Shivley: A Now United Story

Ch 37: Lost in the Wild

It turned out the people on the beach weren't all just there because they were impressed with the way Bailey was surfing. Some of them were fans of Bailey's career from the Philippines. Some of them even had presents for Bailey including pictures they'd drawn of him.

The coolest part of all of this was the way that Bailey interacted with them. He wasn't acting like a super famous celebrity. He was asking them questions and just talking to the people at the beach in a way that made them comfortable too. Shivani backed away slightly from Bailey so she could see him interact with the fans. And as an avid fangirl, Shivani appreciated anyone who wasn't extremely condescending towards fangirls.

At some point her thoughts drifted back to Noah and what she had seen. Noah had given her the benefit of the doubt so many times before and he never once judged her for anything. But...she couldn't help but linger on what she had seen. Shouldn't she have a right to feel upset?

"...Shivani. Shivani!"

Bailey's voice brought her back from her deep thoughts and she looked up to see him waving her over.

"Uh..." she walked over to Bailey in the center of the crowd. "What's up?"

"Well...a couple of girls here were asking about my friend that I was going surfing with and I figured I would just introduce you. This is my friend Shivani everyone! Shivani meet Anna, Grace, ..." he went down the line and managed to name everyone that was standing close to him.

"Hi!" Shivani awkwardly waved. She felt like she was the new kid on the first day of school being introduced to her classmates by the most popular kid in school. Definitely a very specific metaphor.

"Where's Ylona?" One of the girls asked. And then suddenly everyone was interested in finding out where Ylona was, if she and Bailey were still dating, and if Shivani was Ylona's replacement. For once Bailey got really quiet and froze in front of everyone.

"Hey Bailey I think they're calling us...we should probably head out now. Bye everyone!" Shivani hastily waved and left the circle, with Bailey following her.

When they were a good distance away, he let out a deep breath. "Thanks for that."

"You really weren't kidding when you said that Ylona had a lot of power."

He nodded. "She's really big in the Philippines. Everyone thinks I'm a reformed bad boy and Ylona is the reason for that."

"Hm."

"Anyways we should probably find the others because it's 3pm and we still have more places to go. I'll call Maya."

"Actually...I know where she is."

Bailey motioned at Shivani to lead the way. She walked back the same way as when she went to go get water. This time, however, all the Now United members were standing there and Noah and Maya were just standing next to each other.

"Hey guys." Shivani awkwardly waved.

"Finally! We're heading to the Walk of Fame now," Maya said. Apparently they had already ordered two Lyfts that were five minutes away.

They all grabbed their stuff and started walking towards the parking lot. Shivani moved over to stand next to Noah, hoping they could finally talk.

She tapped him on the shoulder and he slowed down so they could both walk behind the rest of the group.

He turned around and smiled. "Hey! What's up?"

What's up? What's up is that you were ignoring me and sitting super close to Maya. At least that's what she wanted to say. What she said out loud was, "Nothing much. How have you been?"