Unsuspected Love

Part 2

Your eyes widen and you can feel your breathing quicken. Your heart feels like it's about to pound out of your chest. You've prepared for this exact moment so many times over and over but now that it's here, all you can think about is running.

You walk towards security who lead you into a small rectangular area where you see him.

There he is in a black t-shirt. You notice the single chain around his neck and his gorgeous curly hair. He looks excited to be here, which makes you excited too. As he finishes taking a picture with Cali you start thinking, 'holy shit, please don't say something stupid'.

You can feel the adrenaline slowly swallowing your entire body as you notice Cali finishing up her turn.
Joseph waves goodbye and turns to face you. He lights up when he sees you walking towards him.

"Well, hello there gorgeous. Come on over", he says with a big smile as he waves you over.

You continue walking, but it feels like it takes 100 steps to get to him. You smile your biggest, brightest smile and wave hello. This feels like a dream that you really don't want to wake up from.

As you approach him you can't help but take in his scent. It's intoxicating.

"Hello, how are you? I'm Joseph. It's so nice to meet you, love."

'He just called me love and gorgeous, wtf'.

"Hi, I'm Y/N, it's so lovely to meet you. I'm doing well, how are you? I can imagine this is all pretty wild." You say with a slightly shaky voice trying not to sound nervous.

Joseph nods his head and chuckles "It's pretty insane, you're not wrong. Now get over here." He says smiling and holding out his arm motioning you to come take a picture.

You willingly and eagerly wrap yourself under his arm, extending your left arm around his back and your right one just by your side. You didn't want to invade his personal space by touching him too closely.

Being so close to him makes you less nervous than before. Just being in his presence gives you such happiness and confidence. He feels like someone you've known your entire life. A missing piece.

The photographer snaps the picture and security starts yelling for the next person to take their picture.
You really can't believe this moment is over so soon.

"It was so lovely to meet you, beautiful. I really hope to see you around", he says as he runs his hand over his head of curls, giving you the biggest smile he can.

"Oh don't worry, you definitely haven't seen the last of me. I'll be around all day." You smile and blow a kiss his way.

Joseph laughs and grabs the imaginary kiss from the air and places his hand in his pocket insinuating he put the kiss there. "Perfect, I'll come find you later", he states while giving a little wink.

All you can do is smile and start turning red. You give him a little wave while twirling your hair around your finger.

You exit the booth to the Expo and run to find Cali only to see that she's gone and nowhere to be found. You quickly grab your picture and run to the bathroom to process everything that just happened. That's when you run into Cali.

"Cali! You'll never guess what happened!"

"Tell me!"

You start to explain your interaction with Joseph in fine detail, making sure not to leave out a single miniscule event.

"I'm pretty sure he does that with everyone, he's just being nice Y/N. He has to be nice to his fans or he wouldn't have any. Sometimes I swear you're so dumb", Cali exclaims rolling her eyes, huffing out her nose giving a small chuckle.

"Y-ya you're probably right", you say as the smile drops from your face, your excitement taken over by embarrassment.

"Well, we have a few hours until our autographs. I don't know what you're doing
but I'm going to look around." Cali walked away before you could even say anything.

You stand there for a couple seconds with your brows furrowed, biting your lip while staring at your picture with Joseph.

'Maybe she's right, maybe he does do this with everyone', you think to yourself. He does see a lot of people. You couldn't be any more or less special than anyone else here.

The bathroom door carelessly swings open and interrupts your thoughts. You decide to go walk around the convention to get your mind off your interaction with Cali. As much as you hate her, sometimes she's one of the only people who have stuck by you no matter what. You think of her as your much more annoying, older sister.

As you're walking through the Expo you see so many different people in costumes, all of them seem to be having the time of their lives, so why is this conversation with Cali starting to ruin your day. You try your best to stop thinking about it, but you can't.
'Was I really that stupid? I can't believe he would interact with everyone that way. I just can't. Then again, I'm not any more special than anyone here so... why me?'

You end up walking around the fan expo for a couple hours, not really interested in much, until you check your phone and realize it's now 10:45am and you should probably line up for your autograph, which promptly starts at 11:00am.

As you approach the booth, the same one as before, you still have no sight of Cali, but you feel like it's probably better you don't see her right now.

You get a familiar rush of adrenaline as you get into your spot at the back of the line. This time there are at least 20 people ahead of you. You weren't sure if that was worse or better than being first in line. No matter your position in line you still have the same feelings as before, complete and total fear and panic.

You glance down at your phone just about every minute waiting for the line to move, but it feels like it's been dragging on for hours.

About 20 minutes later you finally make it just about to the front of the line, there's maybe 3 people ahead of you. You have no idea what to expect this time. 'Will he even remember me? I doubt it, he's probably seen at least a hundred people by now.'

A familiar voice shouts, "Next!" As you lift your head from your phone you swallow the lump in your throat and your eyes widen. Here you are again... It's your turn.