Falling for the Fire

Chapter 49

*Ariana's POV

The day of the event was finally here, and I was a nervous wreck. I didn't think that there was anything else that I could've done to be more prepared than I already was, but I was still worried.

There was a lot riding on this, and I needed everything to go smoothly. It was the first event of this scale that I'd been in charge of, and if anything got messed up, it wasn't going to go well for me.

I pulled up to the parking lot that morning and looked down at my shaking hands. Fuck, I really needed to get it together.

When I walked over to our registration table that everyone was going to gather at, Brooklyn was there waiting.

"Morning," she said, "you doing okay?"

"Uh, yeah," I hesitated, "I guess so."

She grinned at me as she held out a coffee in front of her.

"Here," she said, "thought you might need it."

"Thanks," I muttered, too nervous to think anything of it.

I took a sip as I ran through the details of the day in my head.

"What do you need me to do?" Brooklyn asked.

"Just check in and make sure all of the vendors are good to go," I said, "I think that should be it."

"Got it," she said with a nod.

"Oh Brooklyn," I quickly added, "can you check in with the musicians too, especially on the main stage, they start first."

"Yeah of course," she said before taking off in that direction.

Everyone else showed up shortly after, and we all took off to get things started. People wouldn't start arriving for about another hour, but we still had our work cut out for us.

I rushed around and did everything that I could, and I finally started to feel like we were ready.

I made my way back to the registration table shortly before the gates were going to open, and I took a deep breath. This was just one of the entry points that people could come in at, but it was always the busiest.

Everyone had come together to pull this off, and I was even feeling thankful for Eliana at the moment.

Once things got started, I began to feel a lot more relaxed. I made my way throughout the park, checking to see that everything was running smoothly, and it was.

Near the end of the first day, a large crowd was gathered by the main stage to hear the band that was getting ready to come on.

I stood near the back and watched, and was caught by surprise when Brooklyn came walking out.

Sometimes the event planners said a word or two at these things, but I hadn't been expecting anything from her.

"Hey everyone," she started, "I'm Brooklyn Beal, one of the event planners that worked on this, and I just wanted to say a few things before we get the band out here."

Everyone's attention was on her as she kept going.

"I want to thank everyone who helped make this festival possible," she said, "there's a large group of us that worked on it, and it took every single one of us to make this happen."

Someone in the crowd started to clap, and everyone else followed suit. I thought she was going to leave it at that, but she continued on.

"And a special thank you goes out to Ariana Thomas, Ari are you around here somewhere?"

I froze as I looked up towards the stage and my cheeks flushed red. I gave a small wave as Brooklyn looked out to the crowd of people and eventually spotted me.

"There she is," she pointed.

Jesus Brooklyn, did she really have to do this?

"She was the lead for all of this," she said, "and she worked her ass off, so everyone give her another round of applause."

Everyone began to clap again as their eyes drifted towards me. I said a quiet "thank you," and gave a polite smile as the heat continued to rush to my face. I was going to have to make sure that this wasn't going to happen on every day of the festival, it was way too much.

"I also have something a little more personal that I need to say to Ariana, if she's still paying attention out there," Brooklyn said.

My eyes shot back up to the stage as I gave her a questioning look. I had no idea how well she could see me, and no idea what the hell she was doing.

My heart pounded against my chest as murmurs echoed through the crowd and people glanced back at me.

"I um," Brooklyn cleared her throat, clearly nervous about whatever she was about to say.

"Turns out I really like you," she said.

My eyes widened at her as the people that had gathered continued to look at me. The stray "aw" cut through their whispers here and there as I stood frozen in place.

"And I uh," Brooklyn continued, "well I owe you an apology, and an explanation."

I had no idea how to react. Everyone was staring at me like they expected me to run to her or something, but I didn't.

"Okay that's all," Brooklyn awkwardly said into the microphone, "thank you everyone."

The mass of people seemed to clear a path for her as she stepped down from the stage and made her way towards me. The nerves were eating away at me as she got closer, and it looked like she felt the same.

"Wow," I said when she got close enough.

"I'm - sorry, was that way too much?" She asked.

I could still feel all of the eyes on us as we talked, and I wanted nothing more than to have some privacy.

"No," I shook my head with a slight laugh, "it wasn't, it was very unexpected, but not too much."

She grinned at me and shrugged.

"Well we - I mean we hadn't really been speaking much lately," she said, "and after last night I guess I needed to make sure that I took my chance."

"Last night?" I questioned.

"Yeah," she sighed, "I think it took me seeing someone else hit on you to finally pull my head out of my ass."

I couldn't hide my grin as I looked back at her, but there was still a lot of talking that we needed to do.

"Can we um, go somewhere that everyone isn't staring at us and talk?" She asked.

"Yes please," I nodded.

She held out her hand to me and I looked down at it. I took it hesitantly as she lead me away from the crowd.

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