"Guess what, everyone?" Dinah announces, walking into the back of the bus where Camila and Lauren are watching a show. Her nose crinkles, "Where's Normally? I need them."
"Went back to Ally's bunk to watch a movie," Camila shrugs.
Lauren continues to absentmindedly pick at her chipping nail polish, a fleeting thought of fixing it going through her head. Dinah exits the small room and comes back a few minutes later with Normani and Ally.
"Move your legs, you're taking up the whole couch," Normani says, pushing at Lauren's legs.
The other girl groans, she's comfy all stretched out with her head on Camila's lap, "You're the one that left and I want to lay down."
"Tough shit. I'm back, move your legs," Normani says as Lauren sits up (not without some more whining, of course). She grabs her blanket and wraps it around her shoulders, now looking back at Dinah.
"What's going on?" Camila asks.
"The bus is stopping soon and there are gonna be a bunch of restaurants where we're stopping. So, I asked Will if we could all eat together because recently it's been the like... split the band Olympics or some shit, and he said that if Tweedledee and Tweedledum over there can keep their hands off each other, we can," Dinah explains, pointing at Camila and Lauren.
"Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Did Will say that part?" Lauren raises an eyebrow.
"Sure," Dinah responds, "Either way, do you guys want to do that?"
"Yes," Normani answers, and Ally nods.
"Wait, who's Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" Camila asks.
"You're dum, she's dee," Dinah says matter-of-factly, ignoring Camila's offended face, "Can you two handle it?"
Lauren looks at Camila, "Can you keep your hands off me?"
"I have plenty of self-control, Lauren, you're the one in trouble here," Camila responds, and Lauren averts her gaze to her lap, making Camila laugh.
"We can handle ourselves, D," Camila assures Dinah and Dinah gives her a skeptical look.
"I would like to point out the whole bunk situation," Normani interjects and Camila and Lauren's faces both go red.
Lauren fiddles with the corner of her blanket as Camila responds, "I didn't realize you were filming until I came out of my bunk."
"That doesn't matter when you continued!" Normani exclaims, and Camila shrugs with a stupid smirk on her face.
"Yeah after that, it was just fun. Not my fault Lauren couldn't be quiet," Camila teases and Dinah rolls her eyes.
"This was a terrible idea."
-
They're waiting for their food at the restaurant when Lauren excuses herself to the bathroom. She's a little too thankful when she realizes that it's one person only, meaning she doesn't have to interact with anyone else.
She stands in front of the mirror, looking herself over. She notices a rip in the collar of her leather jacket and furrows her eyebrows. When the hell did that get there?
She puts her finger in the rip, feeling around a bit to see the damage, relieved when it's only the surface layer and contemplates just leaving it. Who knows how long it's been there anyway?
She then crouches, untying her shoe and retying it a little tighter, not liking the feeling of how loose it was. Her foot was moving around too much and it wasn't comfortable. She pulls at the individual rows of laces, tightening the entire shoe to her liking before standing up again.
She hates this she hates this she hates this. She hates this feeling of inadequacy and irrelevancy that's been settling in her bones the last few days. She especially hates that she's been unable to sleep on her own the last couple days, any night without Camila has just been staring at the curtain of her bunk before she'd flip to the other side and stare at the wall.
A knock makes her jump and brace herself on the sink, "Lo? You good in there?"
"Yeah!" Lauren responds when she realizes it's just Camila, "Be out in a minute!"
"Okay," Camila doesn't sound convinced, but Lauren hopes it was just sufficient enough. She looks at herself in the mirror again and runs a hand through her hair, something about it feeling wrong but she can't place it.
She shakes her head, telling herself she's being stupid as she leaves the bathroom, blushing at how there are a couple of women waiting, one giving her a nasty look.
Fuck.
She heads back to the table and sits down next to Camila, anxiously crossing and recrossing her legs as Dinah talks about a guy that hit on her the last time they were at a party.
"You're single though, why not go after it?" Normani asks, sipping on her drink.
Dinah rolls her eyes, "Believe me, he did not deserve my time. He had that like... you know that look? The douche look? Where like they might be a good fuck but other than that they're completely useless?"
"I hate that look," Normani responds and Camila visibly cringes.
"You just reminded me of every reason why I'm gay," she says, ripping off a piece of the bread she's been eating.
"Mila, not in public," Ally chastises in a hushed whisper and the table dips into an awkward silence. Lauren's never been able to properly read Ally's reactions to her relationship and she hates it.
Camila's hand is suddenly on her thigh, gently rubbing her knee, and Lauren relaxes a bit. She's fine. Ally's fine. They're just getting lunch. It's fine.
"Didn't you date Austin for two minutes or did I hallucinate that?" Dinah brings the conversation back.
Camila rolls her eyes, "He was an asshole. Besides, I was using him to make her jealous."
"Well, that worked," Normani laughs and Camila grins.
Lauren rolls her eyes playfully, trying to be a part of the conversation, "Not that well."
"It worked well enough," Camila squeezes her thigh and then looks back at everyone else, changing the topic, "A couple months back, we were at some party and this guy comes up to me and he's like, I hear you're inexperienced, want some help with that?"
Normani's eyes widen, "What?"
"I was horrified, for good reason," Camila elaborates, "You and Dinah were off doing something and I think Ally was with Will. I know Lauren was using the bathroom. Anyway, he says that and then is like, pestering me. So, I was like, you know, two drinks in and kind of... not thinking clearly... and I stumbled... into him and got red wine all over his really nice white shirt. Shame."
"As you should, Walz!" Dinah reaches across the table, high-fiving Camila.
"Damn, Mila," Normani laughs, "Good for you."
"Thank you," Camila smiles graciously and Lauren smiles.
"Good job, Camz," Lauren says and Camila smiles back at her.
"You two don't even need to touch to be gross, wow," Dinah wrinkles her nose and Normani snorts.
Their food comes after a few more minutes and they eat among a conversation about a few more of Dinah's escapades at parties and Normani chimes in with some of hers as well.
After lunch, they head back on the bus and Lauren ends up on the couch in the back of the bus with Dinah, trying to find something to watch.
"We need to find a store the next time we're in a city for more than ten minutes," Lauren says, rifling through their movies.
"I don't have money right now," Dinah responds, scrolling through her laptop on Netflix.
"Fuck," Lauren mumbles, putting the movies back and sitting on the couch, "I'm so bored."
"You and Mila have fucked in the bunks before, that's something to do," Dinah responds, still scrolling through Netflix. She snorts, "Well, not something, someone."
"Not doing that," Lauren responds quietly, really not understanding how she ever had the balls to do that. It was a year ago now and she can't imagine doing that today, she'd rather die.
"If there were someone on this bus to fuck me, you best believe I wouldn't be on Netflix right now," Dinah elaborates and Lauren rolls her eyes. Oh, Dinah.
"You're insane."
"That you're right about," Dinah smiles at her and then looks back at the computer, "We could watch Lion King. That's on here."
"Too depressing," Lauren whines, leaning back on the couch and trying to get comfortable.
"Cars 2 is on here," Dinah suggests next and Lauren rolls her eyes.
"You're being an idiot."
"Listen, there are only so many suggestions that I can make, woman," Dinah retorts, "Oh Jesus, those are boobs."
Dinah switches off of whatever movie that was and sighs, "I hate this stupid site."
-
After the show the next day, the girls all go to their respective hotel rooms, the first one with Camila and Lauren (somehow Camila convinces Will to let her and Lauren share), the second one with Normani and Dinah, and the third with Ally and her father, who as of the last city has started tagging along.
Camila, however, disappeared half an hour ago to go "buy some stuff" which could be anything from bananas to sex toys - that's a long story - and all Lauren's done is take a shower.
She's currently laying on the bed they decided not to use with a towel around her body and a second one on her head, just staring at the ceiling while a movie plays on the TV (Camila hates white noise and left it on before she left).
She knows she has to put at least something on, whether that be some kind of underwear or just a t-shirt (Sleeping naked makes her anxious, even though it's comfortable. People have keys to her room and she doesn't really need them seeing her nude). Also, her hair's wet, and her mom used to say that if your hair was wet for too long you could get hypothermia. Lauren's not sure if she believes it, but she did have it engrained in her brain.
"Lauren, you need to get up," she says to herself before groaning.
She doesn't want to get up. Ugh.
Maybe she can steal one of Camila's shirts if she gets up, though, she tries bribing herself. Camila's shirts are nice. They always smell good and are really comfortable.
That seems to convince her, because she gets up and quickly opens Camila's suitcase, grabbing one of her oversized t-shirts from it. She then opens her own suitcase and grabs a pair of panties and her own oversized t-shirt, placing it in Camila's suitcase. (That's their rule - they don't steal, they exchange.)
To be fair, Lauren doesn't really know whose shirts are whose at this point.
She takes her hair out of the towel, cringing when the wet strands tickle her back and pulls the shirt on. She pulls the panties on as well and then puts the towels in the bathroom, enjoying the momentary feeling of accomplishment.
She brushes her hair out and puts it up in a bun just in time for Camila to get back, the younger girl holding a grocery bag.
"Hey," Camila kisses her cheek, "Mm, you smell good."
"Thanks," Lauren smiles sheepishly, "What'd you get?"
Camila sits on the bed, dumping the contents of the bag on it, "Um, bananas, we were running out, chocolates because Dinah and I were craving them before the show tonight, and..." she hands Lauren a fork and a plastic container, "Fresh mango slices. Pretty cheap too, so they're either in season or poisoned. Bon appetit."
Lauren sits down opposite of her, opening the container and taking a piece, "Mm, they're good."
"Good," Camila smiles softly, "I'm gonna shower real quick, I'll be back, okay?"
Lauren nods, and Camila kisses her forehead before leaving.
When she returns, Lauren's half under the covers and finishing off the mangoes - she also realized that this was pretty much her dinner tonight, oh well - and watching an episode of American Horror Story.
"I still don't understand why you like that show," Camila says from where she's sat on the floor, now donned in PJ pants and the t-shirt Lauren put in her suitcase.
"It's cool," Lauren responds lamely, putting the empty container on the nightstand, "I untucked the bedsheets earlier, by the way."
"Good," Camila responds, grabbing socks from her suitcase, "Tomorrow's our last show, you excited?"
"Yeah," Lauren responds, putting her laptop on the ground to charge and snuggling up under the covers, "I'm ready to go home."
Camila climbs into bed with her, "Me too. We'll hang out once we're back home, right?"
Lauren nods, "Yeah."
She just doesn't know why she doesn't believe herself.
-
whoops