Chapter 15
Walking up to Ariana’s front door, Camila shifts her overnight bag to her other arm as she raises her hand to knock. She pauses when she hears familiar laughter on the other side and a smile breaks out onto her face when she recognizes it as Lauren’s genuine giggle.
She’s been looking forward to this ever since Lauren agreed to join because it means she’ll get to spend more time with the girl, and honestly, she’s never not wanted to be around Lauren (even during that unpleasant day at the carnival).
Realizing that she’s spent longer than an appropriate amount of time standing outside of Ariana’s house, Camila gives five quick but firm knocks on the door to ensure that the girls hear it (the Grande family always keep their front door locked so Camila can’t just walk in like she usually would with her other friends). She only has to wait a few moments before the lock turns and the door swings open, Ariana greeting her with a smile on the other side.
“Hey, Mila! Come on in, you’re the last to arrive.”
Sure enough, when Camila walks into the living room where the others are hanging out, she already spots the rest of the girls. Tori and Ally are sitting quite close together on the loveseat, Normani has her legs stretched out in front of her as she leans against the front of the couch, and Lauren and Dinah are giggling with each other as Dinah lays her legs out across Lauren’s lap.
“Mila!” Dinah greets far too loudly for being indoors as she enters the room. “You made it!”
At the mention of Camila’s name, Lauren swiftly turns around to see her, smiling shyly but happily when she does. The rest of the girls offer her their own (calmer) greetings while Lauren gives Camila a cute wave.
“Come join us,” Ally calls over her shoulder as Ariana takes her seat next to Normani on the floor. “Another episode of Friends just started.”
Glancing around the living room, Camila looks for a place to sit. Seeing how Dinah is taking up most of the sofa, Camila makes her way there, nudging at the girl’s outstretched legs.
“Move your ass over,” Camila says playfully as she swats at Dinah’s feet.
Dinah jokingly glares at Camila. “No. Lauser here is a great footrest. I don’t want to move.”
“Well too bad,” Camila replies as she forcefully shoves Dinah’s legs off of Lauren’s lap and the couch, nearly causing her friend to fall on top of Normani and Ariana. “I want to sit next to Lauren.”
Claiming the empty seat, Camila plops down next to Lauren, smiling at the girl’s shy but happy expression.
“Hi,” Lauren greets quietly.
“Hi,” Camila returns.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
Camila stares at Lauren in surprise. “You are?”
“Yeah. I missed you.”
Camila feels her heart warm at Lauren’s words because the girl has been so much more open and affectionate with her lately, and it’s giving her hope that perhaps Lauren is starting to return her feelings.
“I missed you too, Lo.”
Grinning at Camila’s reply, Lauren leans into Camila’s side as the episode starts up, even though there’s plenty of room on Lauren’s other side. Camila just pulls her closer.
They’re on their second episode when Ariana orders the pizza, and the third episode is halfway through when the doorbell rings. Ariana disappears for a minute and walks back into the room carrying two large pizzas, one with pepperoni and the other without.
The appetizing scent of greasy, cheesy, goodness immediately fills the room and the six hungry girls clamber over each other to reach the food that Ariana barely has time to put down onto the coffee table. She barely escapes to grab some plates from the kitchen before the pizzas are surrounded, and in a few short minutes, everyone is quietly and happily munching away on their dinners as the TV continues playing. Lauren and Camila are still squished up against each other as they eat their pizza, Lauren not wanting her crusts and giving them to Camila who happily finishes them up for her.
All the girls spend another hour or so watching TV and lazing around the living room until 7:00 when Dinah whines that she’s bored and asks if they can do something else. They tidy up their dinner mess and decide to head up to Ariana’s room to give her family some peace.
Lauren and Camila are the last to enter her room and find that all the space on the bed is already taken by the other girls. Camila is just about to suggest that her and Lauren share Ariana’s beanbag when the girl shoots up from her spot on her bed.
“Oh my god, Lauren, you have to let me do your makeup. Please please please? I’ve wanted to do it ever since we first hung out,” Ariana begs.
Glancing over, Camila sees Lauren’s wide-eyed expression before the girl composes herself. “Um, yeah, sure. Why not?” she agrees with a smile and a shrug. “Could be fun, right?”
“Definitely,” Ariana says as she sits Lauren down in the chair at her vanity. “I mean, you’re already so gorgeous so I totally understand why you don’t wear any. But it’ll still be fun, I promise.”
Camila watches how Lauren considers it, probably also psyching herself up to be made up and fawned over, but she doesn’t seem as uncomfortable as she probably would have been a couple months ago.
Deciding to help out (and also be closer to Lauren), Camila moves to stand next to them but gets shoved out of the way by Dinah.
“Nuh uh, Mila. Ari and I got this. You can go sit over there and wait patiently while we doll your girlfriend–” Dinah whispers ‘girlfriend’ closer to Camila’s ear,” –up for you. And no peeking!”
Grumbling to herself, Camila marches over to the bed and plops herself down onto it. Lauren catches her eye in the mirror reflection and grins cheekily at her, obviously having caught some of the interaction between her and Dinah. Camila sticks her tongue out playfully back at Lauren and smiles when the girl returns it, until Dinah says quite loudly to “stop flirting with each other for two goddamn seconds so that we can do Lauser’s makeup.”
Even Camila feels her cheeks flush when everyone chuckles at Dinah’s comment so she lies back on the mattress and groans to no one in particular, already missing Lauren’s bright grin.
~~
Lauren’s been seated in front of the vanity for nearly twenty minutes while Camila has been occupying herself stalking people’s Instagrams with Normani and Ally (Tori went off to help out with Lauren after about five minutes). They’re in the middle of making fun of one of Brad’s posts when Ariana straightens up and places whatever she’s holding down onto the vanity.
“All done!” she calls out, grinning at everyone when they turn to look at her.
Camila’s the first to stand up, more than ready to be near Lauren again. Dinah nudges the girl to stand up and turn around, and when she does, all the others praise and compliment her.
Now, it’s not that Camila has never seen Lauren wear any makeup before. There were a few times that she did wear some to school, but it seems like the girl just prefers not to bother. The thing is, Camila forgot just how much eyeliner makes Lauren’s already bright eyes pop even more. She gets a little lost in them and only snaps out of it when Lauren makes eye contact to gauge Camila’s reaction.
“Lo, you look so beautiful,” Camila practically breathes out and it’s a wonder that Lauren even heard her. Based on the girl’s smile though, she did catch what Camila said.
Before Camila has a chance to tell Lauren that she’s gorgeous no matter what (and yes, Camila does realize how cheesy that is), the girl gets surrounded by their friends who suddenly want to take a bunch of selfies for Snapchat. She gets dragged into the group and while Camila is not usually one for that, she can’t deny that being around her friends and seeing Lauren so happy makes it all worthwhile.
They do stupid poses and make funny faces at their phones, laughing and joking around and having a good time. Camila finds as many opportunities as she can to be close to Lauren, wrapping an arm around her or doing the same pose as her. She gets a pleasant surprise, however, when for one of the pictures, Lauren turns her head to plant a cute kiss on Camila’s cheek.
(Camila makes sure to get a copy of that one from Normani.)
They mess around for a little longer until only Dinah is the only one still taking selfies and decide to put a movie on. After arguing for about ten minutes, it’s finally agreed that they’ll watch the Harry Potter series and see how many movies in they can get.
As the other girls pick their seats, Ariana asks Camila if she can help her bring some snacks up from downstairs. They head to the kitchen and Ariana searches through the fridge to grab some sodas and juices.
“Hey, Mila? Can you look through the pantry and pick what snacks you think everyone would like?”
“Sure thing,” Camila responds as she pulls the pantry door open. She picks a few different flavors of chips, grabs a box of cookies, and is just about to close the door when she spots a can of cashews.
“Is it okay if I take this can of nuts?” Camila asks Ariana as she holds the snack up. “Lauren absolutely loves cashews so she’ll probably enjoy them.”
Camila doesn’t miss the suggestive smile on Ariana’s face. “Of course!” And she thinks that’s it until–
“It’s cute that you know your girl so well, Mila,” Ariana chuckles out.
Feeling a slight blush creep up her cheeks, Camila turns away so that Ariana can’t see it. “Shut up,” she mumbles good naturedly.
“I mean it though. She adores you, and you’re so good to her. You guys are honestly too cute.”
Camila glances back at Ariana. “Really?”
“Yeah, definitely. We’re all rooting for you two.”
“Thanks,” Camila says with a smile. “That means a lot.”
After gathering all the food, they lug it back up to Ariana’s bedroom, dumping it on her bed and letting everyone take their pick (Camila hides the cashews from the others).
She glances around for a seat and notices that Tori and Ally have taken the floor seats against the bed, the other three girls are splayed out on the mattress, and Lauren is half sinking into Ariana’s bean bag. Catching a few smirking faces, Camila has a feeling that the seating arrangement was deliberate.
More than okay with being tucked up against Lauren’s side for an entire movie, she walks towards the girl and smiles at her as she shifts slightly to the side, trying to make room for Camila.
It’s still going to be a tight fit regardless, so Camila just sits herself down, careful not to squash Lauren and still give the girl enough room to move her arm if she needs to. She waits until they’ve pressed play on the movie before pulling the can out.
“Here,” Camila whispers so that only Lauren can hear. “I grabbed these from the kitchen for you. I know how much you love them.”
Lauren smiles so widely that Camila feels her heart skip a beat. “You brought these up for me? You’re… thank you, Camz.”
“Anything for you, you know that.”
They turn their attention on the TV after that, secretly sharing the cashews between themselves and laughing quietly at each other when they both reach in for some more nuts at the same time.
Halfway through the movie, when they’ve eaten their share of snacks, Lauren starts to subconsciously (or maybe not) lean into Camila, their thighs and arms touching and their heads much closer together. Deciding to just go for it, Camila lifts the arm nearer to Lauren up and wrap it around the girl’s shoulders, making their positions much more comfortable in the process. She catches Lauren gazing up at her from the corner of her eye and smiles just enough for the girl to see it. Her eyes flit down briefly to see Lauren blushing but instead of leaning away, she just cuddles herself more into Camila’s side.
Camila feels her heart skip many more beats this time and can’t really focus on the rest of the movie.
~~
They make it through another two movies before everyone has either fallen asleep or lost interest. She can faintly hear Ally snoring as the girl’s head keeps lolling around until Tori finally pulls her head against her shoulder. Ariana’s been in and out of consciousness since the third movie started only because Normani and Dinah’s giggling keeps waking her up.
A little ways into the third movie, Lauren, in her half asleep state, had laid her upper body across Camila’s lap and fallen asleep almost immediately. Camila for her part could hardly pay attention to whatever was happening onscreen because she couldn’t get over how cute Lauren looked. For the entire movie, she had been comfortingly running her fingers through Lauren’s silky hair to sooth the girl but also because her hair was extremely soft.
Finally, the credits roll and Camila can see Ariana stretch and yawn out of the corner of her eye. Glancing around, she notices how everyone is either asleep or distracted so she reaches for the remote and shuts the TV off.
“What do you say we call it a night?” Ariana asks the room as she stands up and stretches once more.
Camila looks down at Lauren’s curled up frame, seeing and hearing the girl’s soft breathing. “Yeah, I think Lauren’s done for the night.”
“Ally’s out cold,” Tori chimes in.
Ariana nods. “Alright. Everyone knows their sleeping arrangements, right?”
Most of the girls nod except for the sleeping ones and Camila. “Um, no actually I don’t.”
“Oh. No worries, Mila. You’ll be in the guest room with Lauren.”
Camila’s glad that Lauren is asleep and didn’t see the joking suggestive grin Ariana gave her as she answered. She also knows that the girl would have blushed bright red at that.
“Right. Okay, let me just–”
Camila is just about to stand up when she notices the makeup still all over Lauren’s face. “Hey, Ari, could I have a makeup remover wipe for Lauren? Don’t want her going to sleep with it all over her face.”
“‘Course, Mila,” Ariana says with a grin once more before disappearing into her en-suite bathroom.
The other girls begin getting up and ready for bed around her, Tori gently shaking Ally awake who stares around groggily, letting out a giant yawn that makes Tori giggle. Ariana walks out of the bathroom holding a packet of makeup wipes and lays them next to Camila on the bean bag.
Pausing for a moment, Camila considers how she’s going to get up and bring Lauren to the other room without waking her up, but it’s almost impossible. Leaning over the girl, she gently shakes her shoulders, trying to slowly wake her up.
“Lo… Lauren… wake up,” Camila whispers into her ear. “It’s time for bed.”
Lauren’s eyes slowly blink open and she furrows her brows at having been woken up. “Wha–”
“Come on, babe. You have to stand up so you can go to bed and sleep properly.”
“I– okay,” Lauren mumbles out confusedly. She sits up, letting out a big yawn before shutting her eyes and sitting still.
“Lo,” Camila chuckles out. “Come on, up, up.”
“Mm, but I don’t want to. I’m sleepy,” the girl whines out way too cutely for Camila to handle.
Standing up from her spot, Camila grabs the wipes in one hand and Lauren’s hand in the other. She tugs gently until Lauren unwillingly stands up and leads the girl out of the room and into the spare one.
“Sit here,” Camila says, pulling a wipe out as Lauren seats herself on the edge of the mattress. “I have to take your makeup off.”
Lauren doesn’t say a word as Camila leans in close to her face and begins softly wiping the makeup away. This is probably the closest she’s ever been to Lauren’s face but the girl is so sleepy that she doesn’t even realize.
Camila holds her breath as she struggles not to stare into Lauren’s droopy green eyes and only gets some relief when Lauren finally closes them completely.
“There… all done,” Camila breathes out and watches as Lauren’s eyes slowly flutter open. They hold eye contact for a few moments until a thump is heard from Ariana’s room. Camila clears her throat and straightens up from her position.
“You should go wash your face before you sleep,” she advises Lauren, turning towards the trashcan to throw the used wipe away. “Do you want some water before bed? I was going to go grab some.”
“Sure,” Lauren says with a nod of her head. She stands up from her spot and walks to the bathroom before any of the other girls use it.
Going downstairs, Camila fills up two glasses with some fridge water, taking a deep breath before heading back up. When she arrives at the spare bedroom, Lauren is tucked up under the sheets, leaning against the headboard as she scrolls on her phone.
“You’re not sleepy anymore?”
“Washing my face woke me up a little,” Lauren replies as she accepts the glass Camila hands her.
Nodding her head at Lauren’s answer, Camila takes a few sips of her water and sets the glass down on the dresser. She walks over to her side of the bed and climbs in, pulling the sheets over her legs and waist.
Camila lies there for a few moments before turning over to face Lauren. She looks at the girl’s side profile for a little while until Lauren cracks a grin at feeling Camila stare at her.
“What?” she asks with a small laugh.
Shrugging one shoulder as best as she can while lying down, Camila takes a moment to answer. “You’re just really pretty.”
Lauren squeezes her eyes shut in shyness, and even in the dim lighting of the bedroom, Camila can see her slight blush.
Chuckling softly at Lauren’s cuteness, Camila nods her head towards the phone, noticing that it’s open on Instagram. “What are you looking at?”
Lauren’s blush darkens. “Oh… um… well–”
Instead of answering, she slowly tilts the screen towards Camila. It seems that Lauren is on the explore feature of Instagram, looking at pictures of nose rings.
“Lo, is this something you want?”
Biting her lip shyly, Lauren nods as she exits out of the app and places her phone down on the bedside table.
“How come you haven’t gotten it then?”
“I’m… I don’t know. Nervous? Shy? Worried that people will make fun of me I guess.”
“Well fuck those people then,” Camila says a little too angrily. “If it’s something you want to do then go ahead and do it. Forget what they think. Their opinion doesn’t matter.”
“You think so?” Lauren asks quietly.
Camila is sure of it. “Definitely. You’ll feel proud of yourself for doing so.”
Chewing on her bottom lip, Lauren takes a moment to think it over before nodding. “Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll get my nose pierced. On one condition though.”
“What’s that?” Camila asks with her eyebrows raised.
“You have to come with me when I get it done.”
Camila smiles easily, already looking forward to it.
“You’ve got yourself a deal.”
~~