I Didn't Mean It

Part 5 (Alternative)

Official final part of I Didn't Mean It (Alternative)

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Normani sat in the same seat she had three years before, when Fifth Harmony officially lost a member.

Simon had called for the girls to join him for a meeting. What they didn't expect was to see Lauren sitting on the chair she saw that day as well.

Normani and Lauren were best friends. So close. If Camila wasn't around, Lauren would go to Normani. As hurt as Normani was about Lauren leaving them, she knew it had to be done. As hurt as Normani was, Lauren was even more so.

Normani followed Lauren's career. She bought every single album or single Lauren released. She had all of Lauren's songs in her phone.

Lauren had released two albums, Alive and Moonlight.

Alive was her favorite. It was the one that hit her the most. Alive was about Lauren's journey from her lowest. It was about how she lost everything to the point where she was finally about to find herself and move on.

Moonlight was amazing as well. It was mostly about the people in Lauren's lives. There were some tracks that were about Normani and the girls (especially Camila). But there were some lighter music as well.

It didn't outright say Normani and the other girls left Lauren, but it was there. You just had to really be listening for that.

Normani and the girls sat across Lauren. They looked at Simon, waiting for him to tell him what was happening.

They were very confused when he walked out without a word.

Lauren let out a laugh, and she shook her head.

Normani looked at Lauren, not sure why she was laughing.

"I called this meeting. He just helped me set it up."

Normani was confused.

"You girls look good," Lauren said, looking at the four.

"So do you. You look very healthy."

Lauren's hair was long again. It had it's shine. Her eyes were twinkling. Her face had color. She looked healthy. She smiled. "Yeah. I was able to put it behind me."

"We're glad," Ally whispered, a small smile on her face.

Lauren looked at the four, before stopping at Camila.

"I know you're wondering why I wanted to meet with you, but I wanted to personally tell you I forgive you. When you turned your back, it hurt. I made a mistake-"

Dinah was about to cut in, but Lauren held her hand up, stopping her.

"I made a mistake, even though it wasn't. All you girls knew was that I made mistake. And you stopped talking to me. You all would rather room together than share with me. You girls would tell me it was because I was pregnant. I know you couldn't look at me. The person who hurt Camila, who took her heart and shattered it. The thing was, I need one of you on my side. I was pregnant, I was scared, people were mean. I was so scared, but none of you saw that. It hurt. It hurt so bad to know that four years of friendship was so quickly forgotten. You all treated me like someone you had to deal with. I wasn't your friend anymore. I was just a pregnant co-worker.

"And then I lost the baby, and you all ran back. But it was too late. Did you know I hated myself so much? I wanted to die," Lauren told them, causing Camila to sob. Normani looked over to see tears streaming down Camila's face, but the girl made no movement to wipe them away. "I wanted to die, but I was pregnant and I wasn't going to let my baby suffer from that. But it did. It never saw the world. It never felt the sun hit it's skin. And I felt even worse."