Paparazzi Girl

7. Closer

His fans seemed to come to tears when Xavier came to them and gave them a huge hug. Everyone knew he deserved all of this. That included the screaming girls around him. 

She became a part of the crowd, taking pictures of him posing like a professional model. His smile was breathtaking. It made her smile just as wide. As his eyes settled on her camera, her heart sped up as she flashed as many as she could. She could sense the same smile he had given her yesterday. It was as if he only gave that smile to her.

Did he look at other girls that way?

Everybody took to the door to get into the building for the awards. Mr. Robins had bought her tickets so she could take pictures of Xavier inside when he did his speech for winning, along with other winners for different categories. Although he hadn't won it just yet, he was going to. Everyone knew it. His last movie had been a masterpiece and his acting was effortless.

"Ticket please," the man ordered. His voice was deep, strong, and firm. His suit was completely black, head to toe. He had a grey string that twirled into circles all the way up to his ear.

Stella passed him the pale ticket. He nodded his head and unclipped the rope. She gave him a small smile and walked into the auditorium. The whole stage was pitch dark except for the small light bulbs on the ceiling. Seats were piled everywhere around the stage. People were quickly occupying the seats around the place. She looked up to find more seats were behind a railing.

She sat down in a seat closer to the stage that was assigned, hoping to be able to get pretty good pictures from there. The seats were red with black handles on the side that had a little pouch in the front for drinks. They were like the ones in the movie theater. It was comfy, like a couch would be.

After several minutes passed, the whole building went completely black. She couldn't see. She could hear people whisper to each other asking things like,

"What happened?" or,

"What's next?" or,

"Hey, what happened to my mimosa?"

All of a sudden, different color of lights flickered through the auditorium like a disco. One second you could see and the other it was darker than it was when you closed your eyes. A man, John Sun came onto the stage, asking the crowd how we were.

A screen came on, presenting all of the awards that were going to be given out. Everybody was excited. Stella could feel all the energy through the air. She collected as many pictures as she could with her camera.

Everything happened so fast. Actors and actresses were being introduced, asking everyone to vote by writing down their decision on the little electronically pad beside them.

When they announced that Xavier was elected for "Best Actor of the Year", Stella noticed the extra squeals girls gave out in the crowd. It made a rush of jealousy flow through her.

She watched the crowd as they eagerly wrote down the choice they wanted for best actor into their pads. Xavier Harrington or Nigel Betlane. She already knew who was going to win, everybody did. Nigel was lucky he even got to be on the same list as Xavier. The movie Nigel had starred in last year didn't do well enough to even get other awards.

She looked around, wanting to find Xavier. When her eyes found him, a smile appeared on her face. He seemed nervous. He was tapping his fingers on the handle beside him, where his arm was resting. She took a quick picture without the flash to cause less attention. Which caused the picture to be darker.

Her eyes never left him as his eyes roamed around the room. Just when he was about to turn around, his eyes met hers. She could feel her breath stop before going to her lungs. His lip formed a beautiful, stunning smile. It made her insides jump.