Running Up That Hill (Shakira & Adam Levine / Shadam)

The Silence is Deafening

The day of the finale was not starting off too well on Adam's part.

First of all, he woke up this morning with chills and sweat and shivers everywhere - everywhere. His dreams haunted him. The Maroon 5 front man always welcomed sleep because he couldn't get a lot of it, but now? Psh, the mornings felt colder and his dreams were darker, but he could never remember what they were about; after five minutes, his dreams seem to get farther away 'till it was out of his reach.

Second of all, when he had arrived at The Voice studios, he had forgotten to take the booze with him for Blake Shelton's birthday. Motherf- was one of the thoughts that ran through his mind at the time.

And lastly, one woman decided to not come in early today. Adam scrunched his eyebrows. The first thoughts when he found out she hadn't even arrived yet was "did something happen to her?" Then, it quickly turned into "why the fuck am I here then?"

This meant Adam had to talk to other people and he was not in the mood. This meant he had to wait for her. He felt bitter. Today was the last day! How dare she! Though the flow of curse words entered his mind for her unacceptable tardiness, this was why he needed her. She always brightened his worst days. She was always the sun to his cloudy ones.

Adam spent his morning sulking around the studios, talking to people when needed, and avoiding anything that had to do with work - his shoulders seemed tired because they wouldn't listen to their owner when he told them to straighten up. Sulking is not a way to start a supposed-to-be-happy day.

The finale itself felt better. Adam couldn't quite figure out why though. The air of the studio felt as cold as this morning's. The noise - though louder now than before - did not cease. He didn't get the tag behind his neck removed from his shirt - not yet at least and he was far too lazy to do it anyways, so it still itched as it had this morning . . . so what was so new?

Adam noticed that one person in particular - the same person who he had gotten mad at but with completely sensible and justified reasons this morning - kept turning her head to look at him. A lot actually. Maybe he was being ridiculous or deceiving himself to believing it's true . . .

But when he turns his head and her eyes meet his, corners crinkling, and she lifts her lips to a smile that was not quite a smile but nearly there, his heart starts beating like a jackhammer.

He doesn't know what's wrong with him or why he's acting so strange, so he ignores it and goes back to watching the show . . . and approximately five to ten seconds later, his eyes would wander back and his heart would beat again and he dismisses it once - twice - three times - more.

Near the end of the finale had had Adam in a fit of silent rage. When the woman of his thoughts reached over to clasp her hands in another man's to comfort him for his loss, Adam looked over to the back of her head that was nodding slightly to soothe the other man. He crossed his arms. Michelle Chamuel got second! She's the runner-up! Adam immediately noted to himself that he needed to talk to Shakira about this . . . she can't just hold another guy's hands and think it's okay when he's sitting right here! And the tiny sane part of his brain said - asked - three words that completely stumped him: Why can't she?

So now Adam was angry with himself! And there he sat, silently fuming at Usher, at Shakira, and at himself for not knowing why he was angry at Usher and Shakira.

Yeah. This might be a problem for himself.

After the finale, Adam was pulled into a few interviews and one of those interviews just happened to be next to Shakira where she was busy with answering her own questions. Adam rambled on and on and on to shut off the voice next to him - that soothing, enhancing, pure lullaby that made his knees wobble just a bit, but at times, he would cut into her interview. He couldn't help it! He was about to stop, but that was 'till her hand made its way to his back and he couldn't help but think that it fits so perfectly there and notice that it set tingles up his spine to his neck.

"What'd she say?" he asked because though he knew they were talking, he couldn't hear any of it.

The interviewer from Access Hollywood replied with a few giggles, "She said, 'I'm going to miss this jerk.'" Adam was perplexed. Jerk?

"Am I what?" his voice faltered a little. Shakira, noticing, smiled her little smile, and tangled her arms in his. She holds it and as she does, Adam felt his arm go stiff.

"I said I'm going to miss you," Shakira nudges him in a playful way that makes him smile, but his face becomes serious once again when the words from before hit him.

"I'm not a jerk. I'm nice." It hurts him to hear her say that. His voice grows quiet as he repeats himself once more, "I'm so nice to you."

"Sorry, you're so nice, yeah," and Shakira pulls towards him again. We're like a magnet, Adam thinks confidently.

And instantly, Adam felt better.

At the after party, centre to Blake's birthday rather than the celebration for the end of Season 4 of The Voice, Adam knew he should have waited for her before entering the party by himself. Now, he had to experience those jitters he usually has before performing, those jitters that means he has to impress. He was also a little jumpy, so when people talked to him, the first question would be "Are you okay?"

Though his answer would always be, "Yeah, of course, never better," he wanted to scream "No, what the actual fuck? Shakira is not here! How can anything be okay?!" But why he wanted to say those words was a mystery to him. Another mystery was why Blake intended on getting wasted tonight. The country singer's usual hillbilly slang became another language after a few drinks and Adam couldn't get off his unusual obsession for one certain Colombian girl to note down any embarrassing things to make fun of the country singer the next morning.

"What is going on?" is the million dollar question and Adam felt the answer on the tip of his tongue but the answer wasn't coming to him.

That is until Shakira came into the room and Adam felt the room hush, but maybe that was just his imagination and he made his way across to her, cutting through people and not noticing the questioning expressions many were giving him because only one person has all of his attention now.

When he gets in front of her, however, the million dollar question went from "What is going on?" to "What the hell is going on?"

And he doesn't know what to say when he looks down at her and she's smiling up at him, but she does and when she says one simple greeting that was made of one simple word, he coughs and looks away, embarrassed, pleading to his heart to stop this - this - this roller-coaster on drums impersonation that it's attempting. Adam's eyes then made its way over her head and onto the mirror that occupied entirely of one wall of four in the room and he sees this look looking back at him and he knows this look all too well; he had seen it many times before and -

Oh.

Oh.

And he remains silent when she asks him what's wrong because now he knows, now he understands, and his body tenses up and when she reaches over and puts her hands over his now-curled fists, he pulls back and gives her a small smile that was not quite a smile and not even close to being one and when he turned on his heel to walk out, she's calling after him, but he doesn't hear. He doesn't let himself hear and when he had made it outside, he broke into a run and throughout the whole exit, he was not tempted to look back -

- not like the other times.