"Nathalie?!", he said in disbelief as he followed me, but I ignored him and walked faster.

"Wait!", he ran past me and stepped in my way, holding onto my shoulders so that I had no chance to escape, "What's wrong? What did I do?"

"It's not about what you did, it's about what you didn't do, okay! You do know what to do with a phone number, right?", I hissed, walked past him and grabbed my coat.

I saw him hesitate out of the corner of my eye and a guilty look appeared on his face: "I'm sorry. I know I should've called. But I was really busy, and I thought it's better to talk to you in person..."

"Yah sure. I honestly thought you were different than everyone else, but just as them you forgot about me..."

"Hey!", he grabbed me again, softly, careful not to hurt me, "I never forgot about you. I just wanted to have enough time for you. Now I do."

"So you came to New York looking for me. No address, no nothing? I don't believe you.", I rolled my eyes and turned away from him.

"You told me you went to AADA. I checked the student portal and someone posted an event of the new students here in Central Park. So I came. Please, can we get a coffee or something?", he begged me and took my hands in his.

"HEY! TAKE YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!", The angry voice came from no one different than Jackson, my boyfriend. I quickly ripped my hands out of Shawns and turned towards him.

"Jackson, it's okay. He's just an old friend."
He quickly stepped in between Shawn and me and glared at him: "he was flirting with you"
"He was being friendly", I retaliated.

"Wait! Is this your boyfriend?", Shawn looked at me in disbelief and disappointment.

"Yes he is", I answered, then turned to Jackson: "We were just going to get some coffee, cause we haven't seen each other in months."
"You will not"

"You're not my boss Jackson", I turned away from him, attempting to leave with Shawn when he grabbed my wrist- hard.

"Ow, Jackson! You're hurting me!", I screamed at him, but before Shawn could reach him, Chiara pushed him hard, resulting in him letting go of my wrist and stumbling backwards in surprise.

But we knew it wouldn't last long: "Lets go", I grabbed Chiara and Shawn and we walked away.
•
•
•
"I can't believe you're dating this dick", Shawn said after taking a sip of his Coffee Americano. "Mhh, tell me about it.", Chiara said and chuckled.

"Should I get you guys a room?", I interrupted grumpily and hid my face in the biggest cup of cappuccino I have ever seen.

"So sassy now. But still the shy girl I met six months ago."

I blushed and looked away.

"New York did her some good", Chiara said and sipped on her cup.

"I can see. ", Shawn said, "so, you guys are roommates?" Chiara and I both nodded, "And you're in that school too? That's so cool."

Chiara smiled at him: "And you are a singer? That's amazing. I'm a huge fan by the way. I couldn't believe Nannah wenn she told me she actually knew you"

"You talked about me?", Shawn looked at me and smiled.

"Of course I did. It's not everyday you meet a superstar on the plane. Especially such a nice one.", that made him blush a little. He laughed it off but I felt like he still was flattered by it. And not just a little bit.

"By the way, the dance was amazing. The whole modern Time Warp interpretation was absolutely stunning. Who had the idea for that", was his attempt to change the subject. But now it was my turn to blush.

"That was you? Absolutely amazing. ","well, it's not like there's a lot of room to mess the choreography up with Time Warp. They literally tell you what you have to do. The only thing I did was timing it, the costume ideas and the parts in between the choruses."

"Still, it was pretty amazing", he laid his hand on top of mine but I flinched in pain.

"He gripped you harder than I thought", Shawn said with a frown, "you should get that checked out." He let his finger slide over the marks Jackson left on my wrist.

He can never know.

"It's fine. Really. Don't worry about it.", I laughed it off, but I could see in their faces that they knew.

They knew it wasn't fine.

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