Lauren's phone had been ringing during the last ten minutes and she felt so lazy that day she didn't even want to move her arm and reach it...
Even though she didn't look at the phone screen, she already knew it was Allyson, who happened to be her manager and also her best friend, wanting to wish her a "good morning" and then being mad at her for being late for the meeting she had that day because of the new tour she was about to start in three days.
It was the seventh time the phone was ringing and Lauren was so sick of hearing that annoying ringtone that she just rolled her eyes as hard as she could and grabbed her phone in a quick movement.
"Good morning Lauren, why weren't you answering the phone? Huh? Anyways, how are you today? I hope you're ok and I also hope you're getting ready for the meeting today... it starts in a few minutes... are you getting ready? We can't make them wait!" Ally said as fast as she could and Lauren felt confused for a moment "Are you there? Lauren?"
"Yes Allyson, I'm here, good morning... I'm... Yeah, I'm getting ready, I'm almost ready! Don't worry! I'll be there at 10 o'clock." Lauren answered not wanting to worry Ally.
"Great! See you there! Bye!" Ally finally said as she hung up the phone.
"Jesus... How can she be this energetic in the morning...?!" Lauren immediately whispered to herself as she sat on bed and tried to reach her slippers under the bed.
Lauren had thirty minutes to be at the building where the meeting was happening and as soon as she finally realized that she started running from the bedroom to the bathroom, from the bathroom to the bedroom, from the bedroom to the kitchen and she was opening the house's door about eight minutes before the starting of the meeting... "Fuck!" she thought. She would be so screwed if she didn't get there in time...
She closed the door behind her and pressed the elevator button. It usually took like two seconds but especially today it was taking one hour.
As soon as she got out of the building she ran to her car and she drove as fast as she could.
She knew she was already late but she couldn't make Ally wait even more. Not disappointing Ally was the most important thing.
"I bet she's almost here..." Allyson worriedly told the people who were there waiting for Lauren to arrive, trying to calm them down... and also trying to keep herself from stressing.
"Good morning, I'm so sorry I took this long!" Lauren apologized as she entered the room and sat in the first chair she saw. Everyone smiled at her and some of them even told her it was ok. She definitely felt better after knowing she wasn't in trouble.
"Finally..." Ally whispered close to Lauren so that only Lauren could hear her "You told me you were almost ready... They were starting to get mad..." she kept telling Lauren as she quickly sat next to her.
"I'm sorry... but don't worry..." Lauren whispered back "They were super fine with it!" She winked at Ally and caressed her head for a few seconds trying to calm her down.
Lauren started looking around and seeing lots of new faces. She noticed her old guitarist Nathan who used to follow her on the last tours was not there anymore. For a moment she had forgotten he had passed away two days after end of the last tour because of his heart problem... Now they had to replace him. Her smile died for a little bit with the thought of missing him but it appeared back on her face as soon as she saw Normani and Dinah sitting a little bit far from her.
"Heyyyy!!!" Normani whispered so low Lauren could barely hear it but she immediately waved at her and smiled so big Dinah and Normani started laughing.
Lauren noticed a young girl sitting beside them and she was sure she had never seen her before. Probably she was nineteen? Twenty? She had long brown hair and Lauren couldn't see it very well from where she was sitting but she was almost sure her eyes were brown too.
Suddenly the girl smiled at something Dinah told her and Lauren got a little bit jealous because she realized the girl was really beautiful.
"Who's that?" Lauren asked Ally without taking her eyes off the girl.
"Oh! She's the new guitarist! I think her name is Ca-something... Camila! Yeah, Camila! Why?" Ally answered as she followed Lauren's eyes which were looking right into the new girl. "Lauren? What's the problem?"
"Isn't she too young to be on a world tour?" Ally looked at Lauren with a confusing look on her face "I mean... She's gonna miss her family and stuff and we can't deal with it... right?"
"Please Lauren... I heard she's so good... and from what Normani told me, she's an independent woman..." Ally giggled "She's living by herself for two years now and she's always wanted this..." She placed her hand on Lauren's shoulder making her look at the girl "Plus, she's such an adorable girl, look at her!"
"Yeah, well I wanted Nathan back... I don't think she'll be better than him." Lauren objected back with contempt on her voice.
"Give her a chance, Lauren... You don't even know her yet." Ally looked at Lauren slightly disappointed with her attitude "Hey, why don't we go and greet her at the end of the meeting?" Ally pronounced herself again right after a few seconds of silence.
"Yeah... Maybe." Lauren said without even looking at her. Ally turned around giving up on the idea of making Lauren give that girl an opportunity.
After a few minutes everyone was ready to start talking about the tour.
Lauren started being bossy as usual. She complained about almost everything, making them change some of the last little details she really wanted to change.
The venues where she was going to perform were not huge but it was her first time out of the country so she was fine with it... and she was super excited to visit new places.
She had always wanted to visit London, Paris and Portugal since she was a ten years old and she was going to perform in all of them and a few more. She was so proud she was going to reach this "goal" of hers.
Almost three hours after, the meeting was finally over and Lauren immediately got up and ran to Normani hugging the flawless curly haired girl... then she almost jumped on Dinah and squeezed her until she felt like she wasn't missing her anymore... well, at least until she wasn't missing her that much anymore because Lauren was always missing her.
Lauren hadn't seen them in almost two months and they were so close to her she was extra happy to see them again.
"How are you girl?" Dinah yelled at Lauren while looking her up and down.
"The same as always... And missing you two a lot! I gotta admit it!" Lauren answered as she caressed Normani's hair and smiled. "How did it go with your family Mani? Did you enjoy your time with them?"
"I did babe... a lot!" Normani gently smiled at Lauren "They were always telling me how proud they were of me... during the freaking two months!" She started laughing and both Lauren and Dinah joined her.
"I see you've already joined your girls..." Ally interrupted their laughing session.
"I had to!" Lauren said wrapping her arm around Ally's shoulder.
"Where's Camila?" Ally asked Normani as Lauren immediately took her arm off Ally and rolled her eyes.
"She had to go because it's her last day as a music teacher since she's going on tour with us..." Normani explained "She gives children guitar lessons and she told us they're so close it's gonna be so hard for her to leave them."
"Well she can stay with them..." Lauren said louder than what she was planning to and all the three girls looked at her.
"LAUREN!" Ally yelled at her completely shocked.
"Why would you say that? She's great!" Dinah had a surprising look on her face.
"I just don't think this is the right job for her..." Lauren told them "It was Nathan's..." She whispered to herself but they were able to hear her and Ally immediately wrapped her arms around Lauren trying to comfort her.
"It's ok... We understand you miss Nathan but it is what it is... We also miss him but the show must go on Laur..." Dinah said as she placed her hand on Lauren's arm.
"Exactly... It's not Camila's fault he's gone... Give her a chance!" Ally kept going "Maybe she's gonna be the one filling that empty space he left here... who knows?" She pointed her finger to Lauren's heart and Lauren grabbed Ally's hand kissing it and giving her a little smile.
"Hey Laur, what do you think about having dinner with us tonight?" Normani suddently said with an exciting look on her face "And we could invite Camila... If you want to, of course!"
"I don't know..." Lauren answered. She wasn't sure if she wanted to meet Camila because she reminded her of Nathan and it was so hard for her to remember him.
"Oh c'mon girl, you need to have fun!" Dinah said as she slapped Lauren's arm trying to make her laugh.
"Pleeeease!" Ally practically begged in front of Lauren's face.
"Ok, I'll go... You won!" Lauren finally announced after a few seconds of silence.
"Yay!!!" The girls yelled at the same time.
"I have to go now, I still wanna skype with my parents before we go out..." Normani was the first talking after they celebrated Lauren's presence on tonight's dinner.
"I'll go with you Mani... I still have to get some stuff ready for when we leave..." Dinah sighed. She was definitely not in a mood to pack up clothes.
"Well, I guess we're all going..." Ally laughed "Are you coming too, Lauren?"
"Yes, I am... I'm so hungry right now... I need some pizza!" Lauren said. All the girls laughed at Lauren's desperation for a piece of pizza.
They left the building and after saying their goodbyes to each others, Lauren got into her car and started driving to a pizza restaurant near her house.
A few minutes after, she arrived to the restaurant and happily for her there were a few free spots for her to park her car right in front of it so it didn't take too long for her to be sitting inside of the restaurant and ordering what she wanted.
That restaurant was great for her to go because there was never too much people and she wasn't noticed too often. She was starting to get really known because of her career and she always had to be careful and choose the right places to go.
She was almost finishing her meal when someone new entered the restaurant.
"Holy crap..." Lauren immediately tought as soon as she saw Camila walking through the door and sitting on a table next to it.
Lauren couldn't take her eyes off the girl and her pizza started being eaten slowly... the five minutes she thought she would take to finish that meal turned into twenty minutes of some kind of a trance.
Suddently the girl got up and Lauren shook her head. The girl was already leaving and Lauren was still sitting there, now trying to finish her orange juice.
She ignored the fact that the girl caught her attention for a few minutes and got up too, paying for her meal and leaving the restaurant.
Lauren started walking slowly to her car because she had no idea of what she was going to do next. Since the end of the last tour she had spent more than half of her days at home. She could barely go out alone because "it was too dangerous" and she hated it.
She entered her car, turned the music louder than what her voice could ever reach and started driving home.
As soon as she got home she laid on her couch and started watching tv until she fell asleep and didn't even notice the time passing.
An annoying sound started playing in Lauren's head and it was gradually starting to get louder.
Lauren started opening her eyes and she realized it was the doorbell's sound the sound which had woken her up.
She got up from the couch and grabbed her phone as she started walking to the door. "NO WAY!" Lauren yelled as soon as she realized it was already more than time for her to get dressed for dinner,
She opened the door and there she was. Allyson. Pissed off with Lauren.
"LAUREN, I WAS HERE FOR ALMOST AN HOUR, ARE YOU INSANE?" Ally started yelling at Lauren while entering her house.
"I'm so sorry Allycat, I'm so sorry... I fell asleep and I..." Lauren started apologizing.
"What are you still doing there? Go get ready! Normani, Dinah and Camila are already waiting for us in the restaurant!" Ally warned Lauren while pushing her into her room and closed the door leaving her inside so she could get dressed.
Lauren took about thirty minutes to get ready and Ally spent all the time knocking on the door and telling her to hurry up.
Lauren opened the door and Ally was so relieved she was finally ready to go but she was also surprised because Lauren was wearing such a beautiful black dress and her lips were painted in dark red. She looked stunning.
"Wow... You look amazing Laur!" Ally complimented Lauren not being able to close her mouth completely.
"Thank you Ally!" Lauren said laughing at Ally's reaction "You look great too, I didn't even have the chance to tell you since you pushed me into my room and closed me inside..." Lauren tried to act mad.
"It was just because... We were late... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..." Ally apologized as fast as she could.
"It's ok, it's ok... I was just kidding Allycat!" Lauren winked at Ally while wrapping her arm around Ally's shoulders and walking out the door with her. Ally immediately sighed in relief.
"Well I brought my car so I think we'll just meet there... You know where it is, right?" Ally asked me while opening her car's door.
"I do... And if I get lost, you'll come and save me." Lauren answered before getting into her car.
"Always the same dork..." Ally shook her head as she closed the car's door and started driving to the restaurant.
They didn't take too long to arrive and they entered the restaurant together.
As soon as they opened the door there they were... Normani, Dinah and Camila. Lauren stopped for a minute before Ally took her hand and slightly pull her to join the three girls on the table.