A/N: angsty chapter ahead, children.
The girls were sitting in silence at their lunch table.
"Okay, now I'm really fucking worried." Lauren sighed. "Mani isn't answering my calls, my texts, or my-"
Ally's ringer started going off in that moment. Camila, Dinah, and Lauren's jaws all dropped when they saw who was calling.
It was Normani, of course.
Ally didn't hesitate, and she answered as fast as she could. "Hello? Mani?" she questioned the caller.
"Hey." was the only reply she got. It was definitely Normani, but her voice was rather raspy and tired. There was a bit of an echo too, so if anyone listened closely enough, they could probably tell she was in the bathroom.
"What's happening hon? Can we come see you?" Ally asked.
Normani paused, and sniffled a bit. "It doesn't matter. I've made up my mind." she said only above a whisper.
Lauren's eyes widened. "What does she mean by that? Mani!" she yelled. "Where the fuck are you?"
Normani started sobbing. "I can't." was all she said before hanging up.
"She's obviously in a bathroom." Dinah jumped in. "We need to go now, and find her."
"I'd think she would need Lo the most." Camila added. "We can search as many bathrooms as possible, but does anyone have any idea where she might be exactly?"
Ally pondered over it. "Maybe the one by the school entrance, because she didn't show up to any classes today, much less her locker. So that means she never-"
Lauren began sprinting out of the lunch room, not caring about anything else.
"Shit!" Dinah facepalmed herself. "Okay, lets go look for Mani in the other bathrooms then. Lo's definitely got that one covered."
With that, they all made their exit.
Lauren made sure to be cautious enough so that she wouldn't collide with any students or teachers as she ran.
Not like she cared if she ran into anyone either way. She just needed to reach her girlfriend before anything happened.
What the hell was Normani thinking anyway?
As she rounded yet another corner, a teacher spotted her.
"Hey!" the teacher yelled after her.
Of fucking course. Lauren rolled her eyes. But she didn't stop. She kept going. She was determined.
The teacher seemed to give up on her anyway. Lauren was only chased for a bit, but proved to be too fast.
At that point, Lauren reached the bathroom Normani was believed to be in.
And for some reason, the door was closed shut.
Lauren reached for the handle, only to find that it wouldn't budge. It was locked.
The green eyed girl started banging her fists on it without any warning. "Normani!" she yelled. "Open this door right now!"
She couldn't loose the person she loved this way. It was clear now what Normani's intentions were.
"Please!" Lauren cried. "I love you, and I'm sorry for fighting with you! So just open the door!"
And as if her prayers were answered, the Cuban girl heard a click.
She tried the door again, and it swung right open. Mostly because she basically yanked it open.
Lauren stepped in, closed the door, locked it, and quickly ran to her girlfriend who had only slumped up against the wall again.
There was a silver blade in the girl's hand. Where she got it was unknown to Lauren.
"Baby," Lauren knelt in front of her, swiftly placing a hand on her girlfriend's knife-grasping hand. "What the fuck are you doing?"
Normani looked at her, her eyes soulless. "It's hard Laur."
"What is?" Lauren snapped back. "Hard enough to the point where you decided you were just gonna leave me?"
Normani cried even harder. "Stop." she whispered. "Just leave if you're gonna yell."
Lauren sighed. "Mani," she began to say, trying to distract her and take the blade away. "I'm yelling because I care about you, in case you didn't know, trying to kill yourself would be selfish."
"You're so great at comforting me." Normani remarked in a mean way. "Leave. Why did I even consider opening that door?"
Lauren shook her head. "Fuck no! Listen, it's selfish because there are so many people here that care and love you, Mani. Don't you get it?"
"I said leave."
"But-"
"LEAVE!" Normani swiped her arm away from Lauren, and turned away. She then aimed the knife at her own heart, and with as much force as she could, attempted to stab herself.
There was no screaming to be heard. Just the sound of a knife cutting skin.
Normani felt no pain, strangely enough.
It was dark, but only because she had closed her eyes.
She had thought that maybe she was dead, and instantly regretted her last words to Lauren. But then she opened her eyes once more, only to be met with the tiled walls of the bathroom.
Why was she still here?
The warmth from behind her hit her like a truck in that moment.
Normani looked down, only to see two arms wrapped around her, and two legs beside her, encasing her in a hug.
And a knife that was stabbed almost halfway through one of the arms.
"Fuck!" Normani screamed. She saw the blood gushing from Lauren's wound, snapped out of whatever trance she was just in, and quickly turned around in the girl's embrace.
She was met with Lauren's green eyes. They were very wide, full of pain. But the girl smiled at Normani as if she were something she needed to protect.
Normani's face was more frightened than Lauren had ever seen. The dark skinned girl brought a hand to her girlfriend's cheek, and looked her deep in the eyes. She pecked her on the lips, whispering how sorry she was and that she was never going to forgive herself.
That was enough of an apology for Lauren.
Normani then quickly got up, and ran into one of the stalls. She grabbed as much toilet paper as she thought would suffice.
And we're talking pounds of it.
Normani had enough experience to know that she would need professionals to remove the knife.
She pulled out her phone, and dialed 911, while cleaning the escaping blood already on the green eyed girl's arm.
"Lauren, I'm so fucking stupid-"
"Shh.." Lauren hushed her. "My life is in your hands now, focus on saving it." she joked and smiled a bit, wincing in pain.
And so that's what Normani did.
~
Later that day at the hospital, Lauren was left in her bed after an easy procedure. She would be fine, to everyone's relief.
Of course, there would be a big questioning later as to how Lauren was injured, but that was not the main focus at that moment.
"Mani, what the hell went on in there? Did you stab her?" Dinah pelted Normani with questions.
"No!" Normani hissed back. "And I would never! She hugged me right at the last moment and used one of her arms to.. oh god.. it- it is my fault, what was I think-"
"Hey," Camila placed her hands on Normani's shoulders. "Just tell Dinah to go screw herself, that's what I always do."
"Hey!" Dinah pouted.
Camila giggled a bit, then spoke once more. "You're okay, Mani. Everything's fine. Nothing is your fault, just consider this as Lauren saving your life."
"What's going on with you, exactly?" Ally butted in. "If you don't mind me asking. You've been so out of it lately, it was starting to scare all of us."
Normani sighed. "My parents are getting drunk more often. They go out to parties and whatever, only because we're at a good point where we have enough money for them to do so. They've.." she paused.
"They've been getting abusive." she finished.
"So, I thought that a simple solution would be to steal all of their alcohol and see if it would help me in the way it's helped them. It's only made them angry, and I've been getting drunk ever since."
"Mani.." Camila cooed. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
The Cuban-Mexican went in to hug the girl, and then Ally and Dinah followed after her.
The three girls stood there, comforting her in silence.
Nothing more needed to be said.
"We're gonna help you get through this, Mani." Ally told her. "All of us."
Camila and Dinah both replied with a quick "Yeah."
"And me too." said a voice from behind them.
The four of them turned, and were surprised to see Lauren standing there, smiling her goofy smile.
"Lolo, why the fuck are you out of bed?" Dinah scrunched her face up. "OH SHIT, HER GHOST IS COMING TO HAUNT ME! I'M SORRY FOR USING YOUR TOOTHBRUSH TO SCRUB MY FINGERNAILS, I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST THIS-"
Camila then slapped the Polynesian across the face, sighing. "Calm down, Dinah. And shutup before you don't get any kisses tonight."
Dinah's eyes widened. "No! Anything but that!" she whined, then stood as silent as a statue.
"Whipped!" Lauren commented.
Ally shook her head. "Well, we'll be taking our leave, Mani. You and Lo have some talking to do, I assume."
Normani grinned at Caminah's little moment. "Yeah, that's fine Al."
With that, Lauren and Normani were left alone.
Normani looked down at her girlfriend's now bandaged arm. "Lo, I don't even know where to begin." she admitted.
"Hey," Lauren said comfortingly. "You're welcome. That's all that needs to be said."
"So I'm assuming you heard the whole conversation I just had with the girls about what's been happening?" Normani sighed.
Lauren nodded. "Yeah, I did. I'm kinda pissed you didn't talk to me or come to me for help, because now I'm gonna protect you no matter what."
"I guess I kinda don't blame you though for keeping quite, I mean, we were fighting."
Normani walked over to her, "Then let's promise not to let something like that come between us again." she began caressing Lauren's bandaged wound when she was close enough.
"There's gonna be a huge scar there now." Normani explained worriedly.
"Eh," Lauren shrugged. "It'll be like a reminder of our love."
Normani grinned. "Cause that's just so cute to you, isn't it?"
"You know I'll never be able to forgive myself for this, not ever." she added. "And I mean it."
Lauren wrapped her free arm around the girl's waist, and pulled her in for a kiss.
"Well, that's okay." the green eyed girl assured her. "Cause then that'll give us another reason to never split apart."
~
Dinah and Camila decided it would be nice to take a walk back to their house, since it wasn't too far away from the hospital.
Right when they reached their street, some mysterious car pulled up beside them. It followed them slowly as they walked.
"Uh, Dinah?" Camila pointed, wondering whether they should make a run for it.
Dinah shifted her gaze to the vehicle, her eyes going wide once she saw who was inside.
The driver rolled down the window.
"Dinah? Is that you?" they asked. "It's been so long hon, but I was certain that you was living here."
"Aunt Leilani?" Dinah questioned, recognizing the woman's face.
Camila looked back and forth between them. She wasn't sure what was going on exactly.
"We need to talk, Dinah." Aunt Leilani told her. "And like, ASAP."
Dinah frowned. Then turned to her girlfriend. "Babe," she began to say quietly. "Go on ahead without me, the house is right there. I'll come talk to you in a sec."
Camila nodded. "Okay." was all she said.
She was too nervous to say much else.
When Camila walked away, Aunt Leilani got out of her car, and walked over to Dinah.
She gave the Polynesian a quick hug. "It's been so long, how have you been Dinah?"
Pretty good till you showed up. Dinah felt like responding with. "Eh, it's been good." she decided to say instead.
"Well, I have good news for you." her aunt continued. "I'll be taking you home with me now, I've gotten legal custody of you!"
What?
~