Dark Paradise (Camren)

He's gone (45)

NOTE: Don't forget, this chapter and the NEXT TWO are part of a series of flashbacks of what happened during those 3 months that passed.

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*Flashback still On*

POV Lauren Jauregui

*Some time later*

* All my life I've been searching for the answers *

I sang the song with all my soul, it was the last one from my repertoire tonight, and I usually didn't sing it, but today I wanted to, and as incredible as it may seem, it was the song everyone was enjoying the most. Maybe it was the vibe I was conveying them through the song.

* How did I lose so much of the things that really matter?
Is there no paradise, cause I feel no joy or laughter *

Troy was by my side, helping in the vocals. Everything flowed perfectly well, until I saw my friend asking to leave the stage after someone I couldn't identify motioned for him to approach. I just nodded my head and continued the song.

* Seems everything I touch only turns into disaster
So I ask myself
How do you want to be remembered?
As a sinner or a saint, as a hero or a villain? *

In a short version of the song, I finished the last line. Troy was on the other side of the room, pacing back and forth. I knew something was going on. Still under applause and requests for me to sing more, I stepped off the stage, and Halsey went up.

The more than familiar introduction of "Hold me down" began as I walked over to Troy. The man, who was already white before, was pale, as if he's own life had left him. I touched his shoulder and he turned abruptly, startling me a little.

"Troy, is everything okay?" I asked calmly, I didn't want to freak out over nothing.

"Lauren, everything is not okay."

In hurried steps, I saw Ally appear from the crowd with a glass of water in her hands.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked, turning Troy to face me. The man still looked as if he had seen a ghost. Ally started crying, leaving me even more astonished. "Troy?!" I yelled in the hope he'd go back to normal and say something. Ally extended the glass of water towards me, and I refused. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, so I grabbed it and looked at the screen, it was Taylor. "38 missed calls..." I whispered, looking at the screen of my phone without being able to put the pieces together regarding why Taylor had called me so many times.

"Lauren, your father..." The man sobbed in a heartfelt cry. "Mike passed away!"

That was like a bomb thrown in my lap. I'd been waiting for this moment for so long and it had finally arrived. I wanted that, didn't I? I was happy it happened, wasn't I? No, I wasn't, but I wasn't sad, I was surprised. As much as I knew that death comes sooner or later, you never truly expect it to come. I was used to dealing with death, I saw so many lives slipping through my hands, but in Mike's case it was natural. As much as I knew he was sick, as much as I knew that his end was near, I think deep down I didn't want it to happen, because of Taylor.

"Hello?" I answered the phone, walking in hurried steps towards the parking lot. "Taylor?" The noise was still loud, so I went to my car. Troy and Ally were right behind me.