STORIES TOLD, STORIES LIVED

EPILOGUE

ARINA'S P.O.V

I can hear people talking from where I am. Alessia looks at me and smiles, as she's doing my hijab and make up. We're so excited for today. The crew keep checking on us every few minutes too, in case we need anything. We're this close to one major thing; revelation.

"Welcome to the show, people!" Ellen cheers her audience even louder. "Wow... Look at this shiny faces. How are you?"

"Good!" Them people reply in unison.

"Awesome! So, today, we're going to talk about something veeeery interesting, and excited, and inspiring..."

She keeps going with her script. Alessia and I are watching from this flat screen because it's not yet my time.

"Let me introduce you to this very talented girl, she's a writer. But what makes her special is her genre, and pretty much everything in between. Arina Shaw, everybody, from Malaysia!!!"

One of the crews leads me to the stage. I take a deep breath. A glance back at Alessia, she gives me her thumbs up. Slowly this door's open, and I'm hit by the bright lights, cameras, and applause from people.

"Come on here, Arina!" Ellen calls me to sit with her.

"Hi all." I give my best smile to the audience.

"Look at her! She's so cute!" Ellen rubs my back as she hugs me, then we both finally sit on her signature couch. "Welcome to The Ellen Show."

"Thank you so much for having me." I nod. "How are you?"

"I'm doing great. Thank you for coming too. It's an honor to have you with us today."

Every single word that she says, people react to it. The studio is packed with Ellen's supportive audience. It's so cool. And there are my mom and dad sitting among them, sharing proud tears.

"So, Arina, let's talk about your book." Ellen has the situation under control. "It's called... Wait, I have your book here. It's titled Stories Told, Stories Lived, right?"

"Yes it is."

I look at the cover of my book that she's holding and showing to the camera. It has Riley's face in it.

"This book, wow, let me remind you that you're a New York Times Best Selling Author! And you're from Malaysia!" Ellen gets twice as excited than before.

"Hahaha. It's been a blast. I would never be able to pull my script without people's support, too."

"That's crazy... Okay, tell me about the inspiration of the book."

"Well..." I take a deep breath. "It's still this one person that has been my inspiration since first time I picked up my pen and started ranting. He's in the book. Ah, no, he's the book is all about."

"I heard that too." Ellen shows the cover of it once again to the camera with her smirk. "And we maaaay...or may not...have figured out who he is."

"Dang, I thought it wasn't that easy to guess." I chuckle back.

"You're funny. People, she's funny." Ellen keeps the joke alive.

"How long you two have been together?"

"Pretty much a year and a half now. We're not really counting, so."

"You're so cute. You're dating the lead vocalist of one of the biggest bands ever and you said you're not counting?"

"I'm seriously not!" I give my grin to the camera. "It's yeah, around that."

"One year and eight months now, babe."