You Bring Out the Best In Me

Chapter 33: Don't Wanna Go Home

Ally's POV

I had never seen Lauren cry as much as she did when her father left. I thought maybe it was because she missed him, but quickly learned that it was quite the opposite. She held it together when we had lunch together with Camila and her mom because she was trying to give her the best first impression possible. But when we got back to the dorm, she collapsed onto her bed and burst into tears. No one really knew what to do for a minute. Lauren always appeared to be so strong and confident. Seeing her cry was almost unnatural.  I didn't find out the whole story until she finally fell asleep and Camila was able to whisper to us exactly what happened. And it was awful. I found it strange how different Normani's dad was from Lauren's. It was obviously good on my part, but it wasn't like I enjoyed seeing my friend upset. When one of us is upset, we're all upset.

"Ally?" Normani whispered from behind me. After Lauren fell asleep and Camila told us the story, we all decided to have nap time.

"Yeah?"

"I'm hungry..."

"I know." I answered, pulling the sheets up to my chin. "I hear your stomach."

"Can we go get something to eat?"

"Can we go in a few minutes?"

"But I'm hungry now!" she whined, burying her face in my hair.

"I'll go with you, Mani." I didn't have to open my eyes to know who it was.

"There." I mumbled to my girlfriend. "Go with Camila."

"Okay." she threw the covers off of both of us and crawled out of bed.

"Mani?" She turned around to face me. "Stay safe, okay, Princess?"

She gave me a small smile and leaned forward to softly kiss my lips. "Don't worry, Angel. I'll be fine."

"We'll be back in, like, half an hour." Mila told me as they walked out the door.

"Kay." I nodded.

"Ally?" A soft voice whispered.

I turned my head to the right to see Lauren looking up at me. I smiled gently. "Hey, Lo."

"Where are they going?"

"To get dinner." I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. "Lauren, I know you probably don't want to talk about what happened earlier, so can I tell you something?"

"Sure."

"Okay..." I took a deep breath. "You know that day a guy cracked my head open on the wall?"

"Yeah."

"There was no guy."

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I got dizzy - like really dizzy because I hadn't been eating - when I ran out into the hallway and..."

"You tripped?"

"Yeah."

"Why'd you have to lie though?"

"Because it would've sounded stupid!"

"Saying you tripped is not stupid, Ally. Lying is stupid."

I sighed and directed my gaze to the way above her bed. I hated when she was right. I paused, wondering if I should tell her the other thing.

"Anything else?"

"Uh...yeah..." I nervously played with the antlers on my stuffed moose's head. "My um...my parents..." I trailed off.

"What about them? Did they not accept you for who you are? Did they not realize that this was the happiest moment of your life ever and you really loved the girl you're with?" She grumbled angrily. "Did they-"

"I didn't tell them." I blurted.

She stopped. "What?"

"I-I didn't tell them about Normani."

She sat up in bed. "Seriously? Why not?"

"I knew my dad wouldn't like it. And there's no reason to tell him because it's not like I'm going to listen to him if he tells me to stop dating her."

She didn't say anything for a moment. "Are you going to tell them?"

"Eventually..." I mumbled. "Maybe..."

At The Pizza Place
Camila's POV

"Camila?" I looked up from my phone to see Normani with a sheepish look on her face.

"Yeah, Mani?"

"I...I'm sorry..."

"For what?"

"For blaming you..."

"Oh..." I glanced down at the table and she adjusted her snapback nervously.

"Yeah, I...I shouldn't have. It wasn't your fault."

"Well...it kinda was..." I admitted.

"No..." she shook her head. "She had been drinking too. It was all of our faults. I shouldn't have blamed the whole thing on you. I'm really sorry. Holding a grudge this long was really unnecessary and-" 

"Its okay, Mani." I assured her with a smile and reached across the table to gently squeeze her hand. "I forgive you. So," I leaned forward a little, "how's it been going with you two?"

She shrugged but blushed. "Its only been a couple of days."

"But you're finally together after almost two months!"

"Yeah, I know." she grinned shyly and directed her eyes to the wooden table in between us. "It does feel pretty good. All the stress of trying to her to like me is finally gone."

"You never had to get her to like you." I told her. "She always liked you. She was just...confused."

"Yep...two long months of confusion." she chuckled, absentmindely drawing light circles on the furniture in front of her with her finger.

"But it's over now, right?"

She looked up at me, a small smile forming on her face. "Yeah...I hope so." She sighed. "But I think all of this is going to be over soon."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Lauren's leaving next week."

I felt the weight of sadness fall back onto my shoulders when I remembered what her dad had said this morning. "Yeah..."

"And you're not going to be happy here without her."

"Probably not..."

"So you're probably gonna leave. Go back home. You guys live near each other, right?"

"Well...yeah..."

"And as much trouble as we've been in the last couple of months, I would never be able to live with anyone else."

"So you're saying that if Lauren and I leave...you, Ally, and Dinah'll leave too."

She nodded. "Yeah pretty much."

"So...we only have a week left?" my voice was small, and I could barely hear myself speak.

She took a deep, shaky breath. "Yeah..."

A/N: Hey. I'm really sorry for the late update. I'm kinda running out of ideas. But, yeah, as you can see, this story'll end pretty soon. There will be an epilogue, and if you want I can do a sequel. But yeah...as always, sorry for any mistakes. Thank you so much for reading! Please comment, vote, and byee :-) :-P ;-) O:-)