Next Chapter

It was like a year ago, like nothing had changed. His lips changed from a line to a smile; he was smiling to me. Suddenly, someone tugged me by my wrist and I looked over to my side to see Mariott blabbering about something I couldn’t catch. She pulled me away from the window and out to the poolside, to a small bar table with two stools near the stage. My cheeks burned when I could see from the corner of my eyes that Cameron had a full visual on me. Mariott’s words suddenly made sense and my mind was connected to what she had been saying.

“You have to introduce the band that’s gonna perform cause’ as you know the party has a live streaming on the internet.”, Mariott kept on explaining the situation to me when we reached the table. Some make-up artist came up to me and did some touch up on me. One of the crews handed me a mic with an MTV logo on it and told me that the words I needed to say was already on the screen.

All of the words people said to me was like blurry and like slurred from their mouths because I couldn’t focus, knowing that I was only a few feet away from Cameron. When the make-up artist done the touch up, everyone backed up and one of the MTV people told me to sit down on the stool. I did what he told me and glanced over at Cameron, who was already on the stage with his band. He gave me an encouraging smile, which instantly did the trick. Could he still read me like a book?

“We’re going live, three, two, one…”, then, they gave me the cue. I took a deep breath before smiling over to the camera and waited until the words I had to say appeared on the screen.

“Hey, guys and welcome to the hottest party of the season!”, I peeped, trying to cover my cracked voice. “We have a very special performer tonight and I have a feeling you all know who they are. Please welcome The Downtown Fiction!”

When the camera turned over from me to the stage, I exhaled in relief and handed the mic back to the tech. I stayed on the stool and just watched them perform. As much as my heart raced at the moment, I held everything back by balling my hands into fists. They were playing a new song that I had seen so much on MTV called “Thanks For Nothing”, which was their single. When it was released, I had to call David to ask who was it about. It took him and Eric a full hour to convince me that it was about Trish, not me.

When they were done with the first song, they played a couple old songs that I knew, like, “I Just Wanna Run” and “No Typical Thursday Night”. Amy and Feranix came up to me and gave me their smiles. I only needed my best friends in times like these. Amy took my hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze, probably because she could already see my eyes glistened and we didn’t need any tears that could lead to a rumor tonight.

“I need a drink.”, I muttered before getting off the stool and walking towards the mini bar because I could predict the bar inside the mansion wouldn’t be practical. After asking for a simple martini to the bartender, I leaned back slightly onto the bar while still looking at the stage. They done the end of the last song before thanking and walked off the stage. I turned around and the bartender handed me my drink.

“You soften.”, the voice came from behind me. I almost chocked on the olive from the martini when I heard him. “A martini? Really?”, he came up to my side.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I just need a comforting drink.”

I tried my best to not look over to him because I would see those eyes. It was so hard, though, like he had a magnet on his forehead and my head was the metal that got attracted to him. My neck was already stiffed because I held back but at least I was doing a good job at it. “Dareen? Why aren’t you looking at me?”, his velvet voice asked, more like pleading.

‘Just a glance won’t hurt.’, my mind persuaded. It didn’t hurt when I glanced at him from a distance, but it would when we were only a feet away from each other. The stiff on my neck couldn’t get any worse, so I just let it took control. I looked over to him and took a quiet sharp breath when my eyes made contact with him. “Better?”, I muttered, not wanting to know how much my voice cracked.

He smiled and nodded slightly. “Much better.”, he replied in the same volume. “You didn’t change a bit.”, he was about to take a strand of my hair in his fingers before I flinched away.

“We’re not in Virginia anymore.”, I sighed. He didn’t need anymore explanation in that. I could see he quickly glanced around us, making sure that no one saw that. We went into an awkward silent after Cameron ordered just a simple beer from the bartender. I finished my drink before him and was about to walk away, but he caught me by my wrist. “What?”, I asked and looked down to my wrist, where his hand was still encircling it.

“Can we talk?”, he asked. I bit my lower lip a bit before nodding and leading him to the circle booth that was a bit invisible to everyone. We sat down and I waited for him to talk. “It’s nice to see you again, Dare.”

I nodded. “Me too.”

“How are you and Brian?”, he asked. Out of all the things we could talk about, he chose to ask how was Brian and I. Deep in my heart, I still wished he would ask me how I felt about him, which was an easy answer.

“We broke up.”, I answered. “If you paid attention to the tabloids or anything, you’d know.”

“Sorry. We went to Japan again, and tour, as I told you last year, so… I didn’t really pay attention.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”, I muttered. The conversation was going nowhere and I decided to just tell him the truth. “Cameron, I…”, I trailed off.

He looked over to me and that little smile was still adorned his lips. “Yeah?”

“I… I actually…”, I was stuttering and my words were everywhere. Cameron furrowed his brows, trying to understand what I was trying to say. Suddenly, we heard someone calling my name. I stood up and saw Parker, trying to find me.

“Dareen! There you are!”, he said in relief as he stopped at the top of the steps to get to the booth. “We need you inside for the preview of the next episode.”

“I-I’ll be there in a sec, Park.”, I called back. “I have to go.”, I said to Cameron.

He looked a bit disappointed that I couldn’t finish my words, but nodded because he understood that I needed to do this. I walked up the steps and found Parker, still waiting for me. “Come on.”, he smiled and clasped our hands together.

“Parker.”, I pulled out my hand from his. “We don’t need another gossip, right?”

“Dareen.”, he shook his head lightly. “You always think about what the press is going to say.”

I bit my bottom lip again and we continued our way in silence. The inside of the mansion was cramped and crowdy, I even needed an assistance to get onto the stage, following Parker, Erica and Lindsay. The flashes of the cameras blinded me again when I stepped up.

“Thank you everyone that came tonight and to all the viewers at home!”, I said cheerfully through the mic. All the people in the room clapped their hands, making the noise echoed against the walls.

“We proudly to say that ‘Golden Coast’ hit 10,000 viewers half through the season!”, Erica announced through her mic, gaining a lot more claps.

“So, here it is, the episode you all have been waiting for.”, Lindsay voice came out from the speakers.

The giant screen behind us lit up and some of the lights went down so people could see what was on the screen. I spotted my friends, David and Eric at the back of the crowd. David waved his hand childishly at me and I waved back a little to him. Cameron joined them and looked to me again before cracking a smile for me. It was all I needed.