Our Deepest Scars

Chapter 21

"Camz, are you okay?" Lauren asked quietly, making eye contact with her girlfriend from the other end of the row. As soon as their eyes connected, she knew Camila was the opposite of okay. She's having a panic attack, Lauren thought despairingly; her only intention to get the younger girl out of the interview and into a calm, quiet space.

"So, are you two happy together? Are we going to see more 'Camren' in the future?" The interviewer, who was apparently unconscious of the fact that no one was listening to a word she was saying, ploughed on through her questions. Despite her cheery smile and superficial interest in Fifth Harmony, she wasn't exactly the brightest when it came to awareness of others.

No one answered at first. Camila was struggling to inhale and exhale, feeling as though the four corners of the room were slowly closing in around her. Her girlfriend was trying to console her from several metres away, while coming up with a plan to get the small girl out as fast as she could. Normani was attempting to pacify Camila and help her regain the ability to breathe, and Dinah was flicking her eyes between the two Latinas, wondering in stunned horror what they were going to do. It was Ally who eventually took it upon herself to respond to the confused interviewer.

"We...we don't really want to talk about personal things like that, you know?" she laughed uneasily. "But yes, the girls are happy," Ally smiled, trying to cover the fact that the two girls in question were currently both almost in tears from either end of the line.

From behind the cameras, the girls' publicist was hastily doing her best to signal to the ignorant woman who was interviewing the group to move on and ask about something else. After a moment or two in awkward silence, the interviewer got the message and began to talk about something else.

But by this point, Camila was already in the early stages of a panic attack, and couldn't stop it just because the catalyst question was no longer relevant. Wheezing slightly, her hands shaking like mad, she directed her gaze towards Lauren helplessly. "Help me," she whispered, but the older girl could read both her expression and her lips.

"Um..." Lauren interrupted Dinah as she was answering a new question. The Polynesian looked at her curiously, and the interviewer just seemed relieved that another of the girls was actually talking. "Can we just pause for a minute? And can you switch the cameras off?" She added as an afterthought. They didn't want a repeat of the circumstances that had just occurred with the picture; especially not with a leaked tape.

Mutely and with a very surprised look on her face, the woman nodded, looking down at her note cards for inspiration as they had a quick break.

Instantly, Lauren got up from her seat and moved over to her girlfriend's chair swiftly. "Camz, you need to get out of here," she voiced urgently, but in a quiet tone. "Shall I come with you?"

Camila shook her head, now hyperventilating. "I...I c-can't breathe," she said, consternation and hysteria rising in her voice.

Lauren placed her hands gently on her girlfriend's shoulders. "Yes, yes you can. Remember what your therapist taught you, and remember what I helped you do the last time this happened."

Silent tears were now cascading down Camila's face as she tried to tranquilize her choking and shaking body.

"Ready? In...and out. In...and out. Keep going. That's it - you're doing amazing, babe," the green eyed girl encouraged. She slid her hand into the smaller girl's and squeezed it softly.

Camila was attempting the breathing exercises which she had been instructed to do, but she was in such a traumatized state that they weren't working as well as her therapist said they would.

"She needs to leave, Laur," Normani expressed in a soft tone. The girl knew that their 'pause' was going to be recorded and start trending on the internet within an hour if anyone found out what was going on within the huddle of girls. They would film it, post it and make a lot of money. Normani decided it would be better for the group as a whole, as well as Camila, if the small girl just left the interview to calm down.