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"We're here." The driver says as he stops the car into the valet parking lot and opens the doors to let us out.
"My feet are already hurting in these heels." I groan as I get up from the car seat in the back as the driver comes and opens the door.
"I know, me too." Ainisa says as I come around to the other side of the car to where she was.
I guess she just blew off the whole Lily thing. I kept quiet the entire car ride so maybe she just didn't want to push any further than I was willing to.
We start walking towards the back entrance of the center to avoid all of the people seeing our outfit and our faces. I grab my shoe trying to trying to get the back of my shoe to stop digging into my ankle.
"Did you figure out what songs you two are going to sing for your portion?" Carmen asks as she grabs the large black door to open it for us.
"I'm going to do my Miss Me album because it correlates to breakup." Ainisa says as we enter the building, Ainisa entering the building first before Carmen and I.
"I think I might do 1-800." I say kind of quietly. I have never sung it before because it is song that really hits close to home. But, now I feel as though I'm ready to finally ready.
But, I know I'll be sobbing by the end of it.
We finally found our prep-rooms, being side by side, after like 20 minutes of searching. My door has the moon on it with my name and Ainisa's has the sun on it with hers.
Our symbols that have represented us since birth have always been the sun and the moon. It was just always something that has stuck with us. Ainisa is joyous and bright like the sun and I am quiet and luminous like the moon.
It made up who we are and why our souls are tied to one another. Two celestial bodies shining bright in the sky.
"Cutee." Ainisa says as we enter her room, it looks the same as any other room, a vanity, a couch with a coffee table in front of it and even a mini fridge with Ainisa favorite drink.
Root-beer.
"YESS!! Root-beer!" Ainisa cheers as she opens the mini fridge grabbing 2 out and handing one to Carmen, knowing I don't prefer it.
"I hope they have tea in mine." I laugh as I go to start leave the room. Then someone opens the door, almost hitting me.
"Oh, oops! Sorry!" She frantically bows and apologizes to me. The makeup box in her hand indicated to me that she was Maya, a small makeup artist located in Vegas that I invited to do our make up for the concert.
"Maya! You're here! You're totally fine." I smile gently as I move out of the way for her to enter the prep room. She thanks me and walks past me towards the center of the room.
"Miss Moreau and Miss Vargas, thank you for hiring me to be your makeup artist." Maya says happily as places her bag onto the beautifully decorated vanity in the middle of the back wall.
"Of course! I'll be in the next room to the right when you're ready Maya." I return her kind smile and start to walk out of the room to allow her and Ainisa to get started.
"Alright! I'll be right over to you in a moment Miss Moreau!" She smiles and starts taking items out of the bag.
"Okay, take your time!" I grab the door handle and open the door, leaving the room with Carmen behind me. We quickly over to the next door over with my name plastered onto the middle of the door.
"Did you really not tell Ainisa about Lilly?" She asks. I stop with my hand on the doorknob, I take a pause before responding to her. She knows how I felt about the whole situation, I just didn't want to talk about it anymore.
What's in the past, should stay the fuck in the past.
"No." I pause briefly before starting to open the door to enter the same exact room layout as Ainisa's.
"And, I don't really plan to." I say as I walk towards the couch quickly, not even taking the time to look back or acknowledge my cousins effort to get me to talk about the situation.
"Why not?" Carmen pushes forward as she comes next to me as I sit on the couch and put my purse off to the corner. I don't respond to her, I just kind of look down at my phone. She sits right next to me as I ignore her presence the best I could.
"Look at me." Carmen grabs onto my arm so I couldn't walk away like I usually do when confronted about something. She knew me way too well for me to escape the moment.
"Let go of me." I rip my arm away from her, getting up anyway to walk over to the fridge. I was about to open the door, I stop. She's just trying to help but I'm acting like an asshole about it.
My mom told me I'm supposed to take care of her, yet I'm yelling at my 21 year-old cousin like we were still young teens in abulita's living room arguing over petty things like boys.
"I'm... sorry." I say quietly and grabbing the tea from out of the mini fridge, holding it in my hand while looking at the floor. I have to be the bigger person, no matter the situation.
"It's okay. I understand it's a hard topic for you. Don't worry about it, but just please promise me you'll at least try talk to her about it. Okay?" Carmen sighs as she starts to get up from the couch. She walks up next to me and rubs my back slowly.
"Okay?" She asks again and I nod before starting to speak. "Okay." I quietly mumble as Carmen smiles at me and puts her hand on my head, stroking my hair gently.
"Okay. Just. Don't stress too much." Carmen kisses my forehead and goes to leave the room. Likely to tell the convention manager that we were getting ready.
I hear a buzz coming from my phone so I walk over to the couch and sit down with my drink, knees to my chest. My heart lightens as I open my phone to see Colby's name in my notifications.
colby <3
we're here!! ;)
niko <3
what?
your like almost 2 hours early 😭
colby <3
I know but I wanted to
get a good view of you
not in a weird way
i swear
niko <3
LMAO
hopefully i get a
good view of you too ;)
liked by colby <3
4:56pm
I smile as I place my phone down on the table next to the couch. I started to space out while just staring at the floor.
Let's hope this concert isn't as much of a disaster as the last few hours have been.
I don't know how long I was staring for but next thing I know was there was a knock on the door.
"Miss Moreau, can I come in? It's Maya." I get up and and quickly go over to open the door for the kind girl.
"Hi." I say stepping away from her path so she could come in.
"Hi! I'm guessing you're going to have the same make-up as Miss Vargas, yes?" She asks as she comes in and places her bag down on the same large vanity and ushered me to the chair.
"Yep and you don't have to call me Miss Moreau. Niko is fine." I say as she nods, apologizing for calling me so.
"It's okay! We're practically the same exact age, there's no need to be so formal." I smile before I started to walk over there I grabbed my phone from the couch then sit on the chair.
We talked for a while about our lives for a while and then it went quiet in a comfortable silence for the rest of the makeup session.
"Your all done!" Maya proudly says as she starts to put her makeup back into her bag. I turn the chair to face the mirror fully to admire the incredible job Maya did.
"Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! It looks incredible." I gush as I look at myself in my mirror, never feeling so pretty before.
"You're so welcome! ... Niko!" She pauses before say my nickname. I smile softly and walk over to the couch where my purse is, grabbing $100 out and walking back to where Maya is and handing her the money.
"Here." I smile softly as I hold out the large bill. She looks down to the bill and back up to me quickly shaking her head.
"What? Oh no, you don't have to tip. You've already paid me way more than enough." She shakes her head and pushes the money that was in my hands back towards me.
"Maya. Please, I insist." I hand her the money again. She gives me a pleading look and takes it, holding it softly in her hands.
"It's better to have more than less money." I smile as Maya laughs at my comment and agrees while nodding her head.
"Thank you. Genuinely. You don't know how this and you have helped me Niko." She says as I smile and she finishes packing her makeup back into her bag and starts to get ready to leave.
She spoke to me while she was doing my makeup that she was newly married with a new baby, but financially she wasn't ready to do either of those things. So, in exchange she had to pick up a side job which was also a huge hobby of hers.
Makeup brought her peace as singing calmed my soul. I understood her situation and I wished her the best for her family and herself, knowing she would care for her family with as much as love and passion as she has put into this career.
"Take care, Miss Niko." She walks over to the door and waves to me with a kind smile.
"Same to you. Have a nice night, Maya." I smile and wave back to her. I'd be sure to promote her as much as I could on my socials. I was following her on the Ukiyo account so that alone should give her some positive traction.
I look at my phone real quick to check the time before starting my vocals to prepare to sing for the next 2 hours.
colby <3
we're in the very front
if you were wondering
im wearing that grey christian dior
sweatshirt that you got me for my
birthday last year :)
niko <3
ill be looking for you ;)
i won't have my phone on
stage so I hope ill be able to find
you 💗
"Niko? Are you ready?" I hear Carmen shouting from outside of the door. I quickly put my phone into my purse and and stop my vocals abruptly. I quickly walk over it the door and open it.
"Yep! All warmed up!" I say as I step out of the room with my outfit ready and my hair done up nicely.
"Right. Ainisa still needs a minute or so. We can wait a while." Carmen pulls out her phone and texts someone as she tells me all of the little details of what we're going to do, slowly walking down the hall towards Ainisa's room.
After a few minutes of waiting for Ainisa, she finally comes out of her room and we walk towards where our bodyguards were who we only really meet when we have a mainstream events when we have our masks on like the met gala or golden globe.
People didn't know what we looked like so we didn't need them but now we won't really have that pleasure anymore.
"Hi James!" I say to my bodyguard and he only waves back at me.
We walk up to the entrance of the stage and I stand back for a minute before stepping up on the steps, like really mentally preparing myself.
I haven't sang in front of a major audience for almost 2 years and never in front of the man I've had a fat crush on for 4 consecutive years.
"You'll be fine, Niko." Carmen says as she rubs my back then fixing my little wrinkles in my outfit for me before grabbing my hands and looking in my eyes.
"Do your best, that's all that matters." She smiles as she puts my hand down gently. I give her a kind smile before taking a deep breath.
"I know. Thank you, Carmen." I say as walk to the top of the steps and meet up with Ainisa who is sitting on the first step, waiting for me.
"Good luck babe." Ainisa says as she slaps my butt. I snap my head back at her before slapping the back of her head and we both laugh lightheartedly.
Being playful was our way of comforting each other in moments of stress. I will always be thankful to her for that.
"Thanks Aini." I roll my eyes playfully. She smiles at me and then my cue signals and I run onto the stage in the dark, almost tripping but still making it to the mic stand and grab it. Waiting with the mic in my hand, for the lights to turn on.
Bang!
The lights turn on, beaming on my face.
"WHOS READY FOR UKIYO VEGAS!!"
♡ liked by ainisavargas, mayadoesmakeup, and 7,209,071 others
╰ ladnerla lights camera action'
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2317 words