Under The Spotlight (Ghost Bird Fanfiction)

Chapter One - I'm back Charleston

"Ava! Ava!" 

"Thank you Sunnyvale Court!" the cheers became deafening. "See you all next time!" then I ran out the platform and back into the anteroom. Sitting down, I felt all jittery. My boys were here. They were in one piece. They were safe. 

Feeling tears form in my eyes once again, I let out a beaming smile. I've never been this happy for almost four years. But the smile slowly fell into a frown as I remembered what had happened. Breathing heavily, I put a hand over my chest, trying to calm down. 

"Ava?" My manager's voice pulls me out from having another breakdown. 

I glanced up at the mirror, watching my manager through the reflection. She, Kelly, was a short plump woman in her mid 40s. Her chestnut hair flowed down her right shoulder in waves, but it was still kept tame. She wore rose gold cat-eye glasses that covered her clear blue eyes, which kind of made her look slightly scarier. Kelly wore a light blue button down polo tucked into her black slacks. 

"Yes?" I turned in my seat, biting my lip. A habit I never really seemed to have lost.

Kelly came up and hugged me, squealing. "Good job out there! I didn't expect that much people to show up considering the venue."

I gave her a small shrug. The diner had apparently been renovated, it looked three times bigger than it was before I left. It was often booked for meetings and from the looks of it, concerts too. Uncle must be making a ton of money out of this. But it still had the homey feel it had years ago, and I'm really glad for that as that was what he envisioned it to have.

"So we have a few more things to do around here in Charleston, few meet-and-greets here and there and then a few more concerts. We'll be staying up in my cousin's over somewhere at Goose Creek." She said, happily. I'm glad she's my manager, despite her outwards appearance, she was a really kind and outgoing person, meaning I don't need to talk much. Anyone else and I probably would have killed myself.

Goose Creek huh? I was kind of hoping here at Sunnyvale. I could have maybe bumped into the boys every once in a while.

As Kelly went on and on, we heard a knock. "Mr. Taylor is here to talk to Ava." The guard announced from outside the door. "Let him in," I heard Kelly respond.

My heart leapt from underneath my skin. Mr. Taylor.. which did he mean? North? Luke? I tried to keep a calm exterior as the door opened to reveal the man I knew to be Uncle. Smiling at him, I waved in greeting as Kelly went over to manager mode. 

"Good evening Mr. Taylor, thank you again for letting us use this fine diner you own." She chirped. 

He smiled warmly. "No problem at all. It was a marvelous concert. Oh I brought with me my nephew and his two friends. I had to bring them over, one of his friends has a little sister whom is a huge fan of Ava but couldn't come here. Luckily enough for her, my nephew was a fan and wanted some of them to join him tonight. So she sent her older brother. Mind if I let them in?" 

Kelly shook her head. "No it's fine," she said.

My eyes popped. I knew they were here, I just didn't think I'd be seeing them face-to-face. The door opened and three figures entered. They looked the same but different. They looked older, that's for sure, but it suited them. I inhaled their all too familiar scents that I missed so much, and I did all I could just to keep my tears at bay. 

Uncle introduced them, not that I needed to know. But I couldn't let them know that. 

Luke beamed. "Ava it's really you! I would hug you but you're famous and your awesomeness might rub off on me and I couldn't do that to my best friend, we must be awesome together and at the same levels." He means Gabriel doesn't he? "You were so good tonight! Can you sign this?" He held out a small notepad.