Love Spells Magic

Adrenaline rushed through my body as I scurried backstage. My clothes were stripped off as I quickly grabbed a bright pink frilly skirt and pulled it over my lean legs. A shirt was being tugged over my head as I slipped my arms through it. We only had one costume change for Selena’s performance, but we only had so much time to change.

The beats of the next song began to play and I rushed onto stage to join the other dancers on stage wearing similar outfits as me. Miraculously my hair and makeup and had been redone while I was changing so my hair was now up into a high ponytail for it to stay out of my face.

We went through the last three songs of the set and finished off with a bang. The loud screams that applauded us ranged from tiny toddlers who rocked their Disney shirts to teenagers and the even older fans. We bowed once and then once again and ran off stage.

“Oh my gosh. That was amazing.” Sabrina exclaimed as we stood backstage catching our breath. Today’s performance played back into my mind as I stood there. Everything had gone perfectly, we didn’t even have one mistake for our opening night. The fact that I would be doing this about thirty more times thrilled me.

“You guys were great out there!” Joe’s voice yelled from down the hallway. All the dancers turned around and saw Nick, Kevin, and Joe walking towards us with their own concert attire on waiting to go on stage. There was about a half an hour break between Selena’s set to the main performance by the Jonas Brothers as the crew set up their stage and sound.

Selena went to all three of them and gave each of them a hug as a thank you. “That’s the most fun I’ve had in so long!” She marveled. “I was so nervous when I was about to go out on stage.”

Joe chuckled. “We said you would be. But you had fun. That’s all that matters.”

Nick moved from where he was standing before and greeted me with a hug. I set my hands on his back lightly before pushing him off of me. I laughed at his confused face. “You don’t want to touch me. I’m all sweaty.”

He grinned. “Okay then.” We talked for a few more minutes before they had to go into lockdown. We wished them luck before they left. Reiley and I went to a secluded corner and quickly changed back into our clothes we were wearing before the concert. Changing just in time, we saw the start of the Jonas Brothers concert.

I had been to one concert of theirs and that had been a while back during the Burnin Up tour two years ago. It had been one of my memorable nights of my entire life. I remember being mesmerized by the fact that my favorite band was right there in front of me rocking out to the music I loved so much.

Time Lapse

The beeps sounded from my phone as it jolted me up from my sleep. I groaned and tossed over to my side to turn the stupid alarm off of my phone. I had set it for 4:30pm after taking a small nap in the afternoon. Last night had been insanely crazy with all the dancers staying up to almost five in the morning after the concert.

It had been almost a week since we started tour and it was only now I understood what Nick meant in interviews with the crazy hours. My sleep schedule had been deprived with the different promotions and such we had to go to. Being one of Selena’s dancers didn’t require as much as time and commitment Nick and his brothers, and even Selena put into with all their interviews and side concerts.

Jumping out of bed, I unsuccessfully tried to walk towards the small bathroom. I acknowledged some of the other dancers who were relaxing in the front lounge by giving a disorientated “Hey.” Stepping into the bathroom, I blasted the shower into hot water and took a shower. Fifteen minutes later, I emerged out of the bathroom refreshed and ready for tonight’s concert.

I went to the lounge where the rest of the dancers hand recruited too. Everyone was just relaxing after the crazy night we had last night. We had come back so late, but we were all still very energetic that we ended up having an all girl sleepover. We went all out, with truth and dare, prank phone calls, makeovers, you name it.

I yawned as I sat down next to Hannah. “Gosh, I’m so tired.”

“Tell me about it. I think I got maybe five hours of sleep before the stupid bus went over a speed bump.” Jenny grumbled.

“But last night was pretty fun.” Andrea admitted. It was true. The concert last night had been one of the best. The crowd had been so pumped up that it was so hard not to try to cover
your ears to block out the intense screaming.

“Did any of you see the sign that was right in front of the walkway?” Hilary asked excitedly.

A couple of the other girls and I shook our heads no. “Why? What did it say?”

“I know what you’re talking about!” Emily chuckled. “The one that said ‘Get Naked Joe’?”

Everyone erupted into a fit of laughter. “Are you serious? I wish I had seen that!” I giggled.

Hilary grinned. “Yeah. And here’s the best part. Joe went up and stood right in front of the girl
and took off his shirt right in front of her. She was screaming her head off when he did it.”

I shook my head amused. “Joe would do that.” He knew so many girls adored him and he loved to rub it into his brother’s faces.

A couple hours passed by before we stepped out of the bus. Selena was already inside the arena after coming in directly from a nearby city radio station. Her personality was very interesting. Everything you saw on camera and interview was true as she hung out with us.

But I kept getting this feeling that every time she would talk to me or even look at me, she had this almost annoyed expression. It just seemed to prove that even celebrities weren’t perfect.

We walked quietly to the arena as we listened to the screams from the outside. We could see from behind the arena the thousands and thousands of fans standing outside in the blazing hot air of Arizona. I could make out specks of signs that said “Joe your home state loves you” and other signs that were similar to it.

Hurrying inside the building, we found ourselves backstage. We wound through the corridors of the back part of the arena and worked our way to the stage. It looked like they boys were just finishing their own sound check as the last note sang lingered in the air.

“Good job boys” Mr.Jonas called out clapping his hands as a sign they were finished. Nick and Kevin swung their guitars over their shoulders and set them down at the side of the stage. Selena walked onto the stage and began adjusting the mike to fit her. To my surprise, Nick and his brothers came back on stage and began talking to her.

Selena started smiling at whatever they were telling her and she nodded her head in what it seemed agreement. Hannah and Sabrina lead the group as we ascended the stairs that raised us to the stage as we made our way towards them.

“That sounds great. I would love to!” Selena said excitedly as we came in range of their conversation.

“What sounds so great?” I asked going to Nick’s side to give him a hug. I hadn’t seen much of him last night and I had been on our bus the entire day today. So the hug was a little overdue.

“We’re going to do a duet with Selena for one of her songs.” Kevin explained. “We were talking about it earlier, but tonight we’re going to premiere it.”

I smiled. “That sounds cool. Are we still dancing to it?” I questioned Selena wondering how it was going to play out with three more people running around on stage.

Selena shrugged. “We should be able to. Just make sure not to knock into any of them.” She pointed out to Joe.

“Why are you looking at me?” Joe remarked as his brothers looked at him knowingly. “I’m not that much of trouble on the stage.”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “Do we need to remind what happened to you in Tampa?”

Joe’s smile turned sheepish. “That was the only once. I didn’t mean to knock the mike
stand over and trip. I didn’t see it. And plus, I totally saved myself. I just flipped over.”

Nick scoffed. “And what happened in Columbus?”

“Okay that’s not fair.” Joe complained. “Those girls pulled me into the crowd! It’s not like I purposely tossed myself into the crowd.”

Selena laughed. “That just proved to me you are no way standing next to me tonight and singing.”

“I feel the love.” Joe said sarcastically.

“Awh Joey.” I cooed. “You know we all love you.” I tackled Joe in a teddy bear hug as he laughed in my ear. He picked me up and set me down right back down next to Nick.

We fled through Selena’s sound check within the next hour. They tried the duet with Selena for the first time, and it went by smoothly. Any interference with the extra boys on stage wasn’t noticed gratefully. I was pretty excited for tonight to actually be on stage while they were performing.
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Lights began to dim as one spotlight stayed in the middle of the stage. Our heads were bowed down as we stood in a U shaped line waiting for the music to begin. The screams started as Selena shot her arm in the air from underneath the stage as she was lifted from underneath on a stand. The rumbling of the sound waves made their way through the floor of the stage. Our bodies began dancing on cue as the Selena started singing.

Selena had changed up the order of the songs she was singing so the last song would be the one where Nick, Kevin, and Joe would come on stage. “How are we doing Phoenix?” Selena screamed into her microphone. High pitched sounds from the audience answered her question. “That’s good! Well I have one more song that I’m going to be performing tonight. But the thing is, I need a little help with it from a few friends.”

We dancers were walking around the stage taking a huge gulp of water from the water bottles that were set on the sides. Selena continued to talk giving us the much needed break. “You may have heard of them.” Selena yelled. “They go by the names of Nick, Kevin, and Joe!” The screams escalated right after she had said Nick’s name. I chuckled at the crowd’s reaction. I loved how if I would be in the audience right now, I would be one of the loudest girls screaming.

“Come on out boys!” Selena prompted. I looked to the side of the stage as they emerged from backstage and onto the front of the stage. The screams continued to echo throughout the arena as the beats of the song began to play by Selena’s backup band.

We got into our positions and immediately began dancing the steps that had been programmed into my mind. I watched as Nick harmonized with Selena’s voice. As much as I hated to admit it, it sounded really good. The two voices together were amazing. Nick was putting so much emotion into his songs like he always did which ended up mesmerizing as usual. It still amazed me how even after long and tiring day/s, the band made sure they gave their best to their fans no matter how bad the day had gotten.

As these thoughts were processing through my mind, I failed to notice one vital detail. It wasn’t till Reiley nudged me and leant her head towards the front of the stage. My heart began to race as I saw a sight I didn’t want to see. It was almost like déjà vu of a specific YouTube video I had seen almost a year ago.

Remember the infamous video that came out during the Hannah Montana Tour? “Hannah” had rested her arm across his shoulders. And then came the famous kiss on the cheek? There you go, now you remember. I remember watching it on the internet smiling at how cute it seemed.

Now? Not so cute. Selena didn’t have her arm around him, but she was standing unbelievably close to him. She began to sing facing Nick and singing right to him as if he was the only person on stage she could sing to. And the worst part was Nick was singing right back to her with his sweet smile. The sweet smile he would give me whenever he would tease me and talk to me.

Calm down Cady. I kept telling myself not to bring myself to be jealous at all. But the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach kept becoming bigger and bigger as they didn’t stop. I snapped out of my trance and started move to other side of the stage as we were supposed to.

We began to clap in unison to the beat for a few seconds which we used to take a breather. The feeling in my stomach wasn’t decreasing at all and it just about almost jumped out of my stomach and into my heart as my jaw dropped open at the sight that was unraveling in front of my eyes.

My heart seemed to exchange place with my stomach within two seconds. I looked over to Reiley to make sure what I just saw was actually real. Wide eyed, Reiley looked at me. My face wanted to crumble, but there was no way I could on stage.

My mind began to replay what I had just seen over and over again. I was more than positive this would make its way on the internet as sure as one person out of the entire ten thousand girls would have got this on video. The sickening image kept going through my head of Selena leaning down to Nick and kissing his cheek which he returned with a small but noticeable smile.