Shivley: A Now United Story

Ch 18: mirrorball

another day another t. swift chapter title lmao, i promise i'll stop eventually. enjoy this chapter and thank you for commenting! i love reading the comments :)

It is a truth universally known that all the teenagers and young adults auditioning for Now United were extremely talented dancers. They were however not extremely talented at the art of the slow dance. 

Let's just say the dancing itself was fine, but asking someone to dance was the scary part. To set the scene, imagine a winter (yes for some reason winter in the middle of summer was THE LA aesthetic) wonderland themed ballroom. Everything was white and there was an ice sculpture - yes an actual ice sculpture of the words Now United - and there was snow falling down. 

At first the songs had been bops. The DJ they'd hired played all the classics, a little Shawn Mendes, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Florida-Georgia Line, Drake, Cardi B, the works. Then they'd decided to play 'All of Me' by John Legend. A great song to listen to for those late night campfire vibes, but not appropriate to "get down to" exactly. 

As soon as it started playing the dance floor cleared and everyone went to the edges of the room, pretending to talk to their friends while secretly eyeing special somebodies. Shivani was talking to AC and standing in a group with Noah and Sina, who were talking to each other, Nicollete, Hina, and Kenneth.  

Finally people started heading out on the dance floor. Noah asked Sina to dance (yes!) and they joined the rest of the people. 

Hina turned to Shivani. "Wish me luck!" 

"For what?"

Hina walked over to Ylona who was standing with Bailey and Sabina. Hina said something to her and Ylona nodded and they both headed onto the dance floor. Hina turned around to give Shivani a big thumbs up before placing her hands on Ylona's waist on the dance floor. Shivani smiled. At least Noah and Hina were having a good time.

She was standing with Nicollete and Kenneth, but she didn't really know them too well so she excused herself and decided to go to the bathroom. As she was going up the stairs, her phone started vibrating. It was Kinjal. 

She let her phone keep ringing as she made her way out of the ballroom and walked towards the bathroom. Outside the bathroom stalls there was a powder room with sofas and mirrors and Shivani took a seat there.

"Hello?"

"Hi."

"How...are you?"

"I'm good. You?"

"I'm...," Shivani racked her brain to come with a word that would encompass everything that happened in the past two weeks. "...learning."

There was brief silence because neither of them knew what to say.

"You know what? Actually I'm not fine. I haven't been fine, but you wouldn't know that because you never ask. You never call. You never care." Kinjal sounded like she was on the verge of tears. 

What? "Are you okay?" Shivani was confused.

"Just talk to your mom."

"What? Why? We haven't really been allowed to see our parents this week. But if something's wrong, you need to tell me about it."

"I don't need to do anything. You were supposed to be my best friend and suddenly you just disappeared."

"What? Kinjal I called you the other day. Or did you just forget about that little part?"

"You know what just leave me alone."

Now Shivani was upset. "You're the one who called ME. If you want to talk, talk. Otherwise just-"