Page 70 of The Spotlight Effect

I haven’t heard her name in a while. Kenan doesn’t even bring her up anymore. He hasn’t even mentioned going to her apartment since the last time she was with us all which has been almost a week and he’s usually always going to see her at least once a day. I find it strange Emerson wants to invite her but as long as she stays away from me, I’m okay.

“I’m in,” I say.

“I guess I am too,” Alexia agrees.

“As long as I get a comfy bed and face masks,” Aaliyah says.

“Yay, we leave after filming is over,” Emerson cheers.

I definitely did not expect us to be leaving so soon.

I cutoff the lights in my dressing room for the night before going out into the hall to find Alexia leaning on the wall. She looks absolutely perfect, like always. I take a deep breath before walking over to her. I need to make sure I don’t stutter on my words when I open my mouth.

“Good news, our mom is okay with me and Lia going and brought our clothes by,” Alexia tells me. I wait a couple seconds before responding,

“Do you wanna ride with me?” I hope she will say yes.

“I’ll ride with you,” she answers and I nod. Great, now that I have placed myself in a car with her, I have to figure out how to use the time.

“Hey, there you are, everyone is waiting at my house,” Emerson tells us as we come out.

“We are going by Walmart also,” Noah tells us.

“Why?” Alexia asks.

“To get some stuff.” Noah shrugs, which I know means alcohol and maybe some snacks, but mostly beer.

We all get in our respective cars, with me and Alexia in one and Emerson, Lia and Noah in the other.

“So did you have a good day?” I ask Alexia, trying to start a conversation.

“I did,” she replies.

“How about you?”

“I had a decent day,” I reply. I have no idea what to say. I want to talk to her but how do I go about it? I think right now, the crush tally is higher than the non-crush one, and if I bring that up, how will it affect things?

Will she not believe me?

Will she like me back?

With my mind swirling, I end up not talking anymore, and she turns the music up. I completely failed at small talk.

Everyone makes it to Emerson’s house, and she does a head count, of course, and talks about the plan for the night, which consists of going to Walmart, then heading to her cabin, and we will settle in, play games, watch a movie, and then go to bed.

On the land, there is a luxury cabin that we are staying in, in total there are six rooms total. Having been here before, I know five of them have their own king-size bed, and one room has two queen beds.

“Alright everyone, time to pick rooms,” Noah says, getting out of his truck.

“I call sharing with my girl,” Charlie announces.

“Me and Noah will share too,” Emerson says.

“I got Z,” Shawn says.

“Then I take Nevea, and Kenan will share,” Emerson says, and Kenan nods. I grab some of the bags out of my truck while Emerson walks up to unlock the house.

“I’ll share with Lia,” Raven says, pulling her to her. Odd, I would think she would rather take the sofa than share a room with her.

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