Make up chairs can be so uncomfortable, especially after sitting in one for an hour and a half. Anna, my make up artist for the day, was finishing up my face while Molly was curling my hair into beachy waves.
Anna had noticed the scars on my arm but didn't make a big deal about it. She quietly and kindly asked whether or not I wanted them to be covered up with some foundation and I nodded gratefully.
Finally, my makeup and hair was done but apparently I wasn't allowed to look at myself yet in the mirror. Anna disappeared and came back with a long bag hiding a dress underneath.
Anna and Molly took me behind a screen to dress me and finally when it was zipped up I was handed a pair of nude heels which were somewhat comfotable to walk in. When I finally saw myself in the mirror I was amazed.
The dress was dark red with a halter neck, leaving my back bare. Most importantly however was the material, a thin red lace with small amounts of beading strategically placed all over. The dress fit over my figure, before flowing out around my hips. My hair tumbled down in curls down my back and over my right shoulder. Finally, Anna had made my makeup natural with a touch of classic red lip stick.
For the first time in ages, I felt confident and liked what I saw in the mirror.
Jordan ran in, wearing jeans, converses and an old baseball t-shirt but stopped in her tracks, "Oh my gosh Taylor, you look amazing!" She gave me a hug carefully so she wouldn't knock my hair or smudge the makeup.
"Thanks Jords," I said.
"All the girls are heading over to The Hub now but I think you missed the last bus."
Oh crap.
Anna laughed, "Sorry Taylor, here I'll just get an Uber for you." she fiddled with her phone while Jordan and I stood out by the side of the road waiting for the Uber to turn up. A white sedan eventually came speeding around the corner and pulled up beside us. I think the man was a bit puzzled as to why I was so dressed up.
Eventually we pulled up outside the Hub and I rushed into a seat just before the director called action. The theme music played and the atmosphere was so tense. Camera men were weaving in and out of the girls trying to get shots of everyone who was there.
"Good evening America, welcome to the Search for Cinderella!" Marcus boomed across the set, "Tonight, only 25 girls will be left to compete to win Noah James' heart!" Noah then appeared from behind a curtain and joined Marcus on stage.
The two of them were talking about the camping trip over the week, and how he was feeling about the show at the moment. Finally, the first set of eliminations begun and Noah was walking around to various girls handing out roses. Ten girls walked off the set, some were calm others were crying and that made me so much more nervous.
There was an ad break and a performance by a local Miami pop band which took up took up some time. I watched Noah as he was pulled back and forth between various crew members, who were all trying to look at him at once and saying something to him and he looked so overwhelmed.
Finally, the second part of eliminations were live and this time it was in the middle section, where 5 girls were given roses. The next set of ad breaks, performance and weekly recaps blurred past before it was my section's turn, and 10 girls from my section were going to get roses. But what puzzled me more was whether I wanted on or not. Did I want to go home and live with Alicia for one and a half more years before fleeing to college to escape her, or did I want to stay here as long as I could and actually be happy, and then hopefully apply for various scholarships around the country and hope to get in. My dream college was Stanford University, and apparently it was so hard to get into especially through a scholarship. My mind was so conflicted and I was so distracted that I did not realise that Noah had started handing out roses until he walked straight past me.
I breathed deeply as a weight fell off my shoulders. It became clear then as well that I did want to stay here for as long as I possibly could, I would just have to deal with the college dilemma when I got home. Who knew, Stacey and Bianca could have been just talking crap but knowing them and Alicia, I doubted it very much.
***
Once shooting the broadcast was done, it was time to head back to the hotel. Some of the girls went straight away but I waited for Jordan to finish helping Charlie. Jasmine and two of the other girls from breakfast waited around too.
Once Jordan had finished and realised that I was still there with the others she rolled her eyes, "You missed the bus back again loser." I laughed and just shrugged, at this point I didn't really care.
Jasmine was the only one with Uber so we all got in one small five seater car with the driver squished in with big dresses and heels, well besides Jords.
My stomach grumbled along the way and so did Destiny's, one of the girls who I was slowly getting to know. We pulled up at the closest McDonald's and walked in with our full get up. Jordan was laughing at how ridiculous we looked and was snapchatting the whole thing. You could also say we were getting quite a few weird looks from the other customers. We ordered our meals and gosh, we disproved the saying that girls do not eat.
It was a pretty chilled and uninteresting dinner at McDonald's until we were about to leave when Noah James and another guy walked in. A few of the teenage girl's who happened to be eating at the same place, freaked out and went over to him for photos. Our group stayed put, I guess because we were so used to seeing him around the set.
I think it was our attire in McDonald's that caught his and his friend's attention and they headed over to us.
"What are you girls up to tonight?"
Alana, Destiny's friend, explained to him that we were just hanging out before heading home. His friend brought over food for the two of them and they joined us in our somewhat decent sized booth. Might I mention that Noah was sitting directly across from me and I did not know how to handle it.
"Sorry for intruding on your girls' night," His friend, otherwise known as Nicholas, said jokingly.
Jordan snickered, "It's alright, you two fit in with us girls anyway." Nicholas raised his eyebrow at her, with a little smirk on his lips however he didn't say anything.
We chatted for a while, all of us. It was pretty much all small talk and just hanging out and binging on McDonald's ice cream. Jasmine was into photography and had brought her film camera and was taking some candid photos of all us together.
Finally, we started to leave around 11:30pm, except instead of having to get an Uber Nicholas offered to drive us in his Range Rover and luckily there was enough seats for all of us.
We headed back to the hotel, and everyone was pretty much in bed, which was lucky because although there was no official rule, we weren't really supposed to hang out with Noah unless it was broadcasted because it may be classified as 'cheating'.
Destiny and Alana headed off to their room after saying goodnight to everyone which left Jasmine, Jordan and I with the boys. Despite the humidity in Miami, it was cooling down a bit and I was starting to get really cold and wanted my bed more than ever. The boys offered to walk us girls to our room, seeing as we had stopped outside Destiny and Alana's room.
Nicholas kept insisting despite Jordan's protest so we eventually all gave in and followed the two feisty beings argue their way down to our room. Jasmine's phone rang, and I think it was her parents she was talking to, whoever they were they were definitely not sober.
That left little awkward me walking besides Noah and I did not know what to say. However, he just started talking like we were back at the campsite, as if we had known each other for ages. Just before we reached our room he asked, "What are you doing in the morning before breakfast?"
I smiled, "If I'm not sleeping in to make up for tonight's lack of sleep, I'll probably just go for a run."
He smiled as well, and let me tell you that was one beautiful sight to see. He took my phone out of my hands and seemed to enter his number, "Text me when you're about to go, and I'll come join you."
With that he and Nicholas walked off into the night and I numbly followed the girls up into our room, however my heart was flipping around like gymnast in my chest, however this time it felt good.
A/N: How is everyone going?!
Ok, so firstly who watches Riverdale and like wants to cry over it with me?! Like idk what to do till the second season.
Also, I'm going to MEXICO in June/July and will also be in LA on my way home. So if anyone is from there, say hello!!!! <3
Thanks for the love, you are all the best xxx