Vindicated (Camren)

Chapter 2: Lover

***

Lauren on her bare feet walked out of her walk-in closet wearing a white floral dress with ruffled-hems. She put a hand on her hip and flaunted the dress.

"What do you think about this, Mani?" She asked her best friend who was seated on the bed absentmindedly flipping through the pages of an entertainment magazine.

Normani took a very quick glance at the girl before returning her focus on the magazine.

"I thought you're going out on a date. I didn't know Brad is taking you to a Hawaiian-themed '90s party."

"You could have just said 'no', alright?" Lauren rolled her eyes. "And maybe you want to get your ass off of that couch and come help me pick a dress? We've been doing this for one and a half hour already. I'm going to be late!"

"Believe it or not, I'm trying to help you here." Normani picked up another magazine and started to carelessly flip through the pages once again, "You need to find a dress that would make me engrossingly glue my eyes on you, like there's nothing else in this world that I have to see but you. That's what you want your boyfriend to feel right when he sees you."

Lauren thought about it for a second. That's exactly what she wanted. That's what every girl wants when they are spending time with their boyfriend - get all his attention as if you are the only one he sees even though you're standing among a pack of beauty queens, as if his life depended on you, and as if you are everything that matters in this gigantic universe.

"Please don't tell me you're wearing that." Normani subsequently ran her eyes on her best friend from head to toe with a scrutinizing look on her face when she didn't move at all.

"God, no." Lauren looked down at the dress she was wearing and grimaced at how awful she looked on it.

"Then don't just stand there. Go, change, Laur. Hurry up!"

Lauren hurriedly went back to her walk-in closet and looked through every rack of clothing she had in there desperately trying to look for the perfect dress for her date.

***

Camila, Stan, Niall, and Dinah had been sitting at a round table for the last couple of hours brainstorming on the possible places where Mike Jauregui could have hidden the stolen treasure of The Secret Society. After sorting everything out, all that's left was the Jauregui Manor, the Phoenix Tower, the Phoenix Bank, and 'somewhere he knows we would never be able to think of'.

"I don't think he would hide the treasure in his house because that would mean putting his daughter into danger," Stan rationalized as the rest of the teams listened to him. "He spends most of his time in the office but all that's left at night are regular security guards while hiding it in the bank meant too much risk. Even regular thieves would accidentally go after it."

"Somewhere he knows we would never be able to think of," Dinah read the option typed on her laptop screen which seemed to be the only option they got at the end of this discussion. "Wow. That sounds reallyspecific and not hopeless... at all."

Stan turned to Niall and asked, "Are you sure Harry never mentioned anything?"

He frowned at the mention of Harry's name; the memory of him pointing the gun at him froze in his mind, a perpetual reminder that he killed his best friend. But eventually, he shook his head in response.

"Come on, Horan." Stan forced the other guy to feed them with any necessary information. "Any hint or tip-off or something, anything at all."

Niall shrugged his shoulders, "He was very loyal to his master. I don't think he would simply give out information to anyone about any of Jauregui's plans especially if it would surely put the man in danger. He looked up to Mike Jauregui so much as if he is some kind of a hero."