take a picture of all my flaws

20

Camila

She's honestly a little mad that Lauren never pursued a singing career when she gets her in the little recording studio at college. She'd booked it for two hours, to record Lauren's parts of the song she's submitting for her music technology final and rerecord anything she needs to, and as Lauren sings through the song, she finds herself basically entranced.

"Everyone comes with scars, but you can love them away, I told you that I wasn't perfect, you told me the same," Lauren sings, and looks up at Camila, uncertainty written on her face. Camila pauses the recording, and Lauren steps out of the booth, "Was that okay?"

"Perfect," Camila smiles, "I think I'm going to get you to sing the whole song through a couple of times, and then I'll do the same, and then... I don't know. I'll figure out what parts are going to go where. But I'm pretty certain I want you to lead the chorus."

Lauren blushes. "But it's your song, you should-"

"It's our song, Laur," Camila assures her, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. "Besides, it'd suit your voice more. I love the rasp to it."

"Well... tanks, baby," Lauren wraps her arms around her in a hug, nuzzling against her, and Camila feels like she might melt. "Do you want me to sing it through again?"

"Uh... yeah, do the second verse, since we've only gone through that once, but I feel like I'm going to take that for myself," Camila laughs, "even though I'm seriously tempted to just give the whole song to you."

"I think you should definitely do the pre-chorus," Lauren says, and then she frowns to herself and continues with, "what do I know, you're the musician here..."

"No, no, feel free to put your ideas forward," Camila smiles reassuringly; she figures that pushing in this respect and making Lauren feel as comfortable as possible would be the best way to get started on their whole pact, and helping Lauren with her anxiety. "This is your song as much as it is mine, and once I've got my grade back, I'm putting it on YouTube. I feel like that's a method of- of putting my music out there without literally prancing out on stage."

"You're right, actually," Lauren blinks in realisation, "yeah, you should totally like, post covers and stuff. It's like performing publicly, but not in real-time. That's a really good first step. Damn, you're already killing it."

"Only because you're giving me the confidence by making this thing a duet," Camila supplies, because it's kind of true; even though she has a ton of songs she's recorded on her laptop, as well as snuck in here to record properly, she's never had the guts to put them out there. "It makes it easier."

"You should post the songs you gave me. I loved them, every single one. Into It was... interesting. I wonder who that's about." Lauren flashes her a teasing grin, squeezes her hand, then nods towards the booth, "am I doing this again, then?"

Camila nods. "After you answer something for me."

Lauren's eyebrows dip into the cutest frown, but she nods in consent. "Anything."

"Why did you never pursue music?" Camila asks her, genuinely curious. "You have the means to, and you have the raw talent. And I know you play piano and guitar."

"I don't play guitar, I played what they taught me for the show, but I know nothing about it. Not like you." Lauren says. "Piano, yes, but it's just... I don't know. At the end of the day, it's not my passion. That's always been acting. I'd totally do a musical, though."

"Oh my god, I'd love that," Camila replies, "you could be in like, a gay as fuck Grease reboot. Obviously as the female version of Danny Zuko."