we make love (and love falls apart)

01. Birth

When the judges eliminate her from boot camp, Camila wants nothing more than to go straight to bed and hope to god that when she wakes up, it's all some kind of sick dream. While she's happy for her fellow contestants – the ones who made it through, anyway – she can't help but feel that little green monster inside her, filling her brain with words of envy and hatred, because she really wishes that I'd been her who'd gotten through.

As she runs into her mother's arms and sobs into her shoulder, she almost doesn't hear one of the producers calling her back to the stage. Unsure, she leaves her mom's arms and follows the others who'd been called back, falling into step besides a girl named Lauren, who she'd really hit it off with during boot camp. She figures it's because they're both Cuban and from Miami, because she's one hundred percent sure that if she was in a school setting, Lauren wouldn't look twice at her. The older Cuban girl is a social butterfly, unlike Camila, who is generally pretty awkward and can never think of ways to start a conversation.

(Seriously, her way of getting Lauren's attention in the first place was complimenting her shirt.)

Lauren's raspy voice takes her off guard. "What do you think they want us for?"

Camila looks up in surprise, because she hadn't expected to be talked to, but she was thinking the exact same thing.

She can tell that Lauren's been crying, because her usually bright and vibrant green eyes are dull and grey. "I don't know. Maybe they want us to sing again?"

Lauren hums in thought. "Yeah. Maybe."

(When Camila is put into a girl group with three other girls and a certain Latina, she finds herself thinking about how glad she is that Lauren isn't going to be someone she has to compete against anymore.)