Love Only

XIV

Over the next few days, Camila was a mess. The doctors administered a drug that flushes the toxins fully out of her system, but it has side effects that mimics that of a chemotherapy treatment. The brunette singer has been weak and throwing up, her knees shaking as she tries to stand up. Camila hates feeling this way, but she knows that before she gets better, she has to endure this first.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Lauren stayed by her side. The green-eyed girl helped Camila with everything she needed, from helping her get to places to cleaning up her vomit that one time they didn't get to the toilet in time. The brunette apologized over and over for that, embarrassed beyond belief but the green-eyed girl merely brushed it off saying that she meant what she said about being there for Camila through thick and thin this time around.

They also had continued their talk, and agreed to taking things slow and Lauren is already beyond happy with it. As long as she gets to have Camila again, she doesn't care if it takes them another six years to be able to call the brunette hers. The fact that they have been given another chance is more than enough for her.

-

A week has passed since Camila woke up from coma, and the side effects of the drug that's flushing out the toxins from her body slowly subsides, making the brunette feel so much better that she will finally be released from the hospital in a few hours.

Camila watches amusedly as Lauren fusses over her, making sure she's okay in her hospital bed. "Lo, relax. I'm not going to be released from the hospital until tonight," she chuckles, reaching for the green-eyed girl's arm. If she didn't know better, she'd say that Lauren is just nervous about meeting Camila's NBTS band and dancers who are coming over to visit her shortly.

"Yeah, Lauser. Cool it. It's just Ashlee and some other people we have yet to meet," Dinah says, smirking at the clearly nervous Lauren.

Lauren rolls her eyes and scoffs. She knows she's being unreasonably and unnecessarily nervous. It's not like she wasn't close to Camila's current guitarist Ashlee before. The girl used to be Fifth Harmony's guitarist anyway. But she was also Camila's best friend at the time when none of the girls weren't, and Lauren feels like she has to redeem herself not only to Camila but to her friends as well. She has to prove herself worthy of the second chance she's been given.

And that goes for Matthew too. No matter how painfully awkward it was at first when they met a few days ago when he came over to visit Camila, Lauren tried her best to be civil with him as he may be Camila's 'boyfriend' in the eyes of the public, behind the limelight he's also Camila's close friend.

"It's just," Lauren sighs and reluctantly sits beside Camila as the brunette scoots over and pats the spot next to her. The green-eyed girl immediately secures an arm around the younger Latina and leans into her. "I need to make a good impression, you know?"

"Lo," Camila says, making Lauren's head to turn and look at her. "You're important to me. And I'm sure they know that. So they'll love you," the brunette reassures her and reaches for her hand, squeezing it gently with a smile. "They'd be stupid not to."

Lauren and Camila smile at each other, adoration evident in each other's eyes until their staring contest gets interrupted by the sound of Dinah's groan. "Ugh," the Polynesian fake gags, sending a grimace their way. "For a couple taking things slow, you both are already so disgustingly cute."

Lauren rolls her eyes and chuckles as Dinah receives a slap on the arm from both Normani and Ally.

"Instead of all this weirdness--and cuteness," Camila says and glances at Lauren, grinning at her. "Why don't you all tell me what you were planning to tell me earlier."

"Haha, nice try, Mila." Normani quips with a playful eyeroll, making Camila pout. "And don't pull the 'I-just-got-shot-in-the-stomach' card again too. Ain't gonna work anymore," the dark-skinned girl adds as Camila is about to open her mouth to say something back.

The brunette then huffs and trains her gaze at Lauren, who immediately looks away as she already knew what the brown-eyed girl is going to do.

"Laurennnn," Camila coos and strokes Lauren's arm, trying to catch her attention and making the green-eyed girl bite her lip as she looks at anywhere but Camila. "Baby Lolo," Camila purrs and Lauren's eyes widen at the pet name. The green-eyed girl then makes a mistake of looking at Camila, who reaches to stroke her fingers on Lauren's cheek. "Won't you tell your Camz what it is?" Camila continues and gives Lauren puppy dog eyes.

"U-Uh.." Lauren gulps and stares at Camila, unable to look away from those beautiful chocolate brown eyes she had come to love all these years.

"Hook, line and sinker," Ally mutters and facepalms, shaking her head. "Lauren," Dinah warns and narrows her eyes at the raven-haired girl. "Don't you dare.."

"Well..." Lauren winces and finally turns away from Camila and looks at the girls. "I mean, we're going to tell the whole world soon anyway, why not tell her now...?" she trails off as she hears the other three members of the group groan.

"Fucking whipped," Lauren hears Normani mutter.

"Um, excuse me," Lauren scoffs, "Lauren Jauregui is whipped for nobody," she says sassily and flicks her hair behind her shoulder.

"Um," Camila mocks Lauren's tone and giggles. "You falling for my puppy dog eyes begs to differ." She throws a smug look Lauren's way, making the other girls laugh and for Lauren to blush.

"Fine," Lauren admits after she recovers from her slight embarrassment. "You don't get to know what it is then." She sticks her tongue out to Camila, her turn to smile smugly as the brunette pouts once more. "Aw no! Laurennnn," Camila whines and koala hugs Lauren's side, making the older Latina yelp as she tries not to mess with some of the IV tubes still connected to the brunette's arm. Dinah and Normani watch and giggle, trying to make bets on whether Lauren will be able to manage scraping Camila off of her.

"Alright alright, children. Enough!" Ally yells over the noise and shakes her head. "Damn. Just like old times," she mutters and shakes her head once more, a hint of nostalgic smile plastered on her face as the short blonde feels extremely happy that the dynamic between all of them didn't change despite their differences before. She'd give her life for her sisters and if being their 'mother hen' means she'd get to be around them for a very long time then she'd gladly take on the job.

"Okay Mila, we'll tell you," Ally says and sits on the foot of the hospital bed. Dinah and Normani follow suit, circling the bed and forming a huddle.

"We uh," Normani clears her throat, glancing at her sisters before looking at Camila with a bittersweet smile. "The girls and I have decided to go on a hiatus."