CHRYSALIS

28.

"OH MY -" I fling my hand over her beautifully painted mouth before she can finish. Her eyes are wide and she is practically bouncing out of her platform boots.

"Kacey! Shut your beautiful mouth! Twitter is going to have a field day with these pictures of us. Reign it in, chill out." I let her go and we both take long deep breaths to settle ourselves before she grabs my hands and squeals again.

"Jesus, I need a drink." I hang my head, laughing softly at her dramatic reaction.

"Oh Darlin, that can be arranged as soon as we step through those doors." Kacey's manager flags her to keep moving and she gives me a sad pout, "I gotta keep it moving, but God I'm glad I saw you! I'll see you inside okay!? You better find me!" She kisses my cheek and whispers quickly in my ear before she steps away, "Your secret is safe with me." She gives me a wink and with that she's gone, stopping to kiss Harry on the cheek, interrupting his little interview.

When she leaves I'm left standing here alone again so I decided to look around a little bit. It's very bright out here, lights are pouring in from every direction, making it almost disorienting to look up. When I turn around I notice a section of what looks like fans set up in bleachers, some of them hold press passes but most of them are just holding phones and screaming as the artists make their way down the carpet.

"Jo!! Jo! Over here!!"

I have to squint a bit to see where the shouting is coming from as I shuffle myself toward the bleachers, but I finally spot a young woman jumping and waving me down.

"Jo!! Hi!" The girl is yelling still, trying to talk over the loud crowd of people.

I wave at her and yell back "Hi!" as I approach the gate in front of the section.

"You look so pretty! We wondered if you'd be here, we've been waiting for you guys all night." The first girl pulled down another girl with her and then a third trailed behind as they came down to talk to me.

"Oh wow! Thank you, that's so sweet!" I smile brightly at the three of them, meeting each of their eyes, and that's when things in my brain start to shift.

"You all look so pretty too!" I keep the smile on my face while trying to catch up with the subconscious part of my brain.

"Can we get a picture?" My eyes flick to the first girl, she's obviously the leader of the group, she's the only one who's spoken so far. "Yeah, sure!"

I turn around and lean back toward them, all three crowds in around me and the third girl on the end holds out her phone and snaps a selfie of us.

"That's perfect! We all look so different from the last time we saw you."

"Hm?"

"We've met before, see!" She turns her phone around and sure enough, there is a picture of us together.

I'm catching up with my subconscious now.

The vanishing girls.

I saw her outside of the club.

I've seen them multiple times but I couldn't place their faces.

My heart rate is increasing and I'm suddenly feeling quite on edge like my body has caught up before my brain.

"Oh wow! Yeah, I remember haha. Well, it's good to see you again, enjoy your evening." I laughed nervously and I'm aware of it but I couldn't help it.

I step back slowly, distancing myself from the girl before turning around. My chest is heaving and I'm starting to feel clammy under these hot lights. I manage to get turned around enough to spot Jeff across the carpet. His eyes meet my panic gaze and he flicks his eyes toward Harry quickly, asking me if it has to do with him. I manage a small shake of my head and continue making small steps in his direction.