all i need is you

she's got a bad reputation

TW: talk of drug/alcohol abuse (used mostly in a joking way but better safe than sorry)

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"Did you hear?"

"About what?" Lauren Jauregui has her head bent over her newest purchase from Barnes & Noble - You by Caroline Kepnes, since she binge-watched the Netflix series two days ago and has become obsessed with it - and she doesn't even have to look up to feel her best friend's eye roll. "Lauren," Dinah Jane Hansen complains loudly, and before Lauren knows it the book is being snapped shut in front of her face.

"Dinah!" Lauren wails, slapping the blonde girl's arm a little too hard to be playful, and Dinah pretends to be wounded, rolling over on Lauren's bed. "Bitch," she grumbles, but she can't hide her smile. "You were on page one-hundred-forty-nine. I'm not that evil."

"Thank you." Lauren rifles through the wallet on her bedside table until she retrieves a stray receipt that she sticks in the novel as a makeshift bookmark. "Now what were you saying?"

"You know who Camila Cabello is, right?"

"Duh." Everyone knows Camila Cabello. She's the "it girl" from New York who's always on the face of gossip blogs with her friends for being a notorious partier or having the newest designer clothes or making out with hot male models at ritzy red carpets. Lauren doesn't even know why she's famous. Her dad's the Alejandro Cabello of Cabello Petroleum, so yeah, she's an heiress, but Camila's more well known for being an out-of-control socialite with a penchant for binge drinking. She's like Paris Hilton but slightly (and Lauren does mean slightly) more refined. And she hasn't ever made a sex tape. But she's also only seventeen, so there's still time. "She's so annoying."

Dinah blows air out between her teeth. "And hot as hell too, huh?"

Lauren rolls her eyes. Dinah is infamously girl-crazy, but... "Dinah, I think you forgot that you're in a relationship."

Dinah shrugs. "I can look at the menu, I just can't order."

"You're a pig," Lauren scoffs. She reaches for her book again, but Dinah shoves it off the bed. "Yeah, but I'm not wrong, am I?" She shows her phone screen to Lauren, a picture of a stunning brunette girl who is smiling mischievously at the camera, like she's hiding a secret that you'll never be cool enough to be in on. Her dark eyes are twinkling even through the screen, so intense that Lauren feels like they're piercing through her soul.

Dinah's right. She is gorgeous, sinfully so. "She's pretty."

"Yeah, well, she's moving to Miami to start high school at MHS next semester."

"What?" Suddenly Lauren is fully awake, and she jolts upright. "What the hell? But she's a celebrity. She lives in New York. Why would she come to Florida to go to high school?"

"Apparently she got kicked out of boarding school and her dad wanted her to have a normal teenage experience from now on, and she has family here or something." Dinah shrugs, faking nonchalance. "So when we come back from winter break, it looks like we'll have a famous person in our... midst."

"Ugh," Lauren groans, frowning. "You know Zayn thinks she's so hot, too."

"Bitch, who gives a fuck about Zayn? She is hot."

Lauren glares over at her best friend. "I give a fuck about Zayn."

Zayn is Zayn Malik, Lauren's other best friend and the boy she's been in love with since she was seven. They're meant to be together, but it seems like Zayn is the only one that doesn't see it. He's had a revolving door of girlfriends since middle school, pretty much, and every time he has a new one it makes Lauren want to die. Because she's right there! She's always been right there, and he doesn't even see her.