We're All a Little Mad

Chapter Four

"Wake up lovebirds, Normani's out of surgery." Dinah noisily claps her hands together

Lauren's eyes shoot open at the sound of her best friend's booming voice. She attempts to sit up, but she feels a weight on her chest. She glances down to see Camila's head resting just above her heart, her face buried in the crook of her neck. Lauren can feel the soft breaths of the smaller girl ticking her collarbones. Camila's arm is thrown across her torso and her left leg is intertwined between Lauren's, as if she were a koala. Lauren's cheeks heat up in embarrassment before rolling out beneath the sleeping girl.

"It's not what it looks like, I swear," Lauren holds her hands out in front of her. "She was just lonely and she asked me to sleep with her-shit that sounded wrong. I mean she wanted me to stay with her for the night. She must've rolled onto me in her sleep or something," she says in a rushed breath.

The two awake girls see Camila twitch in their peripheral vision. They look down to see her scrunching her eyebrows together in her sleep, her left hand clawing at the empty sheets as if she were missing something.

The Polynesian girl simply smirks at Lauren with a knowing look on her face. "Whatever floats your boat," she says while flipping her hair. Lauren rolls her eyes in annoyance at her friend. "Anyway, like I said earlier, Normani's out of surgery. We should go check up on her pretty soon." Lauren nods in agreement.

"Should we um, wake her up?" Lauren gestures towards the sleeping girl. 

"Yeah we probably should," Dinah agrees, making her way over to the bed. Lauren thinks that Dinah's just going to gently shake Camila to wake her up, but her prediction is proved wrong when the taller girl harshly shoves Camila off the bed and onto the floor. The brunette lands on the wooden floor with a muffled thump. Groaning, Camila rubs the back of her head, which suffered the most impact.

"Dinah, what the hell?" She tries to sound angry, but a yawn cuts her off. Camila sits up, rubbing her tired eyes.

"Sorry Walz." Dinah looks at her apologetically. "But Normani's awake. We're gonna go visit her." She extends an open hand out. Camila grasps it and the taller girl hoists her up to her feet.

"Alright, cool." Camila nods. Clearly, she doesn't remember the position that she and Lauren were in during the night. The green-eyed girl turn away, a slight blush forming on her cheeks at the thought.

Normani is sitting on the bed, deep in her thoughts when she hears three small raps on the door. "Come in," she calls out. The door opens to reveal Dinah, along with the other girl who was with her in the convenience store and another girl she doesn't recognize. Dinah perches herself on the foot of the bed while the other two girls remain standing. The green-eyed girl steps towards the edge of the bed while the other stays back.

"How're you feeling?" Dinah asks with concern.

Normani sighs. "A little better. It's kind of weird not having an arm though." she chuckles half-heartedly, glancing down at the small stub of her left arm, swathed in a large elastic bandage. All three girls look at her, their eyes full of sympathy. "Anyway," Normani diverts the attention away from her. "Who's this?" she points her finger back and forth between Lauren and Camila.

"This is Lauren," Dinah points at the green-eyed girl. "She was with me when we found you. And that's Camila." She moves her arm in the petite girl's direction. The two women sheepishly smile and wave at Normani.

"I'm sorry we had to meet like this," Normani tells them with a laugh, causing Lauren and Camila to giggle along with her. 

"Don't worry." Lauren reaches out and strokes Normani's arm with a warm smile. "How'd you end up in this mess?"