Dancing With Our Hands Tied

3. Gorgeous (Aru's POV)

"You're so gorgeous, I can't say anything to your face..."

Aru popped into the hotel room where Brynne and Mini were staying. "I'm heading out for rehearsals, I'd tell Nikita and Sheela but I'm late. Text them for me?"

"Of course! Have fun!" Mini exclaimed. "Thanks! Bye!" Aru said and ran out of the room straight outside, where her limo was waiting. "Hey Jim! Any chance you could go at least ten above the speed limit today?" 

He nodded, smiling. "I'll try mi-Aru!" He started up the car, and Aru put on her headphones, listening to the backing track her producer made for her again. She decided against backing vocals because it felt a little wrong to Aru. A performance where she was surrounded by clouds and stars and emotional deep stuff like that just gave off the vibe of pure singing and the track.

When she got inside, she froze, starstruck. All of these a-list celebrities (like twelve, but it seemed like a lot) were walking around the stage, waiting for directions and talking amongst eachother.

"I cannot be performing alongside all of these people." she whispered under her breath, then faked a smile and went up on stage. She just stood there awkwardly, watching them talk. Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter laughed with eachother.  Chappell Roan was talking to Olivia Rodrigo. Benson Boone was discussing something that looked serious with Shawn Mendes. Her eye caught on a guy near her with curly, ebony hair and nightlike eyes.

Aiden Acharya.

Despite being a year older than her, he was a much newer artist. He mainly sang slower pop music, which suited his voice well. Every sing

He was looking at something on his camera, and looked up, just realizing there was someone near him.

"Hi." he said.

Aru had no idea how the guy thing worked. Yeah, she was dating Logan for a fair amount of time, but he had just DMed her. So, she chose the safest option.

"Hi."

They stood there in awkward silence for a minute before she spoke again, breaking it.

"I-um, know where you live."

What else was she supposed to say? 'How are you'? That's much too sane! Or she coulda embraced her Southern roots and been like, 'howdy', but that was just weird!

His eyes flew to hers, fear and confusion evident in his expression for a second, then he looked down at his feet. "Seems like everybody does these days."

"Not, uh, actually. I just wanted to say something. Because it was too silent. But it isn't silent. Because I'm talking. And so are other people. But we weren't. So I was-"

"I got what you're saying." he said reassuringly. She chuckled quietly, then looked down at her navy blue Converse.

"You have gum?" Aru asked. He took a piece out of some man purse thing and gave it to her.

"Thanks." she said quietly, popping it into her mouth.

More silence. It was great.

"You've been blowing up recently." He rubbed his pointer finger with his thumb.

"Yep. Believe me, I'm aware. Pretty sure the only reason I'm here is because they're fairly sure I'm gonna sing a breakup song about my ex, Logan so it'll give people something to talk about." Aru rolled her eyes.

"That sucks." he looked at her sympathetically, and after a minute of her not knowing what else to say (big surprise), he went back to fiddling with his camera.

"You into photography?" He frowned. "What? Uh- oh. Yeah. I love it, it's one of my favorite things."

"Not singing?"