secrets ↠ demi lovato / 5h

[38]

"look, I don't want you to overthink this okay?"

well crap, because I already am.

"Maniiiiii!"

"okay fine!" I could imagine her throwing up one hand in exasperation. "Camila and Brad - they got together. tonight. like a couple hours ago."

"that's great!" I said. I was happy for Camila - but why was this so worrying?

"it is," Mani said hesitantly. "it's great. but Lauren isn't."

"what?" I asked.

"Lauren - she - you know what Lea, I called to ask you to please call her. she left the room as soon as Camila and Brad went off, and we don't know where she is. Dinah, Ally and I went after her but we can't find her - Lea, please, call her, act like you don't know anything happened. please."

excUSE ME????

"got it," I said, wriggling out of bed and putting on the light. "I'll let you guys know."

Mani breathed in relief, but I could tell that she was still tense. "thank you so much, Lea."

"it's nothing," I said, already pressing the home button and searching for Lauren's contact. "I love her as much as anything, you guys know that."

"I can tell you do," Mani said. "go call her. we'll talk later."

we said goodbye and hung up, me immediately hitting Lauren's number to call, hoping she would pick up. it was urgent times like this I despised the dial tone with as much passion as I loved my lapto-

"he-hello?"

I nearly screamed at her down the phone but decided to act like I was just calling up casually.

"Lo hey!" I chirped at her.

"hey," she said tiredly. "what's up, Lea?"

"we haven't talked today, how's your day been?"

"... fine... what about you?"

"Lo? is everything okay?"

"yeah. how's New York?"

"amazing," I said hesitantly. "Lauren, what's up? don't say nothing because I know something is going on."

silence, and then I heard these little squeaky sniffles that broke my heart.

"Lea..."

"Lauren," I worried. "what's wrong babe?"

"C-Camila."

"what happened to Camila?"

"s-she got together with Brad."

"why are you crying about that, Lo?"

"I-I don't know. l-look, it's n-nothing, okay? I-I'll call you b-back." click. she hung up.

Lord help us.

---

it was 3:30pm the next day and I hadn't heard anything from Lauren. the group chat was silent as well, except for a morning message from Camila to say that they'd be busy today because they had an extra rehearsal slotted in that took up hours. I was slightly worried, but if she was with the girls all day, she couldn't do anything to herself, could she? the worst part was that none of them knew about the habits she could easily slip back into undetected, but I had to trust her. sighing, I got up to sit at the piano and run my fingers over the keyboard. I was tired today for some unknown reason, although I had done literally nothing except watch YouTube videos and take naps. Naya had gone out, and would be back for dinner, so I was free to do pretty much whatever I wanted. which, of course, involved me not leaving the wifi zone.