Lover's Dance

“Are you sure about this?”
I glanced at Kayla, who was pulling at her shirt nervously. Next to her, Matt, Ethan, and Jacob looked at the curtain in front of us worriedly. Behind that curtain was a crowd completely out of our league, a crowd different than any we’d ever played. Instead of raging teenagers in a dimly lit concert hall, we’d be facing A-list celebrities waiting to be entertained after watching the premiere of Catching Fire, the second movie in The Hunger Games trilogy. Casper’s Dance’s single Losing Ourselves was perfect for the soundtrack and we’d been contacted almost as soon as we’d released it. Now we were performing at the after party for the movie premiere and were about to come head to head with a whole new crowd. Whether or not we were ready for that was another thing.
I turned to Kayla, smiling encouragingly. “Do we have a choice?”
She laughed, nodding. The tension lifted a little, and with that they all turned towards the curtain and waited for their introduction.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a nice warm welcoming to your entertainment for the night- Casper’s Dance!
My friends filed in front of me, waking through the curtain to the stage, where they’d be settling into their instruments. I waited a few seconds more before going after them and joining them on stage.
It was- huge. There were at least four hundred people in the crowd, all watching us. The size of our normal concerts isn’t much smaller than this usually, but we can’t usually see them in the dark lights, compared to these bright ones, and they were never famous actors and artists. They were never watching our every move, wondering how a band they’d probably never heard of got on their stage.
But I knew how we got on this stage, and I’d be damned if I didn’t show them.
“Are you ready to dance?” I asked slyly. Immediately Matt pounded on the drums and the atmosphere changed. Ethan and Jacob played their guitars and Kayla moved with her bass, and I, I danced recklessly along with the music, hoping to get the crowd as pumped as I could. For our three song set, we’d decided to start off with a cover of 3oh!3’s Don’t Trust Me, but as a girl version. The crowd was getting into it and dancing to the music, even singing along, and by the second verse I knew we had them in the palm of our hands.



Since I could literally see everyone’s face in the audience, I took the liberty of surveying our crowd. Mila Kunis, Brad Pitt, Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus, Sandra Bullock, Jessie Eisenberg, Tom Cruise, Abigail Breslin, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, Woody Harrelson, the names were endless. Almost everyone I’d seen on the television within the last four years was at this shindig.
My eyes landed and stopped on a familiar one. I’d seen him in movies growing up, and I’d seen him in the first Hunger Games movie as well as the second one I’d just watched. I’d watched Josh Hutcherson grow up on screen just as I’d grown up at home, and now he was watching me on stage. My eyes met his and I smirked, singing the bridge and my favorite part, while I swung my hips back and forth.



Josh just smiled back, and I continued looking around the room. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the song. I danced over to Kayla’s side and sang to her while she played her bass and laughed, trying to ignore me. Smiling, I finished the song center stage and we received great applause. Immediately we went into our next song, which was the slower song that had gotten us to this show, Losing Ourselves. Really we were meant to be more of the background noise to the party, but pretty much every guest had stopped what they’d been doing before we came on to watch us. First in curiosity, then because they really seemed to enjoy us. Once we finished Losing Ourselves, we ended out set with a more upbeat original, Reckless Hearts, before saying goodbye to an applauding crowd and walking off stage.
Backstage, we immediately embraced each other. Kayla’s arms wrapped around mine before she took off and hugged Matt and Ethan. My arms found Jacob’s waist and squeezed tightly. He pulled away and laughed, ecstatic.
“Can you believe we just did that?” He asked. I shook my head, grabbing Ethan’s hand beside me.
“No.” I squealed, “But we did. We just fucking did.”
“Hell yeah we did!” Matt cheered, coming to give me a hug as well. It was amazing, the high we all were feeling. Even when we were playing in Matt’s garage all those years ago, we’d barely dreamed of playing small venues, let alone a room full of top notch celebrities. But not only have did we play small venues, we played huge sold out venues and, yes, we’d just played for some of Hollywood’s elite.
Quickly running to the room they’d designated as our dressing room, we all stripped quickly and changed into our party clothes. We had long since stopped caring about changing in front of each other, as we were always given dressing rooms together and had been sharing a tour bus for a year and a half. Matt, Ethan, and Jacob had gotten used to it rather quickly, especially since shirts weren’t something I liked to wear in my down time, often parading around in just my bra and sweatpants.
I changed into a fairly simple black dress with some ruffles at the breast and fit my curves really nicely. Ruffling my medium red hair, I pinned a piece back from one side with a silver butterfly clip and let the bottom curl just a bit. Slipping on silver glittered pumps and lightly spreading red lipstick on, I waited for the rest of the band to finish getting ready before making our entrance to the party. Kayla, in her pretty royal blue dress, held onto my hand as we entered in front of the boys. Almost immediately, we were swarmed. Everyone wanted to talk to us, talk to me. Kayla’s hand was pulled from mine as Will Ferrell began a conversation with her and I was whisked away to talk to Zac Efron and Willow Smith. It was madness, pure and utter madness. I’m sure for everyone else, this was the normal mingling these kind of parties entailed. But to us, it was a hurricane of faces and people trying to talk to us. I was getting dizzy with all the people flashing before my eyes, asking how old I was and how long had the band been together. 19, I answered. Only a few years, I responded.
After awhile, things seemed to calm down. I could breathe, if you can believe it. People were content with small moments of small talk before letting me continue moving, and giving me moments to breathe. Getting a drink, I glanced around the room until I saw Kayla chatting animatedly with David Henry and Matt flirting trying to flirt with Hilary Duff. I finished pouring myself some coke before walking away from the refreshment table, finding myself in the clutches of Blake Lively, who then proceeded to talk my ear off. Only a few minutes into the conversation I found myself automatically nodding and looking around the room for a way out. Over my shoulder, I saw Josh Hutcherson once more, talking to Liam Hemsworth. My eyes stopped on him for awhile, admiring how well he’s grown up over the years.
Almost as if he felt my eyes on him, he turned his head and caught me staring. My usual reaction would be to look away quickly and blush awkwardly until they moved on, but for some reason I found myself meeting Josh’s eyes and smiling softly before turning back to Blake. At that moment someone pulled her away, leaving me alone once more. I turned, drink in hand, to where I’d just seen Josh. He was excusing himself from Liam, and making his way over to me, watching me carefully. I just smiled until he reached me.
“Hey,” He greeted smoothly, leaning in ever so slightly. “I’m Josh.” He gave me his hand to shake.
“Delaney.” I introduced myself, shaking his hand firmly.
“I saw you on up there earlier,” He said, referring to the stage. “You were great.”
“I saw you on screen earlier,” I responded. “You weren’t so bad yourself.”
“Why thank you,” He laughed. I smiled, finding his laugh warm and charming. I liked it. And I told him so.
“A compliment? Already? We’d better sit down, this is sure to be a great conversation.” He led me over to one of the empty tables and sat beside me, taking a sip of his drink.
“So tell me about yourself.” He started, watching me carefully.
“What’s there to tell?” I shrugged, “Rockstar by night, Tinkerbell by day, pirate in my down time.” Josh laughed, momentarily choking on his drink, which in turn made me laugh.
“Are you okay?” I laughed, handing him a napkin.
“Yeah,” He laughed again. “That’s, uhm- that’s a very busy schedule.”
“Yeah, I like to keep busy.” I nodded.
“So I take it that means you actually don’t have time in your day to do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips?”
“No I have time for that.” I smirked, leaning closer and smiling. He smiled widely, leaning closer so that we were inches apart.
“Well maybe you’ll have to show me sometime.” He suggested. I glanced down at his lips, and back to him.
“You first.” I challenged. He pulled away, throwing his head back in laughter.
“And what about you Mr. Movie maker? What’s to know about you?”
We sat at that table for hours. We sat for what normally would be the entire party, but seeing as how this was a Hollywood party, it probably wasn’t going to end for another five hours, I couldn’t be sure. But I was sure that the three hours I sat at that table were filled was filled with laughs and flirting and information I know I probably wouldn’t have told a normal stranger. Of course, Josh Hutcherson wasn’t an ordinary stranger. Simply sitting this close to him left the energy between us charged and intense yet, oddly simple and charming. I didn’t want to leave, but even I knew my limits. If we didn’t get home soon, I’d never wake up the next morning. And I’d promised the guys we could check out the Hollywood sign. A promise I was reminded of when Jacob came over to our table and told us our rental would be driving in soon before giving me a look. I sighed and laughed, turning back to Josh.
“You know what that means, I’ve got to go. But,” I smiled at the boy I’d ignored the entire party for, “It was nice to meet you.” He nodded, smiling too.
“It sure was.”
I stood, grabbing for my purse when I realized I didn’t have one. I laughed, shaking my head. I turned to Josh quickly, thinking of something. He was already standing though, facing me nervously.
“Can I ask you a favor?” I asked. He nodded.
“Sure, if I can ask for one too.”
“Of course, but mine will probably be resolved in two seconds.”
“Then you go first.” He urged. I took our my phone, smiling sheepishly.
“Can you take a picture with me? I have some friends who will never believe I met you.” He laughed, nodding. I moved next to him and pressed my cheek against his, smiling as I snapped a photo over our heads. I looked at the picture, laughing.
“You weren’t smiling!” I accused.
“I was thinking, my mind was elsewhere.” He shrugged.
“What were you thinking about?” I demanded playfully, “What could be more important that taking a picture with the brilliant girl you met tonight?”
“I was thinking about the favor I had to ask you.” He admitted, laughing.
“You ruined my favor thinking about your favor? No fair, I demand a do over!” I laughed.
“Okay, okay!” He agreed, “after I get my favor!”
I put my phone away, waiting intently. “Alright, ask away.” Josh fidgeted with his tux jacket, laughing nervously.
“Okay, well, I was wondering if you’d do me the great favor of going out with me?”
I raised an eyebrow, unable to believe I’d heard correctly. I waited a moment for him to repeat himself, sure he actually asked me to get him another drink.
“Delaney?” He waved his hand over my eyes. “Did you hear me? I- will you go on a date with me?”
“That really happened?” He laughed, nodding.
“It did. How long are you in town for?”
“I leave after tomorrow.” I answered, frowning.
“Then I guess I’ll have to see you tomorrow night?” He offered, smiling. I took a moment to smile before nodding.
“I guess you will.”
Smiling wider, Josh brought up the picture again. Taking out my camera, I posed next to him again. Right before the photo snapped, he moved to kiss my cheek. Looking at the picture, I laughed.
“That’s a keeper.” I nodded.
“So am I,” He joked. “Keep that in mind.”
Smirking, I promised I would before turning on my heels and finding my way out of the party, where our car was waiting, along with the whole gang.
“Why didn’t you tell me the car was here?” I asked, feeling bad for making them wait. Kayla shrugged.
“Saw you getting cozy with a certain actor,” She teased. “Didn’t want to interrupt you.”
Pushing her shoulder, I laughed and got in the car behind them all. As we pulled away, a feeling of dread swept over, and I hit my head against the window, cursing myself. I hadn’t given Josh my number, nor the hotel we were staying out.
It pretty much ruined an otherwise perfect night, but I didn’t regret my bitter sweet Cinderella evening.