Walk A Mile (Camren)

XXII

"Dinah, I need to talk to you," Lauren said immediately into the receiver when the Tongan picked up. Immediately after finishing her breakfast, she'd dialed her number. She needed advice. Pronto.

"Hello, Dinah. How are you? I'm good, Lauren. How are you?" Dinah sarcastically greeted herself, since Lauren obviously had no manners.

"I'm fine," Lauren laughed when she caught onto what she was doing. "Sorry. Hello."

"It's me," Dinah quoted Adele with a smirk.

"I hate you," Lauren deadpanned, but found herself laughing anyway.

"Damn, not even thirty seconds into the call and you're already saying you hate me? That's a new record," Dinah prided herself on how easy it was becoming.

"Can we please be serious for a second? I actually need to talk to you," Lauren sighed when she tired of their jokes. Their time was probably limited. She'd separated from Camila long enough to make this call, but knew they'd be finding their way back to each other soon. They'd become quite inseparable.

"Dr. Dinah is at your service," she assumed a professional tone. Lauren was certain she was pretending to be a therapist of some sort.

"How did you know you loved Normani?" Lauren didn't hesitate to ask the question that had been on her mind. Based on her response, she could gauge her own feelings for Camila.

"I don't know, why?" Dinah replied dumbly, taken aback by that forward and very specific question.

"I just want to know," Lauren answered evasively, beginning to second guess her decision.

"Well, I don't really remember. It was a long time ago. But I think it just hit me one day, we weren't even doing anything. We were laying on the couch and her head was in my lap and she was just looking at me and I just said it," Dinah stretched her memory back to that specific moment.

"That's cute," Lauren crooned, now remembering that she'd heard a variant of this story before. "But how did you actually know? Like, what did it feel like when you realized?"

"Why?" Dinah laughed at her interrogation. She felt like she was getting closer to that money.

"Because..." Lauren trailed off, unwilling to admit to these ridiculous feelings. It was much too soon to think that she loved Camila. This was just heinous. She didn't bother following her start with anything else, and her silence spelled it out for Dinah.

"You're really falling for her, aren't you?" Dinah smiled at this foreign state of vulnerability. This version of Lauren was a first. For once, she wasn't relentlessly teasing her about anything. Beginning to develop those arising feelings was something Dinah had been waiting for Lauren to experience since forever. Camila was finally the one.

"I think so," Lauren confessed uncertainly. "And it doesn't make any sense. We practically just met..."

"You did not. You've been spending every single day with that girl for like a month or so now. You can fall for someone at any time, but especially when you're together as much as y'all are," Dinah shut down that argument. In the back of her mind, she knew Lauren would reject the truth of the matter like this.

"It's still too soon," Lauren argued stubbornly. This was insane. She really wished she could leave her heart out of this.

"Are you scared?" Dinah inferred from Lauren's distant responses.

"I am terrified," Lauren admitted and exhaled deeply. "Because if I do, that makes it so much easier for me to get hurt. And what if that freaks her out? We're not even dating yet. She obviously doesn't love me, and what happens when I come on too strong and she starts drifting away from me? I can't let that happen, Dinah."