authors note: i will not be describing the looks of y/n, you can imagine whatever you would like :)
The first thing you learn about Hollywood is that everyone is pretending.
Pretending they’re happy.
Pretending they aren’t watching who’s arriving, who’s leaving, who’s dating who this week.
Pretending they don’t care.
The cameras begin flashing before the black SUV even comes to a stop. By the time the driver opens the door, photographers are shouting names over one another, desperate for a glance worth tomorrow’s headlines.
Inside the venue, the music is loud enough to shake the crystal glasses.
Actors mingle with musicians. Models laugh a little too hard. Children of icons—the ones who inherited famous last names before they inherited driver’s licenses—float through the room like they own it.
Jaafar Jackson hated these parties.
He came because his publicist insisted. Because networking mattered. Because one appearance generated enough photos to keep entertainment pages busy for a week.
He accepted another drink he had no intention of finishing.
“You look miserable,” Kaia teased, nudging his shoulder.
“Give it twenty minutes. Someone will do something embarrassing.”
He laughed under his breath.
Not loudly. Not dramatically.
Just enough for conversations to pause and heads to turn toward the entrance.
Jaafar looked up without thinking.
And for reasons he couldn’t explain, he couldn’t look away.
The room held its breath.
It wasn’t because she was the most famous person there.
It was because no one knew who she’d become.
The girl stepped out from beneath the chandeliers with an effortless kind of confidence that couldn’t be bought or taught. She wore a champagne-colored silk gown that skimmed the floor, the fabric catching every flash of the cameras still pouring through the entrance behind her. Diamond earrings brushed her neck every time she turned her head, and her h/c hair fell in soft waves down her back.
She wasn’t trying to make an entrance.
She simply existed, and somehow that was enough.
“Who is that?” Jaafar asked quietly.
Kaia looked at him like he’d just admitted he’d never heard of Hollywood.
As if everyone was already supposed to know.
Jaden appeared beside them, following Jaafar’s line of sight.
“Her family’s impossible to avoid if you’ve lived in L.A. long enough,” he said. “Old money. Music industry. She’s basically been famous since she was born.”
“But she disappeared for years,” Kaia added. “College in New York, I think. Maybe London. Nobody really knows.”
“She doesn’t do interviews,” Jaden continued. “Barely posts online. Doesn’t chase attention.”
“Which is exactly why everyone’s obsessed with her.”
Across the ballroom, Sahar greeted a handful of familiar faces with quick hugs and polite smiles. She knew half the room, yet somehow looked completely detached from it, like she was watching a movie she’d already seen.
The photographers were still stealing pictures through the windows.
Every few seconds another flash lit up the ballroom.
“You staring?” Kaia asked, trying not to laugh.
“You’ve been looking at her for a solid minute.”
Jaafar finally looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I was just wondering why everyone stopped talking.”
Before he could answer, the event coordinator stepped onto the stage, tapping the microphone.
The conversations died down.
“We’d like to thank everyone for joining us tonight. As always, the Black Horizon Foundation is honored to welcome some of the entertainment industry’s brightest young names…”
People began making their way toward their assigned tables.
Jaafar unfolded the small place card waiting at his seat.
He looked across the room.
A server was escorting y/n to the very same table.
She glanced up at the exact same moment.
For half a second, their eyes met.
Neither of them looked away.
Then she broke the silence first.
“I think you’re sitting in my chair.”
Jaafar blinked before looking down.
Just enough for him to realize she’d caught him completely off guard.
Jaafar stepped back almost immediately, a sheepish smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“It usually is when someone’s standing in another person’s seat.”
Her tone was light, playful enough that he couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.
She slid into the chair beside him, smoothing out the silk of her dress before thanking the waiter who pulled it in for her.
Up close, she looked different than she had from across the ballroom.
Her h/c hair framed her face effortlessly, falling over one shoulder as she reached for the glass of water in front of her. Under the warm lights, her e/c eyes caught every flicker of the chandeliers, making them almost impossible to look away from.
Not in the loud, perfectly manufactured way Hollywood usually celebrated.
There was something quieter about her.
Something that made people stare before they even realized they were doing it.
“So…” she said after a moment, glancing sideways at him. “You were staring.”
Jaafar nearly choked on the sip of water he’d just taken.
“I was trying to figure out why everyone suddenly stopped talking.”
“They stopped talking because they’re nosy.”
She looked around the room.
“They’ll spend the next week trying to figure out who I spoke to, what I ate, why I left early… it’s exhausting.”
“You don’t seem surprised.”
She offered a small shrug.
“You get used to people acting like they know you.”
Before Jaafar could think of a response, someone called his name from another table.
He looked over to see Jaden grinning like he’d just witnessed something hilarious.
“You making friends already?”
Y/N smiled into her drink, clearly amused.
The dinner continued with speeches, applause, and endless rounds of polite conversation, but somehow they kept drifting back to each other.
She teased him whenever he looked too serious.
He laughed more than he expected to.
By dessert, talking to her felt strangely… easy.
“So,” he asked, resting his elbow against the table, “what do you actually do?”
“I mean everyone in this room seems to know who you are, but nobody’s actually said what you do.”
A knowing smile spread across her face.
“That’s because everyone likes making assumptions.”
“And I’m not telling you.”
“Where’s the fun in telling you everything the first night we meet?”
She stood as the lights dimmed for the night’s final performance.
“I’ll let you keep wondering.”
With that, she disappeared into the crowd before he could ask another question.
Jaafar watched her weave through the ballroom until she vanished behind a wall of photographers and security.
“What happened to not staring?”
Kaia’s voice appeared behind him again.
He didn’t bother denying it this time.
She glanced toward the entrance where Y/N had disappeared.
“But I have a feeling you’re going to.”
