"Wait."
Dom shortly waved at the band so they would stop playing for a moment and he turned towards Julia.
"What if you sing that same sentence but a little higher? I'll try to harmonize with it."
Julia pressed her lips together as she nodded shortly, preparing herself to sing again.
"Hiding all my feelings but I know that I'm not-"
Dom had started harmonizing with her already, when Julia cut herself off and shook her head. "It's too fucking high, I can't do it."
"You sounded great," Dom told her seriously, but she shook her head.
"I won't be able to do it tonight."
"Babe." Dom sighed and lowered his microphone to come a little closer to Julia. "You've been trying to bring yourself down the entire time now. It's not gonna work like that."
"Then it's not gonna work," Julia shrugged and lowered her microphone as well, wanting to lay it on the floor as a sign she was done practicing, but Dom stopped her by grabbing her wrist.
"It is gonna work. I know you're nervous. But you're a great singer, really."
Julia slightly rolled her eyes as she was avoiding eye contact with Dom. She was just staring at the stage doors at the other side of the venue, knowing that there already were a few fans waiting for Dom, not knowing Julia would be performing too tonight. She just couldn't stop thinking about how they probably didn't even want her to sing.
"You'll be fine. I would never ask you if I didn't think you're great." Dom tugged her arm to make her look at him, which worked.
"I don't know. I'm so nervous I-"
"I'm nervous too, honey. Every fucking show. But that doesn't mean you can't do it."
Julia sighed and looked down at their shoes. She slightly moved her feet as she was aware of them now and felt herself getting caught up in her thoughts while Dom was still looking at her.
"We don't have to do the harmony. We'll do whatever the fuck you feel like you can do," he spoke, pulling her out of her thoughts quickly.
Julia moved her microphone back up again as she asked "can we just practice the harmony once again?"
Dom's worried face made place for a content smile and he nodded before communicating with the band again.
"Of course we can."
-
Dom had given her a bit of confidence during soundcheck, which had made Julia feel like she could actually do it for a good hour. Though, once she heard the doors open and people come inside, the confidence left as quickly as it came.
"They're gonna think I want to be famous too. What if they think I'm doing it to get famous?"
"Jules please," Dom spoke, sounding rather annoyed. "They won't."
"It's either that or me messing up the performance," Julia said determinedly as she checked herself in the mirror again and again to make sure she looked alright.
In the corner of her eye she saw how Dom put down his phone and stood up from the couch in the changing room to walk over to her and look at her through the mirror.
"It doesn't have to go wrong. You know it can go well too, right?"
Julia raised her shoulders and held them high only to let them fall after two seconds with a sigh. "'M just nervous."
Dom nodded as he took her hand to slowly turn her around to look into her eyes directly instead. "And that's alright. But you'll do great and if you mess up; think about the times I messed up. There are a lot."
"Can't remember," Julia mumbled, making Dom chuckle as he took both of her hands into one hand probably because he noticed how much she was shaking.
"Yes you can. I forget the lyrics nearly every show. And you remember that voice crack I had in LA?"
The memory made Julia giggle and she nodded eventually, giving in. "It was bad."
"It was!" Dom agreed, laughing. "But no one ever made fun of me for that."
While Dom was still smiling, looking at her with hopeful eyes because he felt like he finally convinced her, Julia dropped her smile. "That's because they know you can do better. This is my first impression."
"It's scary, indeed." Dom moved one hand up to her face to tuck her blonde hair behind her ear, showing the ear piece she had just put into her ear so she wouldn't struggle with that later.
"But you're great, I promise."
"Let's just hope your fans won't hate me."
"They'll love you," he reassured her, causing her smile to slowly come back. And she had just enough time to kiss him on the lips until Dom's alarm went off meaning he had to go on stage soon.
She followed him up until the stage though, to watch him perform from backstage. Hope for the underrated youth was somewhere in the middle, which meant she could enjoy the concert for a while until she had to go on stage.
Every time a song ended and she heard the audience cheering loudly, her heart started pounding. Not only because she knew she was one song closer to performing, but also because she knew all those people were going to see her perform.
She must have zoned out from nervousness, because she didn't even hear the song ending but she snapped out of her thoughts once she heard Dom talk about her.
"I remember a while ago, a long time ago, I introduced this next song by saying I wrote this with my girlfriend at that time. And she was here too. We weren't together anymore at that time."
He stopped talking to let some people cheer for a reason that was unclear for Julia, but her nervous butterflies immediately returned once he continued.
"Her name is Julia, and she's my girlfriend again now."
More people cheered now, making Julia smile and bite her lip. She wondered how many people knew who he was talking about.
"I begged her to sing this song with me for months, because I love her voice. But she never wanted to. She changed her mind, though."
Dom turned his head to glare at Julia shortly, nodding to ask if she was ready. She nodded back.
"Please scream the loudest you can for my girlfriend Jula!"
Dom quickly ran over to Julia's side of the stage and held out his hand to hold to guide her to the middle. Before he turned to the audience again, he quickly kissed her cheek and she meant she could hear him whisper "love you" quickly.
She knew he said that instead of 'you can do it' because it'd only make her more nervous. She had told him before.
Once the music started she got incredibly nervous, though, and she didn't think 'you can do it' would have made a change.
But as she was singing and just looking over the crowd, not actually at the people, she realized it went alright. Better than she thought. And even the harmony they had practiced a countless times went well.
And just as Julia started feeling more adrenaline than nervousness, the song was over. She barely even heard the crowd yelling, as she was too caught up in what just happened.
She didn't even know what Dom had done during the song or how she had looked like, but apparently it was good what she had dome, looking at the audience.
Dom quickly came over to her only to hold her face with both of his hands and made sure their faces were just a few centimeters apart.
"You did it baby," he said, a huge smile around his lips. It was the only thing Julia could see, actually.
"I don't even know how it went," Julia told him honestly, her arms hanging next to her body.
Dom chuckled and pressed his lips on hers, causing people to yell louder. "Great. It went great."
Julia smiled too and finally looked into his eyes that were obviously shining from happiness. It made her want to hug him for minutes just to make sure that feeling of happiness wouldn't leave his body anytime soon. But she couldn't, as Dom had to play more songs and everyone was watching them at the moment.
So instead she just kissed him quickly as a goodbye and ran off stage, finally able to enjoy the rest of the show without feeling she had to throw up.
It really felt like she was a star for once, though, like Dom told her. Because right after the show Dom took her outside to meet people with him. Normally she'd just wait for him inside, but Dom begged her to come along as he was sure people wanted to meet her too.
And they did; for at least twenty minutes long people kept coming up to her telling her they liked her voice and they appreciated them. It gave her a kind of feeling she couldn't describe in a million years. It did make her understand why Dom always wanted to meet people and why he got upset when he couldn't. Because it felt great, and they weren't even there for her originally.
She was done with meeting people way sooner than Dom, though, which wasn't weird as only a few people wanted to meet them both, but most of them just waited for Dom.
So Julia decided to step aside once she figured most people were gone, and she just watched everyone from a distance.
"You were great tonight."
The compliment made Julia smile instantly and she turned her head and opened her mouth to thank the person already, but she immediately clenched her jaws together once she saw who was talking to her.
"I don't think I-"
Julia pushed herself away from the wall she had been leaning against, but a hand wrapped around her wrist.
"You can at least take the compliment, right?"
"Fuck off."
Her heartbeat was higher than it had ever been that day, and it had had a lot of peaks. She tried to shake away the hand but failed and made the person chuckle.
"That's not nice to say to someone who just gave you a compliment."
The grip around her wrist got tighter. All Julia could do was desperately looking into Dom's direction hoping he'd see her, but he didn't. And she knew that if she would scream she'd cause chaos right away.
"Please go away. Please-"
"Suddenly she doesn't have a big mouth anymore, huh?"
He knew exactly what position he was in and that he had all power over Julia. That was what scared her so much and he knew that.
Still holding her wrist, he pulled her closer to him so that he was looking at her face. She could see his blue eyes. It made her wonder how she had ever called them beautiful. It made her sick to her stomach, actually.
"Are you up for a ride? I need to tell you a lot. We haven't seen each other in-"
"Julia! There you are. God, I searched everywhere."
The hand around her wrist immediately disappeared, giving Julia the space to turn around only to face Max.
She had thought nothing could mess with her mind more, but this definitely did. She could only stare at her ex best friend for seconds until she realized he only said that as a lie to save her from the guy, Benjamin.
Julia slowly breathed out. "Yeah. I was waiting for you," was all she could say, hoping it sounded convincing enough for Benjamin to leave her alone. She was too scared to turn around and look at him again, though.
"Come, we need to catch the train," Max told her as he held out his hand that Julia took as quick as she could so Max could pull her away from Benjamin.
Benjamin knew he couldn't make a scene now, as there were security guards everywhere. Although Julia didn't even dare to look at him again, she knew he didn't even try to follow Max and her.
Max walked quickly, taking her to the other side of the venue where no one was standing, except for two people smoking who didn't even pay attention to them.
She wanted to thank Max, really, but all she could do once they stopped and she realized what happened, was burst into tears.
Max didn't say much and just wrapped his arms around her neck to hug her. It was so incredibly weird to smell his scent again after so long. To feel his arms again and to see how he was still wearing that one jacket he loved. How he barely even changed even though so much had changed between them.
"Why?" Julia breathed out as she was crying.
"Why what?"
Max didn't hug her as tightly as he used to do, but he didn't let her go either, which was enough for Julia to feel safe.
"Why did you- why-"
"Because you were in danger, Julia," Max replied. "Even if you were a fucking stranger I would have pulled you away. I wasn't gonna ignore it, I'd never forgive myself."
Julia tried to stop a sob but failed and she gave up and just laid her head on Max's shoulder while letting herself go.
"I'm gonna get Dom," Max told her determinedly just as she got comfortable hugging him. He pushed her away but Julia quickly shook her head.
"Don't leave. Please don't leave."
Max sighed and slightly stepped back from Julia. "Give me your phone, I'll text him."
As she bit her lip so she wouldn't embarrass herself more by crying in front of him, she got her phone out of her pocket and handed it over to Max.
It was weird to think they hadn't talked for so long but he still knew her password, and the exact place her messages app was at. She watched the screen as Max typed and sent a message.
Not knowing what to do, they both stared at the screen until Dom read it and typed something back. Julia had calmed down, only because she was focusing on her phone, but she knew she'd break down again as soon as she had to tell Dom what had happened.
"He's coming now."