"The meet and greet is happening in ten minutes!" One of the members from Lauren's staff yelled as he ran through the stage reaching the other side of it where he started fixing something.
Lauren had just finished rehearsing with the band and Allyson was already taking her away from the stage to the meet and greet room. Camila was left on stage making the last arrangements on her guitar.
As soon as Lauren entered the meet and greet room two women approached to her and quickly started touching up her makeup and fixing her hair.
"We're letting the first person in." One of the security guards warned everyone and everyone immediately went to their places.
The first fan was a short blonde girl with a beautiful flowery dress. She was probably thirteen or fourteen years old. On her hands she had a letter and a red rose.
"Hi babe!" Lauren greeted the girl as she opened her arms for her.
The girl promptly accepted the hug with a big smile on her face.
"How are you?" Lauren asked her. The girl was noticeably nervous.
"I'm fine..." she answered "You?"
"Super fine! I'm so happy to be here!" Lauren told the girl who looked really happy for hearing that Lauren was enjoying her country.
"I'm glad you're enjoying it... For real!" the blondie said "Here! I really want you to read this since I won't be able to tell you everything I wanted to personally... and this is a rose... I know you like them so..."
The girl handed Lauren her the light blue letter and the rose. Lauren grabbed it with a gentle smile on her face.
"I promise you I'll read it!" Lauren promised the girl.
"Pinky promise?" she asked shyly as she showed Lauren her pinky finger.
"Pinky promise." Lauren wrapped her pinky finger to the other girl's.
"Girls, let's take the pic?" the photographer interrupted them.
"Sure!" Lauren said as she posed next to the blonde girl who had her arms wrapped around Lauren's waist.
"Thank you!" the girl thanked.
"No need to thank... Enjoy the show!" Lauren said as she saw the girl disappeard behind the door.
Lauren met around twenty fans more and after that she went to her dressing-room in order to change into her show clothes.
As she was walking to the dressing-room she started opening the letter from the fan she met earlier. She stopped in front of a black door and opened it closing it behind her.
She walked to the couch placed in the corner of the room and sat down on it as she started reading the letter.
"Holy shit..." Lauren whispered to herself as soon as she finished reading it. A few tears started falling through her cheeks.
Sometimes she forgot the impact she caused on the teenagers and on all of her fans and when she was reminded of that, she couldn't keep herself from getting emotional. Lauren didn't usually cry but her fans were one of her biggest weaknesses.
"Lauren! You have thirty minutes!" someone from her staff passed through her door and knocked on it, yelling at her without even opening the door.
Lauren immediately put the letter back inside the envelope and got up from the couch, wiping her tears away with her fingers.
She walked to the place where her clothes were hanging and grabbed the first outfit from one of the hangers. She checked on her hair and makeup and then she started putting her black top on along with the tight black pants.
Before she left the room she grabbed her black hat and opened the door walking out of the room.
"Let's go! Let's go!" Allyson announced as soon as she saw her leaving the room.
Lauren started following Ally who was walking fast through the corridors.
They stopped walking when they were already standing next to the stairs which were connected to the stage.
"Good luck, kid!" Ally said as she quickly hugged Lauren.
"Thanks sunshine!" Lauren thanked her with a smile on her face.
The sound of the show's introduction song started filling the place as well as the fans' screams and whistles. For Lauren, that was the most perfect combination.
"Let's do this..." Lauren whispered to herself before entering the stage energetically.
The band started playing even louder and there were lights, smoke and fire all over the stage.
"Wassup Lisbon?" Lauren yelled into the microphone with a big smile on her face and with one of her arms raised in the air. The audience went crazy.
The rest of the show went as well as Lauren wished and she was more than satisfied.
"You slay my life, girl!" Dinah told Lauren as they were leaving the stage.
"I know I do!" Lauren said as she flipped her hair.
"That big ego tho..." Normani who was walking right behind them joined the conversation. Lauren turned her head and ironically smiled at her.
"Camila!!!" Camila had been the first one leaving the stage so she was already walking a few metres away from them. Camila turned her head to see a smiley Lauren running to her.
"Lauren!!!" Camila yelled back at Lauren playfully and Lauren started walking next to her.
"You did great tonight!" Lauren complimented Camila.
"Oh! Thanks, Laur! You did too!" Camila told her "Did you see that girl holding a Camren poster?"
"I did..." Lauren said. Camila noticed the embarrassment on her face and giggled.
"They ship us hard, huh?" Camila asked playfully.
"Yeah... I guess so..." Lauren's embarrassment was still there. Camila was trying to contain her laugh.
"Do you?" Camila asked her.
"What?" Lauren had a confusing look on her face but deep down she knew what Camila was talking about.
"Ship us!" Camila clarified.
"I mean... I..." Lauren spontaneously started blushing.
"I was just kidding!" Camila said between laughs.
"Oh!" Lauren exclaimed "Ok, I guess..."
"Shit! Do you really ship us?" Camila asked her with a surprising look on her face.
"Of course not! Do you really think so? No! Definitely no." Lauren immediately said a second after.
"Hmm..." Camila mumbled with a smirk on her face as soon as she noticed Lauren's nervousness while saying that.
Lauren kept walking with no courage to even look at Camila again.
"What a shame... I was going to ask you out for a dinner tonight..." Camila said faking a disappointing tone of voice.
"Were you?" Lauren choked into her own words.
"No. I was joking. Why? Did you want that to happen?" Camila asked her. Lauren had never felt so embarrassed towards a woman before.
"Maybe." Lauren said almost in a whisper but Camila was able to hear it and she immediately started blushing.
"What the..." Camila whispered to herself.
"I was joking too." Lauren said as soon as she saw Camila get shocked by the idea. Maybe she hadn't thought of that at all.
"Oh!" Camila exclaimed as she looked down.
"I... I'm... My dressing-room is here... I'm gonna just... I'm gonna go... Get dressed, you know?" Lauren stuttered as she opened the door.
Camila just nodded with a smile on her face and as soon as Lauren closed the door in front of her, her smile disappeared and she kept walking to her dressing-room too... but now faster.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." Camila was whispering as low as she could while she was walking through the corridors until she got into her dressing-room.
Camila felt completely confused by Lauren's attitude. Was she interested in her? Did she like her? Did she actually wanted to go on a date with her?
Camila shook those thoughts away as she mumbled a low "no" trying to not expect something from Lauren she would never get.
Meanwhile Ally and Lauren were talking at Lauren's dressing-room.
"You're into her, Lauren." Ally concluded as soon as Lauren finished telling her the reason why she looked so worried and embarrassed when Ally entered the room.
"Shut up, Allyson. I'm not." Lauren said with a convicting look on her face.
"You are, my love." Ally tried to make her accept that.
"I don't even know her that well. I can't be into her." Lauren said trying to convince herself from the contrary "Plus, I don't usually feel like this... Into someone... That's not me."
"Hey, hey, I'm not saying you're in love already and you're already planning on having a kid named Christopher with her." Ally explained her playfully and Lauren showed her an ironic smile "It can be some kind of connection, an attraction... And see? You already admited you feel "like this", like into someone, without even noticing... You're not like this and I'm actually surprised but you look different. I swear you do. And I like that. Accept the fact she's messing with you."
"I... I don't..." Lauren sighed "What should I do about it?"
"Just ask her out." Ally suggested as she saw Lauren raising an eyebrow.
"No way." Lauren immediately answered "I don't do invitations."
"C'mon Jauregui, you stubborn diva..." Ally begged as she wrapped her fingers around Lauren's arm and started shaking Lauren's body like a kid who asks for a toy on a store.
"Ne-ver." Lauren said.
"Well I'm not forcing you. You're a grown woman, you know what you do." Ally gave up on trying.
"Thank you." Lauren thanked her ironically, trying her best not to reveal her vulnerable side.
"Whatever." Ally sighed as she got up from the chair where she was sitting on and walked to the door, leaving the room.
As soon as Ally left the room, Lauren stopped containing her tears and one immediately fell through her cheek.
"Fuck, Lauren Jauregui doesn't cry over this ridiculous thing aymore." Lauren said to herself as she angrily wipped the tear away with her hand.
She let a loud scream get out of her mouth and both her hands hit the mirror's table as hard as they could.
"Is everything ok inside?" Lauren was able to hear Camila's hesitating voice ask from outside of the room.
"Yeah." Lauren yelled and her voice cracked a little bit. She was hoping Camila hadn't noticed it but before she could realize, Camila was already inside the room walking worriedly towards her.
Lauren's head was down and Camila was trying to look at her through the mirror but her hair was covering her face.
Camila got closer to her and she wrapped her arm around Lauren's waist. With the free hand she raised Lauren's chin up. Lauren tried not to look at Camila but Camila made Lauren turn her head so she could look at her.
"What's wrong, Lauren?" Camila asked her as soon as she realized Lauren's face was red.
"I'm just tired." Lauren lied. Her eyes were turned to the floor so she wasn't looking back into Camila's eyes.
"Laur..." Camila called her with a sad tone of voice.
Lauren didn't answer.
"Lauren!" Camila slightly yelled at her this time.
Lauren's eyes met Camila's for the first time since Camila walked into that room minutes before.
Camila's proximity to Lauren made her spontaneously stare into her lips. Although she didn't mean to, she started approaching her face to Lauren's when Lauren got rid of Camila's arms and looked into the mirror, starting to take her makeup off.
"I'm fine." Lauren said. Her tone of voice was cold. So cold Camila could almost feel it reaching her warm skin giving her shivers through her spine.
Camila slowly started walking backwards until she turned around and reached the door, walking out of the room and leaving Lauren inside it.
Lauren sighed as soon as she heard the door being angrily closed. She tried to ignore the fact Camila was probably mad at her and kept trying to remove her makeup.
After she had no makeup on, she walked to her backpack and took her black flannel shirt out of it. She took her clothes off and then changed into the shirt and some black and white shorts she had brought inside her backpack.
"Lauren?" a man from Lauren's staff knocked on the door and opened it "The car is already waiting outside."
"Ok. Thank you." Lauren thanked him coldly.
The man closed the door again and Lauren grabbed her backpack from the ground, walking out of the room.
She was almost running through the corridors until she reached the black car, getting into it and ignoring a few fans who tried to talk to her. That was actually the first time she ignored her fans.
The car immediately hit the road and she got to the hotel in a few minutes since the hotel was really close to the venue.
Camila was still inside the venue as well as the others. They were waiting for the other car so they could leave too.
"Camila?" Normani called for her attention "Is everything ok?"
Camila's look was distant and she was frantically rubbing her hands into each other showing everyone how nervous she felt.
"Camila?" Normani called again since Camila didn't answer at first.
"Huh?" Camila quickly turned her head to see Normani.
"Is everything ok?" Normani asked her worriedly.
"Sure! Why wouldn't it be?" Camila answered.
"Hmmm..." Normani mumbled "If you need something, you can count on us..."
"Thank you!" Camila thanked her and showed her a tiny smile.
"Is this about Lauren?" Ally approached to Camila and whispered next to her ear.
"No..." Camila lied as she felt Ally staring at her like she already knew it actually was about Lauren. "Ok, it is."
"Like I said... Be patient with her..." Ally said "She's complicated... Her heart is ridiculously cold and I know she should already be over it but she's so stubborn!"
"I know, Ally..." Camila sadly whispered "We were getting so close and now she does this..."
"What? What did she do?" Ally asked as she raised an eyebrow. Of course Ally didn't know about the "almost kiss" inside the dressing-room.
"She... Ah whatever, I won't lose anything if I tell you, will I?" Camila said "I heard Lauren screaming inside her dressing-room and I got worried so I entered the room. I approached to her so I could check on her... But then things got weird and I don't know how it happened but we got so close I almost kissed her and she backed away pretending it didn't happen... She said she was fine with that cold tone of voice, you know? The one she used the most of the times we talked... And I just walked out of the room."
Ally was listening to everything with a shocking look on her face.
"Wow..." Ally mumbled as soon as Camila finished talking. "You're telling me you almost kissed...?"
"Basically." Camila confirmed as her cheeks started turning red.
"Are you... into her?" Ally asked Camila curiously.
"I'm not... I mean, I don't know anymore." Camila admited.
"You know you're about to sleep inside the same room as her..." Ally reminded her "You gotta talk to her, babe."
"She was the one who messed up. She's the one who has to talk to me." Camila said.
"Camila... We both know she'll never do that." Ally sighed.
"Bah..." Camila rolled her eyes in frustration.
"Talk to her." Ally suggested.
"I'm gonna think about that..." Camila said playfully and Ally winked at her.
The black car arrived and the girls entered inside it. The driver immediately took them to the hotel.
"Good luck!" Ally said as soon as Camila walked to her room's door.
"Thanks!" Camila thanked her with a gentle smile as she opened the door.
Lauren was sitting on her bed with her phones inside her ears and a cup of something Camila couldn't identify on her right hand. Lauren's face was wet probably because she had been crying.
Camila closed the door behind her and walked in silence to the chair placed on the room's corner leaving her backpack there. Then she started taking her clothes off and changed into her pajamas. She wasn't even caring about Lauren's eyes which were placed on her.
After tying up her hair in a ponytail she sighed as she slowly turned around to see Lauren looking at her with a miserable expression on her face.
"Before you say anything..." Lauren mumbled with a raspy tone of voice. Even more raspy than the usual. "I'm telling you that you should back away because I'll never be good for you..."
"Lauren..." Camila whispered with a sad look on her face.
"No, wait..." Lauren interrupted her "You're already hurt, see? I'm a ball of coldness, sadness. People like you don't want to be related to someone like me... I ain't shit and..."
"Lauren, you silly... I wanna be related to you... I want that more than anything..." it was Camila's time to interrupt Lauren. She sat down next to Lauren as she said that and placed her hand on Lauren's arm. "This last days I've been dealing with you a lot and I like to deal with you. I like to deal with the caring Lauren and I also like to deal with the idiot Lauren even though the idiot Lauren pisses me off... You're a good person, Lauren. Oh, I swear to God you are. You're interesting as fuck. The way you get passionate about the stuff you like and the way you care about the people you love is beautiful to see. You and your beautiful green eyes are lots of people's favorite things and your messy and funny side is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. And I wanna be your friend, I wanna be around. I don't care if sometimes you're cold. Pain changes people, I know... but this way you'll never be able to relate with people around you during your whole life. It also happened to me and I was strong enough to get over it so I'm sure you can do it too. Let's do it together. I don't wanna leave your side. I'm gonna be here to hold your hand when you need me and even when you don't."
"I have no idea of how you can deal with this..." Lauren said as she pointed to herself. "And shit, that was... pretty nice."
"This..." Camila pointed to Lauren the way Lauren did before "... is someone I really like and I'm willing to go through hell just to make you feel happy again."
"I don't even know what to say to you..." Lauren admited.
"Don't say anything. I just hope this got into your head." Camila honestly said.
"It did. Thank you, Camila." Lauren thanked her sincerely with a smile on her face. "Camila?"
"What?" Camila raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't we gonna talk about you almost kissing me?" Lauren asked Camila with a smirk on her face. Lauren was back. Camila had been able to melt her heart again.
Camila started coughing frantically and Lauren started laughing at the other girl's embarrassment.
"I... It was because... I was... We... We were so close... I... I was close and... I got closer... It wasn't... I didn't really mean to... I mean..." Camila was literally choking into her own words.
"It's ok, Camila, calm down!" Lauren said between laughs "It's a shame I didn't let you finish what you were about to do..."
"What?" Camila choked again.
Lauren placed the cup she had on her hands on the bedside table, threw her phones to the floor and crawled towards Camila who was sitting on her side of the bed getting close to her. Lauren took her right hand to Camila's chin and raised it up so she could look right into Camila's eyes. Camila immediately swallowed hard. Lauren took her free hand to Camila's chest feeling her heart beatings.
"Why is your heart beating so fast?" Lauren asked her pretending she didn't know why.
Camila didn't say a word, she just shrugged.
"Are you nervous?" Lauren asked as she took her hand from Camila's chest and placed it on Camila's thigh slightly squeezing it in order to get even closer to her.
"F-For what?" Camila couldn't believe Lauren was really going to do that.
Camila's eyes were switching between Lauren's lips and Lauren's eyes. Lauren's lips were almost touching Camila's. A shiver ran through Camila's spine. Her body was starting to react.
Lauren got a little bit closer and Camila's eyes were already closing when in a quick movement Lauren raised her head up and left a kiss on Camila's forehead backing away right after that and letting herself fall onto her side of the bed.
"Camila! Open your eyes, idiot!" Lauren yelled as her laugh filled the room.
Camila slowly opened her eyes to see Lauren laying on her side of the bed with the biggest smile on her face. But that wasn't a smile of happiness or gentleness, it was a "making fun of Camila" smile.
"What the fuck, Lauren?" Camila complained with a frustrating look on her face.
"What? Were you expecting me to put my tongue inside your mouth already?" Lauren said playfully as Camila started blushing "That's not how it works, baby."
"Idiot." Camila mumbled as she covered herself with the sheets and turned her back to Lauren who couldn't stop laughing.
"But we can cuddle if you want..." Lauren suggested playfully and Camila sighed in frustration.
"Let me sleep, Lauren." Camila said trying to contain her laugh.
Before Camila could notice Lauren was already wrapping her arm around her waist and pulling her closer. Camila's back collided with Lauren's body and she didn't even complain anymore. She just settled down inside Lauren's arms and closed her eyes.
Lauren smiled as soon as she realized Camila wasn't gonna move from there and it took her a little bit longer to be able to fall asleep.
"Camila, Camila..." Lauren whispered as she noticed Camila was already sleeping. "What are you doing to me?"