The Blindside of Love (Camren) Altern Versión

Chapter 26

Lauren found herself on stage with five hundred pairs of eyes focused in her direction. She gripped the microphone tighter and forced herself to breathe. This is neither the time nor place to get stage fright.

"Hello everyone," she greeted the crowd, that was still applauding and cheering her entrance. She did her best to smile through the storm of bright flashes clicking away in her direction.

Just breathe. Breathing is good. Breathing will keep you from passing out. Passing out is bad.

As the crowd quieted, Lauren spoke again.

"I'm really happy to be here with you guys. This is my first time doing one of these shindigs so please be gentle."

A few people whistled, which Lauren found oddly encouraging. "When I took the part of Kiara, I never imagined that the show would gather such a healthy following. I definitely never expected to be standing here right now in front of all of you. And boy is there a lot of you." Did I say that out loud? "I'm really not sure what to talk about so I'll just let you guys ask me some questions." Why am I so lame? I was definitely not made for public speaking.

Hundreds of arms shot up in the air.

Oh shit. I must have been out of my mind when I agreed to do this. She pointed to a random person, who stood and addressed her nervously. Are all my fans little boys? she wondered. Maybe if Kiara got a girlfriend we could spice things up a little.

The boy smiled dreamily up at the stage.

"You're beautiful," he informed her..

Lauren found herself blushing in spite of herself. Way to be tough, Jauregui .

"Thank you," she replied. "You're not so bad yourself."

His jaw hung open as he plopped back down in his seat.

Well that was easy. She watched the sea of arms shoot upward again. This time she selected a woman, who sported a Guardian tee shirt. Lauren was mildly surprised. She didn't even know they had those.

The woman, who didn't appear to be much older than Lauren herself, coughed nervously. "Could you give us a hint as to what we can expect from the film? Will it be a lot different from the TV show?"

Lauren blinked a few times. The woman had spoken so quickly that Lauren hadn't understood a blessed word. She smiled. "I understood the word film in there somewhere."

The crowd laughed good-naturedly and the woman blushed to the roots of her light hair. She repeated both questions, slowly this time, and sat down.

Lauren felt like giggling for some reason.

This was kind of fun. Who knew she could make women blush so easily? And she's kind of cute. She instantly remembered that there were expectant eyes focused on her every move.

"Let's see. You can expect much better special effects." The audience clapped at this. "Kiara may find a love interest." At this point there was a low murmur in the crowd. "And there's a very surprise ending." She was pleased when the murmuring grew louder.

"It'll be different from the TV show," she continued, "in various ways. Our budget is bigger so the costumes are really nice. Kiara's wings actually move and stuff which is pretty cool." Way to be articulate. "Also, we don't have to worry as much about censorship so we've taken a few liberties."

Boring, heterosexual liberties but liberties nonetheless.

"I think it'll all fit nicely with the series once it resumes in the fall."