Lauren's POV
I had been going on and on about this in my head. The idea of me drinking a drop of alcohol made me sick. After that night at the club with Camila, Normani and Dinah, I hadn't drunk again. The traumatic experiences I had gone through with my father's several episodes of falling off the wagon had caused me an aversion to drinking. And as I was surrounded with people that were already far too intoxicated, I began to feel uneasy.
I pushed myself off the kitchen counter and rubbed my hands on my jeans. "Normani," I called but she didn't hear me over the loud music. "Normani," I said louder and grabbed her arm to get her attention. She looked at me, "I'm going outside."
"Are you okay?" the dark-skinned girl became alerted despite her drunkenness.
"Yes. I'll see you in a bit," I rushed to get out of the house. I felt like I would have actually thrown up if I had stayed there another minute. The fresh air hitting my face when I stepped outside felt heavenly. I drowned out the loud obnoxious electronic music coming from inside and sat down on one of the steps.
I managed to be alone for 20 minutes. Dinah interrupted my peace when she took the liberty of sitting down next to me.
"What's up?" the blond girl asked way too cheerily for my liking.
"Nothing...Just not enjoying the party."
"I would ask you why you're not enjoying it but I think I have an idea."
"What's that?"
I could see the hesitation in her eyes but eventually, Dinah broke the silence and shot her shot.
"Camila," Dinah gave me a grin and suddenly, my defenses were up. I chuckled humorlessly because Dinah could not find out. We had been playing this game for about 3 weeks and no one other than the two of us knew, and it would stay like that until we decided it would change.
"No," I clicked my tongue and tried to convince Dinah, but it was pointless.
"You're annoyed because she hasn't been giving you any attention tonight."
"She's having fun, I'm not gonna stop her," I shook my head and averted my eyes from my friend. Truth was, Camila and I arrived together at Dinah's friend's house for this "small" school party but after that, I had barely gotten a word from Camila. We had only been there for about 2 hours, but still, I wasn't thrilled to be there and that played a big part in my distaste for the party.
"But you're not." I didn't deny it and she kept going, "Because of her."
"I don't know," I mumbled and scraped my shoes along the white painted wood on the porch. I wasn't in the mood to answer Dinah's all too intrusive questions so I excused myself and went inside again.
I looked everywhere for her on the ground floor and couldn't find her. I felt a body colliding with mine from behind, forcing me to turn around.
"Hey!" Normani said cheerily over the music, "I was looking for you. Camila called for you. She's upstairs," I furrowed my eyebrows and she kept going, "She's probably in one of the bathrooms. Got sick."
I wasted no time in running up the stairs and checked every room in my direction before I heard soft retching sounds coming from the en-suite bathroom in one of those rooms. I opened the door to find my best friend with her head over the toilet, her back moving as she threw up into it. I sat down next to her, against the wall and gathered her brown hair in my hand, pulling it away from her face. She flinched after realizing she wasn't alone anymore but immediately relaxed after looking at me. I rubbed soft circles on her back and waited for the vomiting to stop.
