chapter one

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i got the impression you wanted more

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Four years later, and Camila hasn't thought about Lauren Jauregui in years.

After she'd cut that toxicity out of her life, she was so much happier. Sure, she had a lot of heartbreak over losing her best friend, but it's not like Lauren was her best friend anymore. In reality, she'd lost her a long time ago.

She'd kept working on her YouTube channel, and by her eighteenth birthday, she hit one million subscribers, and it was her full-time occupation. School was still lonely, but she's made friends with some other YouTubers, and she meets them all in person at her first ever VidCon, where she's a featured creator. She has to speak on a panel, which is probably the scariest thing she's ever done, but she gets to meet her viewers and thank them for everything they've done for her, and meet her YouTuber friends in person at the creator party. She'd felt a little out of place, but Dinah Jane, a beauty guru with four million subscribers had walked over to her and invited her back up to her hotel room with a few other people that Camila had practically idolised over the years.

The second she graduated, she moved out to LA and into a house with her best friends, Dinah Jane Hansen, Normani Kordei Hamilton, two of the biggest beauty channels on the platform, and Ally Brooke Hernandez, who specialises in cooking videos, but occasionally branches out into comedy with a few characters she's created; the most popular series on her channel is where she plays a character called Yolanda and interviews other YouTubers with hilarious results.

That's where she's been ever since, her hobby as her job, financially secure at nineteen years old, and finally happy.

"I need some Cheetos or I'm going to kill every single one of you."

Camila snorts as Dinah sits up on the couch, shooting daggers at her. "Bad cramps?"

"Yes, now get your not so little Cuban ass to the store," Dinah glares at her, lying back on the makeshift bed she'd created on the couch and flipping through the channels. "Otherwise I'll murder everyone in this house."

Camila is used to Dinah's empty threats at this point, but she leaves her video half-edited and stands up, grabbing her keys. She's in her sweatpants, but she doesn't care, deciding that she'll pick up some bananas while she's there. "Ally, Mani, you guys want anything?"

"I'm good," Normani says, sitting down on couch adjacent to the one Dinah is stretched out on and pulling her socks off, unscrewing the cap on the red nail polish she's holding. "Ally?"

Ally just nods, concentrating on setting up her camera in the kitchen. "Yeah, I need vanilla essence for these cookies and I forgot I'd used it all."

Camila nods, making a mental note, and grabs her wallet from where she normally leaves it, leaving the house and trying to avoid the judgemental looks she receives for wandering around in sweatpants. She figures she'll go to a store a little further out, away from where their house is; the area in LA that they live in is heavily populated with YouTubers, and with that, comes the fans that like to stalk them, and she'd much rather not be asked for a photo when she hasn't showered and she's wearing sweats.

She gets an Uber and doesn't give her driver a destination, just stops when she thinks she's far enough from their neighbourhood, and thanks him as he gets out. She looks for a grocery store, and finds that she's close to the UCLA campus when she sees students, grabbing something for their lunch. She grabs a basket, and finds some flamin' hot Cheetos for Dinah, dumping them in. Wandering around the baking supplies, she gets what Ally had asked for, and walks over to the fruit. This is the part that requires the most attention; Camila likes to have the best quality bananas at the perfect stage of ripeness.

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