Queen

Chapter 45

The next day rolled around quickly. I woke up early and asked Shawn to walk me back to Maria's room so I could get ready for the day. He did so but wanted to talk before he left.

"You'll be ok?" He asks holding my hands. I just nod.
"Just stay with Maria ok? If you want me to walk you to the event I will." He says.
"No, you need to get ready too. I'll be ok with Maria." I said.
"Alright, please be careful..." He says before leaning over and placing a soft kiss on my forehead. I close my eyes enjoying the moment before he pulls away. I then watch as he walks away, his hands in his pockets.

I turn to the door and before I can knock, it swings wide open revealing Maria. She has a hand on her hip and looks at me disappointed. I look back to see Shawn still walking down to the elevator and decide it's best to not draw his attention. I quickly walk into the room and pull Maria with me, shutting the door so I could explain everything to her.

I have now explained twice what happened yesterday and Maria has directed her anger from Shawn to Lisa, Harry, and Lucas.

"I can't believe them! What the fuck is that bitches problem huh? Why can't she just fucking leave you alone!" She yelled pacing back and forth.
"I really don't know, Bean." I sighed.
"And Shawn had no part in this right?" She asks.
"No, of course not, he's the one who protected me, all this time he's always saved me..."
"Oh... You're in love." Maria huffs and sits on the bed next to me.
"Well..." I feel my cheeks burn and I look down at my hands.
"Does he know yet?"
"No... but he want's an answer today about it."
"When?"
"Before the performance."
"Oh! What time is it we've been sitting here for hours!" Maria jumps and looks around. I check the time on my phone and see it's 12:45 and I have to be there by 3.
"We have time if I start getting ready now," I say standing up.
"Then hurry! I'll get you an outfit, I'll get together your hair and makeup and when you get out of the shower, we're going to start right away so don't take long!" Maria instructs me, handing me a towel she grabbed from her closet and pushing me towards the bathroom. I quickly jog to the bathroom and start undressing.

It felt like forever getting completely ready but by 2:34 we were all done. I looked in the mirror and saw my hair curled, I had a natural makeup look, and Maria gave me a beautiful white dress with spaghetti straps and a long sparkly sheer overlay and a pair of white wedge sandals. It almost looks like I was ready for my wedding but I knew it would be 10x more extravagant than this even though this was a close second. As I was admiring myself Maria walked up next to me with a proud smile on her face.

"You look fucking beautiful." She said.
"Thank you." I giggled.
"Alright let's get going, when we get there you go backstage and I'll try to find a spot right up front." She said lightly pushing me towards the door.
"Ok!" I said feeling my heart beat out of control from excitement.

Maria and I arrived at the fundraiser only to look around in awe. It was much bigger than last years event and had much more to it. More food stands, game booths, club booths. It was truly immersive and all I wanted to do was walk around and look at everything.

"Look, over there, there's the stage." Maria pointed to the stage that was being set up.
"Great, let's go," I said grabbing her hand and leading the way over to it.

We walked up and it seems one of the stagehands noticed us.
"You guys performing?" He asks.
"Just me," I respond raising my hand.
"Alright cool, just go up those steps and you get to the back through the curtains on your right." He explained. I nodded before looking back at Maria.
"Wish me luck," I say holding her hands.
"You're going to do fantastic! But also good luck with Shawn." She reminds me. I take a deep breath and nod.
"I can do this." I sigh.
"Yes you can, now go!" She laughs letting go of my hands. I just smile before turning and walking towards the stairs.

I stood backstage trying to scope out Shawn in the huge crowd of people who were already here to perform. I felt a little nervous thinking he wouldn't show up.

"You look beautiful." A familiar voice spoke. I gasped out of fright and jumped. I turned around and felt like my heart fell and dropped to the floor.
"G-Go away," I said taking a step back.
"I just want to talk to you, give me a chance to explain myself," Harry said taking a step forward.
"No... you lost your chances with me when you decided to use me." I said taking another step back.
"Please Cecilia, I know you're probably confused," as he spoke he grabbed my hand.
"Let go!" I barked and tried yanking it away but he just tightened his grip, not letting me get away.
"Listen to me, Cecilia." He stayed calm unlike me.
"Get away from me!" I felt my eyes starting to water. When all of a sudden a familiar backside stepped right in front of me completely blocking my view of Harry, resulting in him to let go of me.
"You're going to listen to her and leave her the fuck alone," Shawn growled at Harry.
"Fine," Harry growled back before walking off in a different direction.

I just looked up to try and prevent any tears from actually escaping and ruining my make up that Maria worked so hard on. As I was Shawn finally turned around looking at me surprised. I looked him over to see he was wearing a black t-shirt with a white and black vertical striped dress shirt over it, with the first 3 buttons done. Both shirts were tucked into his black skinny jeans and it looked like he was wearing a new pair of his infamous black boots.

"Whoa..." He said looking me up and down. I just giggled and shook my head.
"What?" I asked.
"You look gorgeous." He sighed out of amazement. I felt my cheeks burning again and looked down. But once I did I felt a hand under my chin lifting my face up.
"Don't hide that beautiful face from me." He smiled making me smile in return.
"Shawn... I-"
"Alright, everybody!" A voice cut me off. Shawn and I followed it to see Mr. Keegan standing in front of the huge crowd of performers.
"We ask that you take this time to practice your act and be sure you have everything ready, it's only an hour, for some of you may be more but we ask the first 3 performers stay close to the opening stage and be ready when called upon." He instructed. I just look up at Shawn with a smile before grabbing his hand. He smiled in return and we started walking towards the stage.