𝒻𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 ~ 𝒿𝑒𝓃𝓏𝒾𝑒.

chapter thirty two • "chemistry"

"You know how you basically told me who you ship together?" Lauren nodded. "Well...I think I might like your brother."

Lauren gasped. I couldn't tell if it was a gasp of excitement or a bad gasp. A few seconds of silence passed.

"Ok, I'm kind of excited though!" Lauren said, keeping her voice low. "Sorry, took me a second to completely register that you like Johnny! Like what? I kind of liked you two together since you started working on What if. The chemistry! I'm still shocked-"

"Lolo, you're rambling!" I interrupted her. "What do I do? He's dating Brynn! I literally set them up together! I already can tell Brynn is distancing from me. Johnny told me she asked him if he liked me. I need to keep my feelings away. I just wanted to tell you because it was too much on my own."

Lauren nodded. "Look, you and Brynn are both my best friends. One very famous, but I digress. I want you both to be happy. At first I thought Brynn and Johnny were great together, but maybe this trip is just showing who needs to be together. You and Johnny are getting really close, I can sense it. And Brynn is jealous. I think Johnny genuinely likes her, maybe? But, on the other hand, it feels like Brynn is stressed and just trying to keep her relationship at this point."

"I don't want to steal Johnny from Brynn," I said, mostly to myself. "I'm not that type of girl."

Lauren put her hand on my shoulder reassuringly. "I know you aren't. I want you guys to be together. But, we just have to see how life plays out, ok?"

I just nodded. Then, Lauren stood up and pulled me up to my feet, too.

"Now, cheer up!" She exclaimed with a smile on her face. "You have a performance tonight."

. . .

Johnny.

It was the night of my first official performance. My debut. Me, Kenzie, and Hayden were hanging out in the green room with other performers. Yes, the green room. I was disappointed that it wasn't actually green, though.

Kenzie and I were the fifth act of go on, Hayden going before us. Hayden was tuning his guitar while Kenzie was forcing me to do vocal warmups.

"Kenz, I don't want to do it," I groaned, laying down on the couch. It was pretty comfortable.

"Come on!" She scolded me. "Do you want to hurt your voice? And stop laying down. You're ruining your outfit and hair." My outfit was kind of nice, though. I was wearing a colorful button up with a black leather jacket and jeans.

"Sorry, Mom," I said, but proceeded to get up. Hayden was laughing as if he were watching his favorite TV show.

"You guys act like a married couple, for real," he commented. I felt my face get hot, and I noticed Kenzie's face was reddening.

"Anyways!" Kenzie said, interrupting the brief silence. "Let's get started."

We did weird vocal exercises until the show started. We watched the performances on the TV. Then, it was almost time for us to go on.

Kenzie and I headed backstage and got our mics. I felt the nerves start to hit me. There were at least 500 people out in the audience. Way more than the school showcase.

Kenzie's must've noticed I was nervous because she stopped me in my tracks. I didn't even notice I was pacing around.

"Johnny, calm down," she whispered. "You got this. You've been wanting to this all your life, right? And now, you're living your dream. You're about to perform an original song in front of hundreds of people. Everyone's going to love you out there, I promise. And if they don't, then forget them! You have Lauren, your mom, Brynn, and Jack all out there to see you. You got this, John."

I took a few deep breaths and regained my composure. She was right. I've been wanting this for as long as I could remember. I just needed to go and do it.

I took Kenzie's hands in mine, catching both of us off guard.

"You're right," I told her. "Thank you, for always pep talking me. For always bringing my confidence back up. You forgot to say yourself. You're here for me, too. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be here right now. So, thank you, Kenzie. There's not enough thank you's in the world to give you."

Kenzie smiled. I never noticed how pretty her smile was.

Maybe we were just in the moment, but I felt our faces slowly getting closer.

"Guys, you're on in 40 sec...am I interrupting something?"

The voice made us jump. We turned to see the head of stage crew with his eyebrows furrowed.

"No, we're good!" I said before hurrying to my spot. Then, it was time to perform.

"Now, with their new single 'What if,' please welcome  Johnny Orlando and Mackenzie Ziegler!"

Applause was heard all around the theater. The curtain lifted, and the spotlight brought all eyes on me. I froze for a second, then remembered Kenzie's words. I started to sing.

Let's talk about all the things that we shouldn't talk about...

Then Kenzie came on stage and it felt like Bridgewater's showcase all over again. Our friends and family cheering us on. I could tell the audience was really liking the song. When we finished, the whole theater erupted in applause. It was the most amazing feeling ever.

Kenzie and I bowed and went backstage.

What almost happened before the performance dawned over me. What do we do now?

~

A/N: I haven't updated in AGES. I am sooooo sorry! I don't know if anyone still reads this, but I wrote an extra long chapter that I think was very juicy. I'm going to try to update as much as I can to finish this book; I really want to finish and it's literally so hard, lol. But writing this chapter was fun. Vote, comment your thoughts, and stay tuned!