The Showstopper

Chapter 28 (Part 1)

Lauren's POV

 "How was your weekend?" Dr. Sweeney asked me during therapy the next Monday.

"Pretty good," I nodded.

"Tell me about it. Did you see her?" she wondered, referencing "her" to Camila.

"Nope," I shook my head. "But I did see a few pictures of her and Taylor on Facebook and Twitter. I saw them on my friend's accounts since she blocked me from hers."

"How did that make you feel?"

"Sad," I sighed, looking down. "I mean, I had a good Friday after I left here since I hung out with my friends but when I looked at her online, I just felt depressed again," I said.

"But that's okay. It's only been two weeks since the breakup. It's still fresh. And the breakup was a big thing, a lot of harsh stuff went down...Did you write about it?"

"Actually, I wrote a song," I grinned.

"Oh right, about her and Taylor?" Sweeney knew about how I saw Camila and Taylor flirt in the hallway and how upset I got. So, I told her about Brad and I's new plan to write a song about it and she was proud of me.

"Yeah, we finished it on Saturday and it's really good. Tomorrow's the assembly for the performances and we're gonna sing it," I smirked.

"That's great!" she beamed. We talked more about it until we moved on to a more serious topic. "Did you talk to...Keana?" she asked.

"I did," I said softly. That was another thing Sweeney advised me to do. Talk to Keana about...everything. "We FaceTimed for like five hours just talking and even crying about all the things. We talked about everything you told me, everything that's happened between us, our feelings and secrets. I think absolutely everything was laid out there and nothing was held back."

"Five hours. That's amazing, Lauren," she smiled.

"Yeah, it was huge," I breathed. "And she agreed with the fact that she could see herself in me. But she was too afraid to tell me. I mean, she was in love with me and just wanted me to love her back not upsetting me more than I already was. It's true, she protected me like how I protected her. She blamed herself big time for 'ruining my life' but I blamed myself just as much. It was both of our faults, like you said. Before, I was too vulnerable and she was too influential. And then, I became too influential and she became too vulnerable. And we just realized we were both of each others biggest influence. But we forgave each other for everything we did to one another and we can finally and officially begin to move on.

She said she'll always have feelings for me deep down and to be honest I will too like what you told me. But she wants the best for me in the end," I smiled. "We're gonna be good friends. Like I said, that whole incident on Valentine's Day was terrible and I've felt incredibly shattered from it, but it did actually help Keana and I. We've wouldn't have now fixed our long term issues without it. I can't believe I'm saying that but it's true," I chuckled. Maybe things really did happen for a reason. "But yeah, Keana wants me to be happy with who I love and what I do. And I want that for her too. Keana and I have such a weird yet very special friendship but I think that's what makes us so great. And by talking about it with her really helped me with everything."

"And it's only going to keep getting better. But next, Camila..."

____________________

It was Tuesday and the day for our Advanced Songwriting class to perform our songs. It was going to be a school wide assembly so everyone was going to hear us.

It was also March 3rd, Camila's birthday. Our friends excluding me, wished and sang her happy birthday. I wished I could've done that too but I couldn't. I just watched from a far, softly smirking at her bright smile and her cute little 18th birthday tiara.