Lauren groaned as she came awake the next morning, her hands automatically flying to cover her eyes from the bright morning sun. Her head was pounding with what had to be the most painful headache ever known by man and she licked her lips compulsively, trying to dispel the rancid cotton-mouth taste that had developed while she'd slept. The bed shifted beside her and she moaned piteously. "Turn the sun off, Camila."
"Can't do that, sport," Camila murmured, chuckling as she reached out to brush Lauren's hair off her face. "How you feeling?"
Lauren groaned again and rolled over, burying her head in the pillow to try and block out the harsh morning sunlight. "Like ass."
"I'll bet," Camila said. She reached out and began rubbing Lauren's back, and smiled as she felt the woman relax under her touch. "You were hammered, baby."
Lauren nodded and then stopped abruptly, whimpering in pain. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Camila soothed, still stroking her fingers lightly up and down Lauren's spine. "Normani will be coming by in about an hour to take you for hash browns and stuff."
"Thank god," Lauren groaned. With the way she was feeling, it was probably going to take an extra hash brown and one of those super-jumbo-sized Diet Cokes to make her feel better. "Any chance she'd just bring it to me?"
Camila laughed quietly and leaned in to press a soft kiss to the back of Lauren's shoulder. "I don't think so, baby. I think she wants some time alone with her best friend before her wedding."
Lauren shivered at the feeling of Camila's lips against her skin and moaned softly as she felt the tip of the brunette's tongue draw a light circle on her shoulder. "Mmm, do that again," she hummed, turning her head so that her face wasn't pressed into the pillow.
Even though she was certain that this wasn't going to go anywhere, Camila obliged Lauren's request and leaned in to press another kiss to her back, and then another one, and another, as she shifted so that she pushed herself up so that she could lean further to capture Lauren's lips in a sweet, chaste kiss. "You'll get more of those once you brush your teeth," she informed her as she pulled away.
"I wish I felt good enough to do that," Lauren replied, grimacing as her head pulsed viciously. "Seriously, how much did I drink?"
"Way. Too. Much," Camila replied, smoothing her hand across Lauren's brow before tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "Do you remember anything that happened?"
Lauren closed her eyes, her brow furrowing as she tried to remember what had happened the night before. Thinking hurt, but there was something in Camila's tone that told her she had done or said something stupid and she knew that she needed to know what that was so that she could try and fix it. The memories started out fuzzy but quickly sharpened into focus the more she concentrated on trying to remember. She remembered singing with Normani and the way Camila had kissed her after they'd finished. She remembered dancing with the brunette and drinking some more. She had a vague memory of trying to hump Camila on the dance floor, the way she kept trying to grab the brunette's boobs, whispering crude propositions in her ear, yelling... "Did I really yell to Normani that I was going to get some when we were leaving?"
"Mmm." Camila nodded. "And don't forget shouting that you wanted me to fuck you."
At the mention of that particular moment, Lauren blushed. "I thought I whispered that."
"Definitely wasn't a whisper," Camila informed her with a smile.
Lauren licked her lips and sighed. "Oh. Sorry?"
Camila rolled her eyes. "Sweetie, it was fine. I actually enjoyed seeing you let loose like that. However, for as amusing as you were, I think we need to save Tequila Lauren for non-public locations. And, I do want that lap dance you offered me last night, by the way."
"I don't think I can do that right now, sweetheart," Lauren murmured, squeezing her eyes shut. The longer they talked, the more her head started pounding. "Rain check?"
"We don't have time right now anyway," Camila said. "So, sure." She paused, debating whether or not to bring up Lauren's emotional breakdown or not. On the one hand, she knew they needed to at least talk about it a little bit, but on the other hand, she knew that they had talked the subject to death over the last couple of months and that it was just the alcohol bringing out Lauren's insecurities.
"I'm sorry I started crying on you last night," Lauren whispered. Though the majority of the night was somewhat hazy, she had a perfect recollection of the way that she'd broken down on the brunette, sobbing about not wanting to lose her and how she was afraid that she was going to do something to make Camila leave.
Camila sighed and laid down next to Lauren so that they were nose-to-nose. She smiled reassuringly as she reached out to gently stroke the edge of Lauren's jaw with the back of her hand. Yes, they had had this particular talk in different forms many different times, but maybe they needed to have it again. Plainly. Simply. "You know I'm not going anywhere, right? That I want to marry you, just as much as you want to marry me?" She watched Lauren suck her lip between her teeth and worry it, and she turned her hand over so that she was cradling Lauren's face in her palm. "I know we've talked about this, sweetie. You have to let the past go. Because we have an incredible future ahead of us. One that we'll take on together. Okay?"
Lauren nodded and slowly turned her head to press a soft kiss to the middle of Camila's palm. So long as she didn't move too quickly, she was hoping that her headache wouldn't get any worse. "I know. It's just... still a fear of mine. I do know that you love me," she assured her. "I do. I'm sorry I did that to you. I know you love me, I feel it-" she pointed at her heart, "but just... please know that it's not you that I don't trust. It's me that I don't trust. I'm still learning, Camz. Besides Mani, DJ, and Zayn, I don't have a lot of experience with people not running away from me. And I want to be enough for you. I want nothing more than to be the person you need most in the world and I'm so, so sorry I unloaded all of that on you last night. Lord knows you of all people don't deserve to deal with my baggage."
It was heartbreaking for Camila to see that Lauren – after everything they'd been through and after every promise they'd made each other – still believed that she wasn't good enough for her love. "I do deserve to deal with all of your baggage," Camila argued, albeit gently, as she leaned in to kiss Lauren softly. "Because it isn't baggage, sweetheart. It's what makes you, you. And I love you. All of you. And I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life loving you." She kissed her again. If this is what Lauren needed to feel better, then she would kiss her for as long as it took to make her understand that she wasn't going anywhere. And, with Lauren's tequila laced morning-breath, that was the purest form of love there was.
A shy, pleased smile tweaked Lauren's lips as she reached out to wrap an arm around Camila's waist. "I love you."
"I know," Camila murmured, smoothing her thumb over Lauren's cheek. They laid there in silence for a few minutes, just staring into each other's eyes until Camila's gaze swept over to the alarm clock on the nightstand behind Lauren. It was getting late and Lauren definitely needed to shower before she went out with Normani for breakfast. "Normani will be here in half an hour. Can you get to the shower on your own?"
Lauren nodded and rolled over onto her back. She winced at the brightness of the room and flung her arm over her eyes as she groaned. "Why can't they serve breakfast all day?"
"I don't know," Camila replied, chuckling. "Come on, sweetheart. Up you get." She reached out and helped Lauren into a sitting position. "Okay?"
"You would think sitting up would make the blood pounding in my brain go somewhere else, but it doesn't," Lauren whined. "It just makes it worse."
"I know, baby," Camila said placatingly as she bit back the urge to remind Lauren that it was her own fault that she felt so terrible. "Do you want me to see if I can get room service to bring up a Gatorade for you to drink before you two go? I was going to order me a vegan croissant, a fruit bowl, and some coffee..."
Lauren gagged at the idea of drinking anything that wasn't Diet Coke from a tap. While nausea wasn't one of the effects she was feeling from her hangover, her stomach wasn't ready for anything that didn't have thick syrup and bubbles in it. "Um, no. Thank you," she added. "Are you sure you don't want to go with us?"
Camila laughed and nodded. "Yeah. I'll manage just fine with my healthy breakfast. Honestly, I don't see how you can eat that junk anyways, let alone in the condition you have got to be in now."
"Well," Lauren said, groaning softly as she turned and set her feet on the floor. She shifted back and forth on the edge of the bed a couple of times, letting her legs get used to the idea that they would have to support her soon, and pushed slowly to her feet. So far, so good. Her legs didn't collapse under her. "I can't explain it, really. Diet Coke from a tap has less bubbles than Coke from a can so it's heavier, which, combined with the grease from the hash browns and stuff, just makes my hangover go away." She smiled at Camila's disbelieving expression. "Like I said, I can't explain it. I just know it works."
"And that crap will make your hangover magically disappear?" Camila asked, flabbergasted.
Lauren smirked, the grin turning into a grimace as she shuffled across the room. "Pretty much. I brought up my super-dark sunglasses, right? That sun is wicked."
"Um..." Camila looked around the suite for the glasses that Lauren had worn the day before. "Your aviators with the reflective lenses. Are those good?"
Lauren grunted. "I guess they'll have to be. How long do I have until Mani shows up?"
Camila glanced at the clock. "About twenty-six minutes, more or less. Do you need anything? Besides Tylenol – which I set out for you on the counter?"
Lauren shook her head, causing her messy hair to flop adorably, and pushed her panties down over her hips so that she was naked. Had she been feeling better she would have made the whole thing more of a tease, but she just didn't have the energy. Maybe later. After her soda, McMuffin, and hash browns. "Thank you, for that. I'm good."
Even hung-over and barely-human, Lauren was still absolutely breathtaking and Camila sighed as she ogled her lover. Really, if she didn't know that Lauren was hers and hers alone and that she was the only one who got to truly admire and touch her, she would have said that it wasn't fair for her to be so beautiful. Instead, she just felt blessed. Blessed that, somehow, Lauren chose to let her see her the way she truly was, with no walls, and just... her. And that, more than anything, was what made Lauren beautiful to her. Because Lauren was just as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. "Right. Well, chop-chop, Jauregui. Normani's going to be here soon and you two are going to want to get to McDonald's before they stop serving breakfast."
+++/+++\+++
True to her word, Normani knocked on Lauren and Camila's door at ten o'clock on the button. Normani grinned as a thoroughly hung-over Lauren threw the door open and glared at her. Not that she could see Lauren's eyes, the former head Cheerio was wearing a pair of sunglasses, but she and Lauren had done this particular dance enough times for her to know exactly what the woman looked like underneath those four hundred dollar aviators she was so fond of. So, instead of making some kind of flippant comment that Lauren was no doubt expecting, she ignored her completely and looked around the taller woman's side to catch Camila's eye. "I'll have her back in an hour or so!"
Camila nodded and waved, smiling from her position in the doorway to the veranda where her room service breakfast was set out for her to enjoy. "Take your time. You guys have fun. What's Dinah doing?"
"She's at breakfast with her mom," Normani said. "We'll meet up with them and my mom at the spa later."
"Your mother doesn't want to have breakfast with you on the day of your wedding?" Camila asked, arching a brow in surprise.
Normani chuckled and shook her head. "Nah. She and my father have gone up to one of the local wineries for a fancy brunch. She'll be back around one to meet us at the spa."
"If I miss my McMuffin because you wanted to shoot the shit with Camila, I will kill you," Lauren muttered darkly.
Normani let loose a bark of laughter and nodded as she backed away from the door and into the hall. "I'll take Miss Bitchy Pants and get her fixed up," she said, smirking at the quite grunt her comment had gotten from Lauren. "Do you have your room key, drunkie?"
Lauren slapped weakly at the pockets of her shorts and nodded. "Yeah."
"Excellent!" Normani yelled, smirking at the way Lauren winced. "Bye Camila!"
Lauren turned and waved at her girlfriend. Her goodbye was much more subdued, but she knew Camila wouldn't mind. She smiled at the way Camila blew her a kiss and she was in the middle of returning the gesture when Normani pulled her unceremoniously out into the hall. "Watch it!" she huffed, as the door slammed shut behind them.
"God, I forgot what a wuss you are when you're hung-over," Normani muttered as she stalked off down the hall. "Let's get that fixed A-SAP, yeah?"
Lauren fought the urge to roll her eyes at Normani – she knew that it would hurt like a bitch if she did it – and followed the bride-to-be down the hall. The trip to the car and across town to the McDonalds was made in silence and it was only after Lauren got that first giant bite of one of her hash brown into her system, which was followed with an immediate gulp of Diet Coke, that she found the energy to speak. "Fuck, that's good."
"Fucking magic," Normani agreed, as she took a bite of her breakfast sandwich. "So, on a scale of one to ten, how hung-over are you?"
Lauren took another bite of hash brown and chewed thoughtfully. "Probably an eight," she said after she'd swallowed. "Definitely not as bad as that time in Vegas."
Normani nodded and grinned at the memory. Lauren had just started dating Jamie and the four of them had jumped over to Sin City for the weekend. Dinah, because of her contacts within the industry, had gotten them into a couple of the hottest clubs at the time and Lauren had, very unwisely, began mixing her drinks. The poor woman ended up completely trashed and proceeded to then throw up down the front of Jamie's dress as she'd tried to stick her face in the brunette's cleavage. Then she'd started laughing, which quickly turned to crying and apologizing as she sobbed about slushies and who knew what else. That was just one of the many times that Normani knew Lauren was using the brunette as a replacement for another, more talented, woman who she was afraid she would never be able to have. "That was a pretty awesome weekend. I would have killed your ass if you'd have thrown up on me like that though."
"Mmm," Lauren hummed, nodding slowly in agreement as she shoved the remaining half of her first hash brown into her mouth.
Studying her friend carefully, Normani decided that Lauren looked to be coherent enough to have a serious conversation. It wasn't one she wanted to have, but just like she'd given Camila 'the talk' the night before, she needed to see where Lauren's head was at when it came to all things Cabello. So, she put her breakfast sandwich down on its wax-paper wrapper and leveled her with an unmistakably serious look. "You kind of freaked Cabello out with your crying and shit last night."
Lauren paused mid-chew. "How did you know about that?"
"Gross. Swallow before you speak, you heathen," Normani admonished with a light chuckle. "Camila called me and Dinah down to help get you into bed after your drunk ass crashed on her. Apparently she was in the middle of getting you into your jammies when you passed out because when we got there you were wearing nothing but a pair of bikini briefs."
"Great," Lauren mumbled around a mouthful of potato. "What did you say to her?"
Normani rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee. "Fuck, that shit's really kind of awful. Chill, Laur. I didn't say anything to her," she lied, knowing that Camila would keep their conversation private. It was, after all, to protect Lauren, and she'd vowed after Clara and Mike had walked out on Lauren the last time that she would always do whatever she could to take care of her former captain. "So... for reals. What's up, Laur?"
"Same shit, different day," Lauren muttered, sighing as she took a sip of her coke. "Just, me stuff. I guess. You know how I get sometimes."
"I do." Normani nodded sagely. "Which is why I'm going to ask you this: Do you want to screw things up with her?"
Lauren gaped. "Of course not! Why would you say that?!"
"Chill, Laur. Fuck," Normani muttered. "Look. Cabello... Camila, she really does love you, Laur. Just like me and DJ and Zayn, and you need to know that she's not going anywhere."
"I know," Lauren sighed, scrubbing a hand over her face. "I know. It's just... and no offense, but she's the only one I have ever truly let in. Like, all the way. She knows all of me, and that's scary as fuck, Mani. And if I lose her..."
"You're not going to lose her though, Laur," Normani said softly as she leaned into the table so that she could keep her voice down and still be heard. "That girl is crazy in love with you. I don't know if you see it, but she is. Even when you fuck up, because we all do and it's inevitable that you will too, she ain't going nowhere. She looks at you like Dinah looks at me – it's called love, Laur. And, for as much as I would have given you a hard time about Cabello back in the day, she's good for you. Really, it's almost disgusting how perfect you guys are for each other. So just... I dunno. Relax. Enjoy feeling happy. Because everybody deserves to be happy, Laur. Even you. Especially you."
"I am happy," Lauren murmured.
"Good." Feeling that everything that needed to be said had been said, Normani decided to change the subject in the best way she knew how – by bringing up something completely inappropriate. "So, now that all the deep and serious shit is out of the way, I have to tell ya that you still have quite the amazing rack on you there, Cap."
Lauren rolled her eyes and chuckled softly at that very Normani segue to all things less serious. "Thanks."
Normani grinned and looked down at her own chest. "Course, it's not as nice as mine..."
Lauren smirked and picked up her McMuffin. "Yeah, but mine are real."
"You're just jealous," Normani retorted with a wink.
"Of what? Your tits? Hardly."
"Of the fact that I'm getting married this afternoon."
Lauren huffed a laugh and nodded. "Yeah, I'm a little jealous about that."
Normani chuckled and arched a brow at Lauren that quite clearly said, 'I know'. "When are you going to give up on your whole fucked-up 'it's too soon' idea and just fucking go for it?"
Lauren shrugged and looked around the restaurant to make sure that nobody was paying any real attention to them. She was wearing an old pair of boardshorts and a Roxy t-shirt, flip flops, and her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, so she doubted that anyone would really notice her, but she was aware enough of her celebrity to be wary. Thankfully, they had the back corner of the place to themselves, and not even the pimply kid mopping the floor paid them any attention. "I think I already did," she said, smiling softly as she reached for her drink. "Yesterday."
"Oh, really?" Normani drawled, hiking a brow expectantly. "And, do we have plans yet?"
Lauren fiddled with the straw of her drink and shook her head. "Not yet. Her dads are coming out to visit next weekend though, and I'm debating talking to them then."
Normani nodded. "That's a good idea. I'm sure they'll appreciate the gesture."
"I hope so," Lauren muttered. She took a deep breath and held it for a moment before she let it go with a loud huff. "But, enough about me. You are getting married this afternoon and you're scarfing down two Egg McMuffins? Aren't you worried about fitting into your dress?"
Normani scoffed and, to prove her point, tore off another huge bite of her breakfast sandwich. "Hardly. I need the calories. Energy for tonight, you know."
Lauren chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Right. Of course."