Should Have Known (Camren)

Chapter 26

April, 2013

The month following my birthday was filled with excitement, from even more writing and recording to more red carpet events and even some live performances of cover songs. It seemed like we were becoming more well-known day by day, and boy, it was quite an experience. A year prior, I would have never imagined having to walk with a security guard through my own apartment complex. It was overwhelming but I loved it. My dreams were quickly coming true and I had no intention of slowing them down.

With the release of the first single quickly approaching, the girls and I had more interviews lined up than we knew what to do with. We were traveling to different radio stations around Los Angeles on a daily basis, and any time we weren't in the studio we were answering fan questions in an interview.

We had an interview scheduled for later in the evening and we were all trying to get as much studio time in as possible. Dinah was in the booth while Normani and Ally observed from the sidelines and Lauren rummaged through her bag. I sat quietly off to the side, my nose buried in John Green's Paper Towns. I tried to ignore Lauren as she sifted through her bag, groaning in annoyance when she failed to find whatever she was looking for.

"Having trouble?" I teased.

"Yeah," she snapped, catching me off guard. "Have you seen my lipstick?"

I brushed her attitude off and closed my book, sitting it inside my bag. "Is it not on your lips?"

She stood up straight and ran a hand through her hair, letting it fall to her side as she turned to face me.

"Camz, I'm serious," she pressed. "Did you take it?"

"No..." I told her. "Why would I take your lipstick?"

"I don't know, but it's not here," she sighed, zipping up her bag and scanning the room.

"It's lipstick Lo, calm down," I chuckled, trying to keep light of the situation.

"I need it for the interview," she explained. "And it's like twenty bucks a tube, and now it's miraculously missing after you went through my bag looking for a sweatshirt."

She pursed her lips and placed her hands on her hips, looking at me as if waiting for me to come clean.

I stood from the couch and pulled her sweatshirt over my head, tossing it to her as I walked past to retrieve a water bottle.

"I'm sure someone here has lipstick you can use, or maybe...if you're so worried about losing it...don't spend twenty dollars on it next time," I sassed, smiling sarcastically as I returned to my seat on the couch.

Dinah emerged from the booth and Lauren pushed past her to take her turn, bumping into her and failing to apologize.

"Did I miss something?" Dinah asked, taking a seat next to me on the couch.

I shrugged and leaned into her shoulder. "Apparently I did, because I have absolutely no idea what's up her ass."

"Women," she joked, rolling her eyes and opening the camera on her phone.

"Take a selfie with me," she instructed.

"Dinah, it's not a selfie if there are two people in it," I laughed.

She slapped my arm playfully and leaned closer to me so we were both in the picture. I pressed my lips against her cheek and she snapped the picture.

"Aw, we're cute," I observed.

"Lauren doesn't think so," Dinah pointed out, nodding towards the booth where Lauren was watching us with a frustrated look on her face.

"Whatever. Caminah is better than Camren!" I shouted loud enough for Lauren to hear.