Relentless

Chapter 44

Juliet

Fuck this!

He's a cop?!

Since when was he a cop?!

Why was I not informed that this would be guarding my dressing room?!

After five years, I'm still not over what he did to me. I still have so many pent up emotions that I don't know how to feel.

But I have to say, he got hotter with age.

Treating him the way he treated me, which is acting like I didn't exist, I start to walk on stage, continuing my warmups. I feel his eyes following me as I walk backstage and start stretching. I go down into a split slowly and then pop back up. One, it helps me practices. Two, it is his own form of torture.

I walk to center stage and see my manager, Josh, observing the backup dancers and I.

"Let's run through everything after the opening number." He yells on stage. And with that, I take my position in the wings, listen to the introduction of the music and then jump on stage.

"Midnight, shadows

When finding love is a battle

But daylight, is so close

So don't you worry 'bout a thing

We're gonna be alright."

------

After running through all of my songs in the first half of the concert, I am forced to go back to my dressing room, that being the only place I can really go seeing that we only have fifteen minutes until the second act.

I walk into the wings on the stage and see two young Police Officers staring at me. Ignoring them, I walk straight to my dressing room, staring at the floor as I do. When I know the door is close, I look up and focus on the doorknob, not looking up at who is standing guard.

"Juliet." Ashton whispers as I go to open the door.

"Look," I start, looking straight into his eyes. "You don't know me and I don't know you. We are both here because we have a job to do, so let's just focus on that and get this over with." I open the door, walking into my room and close it behind me.

I sit in the chair by the makeup desk and stare at my reflection. What if he tries to talk to me? What do I do? Do I talk back? Do I totally flip him off? I mean, I'm 23 now, I should be mature enough to hold a conversation.

Whoa, hold on.

I thought he was in Afghanistan.

Before my thoughts can take me away, there's a knock at my door. Not wanting it to be Ashton, I ask who it is.

"Who do you think?" A feminine voice replies.

"Come in." I say. I hear the door open and turn to see Maris, closing the food behind her.

"You've got your own little patrol going on out there." She states, obviously talking about Ashton. "He looks familiar."

"Yeah, he sure does."

"You know him?" She asks, sitting on the couch.

"Unfortunately. And so do you. Remember my eighteenth birthday? The guy I was dating?"

"Oh." She says, but it's not registering in her head. I wait for a second and then hear it click. "Oh! Oh geez that's awkward."

"You're telling me." I say, going into my closet to try on the costume for the second act.

"Did you talk to him?"

"Hell no." I say, going into the bathroom and putting the costume on. "I mean, why didn't anyone tell me that he was going to be the one guarding my dressing room?"

"Because people are stupid."

I get out of the bathroom and look at Maris for costume advice.

"Sexy. I like it." She says, smiling. I start to walk towards the door, but she stops me. "What are you doing?"

"Going to get something to eat from the hall. I'm starving."

"But he'll see you."

"Good. Let him stare." I smile, opening the door and walking down the hall. I know he's looking at me, so I smack one of my dancers in the butt and smile at him, causing him to smack my butt too.

I glance over at Ashton and see his jaw clenched.

This is going to be fun.

Song in this chapter:

Be Alright- Ariana Grande