omfkalela:
She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to people screaming in excitement for her. Sometimes it even freaked her out a little bit - at the prospect of people being so pumped up to see her. It set her a little bit on edge as she was introduced, stepping out onto stage with a rehearsed smile on her face, waving at the huge crowd in front of her. Wow… She never thought she’d make it this big - starting out with little RPG maker games and turning into this; at a convention for the release of the game she’d directed and developed with people excited about it, visibly.Â
If a younger version of herself could see this she’d pee. She took a seat in her designated chair, shifting to get more comfortable as her producer, codirector, and codeveloper all sat down in their chairs as well. She was the only woman on the stage in an executive position. Probably the only woman here for panels that wasn’t just a voice actress.Â
Not her fault for hijacking projects to make them bigger and better.Â
“Fuck this weather, am I right?” The first words out of her mouth made the crowd chuckle. She tried not to look out so she wouldn’t get nervous. “But I think you guys would rather see the preview first, right?” The crowd got rowdy again, and the lights dimmed so that the projector could play the footage of the exclusive convention trailer, and Kalela sat back and watched with everyone, trying to hide the pride from her face at everyone’s whooping and hollering, especially when her voice acting parts came up. She wondered how mad people would be if they knew her character died halfway through the game. Probably very.Â
As the trailer ended and the lights went back up the moderator started taking hands for questions, and Kalela prepared herself for the worst, honestly. But as she looked out into the crowd everyone seemed kind and excited. As her eyes scanned over the crowd during a question that didn’t involve her she caught sight of… Christian? No, no she had to be seeing things.Â
She kept looking around, but then her eyes traveled back to him, and no she’s pretty sure that’s him. She’s pretty sure that’s her ex. She thinks she might puke.Â
“Kalela, what do you think?” She was snapped out of her reverie at the sound of her name, but she didn’t know what the question had even been.Â
“Uh? Sorry, can you repeat the question again?” She pushed her hair out of her face nervously, trying to stay focused on the moderator as she replied and failing.
She looked at him. She looked at him twice. And that same disbelief that he felt reflected on her face. Of course. He tore his gaze away after she spoke once more, pushing his hair back as he looked through the crowd. He’s honestly amazed by how far she’s come, these people were hyped for her, they came for her and as the trailer for her own game was playing he didn’t realize how much bigger the audience became.Â
“Here you are!” A hand grabbed him by the elbow, causing Christian to flinch and Jorge to jump back, hands up in defense mode. “Hey, hey, hey it’s just me, mate. What’s got you so jumpy?”Â
“Fuck, sorry,” he said, shaking his head, “you just caught me off guard, man.”Â
“Is that Kalela Patel? My brother’s going to freak when I tell him. He’s into her.”Â
Christian didn’t answer, instead he looked at her again. Wondering what to do, should he even do anything? They saw each other, that’s it. He doesn’t need to stand here any longer, anything and everything between them was closed. But it has been six years, and he won’t admit it to anyone but there have been times when he’s thought about her but has never done anything about it. He’s never checked any of her social media either, restraining himself from that until he forgot about it for a while.Â
He watched her speak. Was this allowed? Isn’t the rule to turn the other way if you saw your ex on the street?
“We should leave,” he sighed, “we were only supposed to be here two hours, the girls are waiting.”Â
“Hold up, she’s about to answer questions,” Jorge held up a finger as he replied to his brother’s text, “Freddie wants to know something about the game.”
“C’mon man, how do you know they’re going to call on you?”
Jorge shrugged, and raised his hand. Christian prayed his friend didn’t get called on, knowing Kalela would have to look at them if he did.Â
