Should Have Known (Camren)

Chapter 17

The rest of the week flew by. My dad apologized to both me and Camila, and although I was still slightly angry with him, our final day together made me wish we'd spent more time together. Camila and I saw each other every night, mostly after our parents had gone to bed. We would go down to the beach or sit in one of our backyards and just stare up at the stars, talking about whatever came to mind. She went to dinner with my family and me twice over the course of the week, and I could tell my dad was starting to warm up to her whether he liked it or not. Still, I could tell there was tension, but Camila and I had both learned to brush off his snide remarks.

We were the first to make it back to Los Angeles out of all the contestants, and we made it a point to use the isolation to our advantage with all kinds of Christmas festivities. We snuggled up on the couch and laughed along with ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas, sipping hot chocolate with a blanket draped over us. We even put up a small tree in my room- which by that point was just considered our room- despite knowing that the show was quickly coming to a close.

The rest of the girls arrived two days later and it felt great to be reunited with all of them again. Everything was exactly the way it was before we had all left. We fell right back into our routine of rehearsal and making the most out of all of our free time, and soon enough, the semi-final was upon us. We were to sing Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding and another rendition of Impossible by Shontelle, and it was expected to be one hell of a show. Extravagant costumes, background dancers, props, the whole nine yards. It was the performance that would either catapult us to the finale or send us home, and we were as ready as ever to take it and run with it.

Our fan base had grown exponentially by that point. We couldn't even walk outside without someone recognizing us, and we loved every second of it. Every time someone approached us and told us how much they loved us, or how much we inspired them, I was eaten up with joy. It was a great feeling to know that we were inspiring so many people, and all we were doing was living our dream- five best friends with nowhere to go but up.

We were all gathered around Dinah's laptop, scrolling through twitter and reading our mentions when we stumbled across something.

"What's that?" Normani asked, pointing to an image on the screen.

"It's Camren," Dinah smirked.

Someone had taken photos from every event since the beginning of the show- screenshots of our performances when I just happened to glance at Camila, candids of our arms around each other in interviews, and even the few photos we had posted together on Instagram- and made them all into one big collage, celebrating a relationship that they didn't even know truly existed.

"That's...flattering," Camila said, taking my hand in her own.

"You guys are cute. I never thought I'd be saying that, but you guys are cute," Ally complimented, patting me on the shoulder.

"Thanks Ally Cat," Camila grinned. "You're pretty cute too."

To say that I was happy that the girls were so accepting of our relationship would be an understatement. It felt so good to finally be able to hold Camila whenever I wanted, to kiss her or brush a stray hair out of her face and not have to worry that someone might suspect something. Everything was out in the open, and although I still wasn't ready to totally come out, I loved being able to show Camila off to anyone who was willing to watch. I couldn't have asked for better best friends.

"Can we make a pact?" Dinah suggested. "Right here, right now. We make a pact that no matter what, we stick together."

She held out her hand and Normani did the same, each of us following her suit until our hands were all in one pile.