Ghost Bird

34: Premiere

It was time to meet Kota. Victor too, and Silas. Plus Erica, Jessica, and Greg the mall creep. Time to see my forlorn house on Sunnyvale Court, the inside of Kota's beat up car, and Silas's apartment. But most importantly, it was time to meet Max, because dogs were always the most important.

Tonight was premiere night, and the world would watch as Sang met Kota, Victor, and Silas in the first episode of season three of Ghost Bird.

The party (of course there would be a party) was being hosted at the studio, and the whole cast and crew congregated there an hour before the premiere to partake in the open bar and catered appetizers. Even in Hollywood, the promise of free food always drew a crowd.

I wore a simple blue dress. It didn't have pockets, and unlike Sang in the show, I didn't particularly enjoy shoving my cold phone down my bra, so I clutched it in my hand. It gave me an excuse to check my messages every other second as I lurked in the hallway. Where were the boys? Sure, I was a bit early, but I had thought they would be too. I didn't want to brave the party alone. With my luck, I would accidentally run into one of the network executives and spill my drink all over the place. They would have to change my name to Kayli.

Just as I had resigned myself to entering the room alone, Kota's magnificent face popped into my peripheral vision. He was quickly followed by Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke, North, Sean, and Owen. Each guy wore a tailored suit and a tie in his favorite color. It made me wish my dress was pink, but in my stylist's words, pink was "too bubblegum pop for a refined event such as this one".

Kota was poised to meet me first, but by virtue of his extremely long legs, Silas beat him to it. He pulled me into a hug, the smell of the ocean enveloping me. "Congratulations, aggele mou," he said.

I smiled against his chest. Silas gave the best hugs. Of course, the other guys weren't to be out-hugged, and it took a good five minutes of hellos for me to finally be standing by myself again.

"Why were you all so late?" I asking, mostly joking but also curious. It wasn't like them to not be extremely punctual to the point of being a whole fifteen minutes early to practically every event.

I had years of acting experience, but nothing could have given me the strength to keep a straight face as Luke reached into a bag and pulled out a massive cookie. All the boys had huge grins on their faces, but I could only grimace as I stared at the hideous monstrosity. I guessed the cookie was supposed to be me. It had blonde hair, green eyes, and a smile all drawn in icing. But I had to assume the person who did the icing design frosted it during an earthquake. It was the worst cookie I had ever seen.

"What do you think?" Luke asked.

Oh no, had he done it himself? Was that why he seemed so proud of something that would better fit as a doorstop than a cookie? The cookie would fuel my nightmares for weeks to come. But, with everyone staring at me expectantly, I gradually worked my grimace into a smile.

"It took effort!" I exclaimed cheerfully. Inside, I died. All those improv classes, and that was the best I could come up with?

One sickly moment of silence later, the guys burst out laughing. Luke actually had to wipe tears from his eyes, as did Nathan. It was impossible to not laugh while they were laughing, and it took a bit before we calmed down enough for someone to explain what was happening.

"We got you the cookie as a gag gift," Sean explained, "but we do have an actual gift for you."

Everyone sobered at that. My heart pounded in my chest as Victor reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin box. The fire in his eyes peaked when he handed it to me. The box wasn't wrapped, so with shaking hands, I opened the lid.

Inside the box was a beautiful, dainty bracelet. The simple silver chain was studded with ten heart-shaped stone inserts. My breath caught in my throat. There was a stone for each guy, and one for myself. It was the best gift anyone had ever gotten me.

My eyes misted over as Victor gently took the bracelet and fastened it around my wrist. His hand lingered on mine for a moment before he stepped away.

"This has been the best season so far because of you," Kota said softly, "and we wanted to give you something to commemorate it. Tonight, the whole world will see how amazing you are. But right now, it's just us, and we want you to know that we'll always be there for you."

I sniffled. I hadn't expected something like this. It seemed to me like the guys and I spent most of our time ribbing each other. But somewhere in there, I had come to care for them.

"Thank you, I love it," I said finally. The bracelet didn't match my dress, but I didn't care, and I never wanted to take it off. My eyes widened when a thought struck me. "I didn't get you all anything..."

Gabriel laughed. "You're here, aren't you? And if I'm not mistaken, there's a party happening on the other side of this wall so I suggest we go before all the good desserts are gone."

Luke grabbed my hand and tugged me forward. "Did you hear that? We need to hurry!"

Our mission for desserts was slowed down only by the obligatory small talk with various important people related to the show, but eventually, I managed to get a heavenly piece of chocolate cake. As I took my first bite, a projector screen slid down from the ceiling against one of the walls, and I realized it was almost time for the show to begin.

Surrounded by the guys, I settled into a plush chair and watched with my heart in my throat as the opening scene started with Max charging down the screen.

***

I didn't dare check my phone after the show was over. What were people saying? Did they like it? Owen must have noticed my distraction. He gently took my hand in his and gave me his famous millimeter smile. "There's no point in worrying about it until tomorrow," he said, "so try to enjoy the rest of tonight."

I ran a finger along my new bracelet. He was right. I needed to relax. Thankfully, the guys were more than happy to make sure I had fun, and after saying an obligatory goodbye to the network execs, we relocated to an ice cream shop not that far away. Driving over, I was worried that we would be mobbed by fans, but once I got there, the parking lot was empty save for the guys.

"I may have reserved the whole place for the night," Victor admitted with a guilty grin.

My heart melted. They had clearly put a lot of thought into making sure that I enjoyed tonight, and it reinforced my growing affection for all of them.

I tugged Victor over to the rest of the guys, and together we entered the ice cream shop. The sole employee behind the counter was only a little starstruck, and in no time, we each had a massive tower of ice cream. Well, mine was a tower. North's melted under the force of his glare and Luke's was better classified as a fortress, but in general, a tower adequately described the obscene amount of ice cream being consumed.

As jokes flew around and old stories came to light (who knew Sean once managed to get a paper cut on his eyeball), I let the camaraderie wash over me. I didn't know what would come with the reviews in the morning, but regardless of what people thought of the show, I knew I had found a new group of friends that would stay with me for years to come.

Who knew my life would take such a radical shift the day Kota let me into Wion Studios.