Everything Will Be Alright

Chapter 23

"Lauren, it's the middle of July, you've been this for two months straight. You need to stop or you're going to get alcohol poisoning and end up in the hospital," Normani tried to warn her best friend, but instead the brunette just downed another drink.

Lauren had told Keana it was a one time thing, but it wasn't. Since then, Lauren had been going out and coming home drunk everyday. Mike and Clara knew something was up, last time she did that, Lauren had used the excuse of missing her siblings, and they believed her. However, she had restarted and they knew it was much more than that, but never seemed to want to question her. They trusted her, they knew that she'd make the right decision of stopping in the end.

They were at some house party of someone from school, she didn't know who it was, Lauren just heard the word 'party' and went. The younger girl began to grab another drink for herself and yelled in encouragement to some guy doing beer pong. Normani rolled her eyes, trying to pry the drink away from Lauren's hands, only to get a smack on hers.

"Mani, this is fun, okay? It's summer, just let me be," Lauren slurred in her words as she began to sip on her drink.

"Hey Lauren," two blonde girls said in unison and waved flirtatiously at her. Lauren grinned and went up them for a group hug, they both kissed her on the cheek. She smiled at them as she walked back to sit with Normani.

She just scoffed and shook her head. "No wonder Camila broke it off," the former Texan mumbled quietly to herself, but Lauren had heard her.

The brunette placed her drink down and turned Normani around in her seat, "You know why Camila ended it?"

Normani was scared because of the anger in her best friend's dull eyes, they weren't green anymore, it didn't have that spark anymore. She hadn't answered in a while, so Lauren grabbed the front of Normani's top and bunched it up. The darker girl raised her hands in surrender, "Okay, okay, I know. Just let go and I'll tell you."

Lauren glared at her, but let go of her shirt and sipped on her drink again.

"Dinah told me that Camila broke it off because you kept blowing her off to hang out with Erica. Then she posted some pic of y'all with a caption saying 'Two Months' or some shit like that with some heart emojis," Normani explained to her best friend, grabbing Lauren's drink and took a swing, she need it.

Lauren stayed silent for a while, her drunken self needing time to process everything. She snatched her drink back and downed the remaining. She grabbed her jacket that was laid on the counter.

"Where are you going, Lauren?" Normani asked, as her best friend began walking to the door.

"To explain," she yelled over her shoulder.

Normani groaned and ran after her best friend, "How? You're in no position to drive."

"I'll walk Mani," she shrugged, Normani was about to argue, but Lauren stopped her. "Time. You said we needed time apart, well guess what, we had our time apart. I don't care if we're not going to get back together, she deserves to know the truth."

Normani nodded, knowing she couldn't do anything about it. They walked in silence for a bit until Lauren stopped in front of her.

"How long did you know?" Lauren asked, receiving a confused look from the darker girl. "How long did you know the reason why Camila and I broke up?"