Chapter Text
"You're releasing a song?" Dinah said into the phone, not even letting Camila greet her when she answered.
"Well hello to you too, Dinah," Camila joked, "Yeah, it's a collaboration with Shawn Mendes. We wrote it together at the Taylor Swift concert a few months ago and we decided to record it and release it."
Dinah blinked, "Wow, that's really great. I was just kind of surprised since you didn't tell any of us about it. I mean, I only found out because you tweeted about it."
Camila hesitated, "Yeah, it was kind of a last minute thing. We had written it a while back but he had called me to ask if I wanted to record it. Who would I be to turn down an offer like that, you know? Plus, it won't interfere with anything we're doing since we have nothing left to promote, and the only thing coming up is Jingle Ball in December," Camila explained, "Would you like to listen to it sometime? You're the only one who's even showed interest in it so far."
"Of course, why would you even ask that?" Dinah asked, "I'd love to listen to anything that had your vocals on it."
"That means a lot to me," Camila confessed, "Thank you. Hey, I'm sorry to cut this short, but my family is calling me down for dinner. It was so nice to talk to you, Cheechee. I miss you and the girls so so much. I love you."
"I love you too, bye," Dinah said, then hung up the phone.
Dinah sat in silence for a moment, gathering her thoughts. She was confused, wondering if she had somehow missed signs that Camila was working on her own stuff. To her knowledge, the other girls had absolutely no idea about the song either, so this had come in and blindsided them from left field. Nonetheless, Dinah was excited for her bandmate, although a little jealous because she was working with Shawn Mendes, who was super dreamy and cute and he wasn't her.
If Dinah were to say she didn't have a thing for Camila, she would be lying. The girl was her best friend not only in the group, but in the whole world. No one had ever held her heart like Camila did, and sometimes Dinah wondered if she was a little too over her head for wanting to be something more.
Since they had been formed on the X Factor back in 2012, Camila and Dinah had been inseparable. They were always goofing off together and pulling pranks on each other throughout the day, but at night, they'd devour ice cream and watch movies and talk about life at two in the morning. A lot of these things seemed strictly platonic, but Dinah lived for the moments where she could listen to Camila confess all of her secrets and wonders while the moon was bright in the sky or when they cuddled together in their bunks on the tour bus.
Dinah had convinced herself that friends do things that flirt with the line of being romantically involved all of the time, and the butterflies in her stomach were nothing more than platonic love. She realized this was different when Camila had kissed her on the cheek one night and Dinah silently wished that it had been her lips instead.
Dinah was careful not to let the crush escalate though, and she had long accepted that she could never, ever speak her feelings. Camila had never shown romantic interest in girls, and she'd always been a little boy crazy, falling for every baby faced boy with floppy hair and dimpled cheeks. Because Dinah had none of those attributes and she was, well, a girl, she decided to love Camila from far away, letting her crush stay as a daydream.
Dinah's thoughts were interrupted when she received a text message from Camila. The message had an audio file attached, which Dinah assumed was the song. Dinah searched for her headphones, wanting to be fully immersed in the song since it would be her first time hearing it.
She played the song, and let the soothing guitar fill her ears as Camila and Shawn sang along. The song was undeniably catchy, yet completely different from anything Camila had put out with the girls. The style mimicked what Dinah often caught her listening to: slow, guitar heavy with meaningful lyrics about love and loss. Dinah felt like Camila had put a piece of her heart into the song, and she couldn't help but smile when Camila's parts were on.
After she had listened, she sent off a text detailing how much she loved the song and how grateful she was that Camila had let her listen to it early. Camila messaged back almost immediately, thanking Dinah and telling her that the pleasure was all hers.
Dinah put her phone away, smiling because she was always proud of her girl for following her heart and taking steps to make herself happy. She just hoped the other girls saw this the same way she did.