take a picture of all my flaws

25

Lauren

She never smiles on the red carpet.

She doesn't know if it's a subtle dig to the paparazzi who love selling pictures of her to the press, or if it's because she wants to convey just how much she hates this kind of thing, how much she doesn't want to be worshipped the way people tend to worship her. But she never, ever smiles on red carpets.

Camila is really testing her patience with that, though. She keeps whispering subtle jokes into Lauren's ear, and just being all around pretty amazing, which makes it a lot harder for Lauren to focus on keeping her resting bitch face up. Because when Camila tells a joke, it's like Lauren's job to laugh at it.

But she manages to pull through. She knows she'll be smiling in a couple of pictures, and that's a couple more than she'd usually be smiling in, but people will probably be able to tell that it's not because of how happy she is to be there. That it's because of Camila, and her dorky jokes.

The interviews, however, she has to act a certain way. Lauren has a specific public persona; there's a difference between Lauren, and Lauren Jauregui. While Lauren is kind of a nerdy, awkward, anxious little baby who has no idea what she's doing, Lauren Jauregui is calm, cool and collected one hundred percent of the time, and totally knows what she's doing.

So when she's beckoned over for her first interview in months, she puts on that act, but still drags Camila over with her. She recognises the reporter; it's Chelsea Briggs, and Lauren has been interviewed by her a couple of times, which makes her feel a little more comfortable.

She asks the regular kind of questions, mostly fan tweets and stuff that people would want to know, like why she'd left the show, how she felt about her character's ending, and thankfully she doesn't mention how Lauren was outed, but instead compliments her on the points she'd made in her coming out post. But she's still totally off guard when Chelsea asks, "so, a lot of the fans asked me to ask you if- well, do you guys know who Camren is?"

While Lauren doesn't really know what to say, Camila, who had mostly been quietly holding Lauren's hand, laughs out loud, "Oh, that's like our relationship, right?"

She's relieved that Camila had answered, because Lauren knows that her blank silence is an obvious giveaway. Chelsea rolls with it, and asks, "Is that weird, that the fans ship you guys?"

Camila shrugs. "I mean, as a fan myself, I can understand why people ship stuff, because a lot of the time they just want to see representation in the person they look up to and the people they have like, some kind of natural chemistry with, so... I don't really care if people want to ship me with Lauren. Whatever rocks their boat."

Her heart flutters at the way Camila articulates herself, but she's quick to put her public mask back on and corrects Camila, "whatever floats their boat."

"Well, whatever," Camila shoves her playfully, and Lauren shoves her back, "damn, violence from the Grammar Queen."

Lauren laughs, and when Camila throws an arm around her shoulders, she relaxes into the touch and smiles at the camera behind Chelsea. "Can't help it, it's just a reflex to correct everyone. But yeah, to answer your question about the shipping, I'm at a point in my life where I understand why fans do that kind of thing, and as long as they don't cross any lines, I don't mind."

"Okay, we only have time for one more question, and it's probably the one that most people want to know the answer to," Chelsea prefaces, "so, we know that you're not going to be in season four, but is season five completely off the table? A lot of fans are holding out hope and Vanessa is a fan favourite..."