Before the Storm - Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus
Camila's POV
February 2019
I walked off the stage feeling all the adrenaline rushing through my body. I was on a high while hugging people that were congratulating me. I floated from arms to arms laughing with my heart full of excitement. I couldn't believe I had just opened the Grammys with my song and had gone amazingly. It was a while before I could calm down and take a breath. The stage was my place, I was another version myself there, empowered, sexy, confident. I loved that feeling.
My family and Matthew stayed on my desginated dressing room and I walked the halls of the venue with my team to go back and sit on the audience after redoing my make up. We were going walking down the corridor when I spotted someone familiar inside a room with an opened door.
"Camila!", Shawn's dad shouted and smiled to me when he saw me.
"Hi", I said and Shawn was quickly by his side. He looked good and he stared at me with a smile before saying anything.
"Congratulations", he murmured and brought me closer to his body to hug me so tight that it felt like it was just us there.
"Thank you", I said wrapping him in my arms as well.
Flashes disturbed our moment and we both looked up to see a guy with a camera asking us to pose for him. We did it and then said hi to our teams in a rush because we needed to go to our places. He still had a performance coming.
"This is surreal", he said running his fingers through his hair.
"I know, I feel like throwing up just thinking about it. Good luck out there".
"Thanks. Good luck on your nominations too".
I always loved the way his cheeks looked when when he smiled keeping his lips closely together.
Shawn's POV
I was extremely anxious about my performance with Miley, I didn't want to screw it up and make her look bad but when Camila appeared and we hugged it was like my heart was been tucked in. Her performance had blown me and so many people away. She completely owned the stage and showed us all why her song had ruled 2018.
She continued her away and I turned around to focus on my thing again. My dad's stare didn't let me do it though.
"What?", I asked him.
"You got it bad, son", he chuckled softly and Andrew and my mom nodded at him.
"Shut up", I told them.
I paced around until it was my time to go on stage. Miley joined me soon after and we did some vocal work before it was time.
"Enjoy it", she said with a big smile and we walked to our positions.
I felt chills when the music began and I saw a sea of people looking back at me while signing probably the most personal, intimate, vulnerable song I had put out there. I couldn't believe this part of my life had resulted in a record that it was now Grammy nominated.
When Miley appeared, I took a deep breath. We were already half way through and it had been a great experience. The fires at the end just infused the heat in my body that was vibrating with every chord.
"Oh my God", was the first thing I said when I was back with my team.
"You did it, Shawn", my dad whispered on my ear and patted my back.
He knew of all of my struggles, he knew about the pressure I put of myself, he knew about how terrified of failure I was, and he was proud of me for overcoming all that.
"Thanks dad", I said and hugged him back.
The smile on my face wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. At the end of the night, I went back home and ate pizza with my people and I didn't care I hadn't won any of my nominations. I forgot about everything else because from the moment I found out I was nominated for these awards, I was grateful enough.
When I woke up the next day, my phone was flooded with content from the night before. I took a look at all the pictures there were around and finally understood why my dad had said that I got it bad. There was one picture of Camila and I that completely gave me away. It was embarrassing, I was probably blushing at my phone right now. The other pictures were cute though, and one could really see the bond we shared, regardless of bad and trying times, it was undeniable there still.
I sent her the pictures just in case she hadn't seen it and then posted some of them in Instagram. It took me a while to get the right caption, I wrote thousands of them. Some were too long and cringing, other were too short and dull. I wanted to tell her how proud I was of her, of us. I made it simpler and just wrote what I would have told her if she was in front of me now.
Awkwardly, she did post the picture I was trying to hide but I couldn't blame her and her caption was very similar to mine.
I opened my Macbook and search around until I found the lyrics I was looking for. There was a time in the studio where all I could do was write songs about her, it didn't matter how they started, they always ended up with her in mind. Scott told me to stop and look at the bigger picture, at the bigger emotion. I couldn't live without her, I couldn't do anything without thinking of her at some point during the day. It was both crazy and exhausting, because after all this time, after all the hurt, I couldn't let go of her. I read the lyrics again and then put the laptop away. There was no way I would have released that song, no matter how much my team insisted, it was too much for both of us.
Tour was beginning soon and with that the greatest part of this new era. I should worry about that now, get my head on the shows again and focus on giving my fans all of me. I was excited about this new chapter and I had decided that it was a new page to reinvent myself like I intended from the moment I wrote In My Blood. I had put my heart out there, I had experienced the let down, now it was time to look forward and learn from that.
I was ready to go on the road again, specially because a friend was joining me. Alessia had been a friend for a while and I liked to have a fellow Canadian touring the world with me.
[A: I think I heard all my building scream at your photos]
She texted after the Calvin Klein campaign photos were released. Andrew had told me the internet had exploded and I went on twitter to see how people were reacted to that. There were nice and funny comments, but there uncomfortable, over the top ones as well. I laughed at her message and took it lightly. We were texting more often now that tour was soon coming, just getting things ready and talking about how excited we both were.
[A: I'm getting the idea your fans will let me deaf after every show]
[S: Oh you have no idea! Can't wait for that moment]
[A: Two more weeks...]
