Crowded Room

20. Backstage

Camila holds her breath while Jade, one of the girls working on the outfits for the production, ties up her corset and does some adjustments on her Cinderella costume. She feels like she’s coming straight out of the eighteenth century in that huge light blue dress that barely leaves room for her to breathe, but it looks perfect either way. She feels like a real life princess when she looks into the mirror, which can only help her get into character. The opening night would be in a few weeks, so everyone was both freaking out and working really hard so everything would come out as expected. 

 She hadn’t worked alone with Shawn as much anymore, but he always made sure to appear in each one of the rehearsals, even if he didn’t really need to be there. Taylor had been trying to make them tell her anything, but somehow they had mastered the whole sneaking around thing and hadn’t told anyone about them. It did make her question if they were never going to make it public. She knew Shawn wasn’t sleeping around anymore, even if they hadn’t really done anything yet, so she couldn’t help but wish he saw this thing as more than it was.

 “ I think this is it.” Jade said as the two of them admired Camila’s beautiful gown.

 “ Wow.” Camila sighed, smiling at the girl through the mirror. “ It looks amazing!”

 “ Hey, Taylor needs you out there.” Shawn enters the dressing room and immediately stops on his tracks when he sees her.

 “ What do you think?” Camila asks him with a big smile on her face.

 “ You look… incredible.” He manages to say, staring at her like she’s from another world.

 “ Thank you.” She smiles shyly at him, feelings herself blushing from how he’s looking at her. “ You said Taylor needs me?”

 Shawn just nods his head, not seeming to be able to speak out loud. Camila laughed and followed him outside to the stage where Taylor wanted her opinion to change a word in a lyric of one of her solos. After giving Taylor her approval for the small change, they finally start the first rehearsal with everyone in their costumes. It was meant for them to see if anything felt uncomfortable while moving on stage and by the end, Camila’s main outfit would have to suffer a few slight changes so it wouldn’t get on her way or get trapped on anything. 

 They had yet to rehearse any kisses, since they would always skip them, but the professors directing the production agreed it was time to start working on those as well and Camila almost wanted to throw up when she realized she would have to kiss Luke while Shawn was there watching them. She didn’t look at the audience where Shawn was seated next to Taylor even once during the rest of the rehearsal and once it was over, she walked straight to the dressing room that was temporarily hers.

 “ You want help with that?” Shawn’s voice makes her look up and find his eyes through the mirror while she tries to untie her corset.

 “ Where is Jade?” Camila asks, still trying to work on getting rid of her outfit.

 “ She’s helping your fairy godmother.” Shawn says, walking inside and closing the door behind him before reaching for her dress and working on untying her corset.

 “ Thank you.” Camila whispers, finally being able to breathe properly after the corset is loosen up. 

 Her eyes met Shawn’s through the mirror and his stare could kill before he leaned his head to her shoulder and kissed her exposed skin. Her eyes immediately go to the closed door before Shawn turns her around and kisses her neck and jaw. She thought he would be a little mad after seeing her kiss Luke so many times on stage, but apparently he had passed that stage and was now acting out of pure jealousy.

 “ I’m sorry I had to kiss him so many times.” Camila whispers teasingly against his lips.

 “ That was torture.” Shawn says, gently pushing her towards the dressing table and effortlessly sitting her up there.

 “ I hated every second of it.” Camila confesses before kissing him harder, suddenly forgetting their surroundings.

 His lips move in sync with hers as he holds her waist, her hands on his neck as they try to get as close as possible even with her huge costume on the way. Something about him feeling this jealous made her feel really good about herself, especially how he was reacting to it. It felt good to know she had that kind of effect on him.

 She tilted her head up as his lips found her neck and she tried not to make a sound when she felt his teeth clearly leaving a mark there. Her eyes opened for a second as she gasped at the sensation and her hands quickly pushed him away when she saw someone opening the door and staring at them.

 “ Sorry. I knocked a few times but no one answered.” One of the professors said, clearing her throat and looking just as embarrassed as the two of them. “ Taylor is looking for you, Shawn.”

 “ Sure.” Shawn says, helping Camila down from the dressing table and leaving along with the older woman.

 Camila just stands there with her face burning in embarrassment and thinking she’ll never be able to look in the eyes of that professor again. In a few seconds Jade walks in to help her with the outfit and she thinks it was bound for someone to walk on them making out in a place like that, but lately she’s been finding it hard not to kiss him anywhere she sees him.

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A/N: Double update! Hope you like it! 💕