mean girls

xv. an eye for an eye

The sound of fierce whispers is instant.

The second Liam's mouth leaves hers, Lauren knows she's completely and utterly screwed.

It doesn't matter who kissed who, it doesn't matter that Lauren instantly pulls away. The only thing that matters is that her peers have been starving and this kiss might as well be a fucking buffet that they'll throw themselves over, frothing at the mouth.

The weight of the backlash is going to hit her with the force of a thousand tsunamis.

Lauren doesn't know how she makes it to the end of practice and she doesn't even find refuge in the safety of the locker rooms as her teammates are all over her.

Lauren attempts to shrug it off and make light of it and she succeeds until someone exclaims, "I could have sworn he wasn't over his ex. Speaking of, she's totally going to freak. It's all over twitter."

"She was there. She ran away like she was on fire."

Lauren's heart thuds painfully in her chest and she has her phone in her hand before she realizes she's even moved.

It's worse than she imagined.

#Pauregui

Lauren's breath gets stuck in her throat and she dumps down on the bench. The first thing that pops up on the Godforsaken tag is a video. Fuck.

The quality is shitty and blurry and might as well have been recorded on a fucking potato, but Lauren can recognize Camila anywhere. She watches her frantically gather her books and speed off in the blink of an eye. She watches it at least five times until she feels sick to the pit of her stomach.

She lifts her head just as Dinah enters the room.

Everyone including Lauren stares at her, waiting for the inevitable snarky comment, but to everyone's surprise, nothing comes. Dinah merely surveys the room, eyes resting on Lauren for a few seconds, looking troubled, then she disappears off into the showers.

Lauren gulps. Something is wrong.

Lauren catches Dinah in the parking lot later, far away from prying eyes and ears.

"Dinah! Dinah Jane!"

Dinah whips around, her large hoop earring slapping her face, but she barely blinks. "What's up?"

Lauren searches her face but is unable to read it. "You were in a rush to get out."

Dinah turns and struts towards her car. "I'm tired."

"Wait," Lauren huffs. "Dinah, what's wrong?"

Dinah's forehead creases into fine lines. "Why would there be something wrong, Jauregui?" She reaches her smart, little sleek car and reaches to open the door but Lauren blocks her path. "What are you doing?"

Lauren worries her lip between her teeth for a moment. "Why do I have a feeling that you think I did something wrong when we both know I did nothing wrong?"

Dinah tucks a curly strand behind her ear and studies Lauren. "Is this about you and Liam sucking faces?"

Lauren's cheeks flush with embarrassment. "We weren't sucking faces! He kissed me! You saw that!"

Dinah sighs heavily. "Get in the car."

Lauren frowns, confused. "What — why?"

"Just do as I say, girl!"

Lauren reluctantly climbs into the passenger seat and watches Dinah pull out of the parking lot. "Where are we going?"

"I'm craving McDonald's," Dinah explains, and makes such a sharp turn that Lauren's heart nearly falls out of her chest.