Dinah: Hollywood Blvd is huge, where the hell you at?
Camila: We're standing on Michelle Pfeiffer
Dinah: Well that's rude, I'm sure she doesn't appreciate it
Dinah: We're on Johnny Depp, Normani made us stop.
Dinah: Sycamore and Orange.
Camila: I'm not going to comment, too easy
Dinah: Fuck you
Camila: Keep walking, meet us at Orange and Highland
Dinah: Roger
Camila: Camz, out
Dinah: More like Camz, closeted
Camila: Excuse me?
Dinah: Ha!
Camila: Fuck you
Dinah: I don't think Lauren would appreciate that
Camila: I'm putting my phone away now
---------------------------
Lauren POV
I took out my camera, snapping a few Polaroids of different Hollywood Stars, forever immortalized on the sidewalk, looking up just in time to see Camila stuff her phone back into her pocket.
"Are they close?" I asked her, holding up my camera as I took another photo of Camila.
Camila shook her head and laughed. "Not fair, I wasn't ready for that," she said attempting to put on a pouty face, failing miserably. "They are that way, I told them to keep walking, we can keep going and meet them half way."
"The best photos are the ones that aren't posed for," I replied, putting the photos I had taken in the front pocket of my bag. We started to walk in the direction of the other girls and I felt Camila's arm snake around me, her body leaning into mine as we walked. "You're killing me, Smallz," I mumbled under my breath, the scent of her coconut shampoo filling the air around me.
"Did I do something wrong?" She asked, looking worried.
"It's from a movie."
"Oh."
"Yeah," I said, my voice trailing off as I spotted Dinah, Normani, and Ally all walking with their arms linked. Ally was laughing, her head back, while Dinah smiled at her widely. Normani noticed us first, removing herself from Dinah and running towards us, her arms waving.
"There you are," she exclaimed as she came to a stop. "We've been walking forever, I need a snack," she said motioning over to an ice cream cart parked on the other side of the road.
"I could go for some ice cream," Camila said happily. "Hey guys," she said when Dinah and Ally finally reached us. "We're thinking we should take an ice cream break."
"I'm always up for ice cream," Ally responded, her head turning to where Camila was now pointing.
"So what's with the impromptu Girl's Day," Dinah asked us. "Not that I'm complaining, I'm already having a blast and we haven't even gotten started yet."
"Just thought," Camila started to say as she turned to look at me. "Just thought it would be fun to hang out and get our minds off things."
"It's only been a week and school is stressing me out already," Normani interjected and Camila smiled and laughed, the sound erupting a thousand tiny butterflies in the pit of my stomach.
"Yeah, totally, school," Camila replied while I smiled knowingly.
We stood at the ice cream cart scanning the menu written on a chalk board that was attached to the side of the cart, when I heard Dinah squeal with excitement beside me, the four of us turning quickly to assess the situation.
"Ice Corn," she said pointing at the menu with a look of happiness on her face.
"I'm sorry, what?" Normani asked her, almost afraid to hear the answer.
"Corn and ice cream."
"Ew. That's what I was worried you were going to say," she said to Dinah with a look of pure disgust on her face. "You're not seriously going to order that?"
"Hell yeah I am, girl, don't knock it till' you've tried it," she said handing the man behind the cart her money.
Normani shook her head. "Pralines and cream, double scoop, please," she said to the man after he handed Dinah her concoction.
I could feel Camila watching me and I turned to smile at her. "What are you getting?" She asked me as she fumbled around in her purse.
"Arroz con Leche," I told her. "It's one of my favourite foods, I can't believe that even have that flavour here."
I heard Ally order vanilla apple pie ice cream and just as I was about to order, Camila interrupted. "I'll take a double scoop of Arroz con Leche and a double scoop of nutella banana, please and thank you," she held out the money and the man running the cart took it and turned to get our cones.
"Did you just say noo-tella?" Ally questioned her. "You know it's pronounced nut-ella right?"
"I don't think that's right, I'm pretty sure it's noo-tella," Camila told her.
"No no, it's definitely nut-ella," Ally told her, pronouncing the word slowly. "Like hazelnut."
"Or is it hazelnoot," Camila said with a serious look on her face.
"Ya'll please tell her," Ally said looking at us pleadingly.
I raised my hands and stepped back, I was not getting involved in this. Dinah looked as though she was about to chime in, but Camila turned away, reaching for our ice cream cones before anyone could say anything else.
"You didn't have to buy my ice cream," I told her honestly, as I accepted the cold treat. "But thank you, can you say Arroz con Leche again?"
"Arroz con Leche," Camila said to me with a smile, her cuban accent rolling off her tongue. Everything inside of me felt like it was coming undone, the way she spoke her nation's language melted me.
"Did you know I'm Cuban too," I asked her.
"Jauregui is a pretty Cuban last name," she laughed. "So I kind of figured. Do you know any Spanish?"
I shrugged my shoulders, disappointment evident on my face. "A little, just what I taught myself," I told her. "Enough, I guess."
"I could help you," Camila suggested. "It's my first language, so I mean, I could help you, if you wanted to learn more."
I nodded. I wanted to learn. I was Cuban after all. Even if I was not raised in a Cuban household, it was still a part of who I was.
"Don't mean to break up the little Camren love fest over here," Dinah interrupted. "But there's still a bunch of stars I wanna go check out."
"What did you just call us?" I questioned her, brows knitted together in confusion.
"Camren," she repeated. "That's your ship name and girl, do I ever ship it."
"Dinah, stop," Camila whined, stepping away from me as if I had a contagious disease.
"What?" She said looking at Camila curiously. I watched the look exchanged between them and wanted to question it, but didn't think now was the time. "I am the Captain just waiting for my ship to sail."
"Okay that's enough, ya'll are crazy, let's go," Ally said wrapping her hand around Camila's and pulling her away from us.
There was a silence as we all walked, stopping whenever we pleased, eating our ice cream and taking pictures of our surroundings. Every time I tried to get close to Camila again, she'd act like she was distracted by something and walk away and I didn't understand what was happening.
"You okay?" Normani asked, as she stepped back from the group and trailed behind with me.
"Did I do something to offend Camila?" I asked, honestly unsure what was going on.
"It wasn't you, it was Dinah, sometimes she doesn't think," the girl told me. "It's both annoying and endearing."
"I don't understand," I mumbled, letting out a breath of air. "She's so hot and cold with me, it's like we get close and then all of a sudden things get weird and I don't know why. Do you think it's because I like girls?"
Normani threw her head back and stopped, touching me gently on my arm to hold me in the spot I was standing, the other girls continuing to walk ahead of us. "She does not care about that," she said honestly. "I don't really, for sure, know what's going on with her, I have a few ideas, but I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut right now, because it's not my place."
"Mani, please."
"Sorry Lo, I'm sure if you look deep down inside of yourself you'll figure it out," she said to me. "Just give her a little time, she's just a little anxious right now, she'll come back to you."
I sighed, running my hands threw my hair.
"MICKEY MOUSE!" Without warning Camila jumped between us, pointing over to where Dinah and Ally were taking selfies with a large fiberglass Mickey Mouse statue. "So I'm gonna need you two to walk a little faster so we can get a group picture with the world's greatest mouse, ok?" Camila reached up and ruffled my hair, a smile on her face and a look in her eyes that I took as an apology for her strange behavior.
"Told you so," Normani said to me, sending me a wink.
"Do you ship it?" I asked her as we walked over to the girls.
"I'm gonna have to give that a big ole yes," she laughed.
I shook my head and thought for a moment, "I guess that's cool, I mean, I ship Norminah so, I guess that makes us even."
"Please, that girl is straighter than a board," Normani scoffed, a hint of unhappiness in her voice that I completely understood.
"I've seen some pretty warped boards in my lifetime," I told her. "I have a feeling she might curve a little for you if you just told her how you felt."
"And how is it that I feel?" Normani questioned.
"You know, like how I feel about Camz," I admitted, her head shooting up to look at me, eyes narrowed.
"I knew it," she said lowering her voice as we got closer to the other girls.
"Don't tell anyone, I haven't had a friend like Camila, well ever and I don't want to ruin it," I told her. "I mean you four are pretty much it for me, I don't want to-"
"Look Lo, your secret is safe with me," she stepped sideways and bumped her hip against mine. "As long as mines safe with you, solidarity sister."
"Solidarity for sure," I replied, the two us joining the others at the statue. "So, group photo?" I asked addressing the others.
"Excuse me, sir?" Dinah said approaching a man it a green shirt. "See my friend over there?" She said pointing to Ally. "I will let you touch her left boob if you take a photo for us."
"DINAH!" Ally screamed. "Do not offer my body parts to people for payment of anything. Jesus would be ashamed of you right now."
The man looked between the two of them and Ally crossed her arms across her chest.
"You can keep walking now," I cut in, motioning for the man to just leave.
"Let me handle this," Camila giggled, pushing Dinah back to the group. I watched as Dinah pulled Ally into a hug, whispering something in her ear, causing Ally to laugh, and internally I thanked God that Ally was such a forgiving person, because if that had been anyone else, Dinah would have gotten herself into some seriously hot water.
Camila hummed, looking around the busy street until she saw her target, waving down an older woman and what I assumed was her husband.
"Se puede tomar una foto de nosotros?" Camila questioned and I had to stop myself from falling over, leaning heavily against Normani.
"Hold it together, girl," she said to me, as I attempted to shush her so I could listen to Camila speaking.
"Solo queremos un par de fotos si eso está bien," she continued, handing the camera to the woman who happily obliged.
"Okay señoras, sonreír," the woman said to us.
"Smile wide," Camila said to us.
The woman took a few photos for us and handed back the camera to Normani, before gesturing to the Polaroid camera in my hand.
"¿Quieres que tome uno para ti también?" She asked me and I turned to Camila for clarification.
"She wants to know if you want her to take a photo with your camera too," she told me and I thought for a second before handing my camera over to the woman, taking a second to show her how it worked.
"Uno, dos, tres," the woman counted, the camera clicking and humming as the photo began to slide out of the bottom.
Before they turned to walk away, I grabbed Camila by the arm, telling her to ask the couple if they wanted me to take a photo of them together with my camera. Camila smiled at me, turning to the couple, the Spanish rolling off her tongue easily and the couple nodded, hurrying over in front of the statue we had all just been standing at. I took the photo and handed it to them, the woman pulling me in for a hug as I did.
"Gracias," Camila and I said together, waving at the couple as they continued on their way.
"How did you do that?" Ally asked coming over to us, directing her question to Camila.
"Do what?"
"You just picked out that couple, who didn't speak any English, how did you know they were-"
"Cuban?" Camila asked laughing. "The man was wearing a button on his shirt with the flag on it," Camila explained. "When I first moved here, I wore one too, to let people know I wasn't being rude by not answering them when they spoke to me, I just didn't understand them."
The four of us nodded our heads, Ally looking at her with wide eyes. "Hold up, you didn't know any english when you moved here?"
"Nope," Camila told us. "I taught myself English when I was 6 by watching a lot of TV," she laughed.
"Amazing," Ally said smiling at her.
"I guess so," Camila said continuing to laugh. "Oh look!" She said her attention slipping away from us, "Julie Freaking Andrews!" Camila walked over to the star and pointed dramatically, causing us all to laugh.
We spent the rest of the day looking for our favourite celebrities and taking pictures and popping in and out of the shops located along Hollywood Boulevard. It was getting late, the sky was getting dark, and we were running out of arms to carry the things we had all bought, so we decided to catch the next bus back to campus. I was happy to see it almost empty, which meant we didn't have to stand, an action that was not unusual to have to do here in LA when taking public transportation.
We took our seats at the back of the bus and I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, pulling it out and reading that I had a message from Camila. I looked up at her and she motioned for me to read it.
Camila: I'm sorry
Lauren: I know
Camila: I didn't mean to get weird with you
Lauren: I know
Camila: Forgive me?
Lauren: There's nothing to forgive you for, it's no biggie
Camila: Wanna watch a movie on my laptop with me when we get home?
I looked at her message, home, I smiled realizing for the first time, as I looked at the girls, that I finally had a home of my own. Looking up at her I nodded my head before leaning against the window, watching the streets of LA pass us by.