HMU

forty four

Now that both teams were ready, Ally positioned herself between them and held the flag in the air. Lauren had brought her a scooter, so she could hopefully make it to the end before them to keep track of who passed the finish line first. Since the track involved them going up and down the rows of parking, it wouldn't be too difficult if she just took an alternate route.

Lauren turned and looked at Normani and Dinah, Dinah in the cart while Mani got ready to push. Makes sense, Lauren joked in her head, Dinah would never run unless her life was at risk.

"You ready?" Camila whispered up to her, glaring at Norminah on their right. Lauren simply nodded, pulling out her gripping gloves and positioning her hands. She'd learned her lesson about the dangers of potentially releasing the cart. She tossed Dinah a pair, which the other girl accepted.

"You two are going down." Normani smirked in their direction, high-fiving Dinah.

"As if." Camila scoffed. "I hope our dust doesn't mess up your hair." Lauren laughed.

"Ladies!" Ally grabbed their attention, holding the flag higher. "Does everyone know the path?" When everyone nodded, she continued. "Alright, then ready, get set, go!"

Lauren pushed off from the start, Camila squealing and holding on tightly to the edges. Once they'd gained enough momentum, Lauren pulled herself up so that she was standing on the back, leaning forward for gravity's sake. Camila did the same, leaning a little to the left for the upcoming turn.

Lauren dropped back down onto the ground, keeping her eyes ahead and ignoring the blur that was Norminah's cart beside her as she made the turn, keeping the cart balanced so it didn't flip over with Camila inside. She heard rather than saw Dinah squeal behind them, their turn taking more effort since neither had done this before. Camila and Lauren were ahead.

Lauren admired Camila briefly as she stuck her hands in the air, cheering triumphantly and giggling. It was times like this Lauren thanked her conscience for not being competitive, especially since she'd gotten distracted and Norminah had slipped past.

"Lauren!" Camila called, pointing to the pair. Lauren got the hint, blinking a few times and picking up her pace. They'd never gone over the rules, so it'd be perfectly acceptable for her to ram their carts together, right?

No, she wasn't gonna do that. But she could see Camila wanted to win...

"How badly do you want to win?" Lauren called over the noise of the cart.

"Badly!"

"Badly enough that you won't yell at me for what I'm about to do?"

"Do it!" Camila didn't even ask what it was. "I bet Mani twenty dollars we would beat them! I don't have twenty dollars!"

Lauren rolled her eyes, pulling herself back up onto the cart and leaning so they headed towards Norminah's cart, getting closer by the second. Was this dangerous? Yes. Could she injure herself? Probably.

"You trust me, right?" Lauren called, though she didn't slow down how close they were to the other cart. She heard Camila confirm that she trusted her before she went full speed-racer and rammed into the side of their cart, making Normani grab on for dear life and lift herself up off the ground to tilt the cart back into place.

"What the heck?!" Dinah yelled over to them.

"All's fair in the shopping cart races!" Lauren called back, pushing ahead and making the turn down the last row of parking spaces. She could see Ally down at the end, filming their race on her phone with the flag tucked under her arm.

Lauren got distracted yet again by Camila's excited cheer, much so that she failed to notice the cone blocking their path.

The cart's wheel got stuck on the edge of the cone, making them turn sharply. Lauren brought her feet to the ground, grabbing hold of the sides and using her strength so that it wouldn't fall, calling out to Camila as she tried to bring the cart to a stop.

She barely noticed that the cart had stopped due to her foot, which was caught under one of the wheels. She let out a string of curses, falling to the ground and possibly making it worse. Camila hopped out of the cart before it fell to the side despite Lauren's efforts to keep it up, landing safely on the ground. She stumbled a bit, but she picked herself up just as quickly and rushed to Lauren's side. Norminah had already passed the finish line by the time everything had gone down, and were now running over with Ally to assess the situation.

"Fuck," Lauren cursed, sitting herself up and looking down at her foot.

"Lauren!" Camila reached her, placing a hand on her lower back to help her up. "Are you okay?"

Lauren ignored her question, feeling dizzy with all that was happening as she looked at Camila.

"I can pay Normani the twenty dollars." Lauren started, grabbing ahold of the arm Camila was using to keep Lauren up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for us to lose-"

"Lauren!" Camila cut her off, running her hand over Lauren's head to check for scratches; there were none, just some dirt from the fall onto the ground. "It's alright. The important thing is if you're okay?"

"Are you okay?" Lauren continued to ignore her question, scanning Camila's body to check for injuries. "I tried my best to keep the cart up so you wouldn't fall-"

"Lo." Camila said softer, "I'm fine. Are you?"

"What?" Lauren looked down at herself, as if she was just realizing that she too had fallen. She could feel her foot throbbing under the shoe — had she sprained it? "Shit.."

"Girls, go get the car." Camila instructed the other three, plopping down onto the pavement beside Lauren as the three ran off. She grabbed ahold of Lauren's hand, running her thumb over the older girl's knuckles.

They didn't talk until the car was being pulled up beside them, Dinah hopping out to help Lauren into the back. She hissed in pain as she stood, though it wasn't quite as bad as the first time she could remember having a sprain.

On the drive back to Lauren's house, she sat up and glanced around at the four other girls.

"I'm sorry for ruining tonight. It was supposed to be fun but I made it competitive 'cause I didn't want Camz to have to pay Normani if we lost 'cause I didn't really care if we won I just—"

"Girl." Dinah cut her off, "Breath. We don't care."

"Yeah." Normani said from the front, making eye contact with Lauren through the rearview mirror. "It was still fun regardless. And kind of funny, if you think about it."

"I got it all on tape." Ally added. "I'm totally going to show your kids. And your kid's kids. And their kids, and—"

"She gets it, you're gonna embarrass her." Dinah cut Ally off before she could continue her ramble. "The point is, we're just glad you're okay."

Lauren couldn't help but smile at how amazing her friends are.