Thinking of Your Skin: The Truth Behind Camren - Book Two

Chapter 9: Bare with Me

October 15th, 2016

1:30 A.M.

Camila

I still couldn't get over Dinah's meltdown during the concert that night. It wasn't anything like mine or Lauren's from the North American leg of the tour. We didn't all carry on as if nothing had happened; in fact, there was no way we could've. Dinah started crying just before our acoustic version of 'Brave, Honest, Beautiful', which we were lucky had no choreography or stage work to stop us from giving our full love and attention to our youngest member.

The five of us sitting together on that stage singing to Dinah was just as nice of a moment as the one we had had backstage a few days earlier. The settings were so different, but the message was still the same: we were still Fifth Harmony; we were still a family.

I couldn't believe how positive the ending of our journey was looking. I thought back to all of the pain and loneliness that I had suffered through, all of the trust I had broken with the girls, all of the terrible arguing and fighting that had gone on practically since Roger had stepped into the picture over a year earlier. It all seemed so irrelevant now. We loved each other too much to let any of the bullshit get in our way, and we definitely had Dinah to thank for helping us all recognize that. She was our glue.

After the show, we were all supposed to hop on a plane to Portugal for our concert on the 16th, but, seeing as we had a free day in between, I decided to stay behind and explore Barcelona, a city that I absolutely adored. I also got lucky enough to get in touch with one of our friends, Xavi Martinez, who invited me to go out and party that night.

Of course, my mom wouldn't let me stay alone so Ashlee and our keyboardist offered to stay behind with me along with, drum roll please...Lauren! The green eyed girl felt like she wanted another day in Barcelona so she chose to stay behind with us, too, but oddly enough didn't feel like going out with us. It wasn't until we got back to the hotel that I found out why.

"You're such a baby. You know they usually party until like five in the morning here?" I informed Ashlee as we walked back to our room (Ashlee had decided to take my mom's spot).

"Excuse me. Don't act all high and mighty. You were ready to pass out, too." she argued.

"Shhh! Don't tell people that! They'll revoke my Latina status."

"Girl, you have more Latina in that Cuban booty than I do in my entire body."

Just when I was about to answer, we heard a door across from ours open, revealing Lauren in a large t-shirt.

"Our Cuban booties do help people figure out that we're not white." she chimed in with a smirk.

"See? I'm not wrong." Ashlee laughed.

"Good morning, Lauren." I changed the subject.

"I really wish you wouldn't call it morning when we're up late. I get really concerned and think I pulled an all-nighter or some shit." Lauren responded.

"I'm just respecting the A.M. and P.M. labels."

Lauren rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"You guys going to sleep?" she asked.