Bad Intentions

"You sound amazing," Normani told me, as I was coming down the stage after I finished soundcheck. "Are you excited about tonight?" She asked me, handing me a water that she had been holding.

I took a sip of the refreshing, cold drink and nodded. "Very excited."

Tonight was a big event in Los Angeles. It was the Summer Bash and tonight had amazing headliners, and me and Normani were included in the line up. Many of them are artist that I haven't met, so hopefully, I run into them backstage and have a quick little chat with them.

"Are you excited is the question?" I asked her.

She grinned widely and nodded her head excitedly. Her facial expression quickly changed once she tilted her head and made a face. "I am, but I'm more so nervous." She grimaced.

I hit her shoulder softly, "Don't be, you'll do fine."

"But, it's my first time performing at this event, and I just want to do a good job." She stated, frowning a bit.

"I understand this is a big event, but you just want to have fun. The more you worry, the more nervous you become. Just have to let things happen as they come." I smiled at her, placing my hand on her shoulder.

"The Summer Bash has so many good artist coming too," She stated, "what if I embarrass myself in front of them." She pouted.

I placed my arm around her shoulders and looked at her. "You are Normani Kordei, I've never seen you embarrass yourself onstage. Even if you have, it's never noticeable! You kill every single performance you do, and I know for sure, you'll kill this one." I smiled at her.

She reciprocated the smile, and moved out of my grip. "You're an amazing friend Lo." She said softly.

I gave a small smile and nodded my head lightly. "I'm just here to help."

Me and Normani are at good terms in our friendship. Still not dating, I don't know if it'll happen again, but I'm honestly okay with that. She'll always have a special place in my heart. If anything, I think we've gotten closer than we were before. I'm happy about that too. We aren't afraid to tell each other anything, and it's like nothing even happened between us.

"Normani, your turn." Scooter called Normani up to the stage. She looked at me before she and took a deep breath. We smiled at each other and she turned on her heels and rushed towards the stage.

I sat in the audience and watched her as she was performed new songs with new dance moves too. There was one acoustic song, and she sat on a stool, and her guitarist was next to her. I actually am pretty excited to see her perform this one tonight. Her voice sounds so pure and amazing when she is doing an acoustic set, and it happens very rarely. I wish she did them more often, they are honestly my favorite types of performances from her. Don't get me wrong, I love her dances and her rhythmic beats, I just get a different feeling from acoustic sets.

Normani came down stage, and pulled her in ears out.

"You really should perform acoustic sets more often." I said once she got to me.

She chuckled lightly, and dabbed her forehead with her towel, wiping off some sweat. "I really want too." She addressed. "I posted a cover last night with my guitarist and I got a lot of great feedback from it, so I'm going to try to squeeze a couple of songs on the tour set list."

"You should, everyone would love it. Your voice is pure amazement."

  She smiled at my words, and we began walking backstage to go grab a few snacks.

"I really love doing acoustic sets too," She stated, placing a chip in her mouth. "Since the fans love it so much, I'm going to try to do a private concert for them." She smiled happily.

I raised my brows and smiled, "I'm pretty sure they'll love it."

"Hey, Mani, we need you for like a couple minutes," Scooter came up to us, interrupting our conversation. "You have an interview." He told her since he noticed she looked a bit confused.

She nodded and told me she would be right back. I headed towards my dressing room trailer and on the way, I ran into Tori.

"I haven't seen you in a minute." She said once she saw me.

"It's been a while," I chuckled lightly. The last time I saw the curly blonde was on that little tour we did. "How've you been?"

"I've been good, touring. How about you?"

"Great, on tour too."

"How's that going?" She asked, curious to hear my answer.

"Amazing, I'm having a lot of fun." I said with a smile.

"I saw you talking to Normani." She pointed out, nudging me slightly.

I chuckled, and moved out the way so she would stop nudging me. "Oh yeah, just talking about our performance and stuff." I addressed.

"Are you guys together yet?" She asked excitedly.

I laughed. It seemed like she was expecting us to get back together just like how everyone else was expecting that. I shook my head no, and her jaw dropped. "Just trying to stay friends. That's what's best for us."

She frowned and shrugged her shoulders afterwards. "Makes sense."

"I'd rather just keep her as a friend to keep her in my life instead of risking the chance of losing her again."

"You're so sweet Lauren," Tori mentioned. "I know you care about her, so do what's the best for the both of you. Who knows, things may change and you guys may be together again." She mumbled the last words and shifted her eyes.

I chuckled and shook my head, "Maybe." I shrugged my shoulders a bit.

Tori picked up her drink and raised her brows and she sipped on it. Her manager tapped her on her shoulder and told her she had an interview to do. Tori apologized for having to leave in the middle of our conversation, but I told her it was understandable.

My dressing room was too far, so I sat in the lounge area on the couch and tweeted a few fans while I waited for my break to be over. I felt the couch sink in a bit and I looked over to see Zayn sitting next to me.

"Long time no see," he smiled. "How've you been?"

I looked at him confusedly, not really sure why he was talking to me after all that we've been through. "Great?"

He chuckled and ran his hand over his buzzcut. "Why'd you answer like that?"

"Nothing, I just– never mind." I waved my hand dismissively and turned towards him. "I've been good, what about you?"

"Good, a bit nervous." He laughed lightly, adding a small shrug at the end of his sentence.

"To perform?"

He nodded his head. "This is a big event, I want to do well."

"I'm pretty sure you will." I replied.

We had an awkward silence. I watched as his eyes shifted around, and he hesitated to speak a lot, often opening his mouth and shutting it right back.

"I just honestly came to apologize to you." He blurted out. "I was a jerk to you, and you're a real sweetheart and I should've never treated you that way. It wasn't right." He explained.

I smiled at his words, completely not expecting any of that. "The past is the past, we move on." I shrugged lightly.

"I'm hoping we can move on as friends, but it would be understandable if you didn't want to." He asserted.

"We can be friends. Let's just start over and forget nothing ever happened between us." I mentioned.

He smiled and nodded his head. "That's fine with me," He stated, giving a cheesy smile afterwards. "I know you and Normani had a little fall out, I'm sorry about that. I saw you guys talking earlier, I'm assuming everything's okay now?"

"Yeah everything's fine, we're just friends right now, since that's the best thing that'll work out for us."

"Take things one step at a time," he smirked.

Looking at Zayn, it was like he got cuter. The fact that he was being so sweet too, it was a different side I was seeing right now. Before we wouldn't be able to have this type of conversation.

"You got a haircut!" He pointed out, smiling widely as he stared at my hair. "I like it, it really fits you." He smiled.

"You got one too, and your beard grew out more, you look older." I also pointed out.

We talked for a couple minutes and he was honestly different from the last time I saw him. He seemed very caring and listening, something that he wasn't before.

-
Normani

"Do you know how hard this is Ally?" I sighed heavily.

"It is a big show, it is difficult, but you gotta pull through–" She began to ramble on and I cut her off.

"I'm not talking about that Allyson." I rolled my eyes.

She looked at me confusedly. "What are you talking about?"

I looked at her and hesitated. "I'm talking about remembering the lyrics."

"You do good on this song every time? I don't know why you're having difficulty with it now?" She stated. I was quiet for a second and she narrowed her eyes at me. "Are you?"

I turned and looked at her. "Am I what?"

"You know."

I looked at her confusedly for a second until I caught onto what she meant. She thinks I'm falling for Lauren again. "Oh no, no, no. I'm not. Trust me." I told her as I shook my head.

"Good, I don't want you to have to deal with that again." Ally huffed and rolled her eyes.

I chuckled at the smaller girl and shook my head. She may seem all nice and sweet, but she has another side to her no really sees, and they don't want to see it.

"You don't have to be so mean," I told her, stepping off of the stage. "It's all over with, it won't happen again."

"It better not," She said sternly as she turned around to face me. "You'll become distracted and lose focus. You can't do that, you have a lot of things coming up and I need you to be on top of everything."

"I know, and I will be." I replied, placing my hand on her shoulder and looking into her eyes and smiling. She rolled her eyes at me, and removed my hand from her shoulder.

"I'm serious Normani."

"I am too. I'm very dedicated to my work." I stated, standing up straight, and slightly sticking my chest out.

"Sometimes." She mumbled before sipping on her drink.

I furrowed my brows at her and took offense to what she said. "When was I off task?"

"Remember when we had that fall out last time and it called for a team meeting?" She recalled me of the last moment we had when I was going through the break up with Lauren.

"That's not going to happen again. That was the only time I've been off task, other than that, I've been very focused on my work."

"I'm just looking out for you."

I smiled at her words and opened my arms for a hug. "I know you are, and I very much appreciate that. Thank you for everything Ally." I said squeezing her tightly and resting my chin on her head.

"Take a quick break, just don't tell Scooter." She told me once we released from the hug.

"Didn't you just tell me you don't want me off task?" I crossed my arms over my chest and arched my brow at her.

She waved her hand dismissively before walking off to take a call.

I headed to the empty audience chairs and took a seat. I looked around the stadium and remembered always wanting to perform here ever since I was little and it's finally happening. My dreams have been coming true everyday and it's crazy to think about sometimes.

"Big stadium huh?" A raspy voice said. I turned and looked to see the Lauren looking around the stadium just as mesmerized as me. "Crazy we're performing here."

"I know, I've always dreamt about it, and looks like it's happening." I said looking at the stage and seeing the production crew go over the lighting, sound, and everything else dealing with the performers set. "I remember telling this kid in school I wanted to perform here and he told me I'd have to be a good enough singer and a cool person to be here."

"He was implying that you weren't cool?" Lauren arched her brow and she looked at the stage as well.

"Yeah," I chuckled. "I went home and cried and my mom told not to listen to people." I laughed, remembering the vivid memory.

"Well look at you now, you're a performer. Turns out you are a good singer and I guess you're a cool person." She joked.

I looked at her to see a smirk on her face and I shoved her lightly. "I really hate you sometimes."

"Tell me something I don't know," She replied. "Guess what." She shifted her body and faced me. "Zayn is actual nice now?"

I made a face and raised the corner of my lip. "What? Probably an act." I huffed.

"He apologized for what he did." She told me, grimacing. "He knew he messed up and he asked if we could be friends and–"

"You said you'd be acquaintances right?" She inhaled deeply through her nose and grimaced. "Lauren..." I said disappointedly.

"He seems like he really changed!" She said quickly. "Honestly, look at him." We both looked over in his direction. He had been smiling and laughing with his team, as well as what looked like his best friend. "When did we ever see him like that."

She did have a point. He never really looked as happy as he did now, then. I furrowed my brows as a thought came to my mind, and I turned my attention away from Zayn, to Lauren.

"You aren't catching feelings for him again are you?" I asked her.

She turned her head quickly and looked at me. "I'm telling myself not to."

"Don't. It could be an act and you don't want to get hurt again."

"I know," she frowned. "I'm just a sucker for sweet people and he's honestly sweet, but I can't fall for him. I really don't want to get involved in a messy relationship."

"Then don't get back with him." I replied sternly. "It would not be worth it at all."

"You hate my exes." She laughed.

I chuckled lightly and looked at her. "Who said I hated myself?" I flipped my hair over my shoulder, shrugging my shoulder.

"At least you aren't denying the fact that we were together." She mentioned.

"Why would I?" I asked in all seriousness.

She shrugged. "I don't know, I was a shitty person." She said quietly and shyly. "I mean, I would deny it if I were you, possibly even act like it never even happened."

"Lauren," We both turned our heads and looked over at Cookie. "You got a couple interviews to do, then we need to get ready for the show."

"Alright, I'm coming right now," She told her. She stood up from her seat and I eyed her as adjusted her clothing. "I'll talk to you later okay? If not, I'll see you around backstage." She winked at me before rushing off to go handle her interviews.

I smiled a bit and watched as she rushed backstage. I could tell she felt bad about what happened, and she's beating herself up about it. It's obvious too that she is trying her hardest to get over me. She's handling this more rough than I was and it seems like to me, she probably thinks about it a lot.

I don't want her to, and I definitely don't want her to beat herself up about it. To be honest, I don't really regret being with Lauren. It was a good experience, but at the time, things just weren't right between us, and she was still recovering from her bad moments, which is understandable. The only reason that I want to be friends is so we don't let something like that happen between us again. I'd rather not lose a friendship by being in a relationship with her. Relationships are hard to manage sometimes and I just don't want to go through that with her.

-

Lauren

Interviewer: So are you shocked to finally be performing here at the Summer Bash?

Very. I'm more so excited than anything else.

Interviewer: I remember speaking to when you were younger and you said you want to perform here, well look at you now.

I know! It's an honor to be here with such amazing artist.

Interviewer: So how's everything been I know you're on tour and everything, what's life like for Lauren Jauregui right now?

Crazy. I'm on tour and I'm working on a big surprise for the fans, a lot of things are coming so, I'm pretty stoked to tell you guys.

Interviewer: Wanna give us a little hint?

I can't! It'll ruin the surprise!

Interviewer: There's nothing wrong with that, people might not even catch on.

I know for sure they will. They're like little detectives they find out anything and everything.

Interviewer: Oh I know they do. By the looks of everything, we've been seeing you around with this new person, is this your new boo?

Oh no, she's just a friend of mine. I'm not really looking for a relationship, I'm just trying to focus on me right now.

Interviewer: You guys would be cute together!

Oh gosh.

Interviewer: But not as cute as you and Normani. Y'all set the bar for relationship goals.

There was a bar for that?

Interviewer: looks like it! But you recently dropped an EP with Tori Kelly, tell me how that came about.

We were just backstage one day and we wrote a song together and then we just took everything to the studio. Most of it was produced and written by the both of us. It was a great little experience.

Interviewer: Well, it's time for us to wrap this up, it was great having you, good luck tonight!

Thank you for having me.

I walked over to Cookie and rolled my eyes. "Every interview I have been doing they've all been asking about my relationship status and rarely about the music." I said irritatedly.

"I know, but lucky that was your last one. You just have to do the carpet now." She told me guiding me towards the direction of the carpet.

The carpet wasn't as bad as the sit down interviews. This time, it was rushed more, so I didn't have time to talk about my relationship status, even though a couple asked me that at the end, but it was my whole interview.

As I was walking down the carpet, I looked over to see Normani looking stunning. Her hair flowed over her shoulder, and a nice black dress with a bit of the sides cut out. She was literally glowing. No matter what, every time I saw her, my heart still skipped a beat.

"Lauren lets go," Cookie motioned me off the carpet. "We have a tight schedule and we want you to be on stage on time." We rushed to the back and I ran into a bunch of people I knew and people that were fans of mine.

"When do I perform again?" I asked, looking at the woman scatter around me.

"In forty five minutes, but your stylist is running late." She told me frustratedly. I watched as she typed frantically on her phone, as she paced back and forth.

"If anything happens, I can just perform in this." I expressed to her, hoping to calm her down some.

She turned and faced me and pointed at my outfit with her hand. "You cannot perform in a dress like this, with dark lighting and a band who is wearing all black." She stated.

"Cookie you need to calm down," I placed my hands on her shoulders and looked her in her eyes. "It'll be fine."

"It's just I know it's your first time performing here and I don't want it to be ruined for you." She said sadly.

"I could careless about what I wear out there, as long as I'm performing my songs that I love, I'll be fine." I gave a small smile at her and she smiled sadly back.

I could tell she was stressing out, but every manager does that. Especially one that wants their artist to succeed and have a good performance. But then, I also want her to understand, that somethings might not go as planned, and freaking out won't make it any better, you just have to go with the flow of things and carry on.

Her phone dinged and she looked down and an immediate smile grew on her face. "Your stylist is here." She sounded very relieved and she didn't look so tensed up.

"See, now you don't have to worry." I smiled.

I went to the side of the stage and watched the performances. The artist that were currently performing were upcoming artist and these kids were amazing. Very talented vocalist and performers. It made me very happy to see that there's younger people living their goals to get to a higher level.

Often I would go backstage and talk to a few artist. I met a lot of artist I didn't know and I actually freaked out over a few of them. I was congratulated on for the success of my album and how I'm doing much better than I was before.

"Lauren, you're not slick." Normani told me with a smirk across her lips as she came up to me.

I furrowed my brows and tilted my head at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't act like I did not see you look around the person you were just talking to to look at me," she said, arching her brow and shifting her weight to her left side with her arms crossed over her chest. "oh, and don't let me forget to mention you checking me out on the carpet."

I blushed and held my head down. "I don't recall any of that."

"You are such a liar." She chuckled.

"I mean, there's nothing wrong with a friendly look. I was trying to get your attention so I could say hi to you." I stated.

She raised her brows and rolled her eyes at me. "You can't cover up the fact that you were definitely checking me out."

"I wasn't checking you out. If I was, I'd admit it." I shrugged.

"Then admit it."

"Stop trying to force wrong answers out of my mouth."

"I'm not, just the truth." She smiled.

"Well the truth is, I wasn't checking you out." I told her, flashing a fake smile back. She rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively. "Why do you seem mad that I wasn't checking you out?"

"I'm not." She said, shrugging her shoulder.

"You sure? Because you for sure wanted an answer." I raised my brows at her. "Why didn't we just settle it at the friendly look? You didn't even believe that! It was like, you wanted me to say I was checking you out." I explained, rubbing my chin. "Is that right?"

"No because it's wrong." She said, turning on her heels. "Let's go to my dressing room." She demanded.

I arched my brow and watched as she walked over, switching her hips. Damn, she was hot.

"What do you want?" I asked her once we got inside.

"We're filming the video." She told me, handing me a guitar.

"Which song?" I asked, taking the guitar and sitting down on the couch.

"Uh," she said trying to think of a song. "Love on the Brain by Rihanna?" She turned and looked at me for approval and I nodded my head with a smile across my face.

She smiled as well and came and sat next to me, resting her phone in front of us on the decor that had been on the small glass table.

"Should we do the whole song, or just go straight to the chorus?" She asked before we started.

I looked up at the time. "I go on in twenty minutes, so maybe just the chorus."

She nodded her head and cleared her throat before starting. "I told Ally I would save my voice." She grimaced.

I shook my head and chuckled lightly. I began strumming, trying to find the right tuning for the song. "It doesn't have to be exact, let's just work with what we got." She told me.

I nodded and began strumming whatever note I felt that would sound good with the song.

We both sang along to the song and harmonized to it. She never noticed, maybe because she had her eyes closed, but I looked at her a lot, in such a short amount of time. She sang with so much passion and her voice sounded so amazing with the guitar. Moments like this was what I missed the most. Seeing how passionate she could be, and begin able to sing along with her. It felt like how it was when we wrote We Know.

"That was amazing!" She turned towards me and cheered excitedly. "We sang it much different then the original and we added our own little things in here and there." She said, reaching for her phone to stop the recording.

"Your voice sounded amazing Mani," I complimented her. "You don't understand how amazing you sound when it's just you and a guitar, as well as a piano."

She looked up from her phone and blushed. "Thanks Lauren," She said, giving a cheesy grin. "I love singing with just the guitar and piano." She expressed. She got up from the couch and went and sat on the counter were all her makeup was set up. "It reminds me of when me and Dinah would be together and she'd either be on the piano or guitar, and we would sing together."

"Have you ever done live acoustic performances in the past?" I questioned, as I walked over to where she was.

"A few here and there," she shrugged, not seeming to pleased by it. "I wish I did more." She frowned a bit.

"Well, it's never too late to start." I looked at her and smiled.  I looked at my phone for the time and saw it was getting closer for me to perform and I had to go change. "I gotta go on stage in a few, I'll see you around backstage though, maybe we can watch the final performances together on side stage?" I asked, as I walked by her.

"Yeah of course," she said softly. She tugged on my wrist, and pulled me in front of her. "Good luck." She said smiling.

I looked down and noticed my body was between her legs. I looked up and met her gaze and she had a smile on her lips. "Don't worry when you get out there, you'll be fine." She stated, fixing my hair up. She pushed me away gently, and she got off the counter.

"Thanks," I stammered a bit. "See you later."

I shut the door and wondered what the hell just happened. That was the closest we've ever been to each other ever since we've started talking again. I don't know why she did that, but I know for sure, that wasn't something "friendly."

AN: Hey guys! Finally an update! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, it got a little interesting at the end. Lol, sorry for the late update, I'm going to try to update as much as possible now. I'm thinking about posting some chapters of this new fic I'm writing, just to hold you over until I update this one. The story is called Down For You so be on the look out for that. Thanks for reading! Enjoy your day/night.

- Raven