publicity stunt ⊸ a lauren/you story

eight

"You killed it out there," I complimented as JoJo walked off of the stage from her performance. She nodded appreciatively, then turned her gaze to someone off in the distance. I followed her eyes and they landed on a girl in all white and heels that made her much taller than me.

She approached us with a face-eating grin, and I recognized her as one of the opening acts. Sweat glistened off her forehead, but she quickly wiped it off. "Hi, you must be the girls' help," she said.

I nodded, "I am, actually. You must be Victoria."

"Yep. It's nice to meet you." She lit up. "And I hate to cut this conversation short, but JoJo and I were gonna go grab something to eat, so..." she trailed off, almost carefully as to not offend me. "I mean, you can join us if you want to."

I shook my head, waving her off. "No, it's okay. I'm just going to wait here for the girls."

They smiled, then both walked off together. Once they were out of sight, I found myself squealing in excitement as the show started.

A few minutes into the performance and I noticed the alertness of the security. There were three men at each side of the stage, and five up front, along with a few backstage, but it was never this heavily protected.

"Keep your eyes open," I heard through one of the guard's walkie-talkies. "Nothing—I repeat, nothing—is to happen to those girls. Understood?"

"Copy that. Will do, sir."

That gave me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I shrugged it off and tried to the enjoy the show as much as possible.

Throughout the performance, I found myself drawing closer and closer to stage right. I was barely out of sight to the fans when that feeling peaked and shivers traveled down my spine. With one barely-audible clank coming from one of the pieces of equipment above, a single light began to fall.

I ran forward and made it to center stage before security, tackling Camila to the ground, out off the way of the falling light. It came down with a loud crash as the stadium fell silent.

The small Latina on top of me was breathing in short, sudden breaths while she tried to regain her composure. And by now, the four others, plus the guards were surrounding us.

I held Camila close and rubbed her back soothingly, whispering sweet nothings into her ear to calm her down. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"N-no, just a little startled. I'm fine," she breathed out, gripping my shirt tightly in a fist. "Thanks."

"Are you girls up to finish the show?" a guard asked, much to the girls' surprise.

They shared a look, silently asking each other's opinions. However, Lauren was the first to voice her opinion.

"You're kidding right?" Lauren scoffed. "Camila could've gotten hurt and you're still asking if–"

"Lauren," the girl in my lap cut her off, chuckling in attempt to lighten the mood. "I'm okay. It's okay. I think I just need to sit out for a minute."

The guards tried to carry her off, but she only held onto me tighter. Their prying was no use, so I took it upon myself to bring her off.

Camila had her eyes shut and her breathing began to steady, but I couldn't imagine the thoughts that were going through her mind.

Mine was clouded by thoughts of my own. Like, how come I was the one that had to save Camila from her death (or a really bad concussion, nonetheless)? They clearly knew something was wrong, so why didn't they do anything about it? They could've checked the equipment at the least.

"You'd think, since these guys were trained to protect you, they'd do a little better, huh?" I laughed lightly, seeing the distress on the girl's face.

She shrugged, her gaze fixed on her feet while she fiddled with her fingers. "They did the best they could. I'm just glad you were there or who knows what would've happened. Thank you, again, by the way."

I smiled and intertwined our hands, saying, "No problem. I'd rather it be me who gets hurt than you—or any of you guys, for that matter."

"But why–"

My phone rang in my back pocket, and Simon's name flashed across the screen. I stopped Camila and walked far enough away so that I could hear him clearly. It's pretty hard to do when you're at a concert and music is blasting at your from everywhere. But once I found a decently quiet place, I accepted his call. And he was very much upset. You could hear it in his voice.

"Y/N, what happened?" he asked frantically, his breaths matching that of Camila's not ten minutes ago.

My eyebrows furrowed. I had no clue what he was talking about, but I guess I was about to find out. "Huh?"

"Are you okay? How're the other girls?" Simon yelled worriedly. "Is Camila alright?"

I finally realized what he was talking about, but I didn't know how he found out so quickly. If anything, it should've taken an hour or two to get to him. "Yep, everyone's okay. How'd you know already?"

He let out a heavy sigh of relief and took a few seconds to answer. "Those men are supposed to tell me what happens basically 24/7. They said a light fell, but nothing after that. I had to know if you guys were okay," Simon said. I could tell he had that small half-smile on his face by his tone. "I'm glad no one got hurt."

"I think we all are, Mr. Cowell," I replied.

"Right, right." He paused. "I'll have to talk to you girls about tour later. There's something going on, and I'm not sure it's safe for you six right now."

"Okay..." I trailed off skeptically, Simon's voice becoming oddly serious. "Well, what's going on?"

"Honestly," he mumbled, "I'm not sure myself. Security's picked up some things, but they have yet to tell me. I'll keep you updated, Y/N. Don't worry. You'll be the second to know—after me, of course."

"Sounds good," I nodded, mentally face-palming as I realized he couldn't see me. With a sigh, I looked to the floor. Tour just started, and already my experience might come to an end. "Thanks, Simon. Camila's probably wondering where I am, so I gotta go."

"Okay, bye, Y/N. Stay safe," he said, just above a whisper before hanging up.

•••

a/n: happy halloween 😛

hope you enjoyed this little update

~yours truly