"'Cause we were both young when I first saw you" Nina sang the last words of one of her favorite songs.
As she played the last chords on her guitar, she heard a big applause. The girl smiled genuinely at the people in the audience.
She was happy. Here she was happy. When she performed in front of people who actually liked her voice.
She has gone through some difficult things in her life and she is still not completely cured of it yet. She still feels sad and scared but not as much as before. The presence of her best friends helped her a lot.
Nina never showed her emotions, especially not the two she felt most often.
sadness
...no one has ever seen her cry, not even her friends or mom. But she cried often, almost every night but never told anyone about it.
fear
...for everyone who knows Nina, she is fearless, just because she pretends to be, but they are wrong. The truth is she is afraid and very insecure.
In front of other people she plays strong but when her mom thinks she's going to bed and she locks herself in her room at night, she's the broken girl whose tears run down her cheeks again.
But here, when she was on stage, she didn't feel those feelings. She only felt freedom and happiness. But as soon as she left the stage, she left the dream and returned to the cruel reality.
"Neens, that was amazing!"
"Yeah, you were great!"
She heard her best friends voices. When she saw them, the girls hugged her tightly.
"Well thank you." Nina smiled as she pulled away from the hug.
"I can't wait for you to be a famous singer and you will have sold out concerts and we will be able to say that our best friend is a superstar and you will meet celebrities like Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and-"
"Yeah, like that could ever happen..." a small brunette girl interrupted Gina.
"I just hope you don't forget us when you're a billionaire." Kourt continued to say things that Nina thought were unrealistic.
"No way! Who would then do my make up if I didn't have you?" she joked. "Okay but now let's talk about something that isn't just an impossible dream."
It was her dream... ever since she was a little girl she dreamed that one day she would sing in front of millions of people and they would know the lyrics to the songs she wrote and they would scream those words at the top of their lungs.
But it was just a dream, nothing more. Nina knew it would never become a reality.
"Don't say that. You are one of the most talented people I know- hell you are the most talented person I know." Kourtney tried to convince her.
"Yeah." Gina agreed with her. "You have a beautiful voice and one day everyone will hear it. I'm sure."
Nina smiled at her friends. She was happy to have them. The two of them and Seb always stood by her, no matter what. These three are her best friends. In fact, they are her only real friends. Plus Big Red, but that's more of a sister-brother relationship.
...they grew up together because they are cousins. Her mom and his mom are sisters. Their families are very close and they were best friends ever since they were born.
"I'm not so sure, bu-"
"I hate to interrupt," Big Red cut Nina off. "but couldn't you and your conversation move here so that my cousin can help me? We have a lot of work to do."
Nina rolled her eyes and began to walk. She stopped next to a red-haired boy at the cash register. Her two friends followed her and sat down on the bar stools opposite her.
"So... what do you want me to do?"
"You could wash the dishes."
"The dishwasher is broken again?" one of the girls asked.
"Yup, someone should come here today to fix it." the boy answered, making coffee for one of the customers.
"I still think we should buy a new one. That dishwasher is broken more often than I get paid." Nina said when she started washing the plates.
"That's probably because no one pays you. You don't work here, you're helping your family." he replied, opening fridge and looking for milk.
Few years ago, when Nina and Red were ten years old, their dads decided to open a café together. Over time, the cafe became a restaurant with a small stage and live music, where Nina sings every night. This idea was invented by her dad to help her fulfill her dream.
But when her father left, the restaurant had problems... still has. They don't have a lot of money and they can't afford to pay the staff, so they hired these two lazy teenagers.
"Plus you know very well that we don't have money for a new dishwasher." he finished.
"If you ever need any help we're here." Kourtney smiled.
"Yes, the two of us and Seb are ready to work at any time."
Nina knew the girls would be happy to help but she didn't want to. They are teenagers, she wanted them to enjoy life. They already have a lot of homework from school. These are her problems and she can handle it.
"I am glad to hear that.." the boy started. "..because I need you to take this coffee to table number four and this salad to table number one. Thank you!" he told them and the girls stood up and went to a different tables.
"A lot of people are here today." Big Red sighed.
"Yeah..." Nina looked around sadly. "It's been hard since my dad isn't here."
When he heard this sentence he stopped looking for sugar and looked at the girl in the black clothes that stood beside him. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No." she answered quickly as a fake smile appeared on her face. "Um, no, I- I'm fine."
He knew she was lying and it was terrible for him to have to look at her and know there was nothing he can do about it.
"All done." the girls came to them with a smile.
"All right." Red shook his head to stop his thoughts about brunette girl and her father.
"Nina I'm going to prepare a delivery and then you will take it to this address." he told her and handed her a piece of paper with the address and name, then he went to the kitchen.
"Since when are you a delivery girl?" Kourtney looked at her as she sat back on one of the bar stools.
"Since my uncle had to fire Tom, because he doesn't have the money to pay him. Now I have to be a delivery girl or sometimes if Red is in a good mood and wants to be nice to me he is a delivery boy." Nina explained.
Before one of the girls could say something, Gina's phone rang. The name 'Seb' appeared on the screen.
"Put him on speaker." Nina told her friend as she finished washing the dishes.
"Hello, hello."
"Hi!" a sweet voice came from the phone.
"Boy, you just missed the best Taylor Swift cover I've ever heard." Kourtney told Seb.
"And how many Taylor Swift covers did you hear?" Nina raised an eyebrow when she asked a question.
"It doesn't matter." she shook her head.
"Do you ever sing something other than Taylor Swift?" they heard Seb say.
"You know our friend is the biggest swiftie in the world." Gina laughed.
"Well I'm gonna go to the kitchen because my friends are bullying me." the brunette said and wanted to leave, but Red came back with the order in his hands.
"Here you go." he said and handed Nina the delivery.
"Guys, have you seen what's on twitter?" all four heard Seb's voice again.
"What do you mean?" they were confused.
"The Richard Bowen is coming to Salt Lake City!!" he explained to them with happiness.
"What?!" Kourtney was shocked and she immediately grabbed her phone and looked on the twiter to make sure it was true.
Richard Bowen is a famous and young singer who is as old as these four teenagers and originally also from Salt Lake City.. just like them.
But at very young age he moved to Los Angeles to make his dream come true, which he eventually succeeded in doing.
The girls are his biggest fans and basically everyone loves him.
"I don't understand why it is such a big deal."
Everyone but one person, and that is..... Nina Salazar-Roberts.
"Never say that in front of me again. Ever." she heard from the phone.
"I just don't understand why is everyone so obsessed with him. His music is not even that good." Nina told them as she put on her denim jacket.
"If you weren't my best friend, I'd probably hit you right now." Gina said honestly.
"Oh, come on... Red tell them something! You agree with me, don't you?"
"I mean‐" he started. "He has a good voice-"
"I'm not saying he can't sing." Nina interrupted him.
"-but," the boy continued "I just think he has changed a lot."
"Well duh!" Kourtney smiled. "People change with age. I am also different than I was two years ago. And you were friends with him almost six years ago..."
"Wait-" Seb said when he realized what he had just heard. "You know Richard???"
"He knew." Nina corrected him in an annoyed tone.
"Oh my god! That's so cool! I'll be there in thirty minutes, I need to know everything." after that last sentence he ended the call.
"Well, delivery girl has to go." Nina smiled sarcastically, took the food in her hands and left.
"All right, bye!"
"We will be waiting for you here!" she heard her friends say before she went out of the door.
The girl was walking down the street and watching other people. She wondered what kind of life a person she saw had, whether they were happy or sad. It was her way of not getting bored...
Since the restaurant could not afford to buy a car and they didn't even have a bike, she had to walk.
Suddenly she saw a little girl buying ice cream with her dad, but she can't decide what flavor she wants.
Nina smiled at that.. but after a while of thinking she was sad again as she remembered the memories with her dad. She never knew how to decide either, because she wanted to try a new flavor, but she still eventually chose strawberry cause it was her favori-
-her thoughts were interrupted by a stranger who bumped into her. She lost her balance and fell to the ground. The boy in front of her tried to catch her but didn't make it in time. She fell and hurt herself. The delivery has also fallen and cannot be delivered to the customer in this way.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry." he said, reaching out his hand to help her stand up.
------
Wow.. this was the longest chapter I've ever written lol
I hope you liked the first chapter. Thank you for reading, votes and comments.
Love ya, Sof♡