"What do you mean you helped Lauren plan this big thing for Camila?!"
"Well she wanted to give them a go, ya know? Tonight is the last night Camila is in Miami, so we decided to plan 'the perfect date'. Trust me, Mila is going to absolutely love it. If she wasn't already in love with Lauren, she would be falling for her on the spot." Normani explained, her excitement practically making her bounce on the spot. They were both sitting on Dinah's bed facing one another with their legs overlapping by each others sides.
"Fuck."
"What do you mean fuck? Trust me, it's really cute."
"Because me and Milz planned for her to serenade Lauren and do this whole overnight romantic beach trip. She knows this girl, Keana, who was willing to lend her place out along the beach for them. Fuck!" Dinah explained, before again adding the expletive on the end.
"Oh shit."
"Yeah, tell me about it!"
"Well what do we do?" Normani asked herself as much as her girlfriend sitting across from her.
"I have no fucking clue... You said Lauren had this huge thing planned?" Dinah questioned curiously, her voice laced with guilt.
"Yeah. It took us the entire day to setup, and we even enlisted her mum into the 'date planning' ranks of Operation Mila. Lauren's been waiting for Sinu's phone call for the 'go-ahead'."
"Fuck. We didn't even tell Sinu, either. I think Camila just told her that she 'had plans'."
"Lauren will be so fucking crushed. What do we do?" her worried tone feeding the exponentially growing tension in the room.
"I don't know. I mean if we could talk to Camila's mum, maybe she could help. Did you happen to get her number?" Dinah asked, as her mind was churning through ideas as fast as a kid eats it's way through candy.
"Nope. I really wish I had, though."
"Damn. Okay, well I think Camila's date plans can be rescheduled to another day. I'm assuming Lauren's setup is only temporary?"
"Yeah, definitely," she answered, trying to keep up with Dinah's train of thought.
"Okay...so, I don't know whether this will work considering how stubborn that girl is, but it's worth a try. I'm going to ring her to tell her that I have a better idea for a surprise first date tomorrow and try to convince her to cancel tonight's plans. I'll also use the argument that Lauren might not feel up to going out at the moment," Dinah explained. A mix of hopeful excitement and frightened anxiety swirled around in the pit of her stomach.
Normani nodded fervently. "Okay, sounds good. I hope this works, otherwise it is going to be a messy and confusing night."
Dinah waited for several moments as the phone rang. She hung up before the annoying message-bank could even attempt to persuade her to leave some kind of betrayed message. Her and Normani shared a frightened glance, both of them feeling the enormous pressure.
"Try again," Normani demanded, her voice lacking the mass of emotions that were overwhelming her body. "She might not have heard."
Dinah tapped the call symbol once again, mumbling under her breath, "Come on Walz, pick up!"
They waited, listening impatiently to the dial tone and just when they thought that Camila would never pick up, her voice traveled along the line. "Hey Dinah, what's up?"
"Oh, uh, hi Walz! How's it all going so far?"
"Yeah, good! My mum really pissed me off earlier, I don't know. She told me that I wasn't allowed to go out because of family time or some shitty reason. But it's fine, she's going to have to deal with it," Camila explain, her tone hinting at the slight annoyance that still lingered in the back of her mind.
"Oh, that really sucks dude," Dinah agreed, in a voice that was hardly convincing. Normani elbowed her and shot her a glare in warning. "I...uh, mean like I know how you feel. My parents are always all up in my face, and I'm like bish whatever."
Camila laughed in response. "Dinah, your parents are like so chill with you, as long as you do your babysitting. You have, like, zero to complain about."
"How do you know? Huh, Walz? My parents could be Nazi on my ass."
"Because you told me so yourself, like four days ago!"
"What? I did? Well, uh, maybe I was lying!"
"Pfft. If you say so Cheech," she snorted with another bout of laughter.
"Anyway, Mila, you know about tonight?" she asked, trying not to allow the awkwardness she felt pervade her tone.
"Yeah?"
"Well, I've actually, uh, come up with a much better idea for a first date."
"Oh yeah? Cool!" Camila responded enthusiastically, which, rather than soothing Dinah's nerves sent them to an all new high.
"But it's actually for tomorrow during the day rather than at night. But I don't really have time to explain it all to you now, because I'm supposed to be going on that date with Mani tonight," Dinah explained, using Normani as an excuse to avoid questions. "Also, it gets your mum off your back about staying home tonight and gives Lauren some extra time to recuperate. Her memory has been playing up, apparently."
"Oh yeah, right. True. Um...I don't know. Just give me like a minute to think, 'cause I'll have to ring Keana and let her know. Lucky I didn't set anything up early."
"Yeah, cool. That's fine."
"Okay, Cheech. I'll give you a call back in a couple of minutes."
"Yeah. Talk soon, Milz."
"Yup. And have fun on that date!"
"Thanks, will do."
Dinah set the phone down and sent Normani a sheepish smile, which her girlfriend returned.
"At least that's promising."
"Yeah, that's all we could hope for. Now we just have to wait."
The few minutes that they were waiting were painfully long and practically silence, both girls too anxious to share words and rather communicated through touches of soothing reassurance. When Dinah's ringtone, 'Say My Name' , finally cutthrough the silence it's owner practically pounced, fumbling whilst trying to swipe to accept the call.
"Mila?"
"No, it's Simon Cowell telling you that you've been accepted on X-Factor," Camila responded sarcastically with an eye-roll.
"I fucking knew it! Finally my true potential has been found!" Dinah played along in exaggeration.
"Pfft, you wish Cheechee. It's Chanch," she responded in a cynical tone.
"The nerve! Crushing a girl's dreams before she ever gets the chance. You know I totally would be famous in like another world or, you know, dimension or some shit."
"Yeah and I would be some famous pop star chilling with One Direction and Ed Sheeran," she continued with her sarcastic fantasy with yet another eye-roll. "Come on, Cheech."
"You never know Mila, we could all be like this famous band or some shit. Like, I would be totally boss at playing the drums; in style of course!" she added on, feeding the delusion.
"Aaaaanyway, I've decided Cheech. I'm gonna do it tomorrow. Even if my trust in you is somewhat...misguided, I know that you are the best at scheming, so yeah," she shrugged as she spoke, forgetting that Dinah couldn't see the movement. "And besides, it gets my mum off my back. She's still trying to convince me to stay home."
"Yeah, good then. It's sorted!"
"Yup!" Camila responded happily with a large grin, the anticipation for the next day leaving her giddy.
"I'll meet up with you tomorrow morning and we'll go over the plan and set it all up," Dinah explained.
"Uh, DJ? You do realise that it means that you're going to have to be out of bed before 12?" Camila questioned with a cheeky grin to match her equally mischievous tone.
"Ah, fuck," Dinah responded, despite the enormous smile that filled her face.
"I expect you here by 9 o'clock on the dot!" Camila quipped, resulting in a groan the resounded from the other end of the line. "Anyway, I better let you go. Can't wait for tomorrow's adventures!"
"Okay, see ya Walz."
"Bye China Jane!"
As soon as Dinah hung up the phone, she turned to her girlfriend and simply said, "Thank fuck for that."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the line, Camila was trying to work out a way to tell her mum that she was staying home now. She was quite uncompromising before, and suddenly she was going to turn around and pretend like her plans tonight weren't important. She sighed, in the end her mum was going to have to accept her apology either way. She quickly swallowed her pride and left her room in search of the woman that had given her life.
Sinu was preparing dinner in the kitchen while slowly swinging her body to the tempo of the music that drifted gently through the house. She still had yet to convince her obstinate daughter to change her plans for the night and was trying to brainstorm ideas, when she was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Hey mama."
Sinu spun around to meet the chocolate eyes of her daughter. "Karla? Ready to talk then?"
"I, uh...yeah," Camila began. There was a brief pause for a moment or two while the girl tried to find the right words to say. "I'm so sorry, ma. I shouldn't have yelled earlier, it's just that the plans I had for tonight, they were really important."
"They were...?" she questioned while her eyes stared the younger woman down.
"I...uhm...well, you see...the plans, well they actually have been moved to tomorrow. So, uh, yeah." She mumbled almost incoherently while her eyes darted around anxiously. She refused to meet her mother's perceptive gaze, not quite sure what she would find there but knowing whatever it was would be something she would rather not know. So imagine her immense surprise when her poor excuse was met with light laughter.
Her eyes darted back up to her mother's slight chuckling. "Mija...do you know that I have been spending most of the afternoon trying to find a way to convince you to stay."
Camila's head cocked slightly to the side, a befuddled expression written on her face "I... Why do you want me to stay at home so badly, mama?"
"Because we have a surprise planned for you," Sinu responded cryptically, which only furthered Camila's utter confusion.
"A surprise? What kind of a surprise?" her curiosity evident in her tone. She was hoping to pry the information out of her mother, and depending on the woman's response she would get a good indication of how difficult the task would be.
"A surprise that you are going to have to find out for yourself, and if you think that I am going to give you a single clue right now, you are wrong. Now," she stated, and looked up at the analogue clock that sat above the doorway, before focusing back down at her daughter. "In 20 minutes pay close attention, because you will receive a clue."
"A clue?" she coaxed, hoping for some sort of elaboration.
"Yes. Be in your bedroom for it."
"Or you could just tell me now," Camila stated, testing her mum, yet knowing that she was not going to break this time. "It would just be a lot easier."
"In 20 minutes, Camila," she reiterated, her eyes and voice unyielding.
The brown-eyed girl huffed out a "Fine!" before turning back toward her bedroom. Her mind was bustling with unanswered questions and racing thoughts. Her anticipation was insurmountable, completely overriding her brain and rewiring it onto a new frequency that could only focus on uncovering the mystery. She marched up the stairs with a startling amount of purpose and determination, and once arriving in her room set to ripping through every single possession she owned in pursuit of the truth.
The twenty minutes passed faster than she ever could have imagined and she still had as many answers as she had begun the pointless endeavour with. Soon enough the clock in the hall was chiming the new hour – five minutes early, as usual – and she was left equally as clueless. Her eyes wandered over to the alarm clock on her bedside table to confirm the time, until she realised with a great start that her clock was running several hours behind. She quickly approached and when she picked it up, noticed that there was a little note wedged halfway in the battery compartment on the back. She blinked several times before freeing the small folded paper and opening it.
The neat, unfamiliar handwriting was clearly not from anyone in her family, which only caused even more bewilderment in her already disorientated mind. It read: When the bee buzzes around and returns to it's hive, the gift of peace shall arrive at the mirror that lacks reflection. Camila's face scrunched up at the weird cryptic message that she currently had no patience for. The only thing that passed through her mind was three simple words: what the fuck? Her eyes quickly skimmed back over the scrap of paper while her face still wore the same dumbfounded expression.
She was still trying to make sense of the stupid riddle when her eyes caught something else on her cluttered bedside table that she knew hadn't been sitting there this morning; her nursery rhyme book from when she was a young child. There was a familiar bookmark sitting in it, the one that Lauren had made for her in playschool as a present for Valentine's day. She smiled at the memory as she recalled just how much she had absolutely adored it, only using it for her favourite books. Understanding it's purpose, she flicked through the worn pages straight to the to a well-loved rhyme at which the bookmark sat, whose corners had been repeatedly dog-earred; Hickory Dickory Dock.
Suddenly it clicked in her brain; 5 o'clock, that was the first part of the message. Many people knew the first verse of the nursery rhyme, but often forgot that the rest of the verses included a range of various different animals, including a bee. Her mother often labelled her, mi pequeno abejorro or my little bumblebee, because Camila was always buzzing with energy and would go and talk to everybody in the room and bring back all these facts she had picked up on her journey. Whenever Sinu would read that nursery rhyme to the two girls, Lauren used to always joke that Camila's lucky time of the day was five o'clock. She smiled fondly at the memory before turning her mind back to the riddle. She had no idea what the rest of the clues meant, just a bunch of poetic nonsense that was eating out her brain.
Mirror. She spun around to face her drawers that held the large mirror that she often tried to avoid out of self-conscious habit. With pursed lips, twisted in piqued interest, she approached the dreaded, reflecting invention and tried to avoid looking into the tired brown eyes that stared back at her with insecurity. Her eyes brushed over the wooden surface of the drawer-top, searching for a clue, yet only found her hairdryer sitting there amongst the various makeup utensils that littered the top. Her brow furrowed as her eyes gazed up at the cool, empty surface of the reflecting glass. At this point, she only had a couple of minutes to figure out the clue before clock struck five, and was racking her brain for any kind of hint that could somehow be hidden in the mirror.
Or on the mirror, she suddenly recognised. Her brain finally clicked that there could easily be something on its surface that she had previously missed because it was hidden from her view. With this new revelation, her eyes zoned in once again on the hairdryer that she had, just moments ago, dismissed. Her mind frantically put together a plan, of sorts, that involved using her hairdryer to provide heat on the mirror. She had seen it done in movies before, so she figured that it couldn't be too difficult to do. She gingerly picked the plastic beauty tool up and plugged it into the power socket below. With determination, she flicked it on and held the nozzle close to the surface of the reflective glass. The heat caused the mirror to fog and to Camila's delight, revealed a message written on the surface that, to her immense relief, was not "REDRUM".
Flicking the hairdryer off and stepping back to gaze up at the new message, the words read, The mirror that you seek is reflected, remove it to find the gift of peace as directed. Camila gazed at the mirror for several moments, before spinning around to analyse the other side of her room again. A mirror that lacks reflection... she pondered, her eyes scanning backward and forward with little success. She sighed, rubbing her hands down her face to relieve the compounding frustration the seemed mount with each message. Her downfall had always been her impatience, as much as she reveled in any decent mystery or puzzle that would entertain her brain, she hated not knowing the truth.
As soon as she was about to make her way through the piles of clothes, something caught her eye just before there was a resounding "Thud!". She checked the time on her phone and discovered that it was 5 o'clock on the dot, before looking back up to have the window meet her eyes. She face-palmed as soon as she connected the dots and realised that the window was the "mirror that lacks reflection", but her humiliation didn't last long when the memory of the startling sound finally processed in her mind.
She ran over to the window and threw it open, dangling the top half of her body out of the opening to hunt the source of her intrigue. Her eyes almost immediately fell on the dazed looking bird that was perched awkwardly on her roof. It figures, she thought; the "gift of peace" was a dove. She made some cooing noises and tried holding out her arms to lure the pure creature, but it simply watched her dumbly with it's head cocked. Camila rolled her eyes and cursed under her breath, just trying to imagine exactly how she looked at that present moment. She briefly debated climbing out onto the rooftop, and would have risked it had she been more willing to jeopardise the unplanned date she had with a certain green-eyed neighbour of hers the next day. She climbed back into her room with several more unsavoury curses directed at the defenseless bird. Of course, she knew that it was just a bird and that such a creature hardly deserved such harsh words, but that didn't stop her. It was as if in revenge that the dove chose that moment to fly straight through the gap in the window and perch itself on Camila's head.
The girl screeched in utter surprise flailing for several moments before she finally cupped her hands around her feathery adversary, removing it from its new nest that it had made for itself in her hair. She huffed, blowing the stray hairs from her eyes unsuccessfully while she observed her new feathery gift. It took her less than a moment for her eyes to land onto the note and some sort of pen that was loosely attached to the birds neck by string. She hastily fumbled with untying the string, and tore open the note, while holding the other object in her hand.
It read: The forgotten box of dreams, sees two strangers at the top. Green is the hint of its location; the pen, for its determination.
"Fuck this," she grumbled, irritated by its lack of clarity. She scrunched it up and tossed it to the ground, letting out a groan when she realised that she had forgotten to release the dove back out the window. It was traversing her bedroom floor and destroying one of her sweaters with its beak. "Stupid fucking bird!" she grumbled, chasing it around her bedroom while it carried her jumper along with it. After finally catching the annoying bird and freeing her jumper from its grasp, she deliberated putting it in her mum's next stew but quickly decided against it, deciding that she didn't have the patience to pluck each feather from the aggravating creatures back. Well that, and the fact that she couldn't harm a fly.
After releasing the animal back into its habitat, her eyes frantically scoured her messy bedroom floor for the note that held the answer to the truth that she sought. "Damn it!" she cursed, deciding that retracing her steps would be a good idea. Despite the very little movement she had done since tossing the note aside. She found that this strategy worked well considering that in less than two minutes later, she victoriously held the scrap of paper in her hand with a proud smile gracing her features. Suffice to say that the smile didn't last long when she was reminded of the irritating nature of the message.
Box...box...box, she repeated in her mind as she found her eyes once again studying the contents of her room. It didn't take long for her eyes to land on the familiar chest at the end of her bed that she so often forgot about. Her mind moving faster than her brain could comprehend, her line of sight flickered back down to the note, before returning to the chest. It couldn't be...
She hastily rushed over and knelt before the box, just as she had done only a week or so ago, and lifted the lid. "The forgotten box of dreams" seemed like an accurate description of the chest that lay before her, and when she looked at the top her eyes met the photos that she had just yesterday returned to their rightful places. Yet she still didn't understand the reference to "two strangers"...unless, of course, they were a metaphor for herself and Lauren; after all, despite having known one another for most of their lives, they were practically like strangers.
Her mind looped over itself, doing acrobatics in the enclosure of her skull as she pondered. She still had little understanding of the reference to "green" and had no idea what the functionality of the pen was in this circumstance. Her eyes were automatically magnetised to the luminous green orbs of the young girl's eyes that stared back at her in the familiar photo. Her mind drifted and she soon found that her thoughts were entertaining a domestic fantasy of herself and her green-eyed neighbour, as they sat facing one another on a couch in some sort of apartment and both laughing as effortlessly as they had as children.
Green. Lauren's eyes. She finally pieced it together with a gasp and practically ripped her favourite photo from it's position, flipping it over multiple times yet finding nothing. She looked closer at the photo, thoroughly studying it. Rather than focusing on the faces of the two girls like she had done so often, she concentrated on the other details of the photo. With a degree of astonishment, she discovered that she was currently holding the very same pen that was present in the photo. Thoughtfully, she observed the pen more closely and finally noticed that there was a small button on the lid. With a degree of wide-eyed wonderment and a child-like curiosity she pressed it, watching as a bluish-purple light emanated from the top of the lid. The memories flooded back to her and just like that, she instantly knew the purpose of the random piece of stationary. On the day the photo had been taken, her and Lauren had been using their invisible pens for the first time; pens that were identical to the one she now held. Anxiously she brought the small pen-light up to the back of the photo, internally praying for some kind of clue. The her great relief, she found the familiar writing that she was searching for:
Congratulations are in order, go and thank your mother, daughter. But she is not the perpetrator, no, for seeking the truth, outside you must go. But make sure that you beware, there lies something on the stair!
Camila practically danced with glee at the lack of ambiguity in the most recent installment of her cryptic mystery. Without losing another minute, she flew down the stairs to the front door and flung it open. She was in such hast that she almost trod on the dozens of gardenias that decorated the front porch. Her breath caught as the beautiful scent wafted upon the slight breeze and carried it's way up to her nose, and her heart was sent aflutter when she discerned the shape of a heart formed by the pattern of the white flowers. There was a note in the centre that read: A flower for the prettiest of flowers. Follow your heart, it will not lead you astray.
Camila's heart swelled in her chest, and she felt a giddy excitement overcome every other emotion that presently crowded her mind. There was only one person it could be and the reality of it sent her reeling in astonished glee. Who knew that the drug-addicted, arrogant party-girl actually had some semblance of romanticism in that addled mind of hers? If someone had have told Camila about something like that barely a month ago, she would have laughed them all the way to the doctors' clinic. Yet here she stood in front of the most blindingly apparent display of affection with little clue as to how they both had gotten there.
Once the berserk thundering of her heart finally began to subside and the hyperventilation of her overwhelmed lungs ceased, she retrieved her phone from her pocket with trembling hands and attempted to take a half-decent photo of the incredible art-piece before her. After several taps of her finger, she deemed a couple of photos satisfactory and burdened her small arms with the task of gathering the flowers decorating her doorstep. Her mother spotted her on her difficult journey back through the house, and immediately halted her.
"What do you think you are doing, young lady?" she demanded in that accusational tone that seemed to be the universal lingo for all mothers worldwide. Her arms were crossed as she leaned in the doorway with a single brow arched up.
"I...um...flowers were...uh..."the flustered, incoherent jumbled of words only causing Camila's flushed cheeks to intensify in colour. "Lauren...uhm, left these?"
Sinu once again surprised Camila for the second time that day with laughter rather than a berating. "Oh, I know mija. I just wondered what you were planning to do with them all?" she stated nonchalantly. Her amused smile only disconcerted Camila further as the woman watched her struggle without offering any form of help.
Camila bit her lip and her eyes darted away before once again returning to that of her mother's. "I...uh...don't know," she admitted honestly.
"And here I was thinking you had it all sorted out," her mother responded with light cynicism.
"Well...uh...what?" Camila could barely string a coherent sentence together, her words stolen along with her heart.
Sinu's voice changed to a more gentle, adoring tone and her smile transformed into a genuine grin as she said the next words, "I was going to do that myself, you know? Just leave them on the bench, I'll sort it all out. Go have your date with your mamacita rica, otherwise, god forbid, I will never hear the end of it!"
"MAMA!!!" The younger girl exclaimed in horror, valiantly trying to hide the traitorous smirk that threatened to cross her lips. "Ser apropriado!!!" the girl scolded resulting in her mother returning a cheeky wink.
"Sorry, mi angelita. I meant amor de tu vita," her apology not coming across as sincere at all.
"MAMA! Eres el diablo!!! " she cried, fighting the smile that threatened to break across her face at any given moment. She was still profusely blushing at the nicknames her mother had used for Lauren, as she placed the flowers on the bench and playfully poked her tongue out at her mother on the way out. It would have been mildly effective had she not tripped over her own feet during her escape. Her teeth painfully clamped down on her tongue and she cried out in response to the damaged nerves. "OWWW! Shit!"
"Karla? Are you okay, mi hija?" Sinu asked, losing all pretense of their banter and rushing over to her daughter in utter concern.
"Yeah, just clumsy; I bit my tongue. You know what I'm like, mama," she mumbled awkwardly with her still throbbing tongue.
"You'll have to get Lauren to kiss it better then," Sinu said offhandedly, her casual demeanor causing Camila to have to reassess what she had just heard her mother say. When she finally confirmed it in her mind, she practically choked.
"You literally have no chill! And I thought Dinah was bad!" Camila coughed out, still trying to wrap her mind around her mother's blatant nonchalance about such things.
"Soy tu madre. It is my job to tease my daughter."
"I thought giving birth to me and raising me was your job?" Camila mumbled cynically, bitter that her mother continued to get the best of her, even though she was supposed to be old enough to retaliate by now.
"That too." She winked to add to Camila's mounting frustration.
"Mmhmm... Anyway, I'll be going now," Camila stated, trying to move on with the topic.
"Oh good! I would tell you to make sure to give Lauren a big kiss for me, but I figure you'll be doing that enough anyway."
"For fuck's sake," Camila muttered under her breath, turning back towards the door. "No chill, I swear."
She carefully padded past the haphazard mess that had resulted from her previous reckless endeavour, her heart slightly breaking at the destruction of such an adorable display. It took a moment for her brain to process the scattering of flowers that continued down the stairs and along the path. Flowers of all colours and varieties formed a definitive line toward Lauren's own house, giving life to the dull grey shades of the pavements and the bitumen;they reminded her of a trail of ants marching home.Her mind immediately flashed back to the final note and laughed when she finally understood the analogy trapped within the words of the final sentence. Well she knew she would be following her heart either way, even if their wasn't a flower heart already guiding her.
Rather than simply following the path of flowers that vaguely reminded her of the story of "Hansel & Gretel" – although she rather hoped that this temptation would not ultimately result in her own potential doom– she stopped momentarily to collect each individual one. She believed that there was something so tragic about abandoning the dying flowers after being the culpable perpetrator that limited their lifespans to mere days on whimsical and fickle satisfaction. After all, they were still living beings, even if they could not express themselves in the same way in which animals did. Perhaps if they had legs or if they had faces, creatures would value them much more.
As she wandered along the route, her mind trapped in the inner musings of her own version of wonderland, she failed to notice the rope that was strung up to a bucket that hung high above her head as she passed nearby to the medium-sized elm tree that Camila and Lauren had used to climb as children. As the rope was tugged the bucket tipped, releasing hundreds of ruby red rose petals into the air that slowly floated down in time to greet the unsuspecting Camila. The girl gazed upwards in shock after feeling the first few kisses from the roses that rained delicately down upon her. She giggled and threw her arms up, with the other flowers still gripped tightly in her hand, recreating some sort of cheesy movement that could only be expected in sappy romance films. Her heart felt lighter than she had ever experienced before, and to say that she was completely enarmoured by her potential date's efforts, would be an understatement.
She finally got to the end of the flower trail and into Lauren's doorstep. Just as she was about to raised her had to press the buzzer that would announce her arrival, the door swung upon to reveal a familiar face. Normani stood there, somehow looking fashionable in what could only be described as a butler-type outfit with flare. The long white shirt had the sleeves neatly rolled and was buttoned down to reveal her prominent collarbones and some distracting cleavage, while on top sat a vest small black that hugged her shape and enhanced her chest area. On her lower half she wore black slacks that were moulded to fit her curves and gorgeous black heels to match. Camila's jaw dropped upon upon seeing her, for more than one reason. Normani was was, quite frankly, dressed to kill. "Are...are you my date?"
"Girl, I already got myself some fine ass poly-action, I don't need to add your Cuban booty to my list...not that I would complain though." She smirked and added a playfully flirtatious wink. "I'm your butler for this evening."
"Well, we're off to a good start, then butler, considering you've already tried to flirt with me once," she teased as she strode in, tripping slightly on the bottom of the door-jam and catching herself before any damage could be done.
"Anyway, we need to get you dressed up for your big date tonight. Follow me." Normani lead Camila upstairs to one of the bedrooms that seemed to be set up as a makeup and dressing studio. "Your dress is sitting on the hanger there," she said pointing to the single, blue dress that hung from the otherwise empty closet. "If there are any problems with sizing let me know because we have backup options!" she explained with a cheeky wink.
"How does Dinah control herself around you?" Camila joked with her typical jesting tone.
"She doesn't," she responded simply, causing Camila to laugh at the blatant honesty.
As Normani organised the makeup utensils that were currently littered upon the top of the vanity that sat against the wall across from the end of the bed, Camila plucked the dress from its place and ducked behind the partition, situated in the far right corner of the room, to change. She quickly observed the gorgeous pale-blue number in the tall mirror propped against the wall. The mid-length, princess style dress hugged her curves in a corset-like fashion while elegantly flowing out in a slight puff at her waist and finishing at her knees. It fashioned a sweetheart neckline that emphasised her chest and a slim vertical slit down the centre of the torso. There were two short puffs of fabric that encased her shoulders and aided in keeping the dress up. It was – for lack of a better word – jaw-dropping on her figure and it seemed as if Camila had quite literally embodied a princess, all she needed was the glass slippers.
She stepped out from behind the partition and made her way over to Normani. The other girl, catching sight of the movement in the mirror, spun around to only have her eyes pop out of her head. She let out an appreciative whistle before hastily slapping both hands over her lips when she finally processed what she was doing. "You look..." Normani struggled to find the words to say before Camila anxiously interrupted.
"My butt is kinda itchy," she exclaimed hopping foot to foot whilst trying to get her hand up the back of the dress.
"Moment fucking ruined," Normani muttered to herself, internally chuckling at the younger girl's antics as an exaggerated expression of relieved bliss crossed her face.
"Don't worry. Got it! I'm good now!" She beamed at her friend, who merely shook her head in exasperation. Camila's brow suddenly furrowed as she gazed upon Normani with a naive curiosity. "Now, what were you gonna say?"
"Don't worry. Now, sit down princess, this is gonna take awhile."
As Normani patted and dabbed and buffed her cheeks and face with moisturisers, toners and makeup, Camila persistently made faces at herself in the mirror, frustrating the older girl to no end. "Mila, would you sit still?!"
"But I'm bored. Is it done yet?"
"No, and too bad. Stop moving."
She paused for a moment before asking only a few seconds later, "How about now? We done?"
"No, and I'm not about to start this stupid banter. Just sit still and let me concentrate!"
Camila responded with a frustrated groan, fiddling with her fingers to distract herself from squirming about in her seat.
The girl's makeup was soon complete, much to her excitement, until she realised that Normani still had to style her hair. Normani worked quickly and efficiently as Camila's thick brown tresses were pricked with bobby pins and curled into ringlets, and her nails were buffed and shellacked to perfection. Camila couldn't help but feel like a pin-cushion or a Barbie doll as she was pinned, pricked and prodded at in all directions from the various "tools of torture", as she had deemed them. She couldn't help but wiggle around uncomfortably and fidget incessantly, despite the harsh berating that Normani would continually give her as a result.
An hour and a half later and Camila was staring at a whole other person reflected in the mirror before her. She felt transformed and for the first and only time in her life, she actually felt like a princess; that she could be equally as gorgeous and graceful as the glorious fantasies that her mother had filled her eager mind with as a child. It wasn't just in that aspect, but in the fact that she was actually being considered and appreciated for once, rather than being treated as an accessory, an afterthought or a mere nuisance.
The silver and diamond choker was added as a final accessory, "So what do you think?" Normani asked, wearing a satisfied smile to match her twinkling eyes.
"I...Who is she? Because I might be in love."
Normani laughed, and responded with a "Me too."
"Not to sound conceited or anything," Camila added on as an afterthought.
"It's good to be a little in love with yourself."
"Good, because I swear she's making eyes at me," Camila joked, playfully putting on a flirtatious smile and adding a wink at the stranger in the mirror, who seemed to mimic her actions. And so what if maybe her heart pounded a little harder after witnessing her own advances and flirting?
Normani laughed heartily at the joke before finally convincing Camila to stop flirting with herself and tear her eyes away from her own reflection. Camila turned back to the girl who was still trying to usher her out the room and asked a final question that had been on her mind since Normani had answered the door. "I thought you and Dinah had a date tonight? Isn't she supposed to be with you?"
"Well we were together when Dinah rang you earlier, but I only told her we were catching up to explain this surprise to her. Turns out you had plans of your own, but Lauren had already gone to so much effort, so we abandoned your plans for Lauren's setup," Normani explained with a shrug.
"Hey! You ruined my plans?!" she exclaimed in faux anger.
"Please, like you care! This is literally the perfect date and it hasn't even begun yet."
"I might have cared!" she exclaimed, poking her tongue out in a childish manner. "But yeah, you're right, this really is perfect," Camila admitted looking down to admire her dress further. "More than perfect, actually," she added with a shy smile and a noticeable slight pinking to her cheeks.
"Now, chop chop woman! Get that Cuban booty down those stairs!" she commanded. Camila huffed. She couldn't help but mentally compare Normani to what she imagined a fashionable evil dictator would be like, and was about to say so when her eyes met the daunting sight of the marble staircase. The rows of stairs curved around in such a way that she could not directly see the base of the ominous hurdle.
"Nope! I am NOT going down those in these!"
"You are definitely going down the stairs, even if I have to push you!"
"Nup, bad idea. Uh-ah. Nada. Never going to happen. I will die Mani!" she beseeched the older woman, who merely ignored her protests, grabbed her wrist and tugged her along.
"You either walk down them, or I'll drag you down them."
"But Maniiii," she whined with an infuriatingly adorable pout and puppy eyes that would melt the warmest of hearts. Fortunately for Normani, in that moment, she didn't have one.
"Fine. Dragging it is," she responded and proceeded to tug Camila behind her, as the shorter, clumsier girl stumbled to keep up.
"Mani, fine. Stop. I'll walk the rest of the way down, otherwise you're going to kill us both." Camila surrendered with a slight grumble and hastily freed her wrist from the painful shackles of Normani's bony fingers. With an appreciable amount of sass, she continued to march down to staircase whilst ensuring the smooth black banister and attached vertical glass column balustrade was firmly guiding her path.
As soon as she had begun her solo endeavour down the frozen escalator of fear, her eyes had immediately hyper-focused onto her feet, which were each adorned with a glittering, torturous contraption that people called "fashion". To her, the flattering high-heels adorning her feet were to be considered with great caution as she knew that they could prove to be potentially lethal under certain circumstances. Her throat bobbed in an unintentional rhythm with every second displacement of her feet. Her fingers gripped the top of the hand-rail with a strength that almost threatened to pulverise the material in her white-knuckled fist. In her mind, she ran a continual loop of one step, two step whilst also reminding herself to breathe. Her eyes flickered upwards to note her progress, realising with a certain amount of relief that she was only a handful of steps from the bottom and that there was a figure waiting there, before they shot back down to her uncoordinated feet.
It took her a moment to completely process her observation, and with a start her head shot up and she froze. Her jaw fell open as her eyes drank in the glorious sight before her. Lauren stood before the line of stairs as glorious as ever, her green eyes glistening with unadultered and pure awe. The older woman's expression mirrored what Camila imagined her own must look like; wide-eyed, slack-jawed and completely flustered.
Camila's eyes traveled along the smooth, sleek curves that the silken black dress accentuated and found her eyes resting unintentionally on the long slit that traveled up her creamy thigh. It was quite evident that she had lost a fair amount of weight while she had been unconscious, but she had not lost her envy-inducing curvaceous shape that sent men and women alike to their knees. Camila's eyes were glued to the leg on show, her mind racing with some unholy fantasy that involved her and Lauren in one bed with very little clothing and a lot of breathy moans. Camila mentally shook her head to dislodge the inappropriate thought, tearing her eyes away from the sinful temptation on display only to refocus on another. The elegant dress had a V-shaped borderline-plunging neckline that teased just the barest hint of side-boob. Her pale skin in contrast to the dress automatically attracted Camila's eyes; a Venus-fly trap for the unsuspecting victim, as her eyes were once again trapped inappropriately on an exaggerated feature of Lauren's body.
Camila averted her eyes in guilt only to refocus on Lauren's own, which were watching her reaction in rapt attention. The younger girl's tan cheeks flushed in response to being caught ogling by the subject in question, the makeup only partially hiding the unnatural colouring. Camila turned her eyes down bashfully, deciding to continue with her precarious descent rather than embarrassing herself further. Just as her foot landed upon the final step before solid ground, her head turned upwards only to be met with Lauren's own face. The presence and proximity of the older girl surprised Camila, her heart skipping a beat for multiple reasons as their eyes locked in an intense, soul-stripping moment that seemed to last an eternity, but in reality was merely seconds.
Camila unconsciously wet her lips in nervous anticipation, anxiously feeding the soft skin of her bottom lip between the gnawing pressure of her teeth. Lauren's own eyes flickered down to observe the movement hungrily, her eyes darkening in arousal, but rather than acting upon it, she stepped back offering her hand to Camila with a charming smile.
"Princess," she husked out, her voice especially low and coarse. "If you would do me the honour of escorting you on a date this fine evening?" Camila couldn't help but giggle at the ridiculous formality held with Lauren's voice, even though she was internally swooning at the clear display of chivalry.
"Of course I will, silly!" Her eyes rolled playfully as she hopped of the final step, but she still took the outstretched hand with gratitude in her eyes.
"Just don't tell anyone that I was ever this corny, Cabello. Otherwise I'll be forced to tell everyone that you are still scared of storms!" she warned in a playful tone with her eyes narrowed in mock threat.
"Well then I suppose I will have to tell them that, not only are you this corny, but you are also a complete softy that loves Disney movies and that you were afraid of fans!"
"You wouldn't," she challenged with narrowed eyes. "Besides I was only afraid of fans because there was some news story that I watched about kids getting their hair ripped out and fans causing fires in houses. I was like five!"
"Didn't you ever learn that you're not supposed to believe everything you see?" she teased.
"Well, when you were five didn't you have that obsession with Beanie Kids because the ads and the kids in kinder told you they were cool?"
"They were cool," Camila defended with a small pout that Lauren found difficult to resist.
"If you say so, Camz." The nickname slipped out of Lauren's mouth before she could even process her own response and when she finally did her eyes widened. Camila, on the other hand, couldn't help the sudden brew of joy that bubbled up at the sound of the familiar childhood nickname. A large grin broke out across her face, easing any of Lauren's misgivings and influencing a smile to be returned. "Let's get going then!"
Camila merely nodded and only noticed, just as Lauren had comfortably encased her slim hand around Camila's own, that there was a silken, white bow-tie wrapped several times around the older Latina's left wrist. Princess Charming, was the first thought that crossed Camila's mind, as she observe the side-profile of the ethereal enigma beside her. Her eyes slowly drifted across the delicate features of Lauren's face; from the sharp jaw framed by dark, carefully tousled curls, to those plump sensuous lips that begged to be kissed. Following her smooth ivory skin to the prominent Roman nose that leads a trail up toward those captivating eyes; eyes that evoke a sultriness that would set any victim alight with desire.
She was so distracted by the woman before her, that it took her several moments to recognise that that had arrived at their next destination at the base of a familiar tree. She turned to face Lauren her big eyes gazing up in unabated amazement. "Lauren, this isn't...is it?"
"Look up."
Camila's eyes were directed upwards, along the grandiose trunk of the familiar old beech tree that sat beside the modern villa, until she was met with the unmistakable flat surface of a platform. "But didn't your dad destroy it?" Camila vividly remembered a six-year-old Lauren racing over to her house in tears crying about how "he's destroying it". Lauren's father had eventually discovered where she had been hiding during his drunken rampages and had climbed up there the next day with crowbar and sledgehammer to bring ruin to their peaceful refuge.
"Yeah. But I rebuilt it," she responded simply, watching the smaller girl process the information.
"You... You rebuilt our tree-house?" she asked in complete awe, her eyes sparkling with emotion as they settled back onto her childhood love. "When? How?"
"I...yeah. It kind of became a therapeutic thing. I have had some on-going drug problems, which Normani told me she explained to you, so while I was trying to recover from it post-rehab I used to climb up there and fix the damage. When I spoke to him a few years back, your dad actually gave me the original plans from when he constructed it for us. He pretty much told me they were mine anyway, considering the tree-house itself was a Christmas present for us both. I actually still have to thank him properly."
"I just... I still can't believe you went to all that effort!"
"Well, it's still nice to get away from both my parents whenever one of them is here. I'm just really...I don't know, nervous I guess? I hope you like the changes and improvements I made."
"I already love it and I not up there yet! So how do I...with my heels?" Camila asked with a slight crease in her forehead as she cast a withering look at her feet before squinting up at the tree as if it were an algebraic equation.
"Follow me, m'lady," she commanded, playfully.
Lauren directed Camila around the enormous trunk to the side that was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with the fence. To Camila's immense surprise, there was a huge human-sized gap in the trunk of the wood that had light emanating from it. As they entered the inside of the tree, Camila gasped. The entire interior of the tree trunk was hollowed out with two lines of fairy lights spiraling upwards in opposite directions, providing light to the entire length. It was the size of a small room, with a two and a half metre diameter and could comfortably fit ten people. Vertical steps were carved into the side of the tree like a ladder, which also featured individual handholds that contained horizontal bars in their centre to grip onto, to aid the high climb.
"This is incredible," Camila breathed, her voice stolen away from the sheer incredulity that overwhelmed her. "How did you manage ALL of this?"
"Bit of magic fairydust."
"No, but really."
"Unicorn's tears."
"Laurennnn."
"Fine. It was the through the hired slavery of Santa's elves."
"Really???" she responded cynically, her blatant skepticism evident from her unimpressed tone. Yet still she couldn't resist the grin that governed her features.
"Really. And a dash of gnome hair."
"Gnome hair?"
"Yup. But not just any old gnome hair, it was pubic gnome hair."
"Eww. Nope. This weird ass conversation has gone too far."
"Or maybe that comment was too far."
"Have you been watching that stupid fucking Youtube thing - that Charlie the Unicorn on repeat or something?!"
"Mayyybe."
"Oh, for fuck's sake. I forgot how annoying you are! Keep your goddamn secret, then!" Camila huffed, rolling her eyes at the older girl's childish antics.
Lauren chuckled at the smaller girl's frustration and decided to finally answer her question. "I would like to say that I did it all myself, but I hired some men to hollow out the tree properly for me, the rest was just a lot of hard work. It took about 2 years."
"Two years? That quick? That's so cool! So, how do we get up?" Camila asked curiously, still gazing about in wonderment. Words failed her; there was something just so magical and ethereal about the whole thing. She felt as if she had climbed into the pages of an Enid Blyton book or as if she had concussed herself after falling down the rabbit hole when chasing the white rabbit wearing a waistcoat.
"Would you like to see some magic?" she replied, avoiding Camila's question. Without waiting for her answer, Lauren clapped her hands twice and there was a sudden low whirring sound. Camila looked about in confusion, yet had difficulty actually locating the source of the noise. Had it been there before? Maybe it had been the whole time and she had only noticed it because she was too eager to discover the new mystery.
Suddenly there was another person in the space, as if materialising out of nowhere. Camila had been facing the door when she spun around, her ears detecting quite a different yet familiar voice. "I am a fairy. Abracadabra, hocus-pocus, flitter-flutter, tingle-tangle, frick-a-frack and all of that crap," Dinah grumbled with little to no enthusiasm and a depressing amount of cynicism.
She was wearing quite an extravagant pink puffy dress with a ludicrous amount of frills and a pair of unproportional, tiny fairy wings. The shoulders puffed out like muffin tops while the sleeves fountained outwards, dangling from mid-way up her lower arms. The bodice was alike to a corset which would have been highly attractive had the bottom of the dress not swelled outwards to create a dome shape around the lower half of her figure. The cherry on the top, was the long, absurd headpiece that seemed as though it belonged on a Pope's bald head, rather than Dinah's blonde locks; the whole thing was risible. "I wave my magic dildo...and wow, a pig!" she gestured at Camila after flicking the glittery wand like a careless mad-woman. The entire pathetic show was received by two deadpans from both princesses, who were not willing to satisfy Dinah's hilarious irks with their laughter.
"Did you just call me a pig? What kind of fairy godmother are you?!" Camila cried in affronted cynicism.
"One of a kind – quite obviously – since no creature alive would be caught dead in...well...this," she gestured dramatically at the outfit that everyone in the tree – quite frankly – agreed was complete overkill. "I am too old for this shit. Like, do I REALLY have to wear this ridiculous fucking headpiece?!" Her eyes, filled with an accusatory glare that threatened to burned holes into Lauren's retinas.
"Don't glare at me Deej! I have far better taste than that!"
"Well if you didn't, who did? The fucking talking animals?!"
"We don't need the details of your sex life, Jane, even if your girlfriend is an animal under the sheets!" Lauren teased, the implication not lost on Camila who immediately snorted before silencing any further embarrassing sounds that could leave her mouth. Dinah was marginally slower.
"Wait," she began, confronted. She placed the palm of her free hand up between them, as if to stop the other girls from commenting further at her expense. "Are you trying to tell me that my Manibear, did this to me?!"
Lauren shrugged dispassionately, pretending as if this whole conversation wasn't crippling her insides with self-contained laughter. Camila herself, burst out in an unbridled stream of hilarity-induced convulsions, her small frame tilting over toward the nearest object which happened to be Lauren's shoulder. The uncontained mirth experienced by the younger Latina was infectious – frustratingly so for Lauren, who was struggling to barely restrain herself in joining her date on the ground with tears of hysteria spilling unabated from their eyes. The most priceless aspect of the entire gag was Dinah's expression, which fell somewhere in the realm of combined frustration, irritation, confusion, and offense to create an entirely new emotion.
"Imma whoop that fine ass, when I catch ahold of my babygirl. God damn!"
"You say that as if you're not a bottom?!" Lauren struggled to choke out, before surrendering herself to a choking laughter that overwhelmed her every sense and left her a mere puddle on the wooden slated floor. Her and Camila were stumbling together, trying and ultimately failing to prop one another up as they collapsed in tears.
"Ya know what? You two can go choke on an ugly man's fat chode together. I'm out. Why did I ever think that Camren was a good idea?!"
"Wait," Lauren gasped out, between bouts of hysterics. "Don't leave us...mommy."
The two Latina's erupted into a fresh, new wave of cachinnation overwhelming their entire beings, their stomach's receiving a free workout from the strained muscles.
"I hate youse," she grumbling, throwing the wand at their possessed bodies. "Here, have a dildo. Hopefully you can both choke on it and die."
"What," Lauren continued her breathless, savage roast. "Like you do on Mani's rubber dick?!"
"Fuck you, Jauregui! We'll see who's laughing when we catch your kinky ass begging Walz to let you cum on her fake cock. Don't even try to act like you're not totally a bottom yourself!" Dinah stated, pointing a condemnatory finger at the green-eyed girl, before moving her focus – and her finger – over to the other Latina. "And as for Miss Innocent cackling away over there, we all know the saying "shy in the streets, freak in the sheets". Lauren'll be calling you daddy in no time! Maybe you just might fuck her daddy issues out of her system... Yeah, I went there – deal with it. Dinah Jane out bitches!" She flicked her middle fingers up before backing out of the room in the tree trunk and disappearing as quickly as she had come.
The laughter quickly subsided in both girls, as a tension arouse from some of the things Dinah had mentioned in her dramatic disclosure. They both fell into a momentarily awkward silence, each anxiously waiting for the other to break the uncomfortable lull. Both girls came to the same conclusion that they wouldn't allow their night to be ruined by negative thoughts, and made the conscious decision to remain light and carefree about the whole situation. "I totally do not have daddy issues," Lauren mumbled defensively in mock offense.
"You totally do," Camila laughed, lightly. She had finally clued onto what kinks were and the different types after her conversation with Dinah earlier that day. She hated feeling so utterly naive and embarrassed when it came to matters like sex, so she had schooled up over a couple of hours and now believed she had a good idea of many of the subjects currently at hand. She still had no idea what she was or was not inclined towards, but she was comfortable enough to be able to joke around with such matters having now somewhat desensitised herself. "After all, I could be your daddy. Tell you to behave; to be a good girl." She teased with a cocked eyebrow and a perfectly timed wink that Lauren hated to admit did things to her.
"Good thing I'm not a bottom then, eh Cabellz?"
Camila merely raised her eyebrow in contempt, the smirk that possessed her usually friendly features causing Lauren to swallow nervously. There was an intense predatory glint that her eyes had suddenly adopted that awakened an excited thrum that coursed its way through Lauren's system. The younger girl slowly began to slink forward, closer towards Lauren like a panther stalking its prey. As the weaker creatures often does, Lauren subconsciously began to back away until her shoulders hit the close wall of the tree. Camila continued her calculated approach gracefully, despite remaining on her hands and knees the entire time. She cornered Lauren, her small figure almost hulking in comparison to Lauren's defensive posture. The hunter's face gradually neared that of its fearful prey, savouring the submissive nature that was present in the feebleness of the trapped victim.
Lauren's throat bobbed repeatedly, a cold sweat breaking out over her skin in anticipation for what could potentially eventuate from such a situation. Camila's sudden dominance was far more attractive than she would care to freely admit to herself, let alone anyone else. It was almost surprising that Camila had this kind of presence in a more sexual atmosphere, given her outward personality, but in many ways it made sense to Lauren. Camila had always been the bossy one to take charge no matter what situation they were in as children, and poor Lauren would simply follow her around like a lost puppy despite how many people thought that it was the other way around. So although Camila was the pampered one, Lauren had always been too – what many would call – whipped.
Camila lips were barely an inch away from Lauren's when she paused for several moments. Something had clicked in her brain as soon as Lauren had denounced herself from being "a bottom". It was as though the spirit of Gaia had overtaken her; powerful, confident, and commanding. Her mind was blank from any thought other than imaginary scenarios of Lauren crying – no, screaming – her name, in an obvious display of sexual surrender. Yet she was still conscious of her herself and of logic, despite her carnal yearnings for Lauren's complete appropriation. The anxious anticipation that Lauren displayed fanned the enormous fire that was rapidly intensifying within Camila. These strong desires forced her to resort to pain by biting her lower lip to distract from the possessive sexual energy that now controlled her every move, which only inflamed the situation when Lauren's swollen pupils were attracted to the movement.
Despite the intensity of the attraction, Camila was able to break through the paralysing fog that smothered her original intent, to successfully achieve the reaction she was striving for. Rather than meeting Lauren's barely trembling lips, she moved towards Lauren's ear whilst slowly exhaling a breath across the older girl's skin. Lauren's lips were no longer the only part of her that were trembling with nerves. Camila's face stopped closely beside her own. With hot breath caressing the shell of Lauren's ear, causing her to shiver involuntarily, Camila gently whispered: "What's my name, babygirl?"
Lauren shivered in response, unable to recall the functionality of her mouth due to the acute spike of arousal that jolted her system at Camila's words.
"I can't hear you, baby. Don't you want to be a good girl? Don't you want to be rewarded?"
Lauren was struggling to remember how to form words, or even coherent thoughts. Each time Camila whispered in that raspy, suggestive tone, Lauren's mind was reduced to complete mush. She was practically panting at this stage, and she didn't even want to know what her panty situation was like. The saying don't get your panties in a twist suddenly held so much more meaning to her in that moment as she was in the process of experiencing both the literal and metaphorical meaning simultaneously.
After failing to answer in the allotted time, Camila continued with the loaded innuendoes in her game of seduction. "Or do you prefer to be naughty? Would you like me to punish you, Lauren?" Camila brought her hand up to Lauren's face as she said this, lightly stroking her cheek with her thumb.
To both of their surprises and to Lauren's own horror, she let out a little whimper. Camila's breath caught and she was forced to fight down the urge to pounce on Lauren and force her to emit other such pleasing sounds. Lauren on the other hand was completely stunned at her own level of submissive want, her brain overridden with the need to satisfy herself and Camila's commands.
"Would you like that, Lauren? To be punished?" her emphasis on the final word.
"I..." she barely choked out in a breathless manner, trailing off in a daze.
"Are you my bad girl? Say my name, babe." Camila felt as if she had Lauren on the precipice of surrendering to her desire and inevitably to her nature.
She was right. "Camz. Camila... D-dadd-y."
Internally, Camila preened at her success, yet the hunter within her thirsted for more. She allowed a smug smirk to outwardly govern her face in recognition of her win, yet Camila wanted to push Lauren a little further. "Sorry, what was that? I couldn't quite hear you."
"D-daddy," Lauren stuttered reasonably louder, her breath control forgotten in face of the evil seductress before her.
Just as suddenly as Camila had cornered Lauren, she was off of her and dancing around the small space goofily like "a complete dork" – as Lauren would often label her. As Camila celebrated and gloated over her obvious victory, Lauren just sat there and observed her with a giant smile plastered over her face, her sexual frustration forgotten the moment she had looked over at the excitable dork. She had just discovered a whole new aspect of Camila Cabello – albeit a surprising one – and couldn't find it in herself to be mad, offended or even still in denial after that impressive revelation. Her body still burned with the aftermath of the atom bomb that was her date for the night, and she wasn't too sure whether she would be able to move again for a good five minutes without collapsing or melting into a rainbow coloured puddle. There was one thing she knew for certain in that moment, though, even with all the time that had passed; she was still irrevocably in love with Camila Cabello.
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A/N:
My brain goes on weird tangents. This is why people this I am high half the time that they meet me. High on life, more like!
...yeah, my jokes are lame.
That is all.
I love you all,
Mel <3