"One minute guys. Get your instruments ready because you have to go on stage any second."
Julia nervously held her guitar tighter and looked past the curtains for the fourth time. She scanned her eyes through the crowd trying to find someone with a pink strand of hair that could be Dom, but so far she hadn't seen anyone.
It has given her multiple doubts already. She had never called nor facetimed with him. She didn't even know whether he was real.
But he sounded like he was, though.
"Julia come here."
Someone pulled her away from the curtains, causing her to stumble over her feet.
"People will see you like that. Just wait until the curtains open."
She nodded while looking at her friend Max one more time. He was the piano player during the performance. Normally he was a drummer as well, but as Julia did an acoustic version of the song, he wasn't needed for that.
"Twenty seconds."
Nerves built up in Julia's stomach and she closed her eyes shortly to calm herself down. She let out a shaky breath as she opened them again, and nodded to encourage herself.
The presenter said a last sentence and she heard how he called her name as he pointed at her, which was the moment for them to come on stage.
Julia breathed in and out one more time before she, Max and two other people involved with the performance entered the stage. The audience started clapping and once they got ready, there was complete silence until Max started the song.
Again Julia scanned her eyes through the crowd, still not seeing Dom anywhere. She had to admit she was pretty disappointed, but that wasn't something she could think of right now.
Julia started off the first verse a little insecure, but once the chorus started, she gave everything she had. She had practiced for this for so long, she had to show what she got now.
The second verse started and she closed her eyes to feel it better. She smiled when she heard a few people cheer when she did a short high note, and then she got to the chorus for the second time.
She opened her eyes again to make eye contact with the audience, and the first thing she saw was Dom walking to an empty chair and making eye contact with Julia shortly before sitting down.
The feeling she felt before she went on stage, the butterflies, all came back for a split second and she started smiling even wider than she did before. She closed her eyes again for a high note, smiling widely, but when she looked into the crowd again she kept eye contact with Dom.
He smiled brightly at her, running his hand through his always messy hair before mouthing "sorry I'm late".
Julia was surprised she caught that and she playfully rolled her eyes before looking into the crowd again so she wouldn't start laughing.
She finished off the bridge perfectly and luckily sang the last chorus with no mistakes, and Julia watched the audience getting up from their chairs to clap and cheer.
Julia put the microphone on the mic stand and motioned Max and the two other girls over to bow. After getting up Julia looked at Dom again, who was clapping along and mouthing something else she couldn't quite catch this time. Still Julia smiled fondly before turning around and walking off stage.
-
"Julia honey that was amazing."
Her mother hugged her tightly so Julia's face was all pressed against her shoulder.
"Thanks mum."
"It went flawlessly!"
"Thanks, can you let me go please?" Julia moaned and her mother finally let her go to kiss her forehead.
"Dad and I bought you a rose."
Her mother turned around to her father and let him give Julia the rose. Julia smiled thankfully as she looked at it and then looked back at her parents.
"Thank you that means a lot."
She couldn't help but start to look around right after to see where Dom was. It was so crowded in the hall it was impossible to find him by only standing still.
"Is it ok if I'm gonna search for Dom now?"
She had told her parents about Dom coming to see her perform. Their reactions were very positive, especially because they only knew him as the Dom who helped her for her exam.
"Sure hun. Make sure you tell us when you guys leave so we don't have to look for you."
"I will," Julia answered quickly before she walked into the crowd, holding her rose to her chest.
She thought it was gonna be impossible to find him quickly, but as soon as she had walked away from her parents she saw Dom standing next to the door, looking at his phone as he had a cocktail in his other hand.
"Dom!" she exclaimed happily as she fast-walked into his direction, causing him to look up and smile like he did when they made eye contact for the first time.
"Jula!" he exclaimed back.
Julia rolled her eyes at her nickname and opened her arms to hug him.
"What's up my superstar," Dom said excitedly into her ear as she wrapped his arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist, lifting her up for a few seconds.
"Thanks for coming," Julia told him happily before letting him go to look at him.
"I'm so sorry I was late it was so stupid," he immediately apologized, frowning deeply.
"Don't worry about it."
"But I missed half of your performance. I'm so stupid man I should've left earlier but my hair wouldn't... and I couldn't find my keys so I-"
"Dom," she cut him off, touching his upper arm, "it's fine. You missed one verse. I'm happy you could make it."
Dom's frown changed into a fond smile and he shrugged. "You were great though."
"Thank you."
Julia smiled as well. And they just stood in front of each other, looking at each other both thinking of how weird it actually was how they met each other after only talking online.
"Your voice is exactly like I expected it to be," Julia commented, making Dom laugh.
"It is?"
"Yes. Pretty loud and a little raspy. I don't know, it fits someone who is a singer with adhd."
Dom laughed again, this time louder. "Yours is so soft it's just hard to explain."
Julia looked down at their shoes as she smiled again. It was funny how it was kind of awkward but also not at all. She had expected it to be much more awkward.
"So," Dom broke the silence again, "do you wanna go to the cafe or stay here to drink some more cocktails?"
"I-" Julia started before thinking of what she wanted. "I'll surely take one cocktail and we can take it with us as we walk to the cafe."
Dom chuckled and nodded as he held up his own glass. "They're good."
"I'll have to say goodbye to my parents and sister first."
She scanned her eyes over the hall to find her parents, and once they found them standing next to a teacher, she turned back to Dom.
"They're there. Come with me."
Dom followed her into the crowd and Julia kept looking back to see if she didn't lose him. After seeing him bump into three different people, she reached out to grab his hand instead.
They made it through the people and Julia smiled and pushed Dom forward a little to introduce him to her parents.
"This is Dom," she said happily, "the boy who helped me pass the exam."
Dom and her mother had a quick small talk about basic things and Julia and Senna talked about the performance until Julia's eyes widen as she noticed something.
"Dom."
She tapped his shoulder and tugged his arm to get his attention.
"Look who's there."
She nodded into the direction of what she saw, and Dom let out an excited "oh my god".
"Miss Johnson, we have to say hi to her," Julia laughed and Dom agreed but stopped her as she started walking into Mrs. Johsnon's direction.
"She's definitely gonna have a heart attack man," Dom said as he couldn't stop laughing and Julia let out an excited laugh and tugged him along to the teacher.
"Mrs. Johnson?" she said innocently, getting her attention. Mrs. Johnson turned around and smiled as she saw Julia, opening her eyes probably to talk about the performance.
"Do you remember him?" Julia said before Mrs. Johnson could speak.
She couldn't contain her laughter as Dom and the teacher made eye contact and Mrs. Johnson's eyes widen.
"Hi miss how are you?"
"Dominic?"
"Yes it's me!" Dom said excitedly while the woman still looked at him in disbelief.
"I didn't think I'd ever see you again," she said, causing Julia and Dom both to laugh.
"You probably wish you wouldn't," Dom answered her, chuckling.
Mrs. Johnson didn't answer and looked at Julia and back to Dom.
"Are you guys a couple?"
"No just friends," Julia told her.
"You guys being a couple would be so weird because Julia is so sweet and quiet and Dom you-"
Her words caused Dom and Julia to laugh even harder and they looked at each other fondly.
"We should probably go now. It was good seeing you miss," Dom wrapped it up before he waved and lead Julia away from her.
"Her eyes," Julia laughed loudly as they disappeared into the crowd again and they were sure the teacher couldn't hear them anymore.
"Her life flashed in front of her eyes man," Dom said as he couldn't stop giggling.
"Absolutely gold. Just pure gold."
Julia nodded and smoothly grabbed a cocktail from the table.
"Shall we go now? I'll just have to get my jacket and we can go."
"We can stay here to drink some more cocktails if you want to, though. I don't mind," Dom said.
Julia shook her head. "I'm probably gonna drink too much and it would be embarrassing to get drunk in front of you on the first day of meeting you, so no thanks."
Dom laughed and nodded.
"Plus I'm craving some food right now."
"Me too. Let's fucking go then."
-----
Sorry if there were any mistakes that bothered you but English isn't my first language sooo I'm trying my best
Also! Please tell me if this chapter was ok 🥺
Ok update I made some changes because someone pointed out I called Dom Brendon a few times which I've changed now so :) thanks for pointing it out I appreciate that a lot xx