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"Camz, wait a minute-"Camila pulls her hand away and gets out of the car, slamming the door shut.Lauren sighs as she watches the younger girl stride up to the tour bus and disappear inside without a second look.She slips out of the car as well, running a hand through her hair as she racks her brain to find a way around all of this. She knows she screwed up, but what was she supposed to do? They have a contract, they don't have much say once management gets involved. Sometimes Camila just expects way too much from her."Lauser, yo, where've you guys been?" Dinah asks as she jogs up to her, a coffee cup in hand.Lauren knows she can't say anything, so she settles for a shrug, accompanied by a lie. "We just got some lunch."Ally opens the door to the tour bus, right as the two girls approach. "Something's up with Mila. I asked her if she wanted a brownie and she ran off to her bunk without a word.""I'm sure it didn't have anything to have with your baking skills," Normani reassures as she joins the girls."Speaking of... I'm just gonna go inside and check on her-""Yeah, no. You already had three, you're going to spoil your appetite for dinner," Ally says firmly.Normani rolls her eyes. “Thanks, mom." Dinah laughs but quickly shuts up when Ally shoots her a warning glare. "Alright, well... I'm going to actually go check on Walz," she announces, but Lauren shakes her head, stopping her before she can go."I got it," Lauren says quickly, moving past them and into the bus before any of them can question her. She hesitates when she hears a sniffle come from inside Camila's bunk. She takes a deep breath to prepare herself, before walking up and pulling the curtain back slowly.Camila immediately pulls her blanket up and turns her back to the other girl."Go away," she mumbles, burying her face in the pillow to hide her tears.Lauren ignores her and sits down at the edge of the bed, fumbling with the blanket. "I'm sorry," she tries again, for about the millionth time in the past half hour, and sighs when Camila just shifts further away from her. "Hey, come on, don't be like that. What do you expect me to do?"Camila lets out a laugh of disbelief, because one would think the answer is quite obvious by now. “Try. Just try, Laur, that's all I've ever asked of you."Lauren bites her lip and nods, pushing away the urge to defend herself. "I'm sorry, okay? But there's... there's nothing we can do about it now.""Right, just give up. That's what you're best at," Camila mutters, sitting up and wiping the tears from her cheeks. She's so sick of crying. She's so sick of crying because of Lauren.Lauren scoffs and stands up, running a hand through her hair. “That's not fair. This isn't my fault, Camila, and you know it." She turns to walk away, but a gentle hand catches her wrist, and with a sigh, she turns back to meet the glistening brown orbs staring back at her.Camila reaches out and takes Lauren's hand in hers, interlacing their fingers. She sighs shakily, squeezing the familiar warmth. "You're right, I'm sorry. This is all just... so unfair."Lauren looks down at their hands and forces herself to pull away. "Life isn't fair. Maybe we're just... not one of the lucky one's.""Why won't you fight? You just accept it, it's like you don't even..." Camila trails off, trying to find the right words before she says something she'll regret later. "What?" Lauren challenges, the anger in her chest rising. "Just say it, Camila, you're always the impulsive one, you just can't stop yourself from-“ "It's like you don't even care!" "Maybe I don't!" Lauren yells back, and she immediately regrets it when she realizes the impact that her words have on the younger girl. She sighs, running her shaky hand through her hair again. "Maybe... maybe it's not worth our careers, Camz," she says, her voice gentler as she tries to soften the blow.Camila turns away, feeling tears prick at the corners of her eyes again.“We're risking everything. Our families, our friends, and this," Lauren adds, gesturing around them. "We're risking losing the life that we love. People look up to us, people follow our every move, we can't-""It's not worth it. I got it" Camila cuts in, shaking her head. "You've obviously already made up your mind, so just go" she says, her voice trembling."After today, I thought you would at least stop and think for a moment how bad this could turn out. People already suspect something, it's everywhere. If they found out that we... we..." Lauren sighs and shrugs helplessly. "You heard what they said. We just need to distance ourselves for a bit, just until the rumors die down, and... I don't know, maybe it's for the best. Maybe it'll help us move on.""Move on?" Camila asks, her voice laced with hurt as she finally turns to meet the green eyes. "I- I just-" Lauren stops herself when she hears the bus door open. "Can we talk about this later?" she asks desperately, her voice hushed."No, I think this conversation cleared up a lot for me," Camila murmurs, slipping out of her bed."Camz-"Camila shoves past her and opens the curtain. Lauren sighs and follows her out to where the rest of the girls are."Ugh, no. I'm not eating pizza for the third day in a row.""Mani, pizza never gets old. If that changes, the world just isn't right," Dinah insists, and Normani shakes her head."Whatever. I actually want to go out to eat. Like, at a restaurant? Please?""Sure," Dinah agrees, and then smirks. "I think there's a Pizza Hut just around the- Ow!" She frowns and rubs her arm where the other girl smacked her. "Jerk.""I'm the jerk?!""I'm fine with pizza," Camila suddenly pipes in, and Dinah smiles, pulling the girl over to her and wrapping her arm around her."I knew I could always count on you, Mila," Dinah says proudly, before sticking her tongue out at Normani.Camila giggles and leans up to press a kiss to Dinah's cheek. Lauren looks away."Alright, so are we going, or what?" Lauren mutters, grabbing her jacket.Normani grumbles and trails reluctantly behind them as they leave the tour bus to walk to get pizza for the third night in a row. > Going out without bringing their security is a mistake. Apparently Fifth Harmony is a very well-known name in pizza plazas.A whole group of teenage girls practically jump on them to get autographs and photos, and one even asks them to sing.They politely remove themselves from the situation- and are then scolded by their head of security for not thinking it through.And then, Miss Movin' On starts playing throughout the restaurant, and all hell breaks loose.Their security team has to exit the group from the building so they can eat their pizza in peace- back at their tour bus.Normani glares at Dinah throughout the rest of the night.Camila, as expected, ignores Lauren...That is until everyone else is asleep and the green-eyed girl pokes her head into her bunk.Camila sighs and scoots over to make room on the bed for her."I thought we had to distance ourselves," Camila mutters.Lauren interlaces their fingers and presses a kiss to the back of the other girl's hand. "Starting tomorrow."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
And tomorrow, as promised, is when it starts.Camila wakes up alone and cold in her bunk and sighs when she unlocks her phone to see new messages from their management team telling her that they have rehearsals for tonight's concert- in one hour.She slips out of bed and pulls back the curtain, smiling when she sees five coffee cups with each of the girl's names on them.She picks up the one with Camila written in sharpie and takes a big sip, nearly dropping the cup when the hot drink burns her tongue."I just got them, dork," Dinah laughs as she enters the bus again, carrying a box from Dunkin Donuts. "It's about time you're up. Rob's coming to pick us up soon.""Where's Lauren?" Camila asks, taking a cautious sip of her coffee this time.Dinah shrugs and sets the box down on the counter. "Not sure. She left pretty early this morning." She points to the donuts and looks at Camila very seriously. "Don't touch the chocolate ones. Those are mine."Camila sticks out her tongue and walks back over to her bunk with her coffee.Her stomach growls but she ignores it when she notices a folded up piece of paper sticking out of her pillowcase.Her brows furrow curiously as she makes a grab for it, her fingers moving to unfold it quickly. Her heart leaps as she reads.
Sorry for leaving so early. I was going to just text you, but I thought I’d be cliché and romantic for you. I’ll see you at rehearsals.
-LCamila smiles and rolls her eyes.Maybe things won't change as drastically as she thought. > Well, she's wrong. Or, she was right, earlier. Things do, in fact, change as much as she had thought- if not more so.The five girls meet up and work on their choreography, and everything goes relatively normal.But Lauren doesn't stay later with Camila to help her out- since the younger girl is sometimes a little clumsy and has problems keeping up- and instead leaves with Normani, Ally, and Dinah, while Camila stays with the choreography team.By the time she's able to leave as well, she's exhausted. As she's being driven to the ice cream parlor where the rest of the girls are hanging out, she scrolls through her Twitter DM's and tries to answer as many messages as she can before the app crashes.Once she sends a tweet, her page usually blows up with messages and subtweets from fans trying to get her attention.She stops scrolling when she sees a camren photo from when they were still in The X Factor.She smiles. She loves that photo. She stops herself from liking the tweet, knowing that it's probably not the best idea. She exits out of Twitter right as her driver opens the car door for her, and she steps out.When she enters the parlor, she's greeted by charming green eyes and a cup of banana ice cream. > "Alright, Amsterdam, I know you can be louder than that!" The crowd roars and Camila giggles excitedly. She loves hearing all of the fans shouting and cheering. Not for her, but with her. Camila walks around Lauren to hit her mark, and she can practically feel the other girl's eyes burning into her."We're going to take it down a couple notches in this next one, so get all your screams out now. On the count of three, I really wanna hear you, alright? Left side... three... two... one!" The left side of the crowd screams as they're instructed.Camila sprints over to the right side and holds her hand up to her ear. "Right side, let me hear you!"The right sight joins in, and when Camila yells for everyone to let it all out, she swears the building literally shakes."Ok, now on the next count of three, I want it dead silent in here. Ready? Three... two... one..."Lauren smiles at how in tune Camila is with the crowd. It truly amazes her sometimes. She looks away to keep herself from staring, remembering how well the fans can read her sometimes. They're suspicious enough as is, she doesn't want to give them any more evidence.Dinah finishes setting up the chairs, and the five girls take their seats."We're going acoustic for this next one, so we need y'all to be really quiet, okay?" Ally tells the crowd, before nodding to the guitarist, and Camila starts them off.
“Give it to me, I’m worth it...”
> They're singing their last song of the night, and Camila's having a little trouble keeping up with the choreography. She keeps dragging behind the rest of the girls and, to make matters worse, they’re standing on chairs.So, expectedly, the worst happens. Her foot slips off the chair, her whole balance is thrown off, and she's falling.Lauren sees the brunette tumble to the floor and almost moves to help her up. Something stops her, though. It's ridiculous, she knows, but... The fans have taken so much as a look too far. She stays put and continues singing, telling herself that Camila is fine. She'll get back up like she always does.Well, she does. But she certainly struggles. She landed on her foot, in a painful position. And when she tries to stand up, with no help, she stumbles to get back on the chair and nearly falls again.She limps off the stage and is given a bandage and ice. Lauren doesn't even notice. She focuses on the fans, and walks off with the other girls, trying not to worry too much. > "Why don't we just get a hotel room for the night? I'm sick of the tour bus, I need breakfast in an actual bed," Normani complains, and Dinah nods."Yeah, we deserve good service, Rob. We've had a long night and-"Rob laughs and shakes his head."You girls have me whipped." He sighs when Ally gives him her best pleading eyes and pouty lips."Alright." > "Hey, I think I'm gonna room Mani," Lauren whispers to Camila when they enter the hotel lobby.Camila shrugs, trying to play it off like it's no big deal. Because it shouldn't be a big deal. It feels like it is."Wait." Lauren stops her before she can get into the elevator with the other girls. "You guys go on up, we'll be right there," she tells them, and they shrug as the door slides closed. "Are you okay?" she asks genuinely, mentally slapping herself for not asking earlier.Camila shrugs. "I'm fine."Lauren sighs and gives her a look that basically says, I don’t believe you. “It looked like it hurt.""You didn't seem too concerned," Camila mutters. She presses the elevator button, and it dings not even a second later. The door slides open and they both step inside.Lauren bites her lip nervously, trying to think of what to say to make the other girl understand. "Camz... You know what would've happened if I'd caught you. Or even helped you up. You know how they blow everything out of proportion, I just couldn't risk it."Camila scoffs, and Lauren literally flinches. "This isn't even about our situation anymore, Lauren. It's simple. I'm not worth it.""Hey, that's not true. It's not you, it's-""Our bad luck? Really?"Lauren sighs, running a hand through her hair. "That... that wasn't what I was going to say."Camila turns away. "Fine, whatever. I'm tired, I just want to go to bed and we'll... talk about this later.""Okay," Lauren murmurs.The elevator opens and they step out. They walk the same direction but enter two different rooms.Two different worlds.