Trials & Tribulations

Chapter 40. "An eternity."

"Smile!" Lauren heard someone call loudly, her consciousness returning to her as she woke with a start. She was aware of the flash of bright light through the thin, sensitive skin of her closed
eyelids and amused giggling in the near vicinity to where she slept.

"Wake up Lo," she heard someone say firmly having obviously noted that she was gradually starting to stir. Lauren's eyes felt heavy with sleep and she lifted up a hand to rub at them for a moment in an attempt to make the concept of opening them more appealing.

"Lo..." someone practically sung; their voice cheerful and melodic. Lauren forced her eyes open, squinting for an instant as they adjusted to the light in the room, and groaned as she spied Dinah, Normani, and Ally all towering above her.

"God," she groaned, closing her eyes briefly and placing a hand over them as though attempting to hide. "What the fuck guys?" she asked evidently irritated by the somewhat rude awakening.

"Oh, don't be like that," Dinah laughed, lifting up the iPhone in her hand and snapping a picture of Lauren where she lazed, still enveloped in her sleeping bag on the living room floor. "It's a New Year remember? Where's your energy and enthusiasm for life?"

"Why are you waking me up so early?" Lauren grumbled sleepily, still not amused that she'd been disturbed. "Couldn't you just let me sleep?" Lauren propped herself up on her elbows to get a better look at her friends and felt a heavyweight across her stomach. She glanced down and found Camila still lying sound asleep beside her on the floor, her girlfriend's head resting on her stomach, her right arm draped across her legs messily. Camila was swathed in her own sleeping bag, her dark curls spread out across the floor, her face turned in to Lauren's body. "Were you taking a picture of us?" Lauren asked, suddenly realizing what the flash of light she'd seen through her closed eyes had been.

"You two are so cute," Normani informed her cryptically, avoiding answering the question directly.

"That's not an answer," Lauren replied, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes for a second as she tried to wake herself up fully.

"Fine we were taking pictures," Dina admitted, "but you both look adorable in them, don't..."

"Wait, pictures?" Lauren asked, her brain finally catching up to the taller girl's words. "Plural?" she questioned needing some clarity.

"Maybe..." Ally confessed smirking at Lauren who did not look amused at the revelation.

"Thanks, guys," she commented drily, pushing herself up into sitting further and resting her shoulders against the couch for support. "What the hell is the time anyway?" she inquired certain that it could be no later than six in the morning.

 "It's eleven," Normani told her, laughing when she observed the look on Lauren's face in response to this information.

"Now can you see why we woke you?" Ally asked. "We're all starving..."

"Then have some breakfast," Lauren griped. "Jesus Christ, you guys have been here enough to know where everything is by now. Just helps yourselves."

"Wow, you are not a morning person Lo," Normani said amused at her friends' irritation.

"Well can you blame me?" she asked running a hand through her hair frustrated. "I'm tired and we didn't get to sleep until three o'clock this morning."

"You'd think that she'd be happy considering she finally got laid last night," Ally said quietly to the others, but not enough that Lauren couldn't hear her.

"Oh my God," Lauren muttered, rolling her eyes. "Would you guys just let it go already? How do you even know that we had sex?"

"Really?" Dinah asked incredulous at Lauren's question. "You guys weren't exactly subtle about it." She informed her. "You disappeared, together, for the best part of the movie Lauren. What other conclusions were we supposed to draw from that?"