Crowded Room

22. Cinderella

Camila takes deep breaths while looking at herself in the mirror of the dressing room, admiring the outfit she would wear for most of the musical before actually changing into Cinderella’s ball gown. The day had finally come. It was the opening night and she spent the whole day feeling like she was about to puke, but the second someone announced they had twenty minutes for the show to start, she suddenly felt much calmer. A man had just adjusted the hidden microphone in her hair and she was ready to go, but there was still one thing missing.

 “ You okay, right?” She heard Shawn’s voice as he entered the dressing room and walked to her with concern in his eyes. She had asked someone to get him to go see her before the whole thing started, so he must have thought something was wrong.

 “ I’m okay.” She smiles and nods. “ I just wanted to see you before it started.”

 “ You’ll be great, little freshman.” Shawn smiled before hugging her and she loved hearing that nickname, he hadn’t said it in awhile. He tried to kiss her lips, but she immediately dogged it with a laugh.

 “ Don’t kiss me. You’ll ruin my makeup.” She says, taking his hand in hers.

 She’s looking into his eyes when people working on the production call for him, after all he’ll be playing, so he was already supposed to be in place.

 “ You’ll kick ass, Camila. I just know it.” He whispers, kissing the back of her hand before walking back out.

 She feels a lot more relaxed and prepared after seeing him and soon enough it’s her time to walk out there. Contrary to what she believed, she wasn’t nervous at all when she first walked on stage and for the first time in her life, she felt like she was in a place she truly belonged. She got every single of her lines right, doing what she believed was her best acting ever, and nailed every single note and emotion on the songs she was singing in. Even the kisses, she made them look natural and when she had to change to her main outfit, the blue classic Cinderella dress, she never felt more in character.

 The whole thing happened so fast that before she realized, she was already bowing with the rest of the cast. The crowd was insane, giving them a standing ovation. She knew what it was like to have people clap for you like that, but not that many people and certainly not with that much enthusiasm. Everyone who worked backstage, including the musicians, came out to bow to the public as well, and when the curtains were closed, Camila tried to find Shawn among the crew.

 “ Camila!” Taylor suddenly was hugging her tightly and laughing with her. “ You were phenomenal! I’m so proud of you, Baby C!”

 “ Thank you, Tay.” Camila says, feeling tears of happiness roll down her cheeks. “ Have you seen Shawn?”

 “ I think I saw him walking to the dressing rooms.” She says before walking to congratulate some of the other actors.

 Camila receives many hugs from everyone in the production, including the professors, who won’t let her go and keep telling her how great she was. It takes a while for her to finally walk back to her dressing room and she can’t wait to finally get rid of that costume, but once she gets there, she sees Hailee and Charli waiting for her with huge smiles on the faces.

 “ Congratulations!” Hailee screams, jumping on her and almost knocking her to the ground.

 Charli hugs her too and they can’t stop talking about how beautiful it was to see the play from the crowd, but Camila’s eyes spot Shawn walking in, hiding something behind his back while walking to her. He smiles big at her before handing her a bouquet of sunflowers and red roses. She feels her cheeks burning as she takes the flowers in her hands, ignoring how their friends are watching the whole interaction eagerly. She places them over the dressing table and immediately hugs him, wrapping her arms around neck as he holds her waist and lifts her up, spinning her around and making her laugh.

 “ I’m so proud of you.” He whispers to her ear as he places her back on the floor.

 “ Thank you.” Camila says without letting go of him.

 They keep hugging for what it feels like forever before they hear Charli clearing her throat, making them pull away from each other. She wants to kiss him really bad, but what if he doesn’t want to kiss her in front of their friends? Taylor walks in with a few other girls from the cast and Shawn places his arm over Camila’s shoulder, pulling her closer to him and making her look at him in surprise. It wasn’t a kiss, but it was something.

 Taylor announces they’re all going out to celebrate, their little group of friends and a few more students from the cast and production of the play. They walk to a nearby restaurant in a group of around twenty people, Camila and Shawn walking behind everyone else while discreetly holding hands.

She’s pretty sure they were about to get caught at some point. Shawn has been acting a lot more affectionate with her in public, even if they didn’t exactly tell anyone they were a thing. That’s what she started calling it in her head. A thing. It was the only way she found to describe what they had, even if she wanted to call it a lot more than just a thing. Maybe she should just find the guts to confront Shawn about that, but the possibility of him shutting that down always stopped her.