Shivley: A Now United Story

Ch 50: Bam Bam

Before she could say anything, he kissed her. Shivani was so caught off guard she coughed in his mouth, but he being the smoothest person ever, simply laughed and dipped her dramatically. When he pulled her up, he stared straight into her eyes, a hint of laughter hidden behind his eyes, "I'm going to try that kiss again if that's okay with you?"

All Shivani could do was nod and he leaned in to kiss her. The kiss was light and hopeful and Shivani couldn't help but feel like her heart was about to beat out of her chest. She didn't understand how someone could make her feel this way, but somehow...somehow he always did. 

He pulled back from the kiss to look at her face. His face scrunched up, "Hm."

Shivani looked at him questioningly, "What?"

He shook his head and pulled her in for a hug. "What's on your mind?" he whispered into her hair.

She shook her head, "Noth-," she began, but he cut her off immediately and pulled her back slightly to look at her face.

"Don't say nothing," he said softly, swiping a thumb across her cheek, "because I can see you've been crying."

She sighed and tried to pull back, but his arms were strong around her and she looked up. "I was crying, but I'm fine now. I promise." She tried to sound convincing and though he could probably tell she wasn't fine, he thankfully didn't push too hard.

He moved to close the door, when Shawn appeared at the doorway. Shivani was surprised and even though she knew that Shawn was okay with them dating on the down low, she was a little scared they were in trouble because the contract they signed said they wouldn't date on another. Shawn's face also didn't have its usual happy expression which was extremely worrying.

"Hey guys, sorry if I'm interrupting, but I really need to talk to both of you." Shawn walked in and gestured to both of them to take a seat on the bed. Shivani sat down on the edge of the bed next to her boyfriend. 

And by her boyfriend, she meant Noah. The last three months were were very interesting, but through it all Noah had her back and he was very respectful to her. They had officially started dating a month ago, and they'd made sure to tell Shawn right away so they weren't jeopardizing their position in Now United. Though Shawn was a little unsure in the beginning, she eventually came around as long as Shivani and Noah kept their relationship private. 

This was probably for the best given things with Bailey hadn't exactly been resolved. He'd pretty much just been keeping his distance from her. Things weren't rough...just slightly awkward. He had sort of withdrawn from the group and mostly talked to Sabina, his best friend in the group.

"What's up Shawn?" Noah asked. "You're kind of scaring me."

Shawn shrugged, "Well there's no easy way to say this. And I understand that you're going to have some questions so let me start off by saying you will not have to breakup, that's not what I am going to say at all."

Breakup? That was not something that Shivani expected Shawn to bring up at all.

Shawn continued after a long pause, "I just had a meeting with Simon and I'm going to talk to the rest of the group about this, but I wanted to tell you both first since I did give you my permission to date."

She sighed again. "As we head to San Francisco and then go further into tour, we all have different roles we need to fulfill to some degree in the group. We want you all to be who you are, but we also need you to play into certain compelling roles for the fans."

"That might sound confusing, and it really is, but I promise that it's something that will protect you from getting too hurt by criticism and it will also make you more compelling to the fans."

"I know you both are probably confused, and I'll explain more later, but I wanted to give you both a heads up on the 'roles' Simon wants you to fulfill."

Shawn looked first at Noah. "Noah, your friendship with Josh is one of the most compelling friendships so far so we need you both to continue posting videos consistently. Additionally, and this is the part that might be awkward, we need fans to ship you and Sina."

Shawn paused for a moment as Noah said, "What?"

"I know you probably have several questions, and I get that-," Shawn started, but Noah cut her off before she could finish. 

"Why does it have to be Sina? Wouldn't it make more sense to have fans ship me with Shivani since we already have the chemistry?" Noah seemed confused and honestly Shivani was too. She loved being in Now United, but the PR part of the role was very confusing.

Shawn shook her head. "I'm sorry, but Simon was clear that this is how it's going to be, at least initially."

"So what does that mean then? What changes?" Noah asked.

"This means that you have to spend most of your time with Sina and Josh. When we're on the bus, you sit next to Sina so that when we're filming the tour documentary, fans can see the chemistry. During performances you need to make sure you look at each other and give that chemistry, and your instagram pictures should feature both Sina and Josh most frequently. In other words, you need to have a fake public relationship, but you won't have to do anything like kiss. It's more about conveying the chemistry." Shawn paused, but this time there was just silence.

Shivani couldn't believe what she was hearing. She knew this was for the band, but it was so hard to think about being on tour and not even being able to be with Noah. 

"No." Shivani was surprised that came out of her mouth, but she doubled down on it. "No, Shawn how can we be expected to live a lie? Aren't the most compelling artists brutally honest with their fans?"

Shawn smiled sympathetically. "I know it doesn't make any sense, trust me I get it, but Simon knows what he's doing. It's very important that we stick to the plan for the first tour because this is what's going to determine the future of the band. You only debut once and we all want this to be a success."

Noah just shook his head and didn't say anything and Shivani didn't really know what to say either.

Shawn cleared her throat. "I don't want to upset you both either, but Shivani you are going to continue your friendship with Hina."

That didn't sound so bad. Hina was already one of her best friends and spending more time with her sounded fun and maybe this would help Shivani get over her insecurities about followers.

"And Simon wants you and Bailey to be a ship." Shawn said this so quickly that Shivani almost missed it, but Noah tensed up immediately next to Shivani. 

This was going to be an interesting tour to say the least.