted to follow her just to make sure she was okay, to see if she needed me to walk with her down to the infirmary, but the other part of me knew I couldn't do that, I still needed space, time to figure it all out and I thought it was the right decision until a body shoved past me, knocking me to the side and I looked up to see Normani, still clad in her tights and leotard, walking out with her head down.

"Was she crying?" Someone asked and guilt forced its way into my mind as the rest of the dancers turned to look at me. 

"Is she okay?" Even Madame Estelle was addressing me in regards to what had just happened and all I could do was shrug my shoulders, knowing that I was the cause of hurting someone I cared about, someone I cared about too much.

"I'm an idiot," I mumbled as I turned away from my class. 

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Normani POV

I pushed passed Dinah, shoving my shoulder into hers, partially due to anger, partially because she was standing in my way and I just needed out of that room. The tears were spilling down my face and I kept my head down, hoping no one would notice as I made my way through the students and into the empty hallway.

I didn't stop walking until I found the bathroom on the third floor, just down the hall from Lauren's class. I locked myself in the stall the furthest from the door and leaned against the cold tile, tears still very present in eyes and my heart feeling like it was shattering inside of my chest as I pulled my phone from my bag. 

Normani: SOS

Lauren: Where are you?

Normani: Bathroom down the hall from you. Last stall. 

I wanted to smile when Lauren returned my text less than a minute later, but I couldn't, I couldn't do anything but cry harder.

"Mani?" 

There was a knock on the bathroom stall and I opened it just enough to let Lauren slip into the small space with me. 

"Mani, what happened?" She said, her hand reaching up and touching gently to my chin as she lifted my head so that I was looking at her. 

"What did I do?" My voice was so small it almost scared me. "Why is she being so cold? She wouldn't even look at me, she stayed as far away from me as she could and when we needed to get a partner-" I started to cry harder, losing my balance and sliding down the wall and onto the floor, my head in my hands. 

"When  you needed to get a partner what?" Lauren asked me trying to get me to focus on my words rather than my tears.

"She fucking picked someone else," I spat. "She picked someone else, we are always partners and she picked someone else. And the girl she picked isn't even that great, I'm better, she is too small to be Dinah's dance partner. I'm her dance partner."

"Hey, hey," Lauren said moving to sit beside me, the two of us squished into the bathroom stall. "Mani, look at me, okay? Focus on me." 

Lauren was calm and sweet and I looked up at her, my vision blurred through the tears. I felt her hand on my face as she wiped at my cheeks, her thumb carefully tracing under my eyes to catch what was falling.

"Just breathe."

Lauren pulled me into a hug and we sat there for a while not saying anything, I was the first one to break the contact. "You should probably go back to class," I said with a sigh. "I don't want you to get in trouble." 

"We have a sub today," she said with a shrug. "I'm just gonna text Camila and ask her to grab my things and bring them with her to our next class."

"I don't wanna go," I told her. "I can't deal with her not talking to me, it hurts to much." 

"You can sit with me."

"Camila sits with you."

"Camila won't mind," Lauren told me and I knew she was right, Camila was the sweetest person I had ever met, besides maybe Ally. "Plus, come on, Music and Composing is your favourite class, it's everyone's favourite class and Mr. R said he would let us know today who is performing at Parent's Day and I know you don't want to miss that, because you're sure to snag a spot." 

"Gonna be hard to perform with someone who won't even look at me," I muttered and Lauren just shook her head and hummed a response as she looked down at her phone that had just lit up. 

"Camila says she'll sit with Dinah in class and she'll bring my stuff. She also told me to give you a hug and tell you she loves her... Moaney?" Lauren passed me the phone to read the text and I just shrugged off her questioning look. "Let's get out of this stall okay?" 

I nodded my head and pushed myself up off the ground, unsure where we were going to go. 

"Wanna just go walk around and talk?" Lauren asked me and I just shook my head and told her I didn't want to talk about it anymore. "We could talk about something else, actually, you know how we were just talking about the spots for the Parent's Day thing? Well, I would really like to get one."

"Everyone wants one," I said to her, raising my eyebrows as we exited the bathroom. 

"I know, but I want it more," Lauren looped her arm through mine. "Come on, we got about 40 minutes and we have to go back to my room for me to really explain."