The Backstage Pass (Camren)

Chapter 34 (Part 1)

Camila's POV

Always expect the unexpected. I've always heard that saying and just thought it was created as a play on words. You know, a double negative? I guess I see what they mean now, because I never expected this.

To be sitting in this black Cadillac Escalade with my best friend, new friends and of course my beautiful girlfriend as we travel to the venue of the big event for tonight felt...unreal. I would have asked someone to slap me as hard as they could to wake me up, but as Lauren's hand subconsciously found its way to my knee, stroking it delicately with the pad of her thumb, I was sure that I was.

She had the power to render me speechless and flustered under her gaze. She had the power to make me melt with her words. She had the power to make my heart race with her gleaming smile. And right now, with just the simple touch of a hand, she made me feel alive. That's how I knew that this was all very real.

I didn't expect this. And not just the VMAs, I mean what my life has been the last couple of months, from falling for a pop star, to finally being able to stomach the fact that my father is around again, moving to North Carolina and now...this. There are only two words I can use to explain any of this is 'plot twist'.

This is the night I've known about for a while now but still never imagined to be an actual part of and now that its happening, besides the overwhelming feeling that I'll throw up any second now from nerves, I'm absolutely ecstatic to see what'll happen tonight.

"Okay so ladies, we're approximately ten minutes away from the venue. Maybe I should have gone over this with you before but there was nothing I could have said, whether it was last week, yesterday or as you stepped out of this car that will ease Camila's nerves am I right?" Steven looks towards me with a knowing stare, rhetorically asking for my confirmation to his obvious observation. I can only muster up a tiny smile as I gaze into my lap, Lauren's hand moving from my thigh to intertwine our fingers.

"Don't make her even more nervous than she already is Steven." Lauren scolds him.

"Sorry," he raises both hands in defense. "I'm just stating quite obvious facts here...she needs to know that it can and more than likely will get a bit intense once you two step out onto that red carpet." He says lightly.

I can feel Lauren release a sigh of indicating that he was telling the truth, and no matter how much she badly wanted to keep an optimistic mind and make things easier for me, that he was going to be right about his next statements.

"Alright, now as you all probably guessed, when we arrive, only Lauren and Camila will get out to walk the red carpet," he addresses us. Normani and Ally nod knowingly as Dinah does gives a thumbs up stating her understanding. "The rest of us will be driven up front to take our seats, and wait for the show to start as we also wait for the power couple here," he gestures to us with a smirk, along with everyone else in the car, receiving a soft laugh from the singer beside me as my cheeks flush. "To join us."

"Thanks Captain Obvious, now can you please tell me how to go about these interviews please?" Lauren half-jokes.

"What do you mean 'how to go about it'?" Steven asks. "Were you not the one that just basically chewed my ass out about not wanting to hide 'who you are or what you have' back at the hotel an hour ago or what?" He twists his face up in confusion at the singer.

"Well yeah but I don't have the time to have you screaming at me about something I said in an interview, because we all know how bluntly honest and raw I can be with my choice of words."

Steven chuckles lightly, along with Ally and Normani who clearly agree with what my girlfriend just said. "Oh I know that, don't we all." He continues his laughter. I scrunch up my eyebrows in confusion as I look around the car in hopes for some help as to what was so funny. Even Dinah laughing a little bit.