My Love Has Come Along

05

“I don’t know anything about Camila,” Lauren breathes. “I don’t know how she’ll react if she finds out about me. And that’s scary.”

“It is,” Ally agrees, placing her hand over Lauren’s. “It’s scary. But you can just spend time with her. We’ll worry about everything else as it comes. Just have fun, Lauren. You deserve to have fun and be young and happy.”

“That’s a little reckless,” Lauren says, hope slowly filling her. “Waiting until the last minute to solve your problems.”

“We’re gonna cross that bridge when we come to it,” Normani says decisively.

Lauren’s phone vibrates at that moment and it’s a text from Camila.

“She wants to hang out today,” Lauren mumbles.

“Go!” Normani and Ally cry at the same time.

“You’re fired for the day,” Ally adds. “Go spend time with her.”

“Fine,” Lauren sighs. “Just for the record, if this all goes up in smoke, I’m blaming you two.”

“That’s fair,” Normani accepts. “Now go.”

Lauren can’t help but grumble to herself the whole time she walks to the coffee shop. Ami trots up as she approaches the shop and she glares at him.

“And where the hell have you been?”

He just stares back at her.

“You’re useless,” she complains.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say, Lauren.”

Lauren’s head snaps up. Camila’s standing in front of the coffee shop and Ami eagerly winds between her legs before taking off down the street.

“You can’t take his side,” Lauren protests. “You don’t know the whole story.”

“I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it,” Camila chirps, walking into the shop and leaving Lauren staring after her for a moment.

Lauren follows Camila, watching the twinkle in the other girl’s eye and she wonders how she was ever worried about dating her in the first place.

“I mean it, Camz!” Lauren insists. The cold rips at her coat but she pays it no mind as she walks down the sidewalk.

“Let’s say I buy into it,” Camila says challengingly. “Let’s say, hypothetically, that The Vampire Diaries is a good show.”

“It is!”

“If I watched an episode,” Camila continues as though Lauren never spoke. “Would you leave me alone?”

“You can’t watch just one episode to get the feel for a show, especially when pilots are all about the set up,” Lauren argues.

“Fine,” Camila concedes. “I’ll watch three episodes. And if I like it, I’ll keep watching.”

“That’s all I ask,” Lauren says solemnly, cracking a smile with Camila a few seconds later.

It’s been two weeks since Lauren’s sorta-breakdown at the apartment and she’s been spending a lot of time with Camila. The girl is smart, definitely, and wickedly clever at times, but she’s also just as much of a goofball. She makes Lauren laugh and fills her stomach with butterflies. Occasionally, Lauren catches her fingertips tingling with magic out of pure glee and she has to squash her powers back, but otherwise, things are going well.

They finally get into the diner and seat themselves. They both order strawberry milkshakes, knowing they’ll be eating plenty of junk food at the movie night they’re having with the other girls later.