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The party was held in a mansion up in Beverly Hills, which was a new thing for me. Usually, the parties the others and I had to attend were in clubs or somewhere else downtown or in Malibu. When I stepped out from the limousine Victor ordered for each of the casts, the blitz of the cameras blinded me, even though I hadn’t reached the middle of the red carpet. I had to put on my best smile when deep down inside, I really wanted to spat on each of them.

“Dareen! Look over here!”, one of the press shouted at me. I looked to the left then to the right to give all they wanted; a good picture of me. Besides, it would be embarrassing for myself if I see a bad picture of me from tonight ended up in Shush!, the Gossip Girl for Hollywood or even Perez Hilton. An MTV crew came up and helped me to get through the red carpet without getting tripped because I couldn’t see within an arm length distance.

We reached the middle of the red carpet where I had to stop and pose for more pictures. After a dreadful minute, I heard the press on my right called Erica’s name, so I looked over to my right and saw her walking towards me, being lead with a crew too. “Hey, girlie.”, she giggled and wrapped an arm around my waist carefully as the press told us to take a picture together.

“I wish one of us tripped and get a broken nose so Victor wouldn’t invite so many press for the next party!”, I hissed quietly through my teeth because I had to act like I was all smiles.

Erica, in the other hand, chuckled freely. “I thought I would go blind for the night because of their flashes. It’s like aiming for a helpless animal.”

We weren’t the only ones in the red carpet, actually. I could see some of the guest stars came and did some interviews or posed for the press. My eyes always glanced to my sides, scared that they would come up any second in the red carpet or whatever. It was pretty much a nightmare for me because somehow, when the show just started, Shush! Posted like a biography of me. She even wrote about how I was close with a band from my hometown that she hadn’t found out about. The scariest thing was, she swore to not stop before she find out.

“Hey girls.”, Parker came up with his signature crooked smile spread on his face. He put his arms on mine and Erica’s shoulders as we got hit by camera flashes for the thousandth time tonight. “You guys look amazing.”

“Thanks, Ark.”, I smiled up to him. When he looked down to me, I could see his eyes somehow sparkled. I looked away again to prevent any of the press to take a picture of us looking to each other and would end up on the cover of a tabloid with a made up headline.

When Erica and I spotted Lindsay at the end of the red carpet, I quickly shook Parker’s arm off my shoulder and continued to walk down the red carpet. A crew that I usually saw on the set of the show came up to me with a rush look. “Hey, Mariott.”, I greeted her.

“Dareen, I need you to get into the party quick before any of this cannibals could make up any gossip of you.”, she whispered before leading me down to the rest of the red carpet and got into the mansion, away from the camera flashes.

The inside of the mansion was transformed into a night club, but there was a circle stage at the middle of the room and another one by the pool, which I guessed where they would perform later on. Mariott left me alone to mingle and I quickly spotted Victor, talking to someone. It would be best to avoid him for a while tonight before he would talk about the show, which I really didn’t want to do right now. I decided to walk over to the bar to get some drink and my eyes widened to see two of my best friends, talking over there.

“Amy? Feranix?”, I asked when I was close enough for them to hear. Two of the girls looked over to me and I was right, there were my best friends. “Amy! Feranix!”, I quickly tackled both of them into a hug without making a damage on our dresses.

“Dareen!”, Amy gushed as she hugged me back as tight. “I missed you!”

“I missed you guys too.”, I giggled when we pulled away. “How was your flight? I thought you guys would be late or something.”

Feranix rolled her eyes and blew raspberries. “No way. Got invited to a Hollywood party? We won’t be late!”, she laughed nervously.

It was obvious they were still trying to hide the fact that the guys were here. “Amy. Feranix. Did you guys have something to tell me?”

“No!”, Amy quickly answered and I could see her kicked Feranix’s foot softly, trying to tell her to shut up. “Nothing at all, Dare.”

I looked over to Feranix and narrowed my eyes on her. She was the worst liar ever because I could see some sweat formed on her forehead from holding back the lie. “Cameron’s here!”, she blurted out.

“Feranix!”, Amy scolded and pinched our friend’s arm. “Good job!”

“Sorr-y! You know how Dareen’s eyes works. They are like kryptonite to Superman!”, she complained while rubbing the spot where Amy pinched her. “What are you going to do, Dare?”

All I could do was shrugging my shoulder and holding the butterflies that were quickly filling my stomach. My eyes scanned the now almost packed room to look for the faces that I was familiar with. Suddenly, Erica came over to the three of us. “Amy! Feranix!”, she waved.

“Erica!”, both of them replied her with a wave too. They hugged when Erica already near us. I left them to a conversation and decided to get some fresh night air outside by the pool. It was a dangerous spot for me but I didn’t care. I really needed some air.

The outside was more beautiful than the inside. There were some floating candles on the pool along with petals of flowers. More candles were placed along the edge of the pool. A bar near the circle booths that were facing the city skyline and some sofas scattered around neatly. I went over to one of the sofas and just sat there, taking the view in.

“Why are you here alone?”, Parker sat down next to me and asked with a smile.

“It’s too crowded inside. Besides, I need some air.”, I answered and leaned back to my seat. “Park, it wouldn’t be safe for us to be alone without being rumored that we are dating.”

Parker laughed softly on my statement. “Let them say whatever they want to say, Dareen. At least we both know what’s the truth, right?”

I sighed and nodded, agreed on what he said. We watched as some other guests came out to the poolside and filled out the booths or just talking to someone on the sofas or even standing. I noticed some crews were already setting up the stage for the band to perform and my eyes widened when I actually noticed the drum set that belonged to my friend. I quickly stood up and excused myself from Parker to go to the bathroom.

When I was on my way to the bathroom, someone caught my shoulder and stopped me on my way. “Dareen?”, that someone asked. I turned around and greeted by a bear hug from David. “Dareen! How are ya?!”

“Hey, Davey.”, I chuckled and hugged him back a bit, scared that I would tore my dress or something. “I’m great.”

We pulled away before someone could catch us hugging. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to hug him for much longer, but I told him and the others about how in Hollywood, a little affection could make the stupidest headline. “Why didn’t you guys tell me that you’re playing the party?”, I bluntly asked.

David’s childish eyes widened and he grew awkward to the question. “I-It wasn’t like that, Dare. We didn’t want you to freak and bail. We see this as a chance.”

“But it would be like pushing me to a sharks invested pool!”, I groaned and whined.

“Calm down.”, David caught my shoulders again and squeezed them so I would stop. “Everything will be fine. The girls are here and you have to see us play or I’ll kick you in the butt.”

His jokes calmed me down and I just nodded before he walked away to the stage because it was almost time for them to play. Suddenly, I walked to the windows that showed me a good view of the pool and peeked to the guys that were on the side of the stage. It was the first time in a year that I saw him. He had his back on me but I knew it was him. His figure didn’t change a bit, his hair changed drastically, but I still knew it was him. When he turned around to talk to Eric, I didn’t have time to run away and he spotted me.

It was the first time we looked at each other again.