The Many Ways That I Love You.

Part two

Lauren is amazing on stage. She's confident, probably because she just got laid. She engages the audience. Well, she mostly engages Normani -smiling at her and winking at her and blatantly flirting with her in front of a whole ass crowd of people. She's so shamless. Normani has no idea why she puts up with her honestly.

"Did you enjoy the show, baby?" She asks, her face practically on Normani's neck. Her breath is warm and she smells like a mixture of alcohol and the exotic scented perfume she's fond of.

Normani frowns a little, "how many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your baby?"

Lauren chuckles, amused. She places a few quick kisses on Normani's neck. She's so fucking disrespectful. This is what Normani gets for being so nice. She's never going to eat Lauren out ever again. It looks like getting some makes her too damn brave, gets her thinking that she and Normani are dating.

"You smell good." Lauren whispers like it's a secret. Normani's heart does a stupid flip thing and she has to hold back a frown. Her heart tends to do that a lot around Lauren. If that's not a sign that she should stop hanging out with Lauren, she doesn't know what is. The girl is literally bad for her health. "Dua wants us to go to some party at one of her friend's place. Something about celebrating tonight's success or whatever. You wanna come with?"

"No." Normani scoffs like that's the most absurd thing she has ever heard.

Lauren pouts, "please baby."

Normani glares at her, "if I go to this party, you don't get to call me baby ever again. "

Lauren gasps like she's genuinely appalled, "ever?" Her voice cracks.

"Ever. "

"But ever's such a long time baby. "

Normani narrows her eyes, "a week."

"An hour."

Normani finds herself laughing without meaning to. "You're not very versed in the art of negotiation are you? You can't just go from a week to an hour. You gotta lead up to it."

"I can't go more than an hour without calling you baby though."

"You're hopeless." The fond in Normani's voice is unmaskable. She looks at Lauren with warm brown eyes, "I'll go to your stupid party with you."

"Thank you. " She beams at Normani and kisses her cheek. "You really do look so pretty today."

"Are you trying to say I don't look pretty on the other days?"

Lauren throws her back laughing, green eyes shinning so bright, "I didn't say anything of the sort."

"Yes you did. You think you're so sleek, Jauregui. But I'm on to you."

Lauren laughs, loud and carefree. She lets her laugh settle into a small smile that's just brimming with fondness. "I'm really glad you came." She says softly, pulling gently at the end of one of Normani's braids.

Normani's really glad she came too. But there's no way she's telling Lauren that.

.....

The party's great. Dua's artsy so she hangs out with artsy people who are Lauren's favorite kind of people  because they almost always have weed.

Normani's somewhere in the middle of the room, at the center of the makeshift dance floor where she has been for the better part of the night, dancing. She's got the attention of most of the girls and all of the boys. Lauren can't blame them, Normani looks fucking stunning. She's a little sweaty and a little tipsy. Her braids are free now,  flowing down to her back. She keeps running her hands through them, shaking her hips, eyes closed and looking so beautifully careless.