Miles (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 18

I look out at the huge house that our vehicle just pulled up in front of that had cars upon cars circling around the huge fountain that sat in the middle of the driveway. Jonah pressed on the break as we waited for our turn to reach the valet service because, apparently, we weren't allowed to park our own cars here. "Uh, so what's this event?"

"It's a fundraiser dinner for one of my colleague's companies that they're starting. We'll just go in and they'll try to talk us up and we're supposed to decide if we want to donate or not," Julian tells me as he reaches over to grab my hand as my nerves started to rise because of the crowds and I didn't know how many people would be inside.

"Are you going to donate?" I ask him, trying to focus more on him and less on the possibilities of the number of people that would be surrounding us when we went inside.

"I usually do, yeah. Are you okay?" He asks me in a soft voice, squeezing my hand as my knee starts to bounce up-and-down with anxiety. I look up at him as I bite my lip, wishing I had thought of what this night was going to be like before I agreed to come to it. As I watch all the people wearing fancy dresses and suits walk into the house, I try my best to focus on Julian because I knew he wouldn't put me in any situation where I would be hurt or uncomfortable.

"I don't like crowds," I whisper to him.

"I know you don't, but it's a big place. People will spread around and if you ever need to take a break or leave, you just tell me or Jonah and we'll go, alright? We'll get through this without too much happening, I'll make sure of it," he tells me as Jonah pulls up to the valet. Julian grabs my hand before we all get out of the car for the people to take the keys to go park it for us.

I tighten my grip on Julian's hand when I notice the photographers that stood next to the entrance with cameras in hand. He pulls me over to the other side of him so no one will be able to touch me or overwhelm me. I notice that Jonah rushes over to walk in front of me to make sure that no one could get a clear picture of who I was. I notice that the people start screaming questions at Julian, mostly about who I was, but he completely ignores them as we keep moving forward. When we walk through the large wooden door, it reveals a huge room with white tables matched with white chairs that had huge red centerpieces that matched the carpet.

"Whoa," I say as I look around at the tall ceilings that were supported by white beams. There was a stage at the front of the room with a band that played Christmas music, which rang throughout the whole room. Around the room were tables that held boxes that said Donation on each of them. "this is crazy."

Julian chuckles, walking with me beside him as he looks around the room to probably find the two girls that he was excited for me to meet. "Yeah, we usually rent this place out whenever we do fundraising because of how much you can do with it. It's great."

I look up when I hear a small gasp and I see a beautiful woman with curly dark hair that was wearing a gorgeous long red dress that had lace sleeves along with a ribbon tied around her waist. She was tall as she wore gold heels that matched her dangling earrings that held a small Christmas tree. When she saw Julian, she rushes over to pull him into a hug as he chuckles. "Julian, it's so great to see you! It feels like forever since we've got together. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great, how about you, Andrea? How're you doing with Stigma? You still doing okay?" Julian asks as he separates from the hug to reach down and grab my hand as I look over the girl, realizing that this was the famous Andrea that I had been hearing about.

"Stigma's going great, just like always. You put me in charge, so trust me that I know exactly what I'm doing," she reassures him before turning to me, reaching her hand out to shake mine. "and you must be Miles. I've heard so much about you."