Calamity

Chapter 11

Avoiding Lauren was surprisingly easier than she thought.

With Professor Cowell's class canceled until they could find an adjunct professor to replace him, the only time she ever saw Lauren was sometimes in the morning when she woke up a little too late.

Sure, it may have been a bit childish, but she had every right to be upset. How dare Lauren blame her for all of her problems? She hoped that running into each other again after so many years they could start afresh and be adults for crying out loud.

But it was clear Lauren had other plans in mind.

And she definitely wasn't in the mood to stick around somebody who had a stick up their ass twenty-four-seven. Tossing all of her notebooks into her bag, she zipped it up when a knock on the door stopped her from doing anything else.

"Give me a sec!"

She hurried to open the door, her face turning sour when she saw it was the detective from the station. "Jesus Christ, what the fuck do you want now?"

"We have a few more questions we'd like to ask you down at the station if that's alright, Miss Cabello,"

"Am I being arrested?"

"No, but that's something that could be arranged if you don't cooperate,"

Camila scowled at him, grabbing her coat off of the rack. "You're going to make me late for my classes,"

"Don't worry," Detective Jonas stepped aside so she could come out. "We'll give you a note for your teachers,"

"Fuck you, jackass. I'm not a third-grader." Camila snarled.

"You sure know how to act like one," he muttered under his breath once they got into the elevator.

Camila's head snapped up from her phone. "What'd you just say?"

"Nothing," he smiled at her. "Nothing at all,"

-

"Where were you the night of September fourth?"

"At the bonfire—just like any other student here,"

Detective Jonas flipped through some papers. "None of the other students recall you being there,"

"Because there were at least three hundred of us there. Did you expect somebody to remember all of the faces that came through the door?"

"Miss Cabello, is there anybody that could confirm that you were in attendance?"

Camila clenched her jaw, her fist balled up in her lap. "Yes,"

"And could you tell me their name?"

"Shawn Mendes. He's the one that invited me in the first place. We arrived at the party together."

"Is that so?" He cocked his head to the side, a haughty grin on his face as if he knew everything. "Shawn said you disappeared shortly after you two arrived,"

"Because—" she took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

"Because?"

"He went to go fuck on some chick and I wasn't going to stand around and watch,"

"So, what you're telling me is that you two came together, but didn't see each other for the rest of the night?"

"Are you accusing me of something?"

He raised his hands. "I'm just trying to make sense of your story. And it's not looking so good right now."

"If you're going to point fingers and say I murdered Professor Cowell, you're going to have a field day dealing with paperwork after my lawyer is done with you."

"Your lawyer, huh?" Detective Jonas turned to the next page. "Is it the same lawyer that got your mother out of that misdemeanor a few years ago?"

Camila ran her tongue over the front of her teeth, trying to not act out of anger. "Where's your boss?"

"A few students from your class said they overheard you getting upset over a project you guys were assigned."

"You're not answering my question,"

"And you're not answering mine,"

Camila sat up straighter in the chair. "I was paired with my ex-girlfriend. Could you blame me for being upset? We figured out a way to work on the project without bumping heads and got over it. Wow, what a shocker!"

"Your ex-girlfriend being..." Detective Jonas waited for her to finish his sentence.

"Lauren Jauregui," Camila grumbled quietly.

-

Lauren pushed around the piece of pork chop with her fork, ignoring all of the weird looks she was getting from her best friends.

"Okay," Dinah downed her glass of wine in one go. "Spit it out, Ralph. What's got you so uptight and pissy this past week?"

"I'm not uptight and pissy," Lauren snapped.

"You just proved my point,"

Ally gave her a sad smile. "You know we're here for you if you ever want to talk right?"

"We're not forcing you, but..." Normani joined in. "It's not bad to open up to people—especially your best friends."

"Guys, I appreciate the concern, but I'm being serious. I'm fine. I'm not uptight and pissy, I'm fine."

Dinah rested her chin on her hand. "If you're not going to tell us, then fine. I'm just going to come out and say it. Ally heard Camila and you arguing the other night in your room."

"Dinah!" Ally squeaked, slapping her in her arm. "You weren't supposed to say anything,"

"Well, she wasn't going to tell us!" Dinah said defensively. "There's nothing wrong with keeping a little dirty secret, Ralph, but you got us a little confused here. I thought you hated her."

"I don't hate her," Lauren avoided looking at any of them. "She just pisses me the fuck off,"

"Is that who you were with the night of the bonfire?" Normani questioned.

"Forget that question—is she good at blowing your back out?" Dinah intercepted the conversation.

Her eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets at Dinah's blunt choice of words. "First of all, I'm not answering that. Second of all, yes. She found me alone making a drink and she kept me company for the night."

"Definitely seems like it was more than one night," the tall blonde woman snickered.

Ally glared at her, mouthing for her to stop. "Well? What were you guys arguing about the other night?"

"Stupid shit, really. It's not important anymore. I'd appreciate it if we could just drop it. We have bigger fish to fry."

"Like?"

"Oh, I don't know... Maybe the fact that our professor is fucking dead and we're all being brought in for questioning?" Lauren rolled her eyes. "Jesus, Dinah, is your mind ever not in the gutter?"

Dinah shrugged. "Very rarely. If you want me to be honest with you, I know I didn't do shit to that man, so I'm not worried about it."

"Wish we could all say the same," Ally mumbled.

"Oh, come on, Allycat. Unless you brutally murdered that man yourself, you have nothing to be scared of."

Normani choked on a piece of pork chop. "Ally can't even kill a spider, you're stupid for even putting her name and brutally murdered in the same sentence."

"It's true," Lauren chimed in. "She has this huge fear of spiders,"

"Oh my God, leave me alone!" Ally covered her face embarrassingly. "All of this just... Makes me anxious. They're breathing down our necks for no reason and it's suffocating me."

Lauren dumped the rest of the wine bottle into her glass. "Well," she raised her glass. "Hopefully this will all be over soon. In the meantime, here's to finishing the rest of 1L in peace."

The second they set their drinks back down on the table, Lauren felt her phone buzzing in her back pocket.

Camila (8:41 PM): We need to talk. Now.