I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.

In less than ten minutes, I was going out onstage to perform my song, 'Crying in the Club' live onstage. I've done it plenty of times, so I should be used to it by now, but I'm not.

I was far more nervous about tonight than any other though, and to be honest, I had a good reason.

I've performed at awards shows and stuff before where hundreds of other artists and famous people sat in the audience. The difference between those times and this time is a certain group of girls. Fifth Harmony. My old bandmates were seated in the audience.

I haven't spoken to them since I left back in December last year. Don't get me wrong, I've tried reaching out to them. But they never acknowledged it.

So here I am, a nervous wreck, worried about what their reactions will be when I go up. Surely they know I'm performing... it was in dozens of ads and posts and tweets and articles.

I sighed and shook my head. I shouldn't be so nervous, I mean they're just normal people.

Suddenly one of the stage crew members comes up to me. "You're on in 5, Miss Cabello," he says.

I nod and he walks off.

Five minutes and I perform in front of the girls I haven't seen or spoken to in months.

"Hey, Mila," Says a familiar voice.

I turn to see Ariana with a smile on her face. I return it.

"Hey, Ari. Congrats on the award. You deserve it," I said.

She shrugged. "Thank you. Really. Good luck out there," she said, pulling me in for a quick hug.

"Thanks. Really. I'm gonna need it."

"You'll do great."

"Camila, you're on!" The stage manager calls and I take a deep breath once more.

"Here goes nothing," I mumble as I make my way out onto the dark stage.

"And now, please welcome... Camila Cabello!"

Immediately, the music started to play and the stage lit up with bright red lights.

As soon as I start singing, I spot the girls. Fuck, they're staring.

"You think
That you'll die without him
But you know
That's a lie that you tell yourself
You fear
That you'll lay alone forever now
It ain't true, ain't true, ain't true, No."

I casually glance down at them and I notice Ally seemed to be mouthing the words while Dinah was smiling slightly. No, it was probably just a trick of the light.

"So put your arms around me tonight,
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been so high
Open up your heart to me,
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been this free
'Till you feel the sunrise,
Let the music warm your body
Like the heat of a thousand fires,
The heat of a thousand fires"

Dinah broke out into a wide grin as I went into the chorus. Normani seemed to look impressed, and Ally continued mouthing the words. Lauren just sat there, avoiding my eye and mostly watching the dancers behind me.

"Ain't no crying in the club
Hey, hey, let the beat carry
Your tears as they fall, baby
Ain't no crying in the club
Hey, hey, with a little faith
Your tears turn to ecstasy
Ain't no crying in the club...
Ain't no crying in the club

You may think
That you'll die without her
But you know
That's a lie that you told yourself
You fear
That you'll never meet another so pure
It ain't true, ain't true, ain't true, No

So put your arms around me tonight
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been so high
Open up your heart to me
Let the music lift you up
Like you've never been this free
'Til you feel the sunrise
Let the music warm your body
Like the heat of a thousand fires
The heat of a thousand fires"

As I do the choreography, I realize Dinah is grinning so widely, I was worried her face would split open. Ally was mouthing the words and was now bobbing her head dancing slightly in her seat which made me almost start laughing. Normani was looking at Lauren with confusion before looking back at me, her eyes wide. Finally, I looked at Lauren, only to see her eyes glued on me. Wait, is she... She's staring at my butt? Her eyes slowly raise up to my face. She knows I caught her, and it takes everything I have not to start laughing as she looks down awkwardly.

"Ain't no crying in the club
Hey, hey, let the beat carry
Your tears as they fall, baby
Ain't no crying in the club
Hey, hey, with a little faith
Your tears turn to ecstasy
Ain't no crying in the club...
Ain't no crying in the club"

I lock eyes with Lauren once more. She bites her lip, seemingly unable to look away. I smirk to myself and go into the bridge. My voice gradually increases in volume as a build up for the chorus.

"You think
That you'll die without him
You know
That's a lie that you tell yourself
You fear
That you'll lay alone forever now
It ain't true, ain't true, ain't true"

The song suddenly goes into an instrumental part for nearly 30 seconds before I sing the chorus one last time, and the song ends. (A/n- too lazy to finish writing it)

The audience stands up, applauding me and I let out a laugh and a smile.

Before going off stage, I take one last look at the girls, my gaze lingering on Lauren. I sigh and walk off.

A bunch of members of the stage crew congratulate me for doing well and I nod and thank each and every one of them.

I look around, trying to find someone I knew, when I spotted Shawn by the dressing room area. I walked up to him.

"Hey, Shawn!" I say.

He looks down at me and smiles, pulling me in for a friendly hug. "Hey! Great job out there! You were awesome."

I shrugged. "Thank you."

Before he says something, I hear a voice calling my name.

Shawn and I turned to see Dinah running to me.

I raise my eyebrows in surprise.

"Mila! You were amazing!" She exclaimed, pulling me in for a tight hug.

I was speechless. She hasn't spoken to me for months, and suddenly she's hugging me?

"Um... thank you, Dinah," I say.

She looks down. "I'm so sorry. Really. Our management... they refused to let us talk to you. It was killing me. I miss having my partner in crime around," she said.

Ally suddenly appears next to her. "Dinah, what happened to waiting for me? You know I'm not as fast as you are with my short legs!" She turned to me. "Camila. Hi. I'm so sorry we haven't reached out. Our management-"

I cut her off. "I know. They wouldn't let you. Dinah told me."

Ally nodded sadly. "Yeah... I'm sorry Mila. Really. We all are. We miss you so much. I'll be honest, I miss buying bananas only for them to disappear the next day."

I smile.

"Could you possibly forgive us?" Dinah asked, and I tilted my head.

"Sure," I say.

They squeal and pull me in for another hug.

"Y'all can't just run off like that!" I hear Normani say from behind me.

Dinah and Ally let go and we turn to her. "We just wanted to tell her how great she was out there," Dinah said and Ally nodded.

"You guys know we're not allowed to talk to her or anything," Normani says nervously.

Dinah frowns. "Screw management. I want my best friend back."

"Yeah. If management is gonna get in between our friendships, then they can go fuck themselves," Ally said, and I gasped.

"The Allysus Brooke just cussed? Have I entered a parallel universe?" I ask, making Ally giggle.

Normani sighed. "Well... I guess you're right." She turned to me with a small smile. "You really were great out there, Mila," she said.

I roll my eyes and pull her in for a hug, which she gladly reciprocated.

"What's taking so.... long...."

We turn and see Lauren standing there, mouth slightly open. She was staring at me.

"Hi, Lauren," I say quietly.

Lauren slowly approached, still stating. She didn't stop until she was right in front of me. She didn't say anything. All she did was stare.

Dinah let out a cough, but Lauren didn't seem to notice. Her eyes were locked on me.

"Are you just gonna stare at me all night?" I ask, nearly whispering.

She opens her mouth to respond, and nothing comes out.

"We're... gonna leave you two to talk," Normani says, nudging Ally and Dinah. They nod and walk off towards the snack table nearby.

"Lauren? Are you okay?" I ask, slightly worried.

"Hot..." was all that came out of Lauren's mouth. Her eyes widened in realization and her face turned bright red. "I... I mean... uh..."

I let out a light chuckle. "Do you need some water?"

She shook her head and cleared her throat. "Uh, Camz... can we talk? Privately?"

Camz. I haven't heard that nickname in months. Only Lauren called me that, which is why I liked it.

"Yeah, sure," I answer and she nods and looks around.

"We can talk in my dressing room?" I offer and her face lights up.

"Perfect!" She says a little too enthusiastically. She realized how she sounded and cleared her throat again. "I mean... alright."

I giggle and lead her to my dressing room.

Once the door is shut behind us, she sits down on the large couch. I decide to just stand.

"Would you... mind locking it? So nobody interrupts our... talk?" Lauren requests, and I raise an eyebrow but nod and lock the door.

"So, uh... Camz, look... I'm really sorry for the way we left things. I was being... selfish, and rude, and just... I was horrible to you. I was scared that management would intervene if they found out that we we're still talking and stuff, so I just shut you out. That was wrong of me to do, of all of us to do, and I'm so sorry. Can you please forgive me?"

I sigh. "Of course, Lo. You know I'd forgive you in a heartbeat," I answer.

She nodded. "There was also something else I... kinda wanted to tell you."

I tilted my head to the side and raised an eyebrow.

"And what's that?"

She looked up at me, clearly trying to figure out what to say. Whatever it was, it was obviously difficult for her to say, so I hesitantly knelt down so we were at eye-level and I grabbed her hand and ran my thumb over the back of it.

"It's okay. You can tell me," I whisper.

She seemed paralyzed as her eyes wandered down to my lips. "Well, uh..."

Lauren bit her bottom lip, and I noticed her breathing had quickened. Her eyes darted up to my eyes, then back to my lips, then back to my eyes again.

I knew in that moment exactly what she wanted to say.

"Fuck it," she mumbled, and brought a hand up to the back of my neck, pulling me forward.

My eyes widened as our lips met, but I immediately melted into it. Her lips were slightly chapped and tasted of alcohol and peppermint. I let out a soft sigh as I wrapped my arms around her neck. Her hands slowly moved down to my waist, pulling me forward into her lap. The kiss was slow and sweet, and it was enough to make my heart nearly burst out of my chest.

Lauren brought her hands back up, tangling them in my hair and pulling me closer. I felt her tongue brush across my bottom lip, and I open my mouth, granting her access. Her tongue slides into my mouth and I let out a quiet moan in response.

A knock on the door is what separates us.

"Guys? You in there?" Dinah calls out from the other side of the door.

Lauren blushed and I got off her lap.

"Uh, yeah, we're just talking," I answered, making my way to the door to open it.

Standing there were the other girls, all with smirks on their faces when they see me and Lauren.

"Talking, huh?" Normani asked.

"Uh, yeah," Lauren said.

They roll their eyes. "Well it's time to get going," Ally said, causing Lauren to frown.

"Oh."

"Yeah... And we gotta go now..."

Lauren sighed.

"I'll walk you guys out?" Camila offered, and Lauren smiled.

"Alright, let's go," Normani said and we walked out of the building through the back door so we weren't stuck in a crowd of fans.

I hugged each girl before they boarded the tour bus, saying their goodbyes to me.

Suddenly, a window opened from near the back of the bus and Lauren's head poked out.

"I LOVE YOU CAMZ!" She shouts, making me freeze in place and look up at her.

She was smiling widely and staring at me.

I've waited so long to hear that.

"I LOVE YOU TOO, LO!" I yell back, and the bus starts moving.

I sighed happily and walked back inside, humming Crying in the Club to myself.