weak ➸ camren

chapter 17 ➸ do you trust me?

Camila squeezed her eyes shut, realizing that Lauren still believed she was asleep. After a few minutes of silence, she fluttered her eyes open and turned on her side to face Lauren. "Lo," she whispered, nudging the older girl's arm.

"Hm?" Lauren mumbled and lifted her head. She had been on the verge of sleep when Camila awoke. "What's wrong?"

"When do I get to leave?" the smaller girl asked quietly. She wanted to get out of the hospital more than anything. She hated the small rooms and the bland color on the walls. She'd take their pepto bismo colored kitchen over this any day.

"I can ask," Lauren yawned and sat up. "Do you feel okay?"

Camila nodded softly and remained lying down. She turned onto her back and cross her arms over her chest. "I feel like this is just a dream," she bit her lip. "I didn't really have a seizure, did I?"

Lauren sighed and sat on the edge of the bed so her feet dangled just above the floor. "You did, Camz," she traced circles in the sheet of the bed absentmindedly. "I'm gonna go ask the doctors when you can be discharged, but I know they'll want you to eat something first..."

Camila groaned. "Like what?"

"I can run out and get you whatever you feel like," Lauren shrugged and stood up. "Any preferences?"

Biting her lip, the smaller girl thought for a few moments. "I, uh, remember those peanut butter crackers you always used to make on the bus?"

Lauren smiled softly and nodded. She was surprised Camila had remembered. "Yeah, is that what you want?" Camila nodded softly and Lauren could tell she was feeling slightly embarrassed about asking for something from her.

"I've been craving those, too," Lauren smiled and squeezed Camila's shoulder. "I'll be back soon," she leaned down in the spur of the moment and kissed the smaller girl's forehead before giving her a soft smile and disappearing out of the room.

Camila sat there, paralyzed. She lifted her hand to the spot on her forehead where Lauren's lips had been and shivered. She quickly snapped back out of her thoughts when the door slowly opened once more. Her other three bandmates stood quietly in the doorway.

"You can come in," Camila said softly. She'd grown increasingly guilty over the way she had been treating them. Unsure how to make it up to them, she was trying her best to act happy around them. The three girls looked surprised, but they all grabbed a chair and gathered around Camila's bed.

"How are you feeling?" Ally asked. She reached out and felt the hard material of Camila's pink cast. Camila shrugged.

"I'm fine."

All of her bandmates exchanged looks and Camila bit her lip. "The nurse came by and told us all that you can go home as soon as you eat something," Normani spoke up. "Does your arm hurt?"

Camila shook her head and lifted her cast to observe it. "It's just really numb," she said, toying with her bottom lip. "Can we not talk about me for once?" She blurted out, studying the other girl's reactions. "I just... How have you guys been?"

"I've been good," Dinah shrugged. The other girls looked at one another before nodding in agreement. "How has Lauren been?"

Camila raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't she answer that question?"

"Yeah, well, I think we just want to know how you think she's doing," Ally spoke up. Camila saw the three girls exchanging some sort of agreement with their eyes, and she grew confused.

"She's... I don't know," Camila furrowed her eyebrows together. "Why?"

Normani just sighed and threw her hands up as if she were surrendering. "We see the way you look at her, Mila."