The Fall (Camren)

Lucky Charms

It was several hours after their sound check and thirty minutes before they were due on stage. These thirty minutes always became a hectic situation. Lauren stood in their shared green room with her foot propped on a chair and attempted to tie the shoelace on her heeled boot. This was not an easy task, people were buzzing about around her, most of whom she didn’t recognise, in a frantic manner. She was elbowed in the back for the third time, almost toppling over.

‘Fuck sake.’ She grumbled lowly, trying to regain her footing.

It was always like this near show time but this was their biggest show to date and the energy levels were much higher than usual. Everyone seemed to be yelling over each other and she could feel a headache brewing behind her eyes.

She decided to move to the far end of the room where less commotion seemed to be happening but on her way she almost fell face first into the wall when she tripped over somebody’s open suitcase on the floor. Looking down, correction: Camila’s open suitcase.

Said girl didn’t even look up at the distraction, she was rummaging through the case like there was a million dollars at the bottom.

‘Camila?’ Lauren questioned, the Cuban didn’t hear her over the ruckus, which only intensified when Dinah’s speaker started pounding out Chris Brown at a startlingly loud volume.

‘Camila!’ She tried again, louder this time. Camila heard her and looked up, worry evident on the younger girl’s face. ‘You oaky?’

The Cuban girl nodded her head erratically and went back to routing through her suitcase. Lauren rolled her eyes at Camila’s display, showing how obviously not okay she was.

Lauren crouched down opposite Camila; she bent forward to catch her eyes, quirking an eyebrow at the girl questioningly.

‘I can’t find it.’ Camila said quietly, Lauren had to lean over the case to hear her properly.

‘What have you lost?’

Camila looked up and Lauren saw tears welling up in cocoa eyes. ‘My lucky banana sock.’

Lauren let out a laugh. ‘Are you sure it isn’t your mind you’ve lost?’

‘It isn’t funny, Lauren!’ Camila said, angrily. Then with a frustrated sigh, the young singer promptly burst into tears.

‘Whoa.’ Shocked, Lauren’s smile disappeared at Camila’s over-the-top reaction. She grabbed Camila’s wrist and pulled her up then led her to the bathroom adjoining the green room. Thankfully it was empty so she pulled Camila in and locked the door behind them. The Cuban native sat down on the closed lid of the toilet, her head in her hands.

‘This is a bit excessive for a missing sock, don’t you think?’ Lauren asked, looking at Camila’s one sock covered foot and her bare one resting atop of it so as to not touch the bathroom floor. It made her look more vulnerable somehow; Lauren felt a protective instinct kick in.

The brunette moved her hands from her face and reached over for some toilet paper, dabbing it under her eyes.

‘Camz.’ The nickname got her attention. ‘What’s going on?’

The shift in dynamic that had occurred between them since the roof incident had created an odd atmosphere when they were together.  It wasn’t a bad atmosphere necessarily but Camila had been acting out of sorts since that night and Lauren knew somehow that this mini-breakdown she was having was in some way related to their encounter.

Lauren had told Brad that she would be brave and she decided that it started now. She walked over and crouched down in front of the other girl, taking the toilet paper from her hand she took over wiping her tears away gently. She heard Camila’s breath hitch quietly over the low murmur of chaos from outside the restroom.