The Masked Singer

[Chapter Forty Two]

With both of his hands tightly gripping on my body, he turns me to face him. The glowing silver light from the moon cascades down, shining on his face. As he smiles down at me, his enchanting eyes light up with happiness.

"You look adorable tonight Sienna," he whispers.

Grinning back, I snuggle in closer to his body. "You don't look too bad yourself," I tease. Alex chuckles and then rubs my shoulders with the back of his hands.

"I don't know why, but tonight, you just look so..."

"So?" I raise my eyebrow up at him, excited to hear what he's going to say.

"Familiar." The smooth, calculated tone of his voice sends a cold shiver down my spine.

"Mm... do enlighten me." I chuckle.

I try to play it cool, but my knees are wobbly and I might collapse. I should start begging him not to tell anyone about my secret. But before I confess to anything, I want to hear what he's got to say. I could be wrong about Alex Bray, he might not know anything.

"I can't place my finger on it," He shakes his head, "there's, just something about your eyes. I've seen them somewhere before."

"I bet you've seen thousands of blue eyes." Chomping down on my bottom lip and smile.

I wrap my arms around his neck and pull his face down to mine so that I can plant a rough kiss on his lips. Alex's hands run over my sides before leaving to grab a hold of my face. The cold air whipping around us freezes my skin, but his warm hands leave a lingering trail of heat in its wake. A small shiver winds up my spine and causes the kiss to break.

"I should get you inside," he whispers, his forehead pressed up against mine.

"I don't want to move from this moment." I squeeze the fabric of his shirt in between my hands.

"If we don't keep moving forward, it limits the opportunities to come," he replies.

"I hate it when you're right." I roll my eyes and shake my head at him.

"You'll love my surprise though." Alex digs through his pocket and then produces a small black velvet box, "I got you a good luck charm for your first concert."

"You didn't have to, but I love that you did." Taking the box from his hands, I open it up and find a silver chain with a small sparkly red music note attached to it.

"I'm sorry if it's weird. But I saw it and thought of you." He awkwardly shrugs his shoulders and scratches the back of his head.

"No, it's beautiful," I insist.

"Great." He lets out a large breath and gives me a relieved smile.

"Can you help me put it on?" He nods his head, so I spin around. Alex brushes my hair over my shoulder and then takes the chain and fastens it around my neck. The cold metal stings my skin, but only for a brief moment.

"We should get you inside!" He rubs his hand up and down my shoulder. I want to object, but the chilly night air is beginning to make me shiver. We walk back inside and are instantly greeted with warm air. It's nice to be out of the cold, but my palms tingle with sweat and it makes me feel unpleasant.

The walk back to the change room is smooth and thankfully doesn't involve running. But as I get closer to the stage, the reality of what's coming next still weighs in with me.

"I'll see you in thirty minutes, try not to panic too much. I'll be by your side," he reassures me.

"I'll see you then." I bite on my lip and move inside of my dressing room to wait.

A few minutes later, someone knocks on the door and yells out the time. Five minutes until I go onstage. I'm already stressing and it doesn't help having someone counting down the time until I need to leave for the stage.

My hands shake and I know I need to redirect my thinking process. I take a seat and pick up my mascara and reapply it. I'm thankful the mask hides most of my face and doesn't require a professional hand.

"I need to get dressed," I tell myself. I walk over to the rack of clothes hanging up. They are split into three sections and each section has two outfits hanging there. One to wear and then a back-up for that section.

I pull out the first outfit and it's a white dress with a blue floral pattern on it. It's a nice dress, but the flowers printed on it don't sit well with me. I like flowers like every other girl, but I don't think this dress is really me. Hanging it back up, I pull out the next one. It's a beautiful pink and white fairy like dress. The top is white and strapless with lots of silver beads sewn on it while the pink netted skirt fans out below. The little silver beads flow down on the skirt which ties the outfit in nicely.

"Ava is probably going to kill me for choosing to wear this," I whisper. Just staring at the dress is making the nervous feeling inside me fizzle out and the idea of being on stage wearing this even better. "I'm wearing this!"

Quickly, I strip out of my clothes and tug on the dress. I move in front of the mirror so I can adjust it. The small beads feel a bit prickly against my arms, and the dress falls a little too short. This little pink dress is beginning to grown on me.

"Two minutes," she hollers.

"You can do this," I whisper to my reflection. "I can do this." I take one more calming breath before walking out the door and over to the waiting area beside the stage. My back up dancers are already standing there in a group, all giggling and talking to each other. I feel like the awkward new kid all over again.

"One minute," she yells which sends the girls into a bigger frenzy.

"Breathe," a voice whispers from behind me.

"I am." Spinning around; I come face to face with Alex. He's changed into a pair of black denim jeans and a dark blue button down shirt.

"You're holding your breath again." He shakes his head; a disapproving smile filters on his face.

"I'm – I'm trying really hard not to," I confess.

"You'll be amazing." His arms wrap around my neck and pull me against his body. The smell of his masculine aroma filters through my nose. "You're beautiful, amazing, and talented. You just need to show others," he whispers into my ear. Alex quickly pecks my cheek before completely pulling away from me.

"You are amazing." I shake my head, smiling back at him.

"Come one, let's do this." His hand claps my shoulders and he shakes my body back and forth.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Alex smiles and wraps his arm around my waist as he tugs me closer to the stage. I cover my eyes with my hands as he pulls me closer. "I can't look." Alex peals one hand away from my face and hands me a microphone. I focus my eyes on the glowing green light on it.

"Show time," the stage manager screams.