Playing the Court (Lauren/You/Camila)

Chapter 51

Lauren's pov

"The 1975. Bob Marley. You're all over the place." Ally laughed as she perused my shelf full of albums.  I brought Ally over so I could draw a flyer for the café.  The café was going to start hosting open mic nights.

I lightly laughed, "I kind of got a lot of moods." The phone rang as I got up to hand Ally the flyer. "All finished."

She scanned it over once it was in her hands. "Oh, this is great. Thank you!"

"No problem." I smiled.  The house phone stopped ringing, but the answering machine went off, and Camila's voice could distinctly be heard.

"Hello, best friend, pick up the phone, and do not pretend that you're not there because I can see you on your 'cry for help' webcam." Camila practically smirked through the phone as I turned around to look at the webcam on my computer while Ally looked all over.

"Webcam?" She asked as she searched the room for the device.

"Hi to you, too, Tutor Girl." Camila said.

"Hold on just one second." I told Ally as I answered the phone.

"Hello?"I answered. "Um. Look, I'm busy. I promised I would do something... Okay. Yeah, I'll call you tonight.

"Bye." I hung up, noticing Ally just awkwardly standing there.

"Do you need help with those?" I pointed to the flyer.

"You don't have to do that." She waved me off with her hand.

"No. Yeah, I do. I mean if you want help." I finished sheepishly as I shoved my hands in the pocket of my jeans.

"Yes, I would love help. Yeah, come on." She smile gratefully and turned to leave.  I turned toward my computer and threw my leather jacket on it to cover the camera.

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"Are you coming?" Ally asked as I put the last flyer between someone's windshield and wiper.

"I want to, I just kind of-"

"Oh, Camila and (Y/n). She told me about the other night."

I let out a fake laugh, "It's my own fault. I blew it."

"Sorry." Ally spoke up.

"The worst part is, though, Camila is my best friend, you know, and she doesn't have any idea how much this is killing me. I don't know what kind of Karmic monster I was in a past life." I laughed at the last part.

"Probably one of those sirens that lured in sailors and then killed them on the rocks." I glared at Ally while she joked.  I nudged her with my elbow as she laughed.

"Look, between you and me," Ally started, "I really don't see (Y/n) and Camila as, like, an epic romance. But she did ask me to give them a chance, so I kind of owe (Y/n) that, you know."

"Well, what do you think I should do?" I asked.

"Same thing?" She suggested.

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(Y/n)'s pov

I walked around the block corner to see Zendaya on her front porch singing and playing guitar.

"Hey!" I shouted over the noise to get her attention. "I was on my way to the river court. I thought you'd want to shoot around."

A small smile tugged on her lips, "kind of feels weird not having Saturday practice, right?"

I sighed as I sat next to her on the porch steps. "I never thought I'd miss it."

"Yeah, I-uh, I appreciate it, but I-I kind of gotta stay by the house today."

I laughed, "What, are you grounded?"

"No. No, not exactly." She vaguely responded.

"Sick?" I asked. She opened her mouth but closed it right back shut and sighed. She seemed like she was debating whether to tell me something.

"All right, cool. You know what? You don't wanna hang out with me, then that's cool." I stood up with the ball and started to leave. "See you later, man."

"(Y/n)." She stopped me, and I turned around. She sighed, "Come on in."

She took of the guitar and stood up and opened the front door as I trailed behind. She set the guitar on a chair near the door. I shut the door behind me as Zendaya stopped near something, resting her hands on it.  I walked closer and saw a baby crib.

"This," she gestures to the small infant laying swaddled in blankets in the crib, "is Jennifer. Jenny for short."

I gazed at baby Jenny. She looked exactly like Zendaya. "She's-"

"Yeah. She's all mine." Zendaya smiled.

"Wow." I breathed out. "That is unbelievable. How old is she?"

"She's six months, nine days, and a couple of hours." Zendaya proudly stated.

"Who's the father?" I asked.

"Uh. That's-" she sighed. "That's a long story,  but let's just say he's out of the picture."

"So you're raising her all by yourself?" I asked.

"My parents. They work nights, and they help out a lot between the three of us, we're handling it." Zendaya admitted.

"That says a lot about you, man." I nodded.

"Hmm." She nodded as she fixed the blanket on Jenny.

"But, um, why keep her a secret?" I asked.

"Come on. You know how people are."

"Yeah, but... if you treat this like it's something to be ashamed of, your daughter will carry that around with her for the rest of her life."

She looked taken aback. "No, I'm not ashamed of her. I'm just trying to protect her."

"You know, my mom did the same thing." I admitted. "When I found out the truth about who I was...there was a part of me that thought that maybe...she kept it a secret because she was ashamed of me. Trust me, man, you don't want to hide this."

Zendaya removed her eyes from me to the baby when Jenny giggled.  She let out a small smile despite the tough choice to make.