𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐇 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 [slow updates]

𝟐𝟎

CINDY

This whole place is bustling. I can hear it before we even get out of the car. The soft hum of pop music, these important famous people all speaking and laughing.

"I feel like I'm in college all over again." I say to Levin as he opens my door. He offers me his hand, helping me out.

His car is so tall that he has to grab me by my waist and kind of lift me out of the car.

"They'll make you feel like you're in high school."

"Really? Is it that bad?"

From afar, I guess the idea is nice. Big event with all these famous and important people that you never dream of meeting. But I have to remember that things are always so different when there are so many perspectives.

Levin sighs. "Sometimes. I don't know. These people have a way of making me feel claustrophobic."

"I'll be your gas mask. To keep you safe from the toxins they're trying to spread to you."

His eyes crinkle. "That's the sweetest, most weird thing I've heard come out of your mouth."

I've said worse. We both know that.

He offers me his arm, and I take it, letting him lead me into this almost entirely foreign reality that has never once belonged to me.

Tommy and I had came to an understanding early in his career that I didn't want to be in his spotlight, on his arm at places like these. So, I rarely went unless it was something huge like an award show or charity thing where he was apart of the game.

I've had glimpses of this side of things, but as I look around at all these people posing for cameras and doing interviews in twelve inch heels, I realize how much I didn't take in. Or maybe this is all different from Tommy's world too.

Suddenly feeling ill, I say:

"Levin, I'm going to vomit."

I feel his eyes on me, but I don't look at him. Any motion with send any bodily fluid inside of me hurling out of me at a rapid, unnaturally embarrassing pace.

"You've got this, okay? You look sexy, untouchable, intangible. Act like it. Act like you're too good for all these people. Because you are too good for them, by the way."

His words aren't exactly simple, but I don't imagine them to help so much. To flatten the sudden stomach bug so in one go.

Taking a breath, I look up at him, still too unsure. Even in heels, I don't compare to him in size. Not in width—surprisingly, and definitely not in height.

He nudges me with his elbow, smiling reassuringly.

This whole thing is way out of my league. This place, this guy... Everyone will know this is a haux the second they get a look at me.

Sexy, untouchable, intangible.

Another breath. I take another breath before I square my shoulders and lift my chin. I've so got this.

Maybe it's the deadly amount of anxiety coursing through me that drives me mad enough to think I hear Levin say: "That's my girl." But I guess I'll never know because we're next for interviews.

❄︎❄︎❄︎

Luckily, I don't unleash the contents of my insides at any point during the interviews. We did one, and it went smoothly. The questions were tame and sweet. But then, when people started realizing Levin was here—and here with someone, with me—it was like everything just...