I stood still, but I could still see Norman out of the corner of my eye. He had a weird look on his face that just read what's wrong? I hoped that Gareth didn't notice me or that I had walked in with Norman, but as I suspected, he did. Gareth stopped talking to Lee and turned my way. He walked over to me with a smirk on his face.
"It's about time you showed up," Gareth said, he looked over at Norman, looking at him up and down. God, just hearing Gareth's voice bothered me. His face was trying to trigger some memories in my head, but I held them back. I ignored Gareth's comment and passed him and Lee making my way toward the curtain.
"Let's get this over with," I sighed. A Wizard World employee let the announcers know that we were all ready to go. We lined up, me first with Lee behind me and Gareth behind him. I was glad I didn't have to sit right beside Gareth, just his presence alone made my skin crawl.
As they announced my name I walked onto the stage being greeted with flashing lights and cheers. I waved and smiled then took my seat. "Hi everyone," I spoke into the microphone. Once we were all seated we were asked questions from the fans. Our panel was only a half hour long so we just went straight to the questions. Of course there was the usual questions like, Was there another way for the movie to end?, what would happen if Maggie showed the world her identity?, or the classic one,is there gonna be a second movie?
It all came down to one last question, a young, teenage girl walked up to the mic. And what she was about to ask made me break down. "Are you and Gareth still dating?". I leaned into the mic to say a firm no, however Gareth beat me to it.
"Well," he started "we were for a short time frame, but I'm pretty sure I can get her to fall for me again." He smirked at his answer, seeming quite pleased with it. Meanwhile, I had a flood of memories rushing at me, each one hitting me like a punch in the stomach. I didn't notice I had tears starting to fall from my eyes. I wiped them away quickly and leaned into the mic.
"I...I'm sorry, but I can't do this." I stood up from my seat and ran off backstage.
I tried to run past Norman, but he stopped me.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" he looked worried.
"I'm sorry Norman," I responded "I just can't right now."
***************************
I ran back to my hotel room to calm down for a bit, but I knew I had to head back to the convention. I couldn't let my own personal crap get in the way of me being there for my fans. I took a half hour to myself to calm down and clean up my face. I grabbed my stuff and headed back.
Once I arrived to my booth, I did meet and greets for another three hours then I headed to my photo ops. Luckily my fans didn't bring up what had happened at the panel earlier, which was good because they didn't need to know the truth and I couldn't think of an reasonable excuse.
I headed to my photo ops which lasted about and hour and a half.
When I was finally finished I headed to my hotel to lay down. Man, I was tired. A ding noise caught my attention, it was my phone. Mel was texting me.
Mel: Are you going to the after party tonight? It just started
Me: Well I was thinking about it
Mel: well you should come, it'll help make you feel better about earlier :)
Me: fine just give me some time to get ready
I grabbed my "party" dress. It was a fitted black dress that ended just above the knee. It was strapless and ruched. I got my curling iron ready and fixed some curls that flattened out during the day, touched up my make up, and gabbed my heels.
