"Carter, this is your new stylist for the X Factor." Cheryl sets her hand on my shoulder. "This is Hannah."

Hannah has long straight blonde hair that cascades down her back. She has crystal blue eyes with long eyelashes. Hannah looks like she is about five feet ten inches. She grins at me with a warm smile.

"Hi." I smile back at her. "Not trying to be rude or anything, but what happened to Bonnie?"

"She won't be returning." Cheryl simply says.

In other words, she got fired. Good. She made me sprain my ankle. I told her I can't walk in heels, but she made me anyways. Hannah looks way nicer than Bonnie did. Bonnie has a constant scowl on her face and Hannah can't seem to stop smiling. I think we will get along just fine.

"I need to go get ready for the show tonight." Cheryl heads for the door. "Good luck tonight, Carter."

"Thank you." I say as she leaves the dressing room.

"Okay." Hannah claps her hands. "I saw the outfit you wore last night. It is hanging up in the bathroom. I know you sprained your ankle, so I was trying to think of a shoe you could wear."

"I'm not sure my foot would fit in a shoe." I tell her honestly.

I limp over to the chair and sit down in it. I set my foot on the make up counter gently. My ankle doesn't hurt as badly as it did yesterday, but it still hurts. I still walk with a slight limp. Louis insists that he carries me everywhere because I refuse to use crutches. I'd rather just walk on my ankle and deal with the pain, then use crutches. They hurt under your arms and they are very uncomfortable.

"The swelling went down some." I poke my swollen ankle. I wince from the slight pain.

"When you wear your dress, can you see your feet?" Hannah walks over to a rack of shoes.

"Not at all." I shake my head.

Hannah nods. "Okay. I don't want to make you anything that will be tight on your ankle."

"I could try to wear flats or something." I suggest, taking my ankle off of the counter.

Hannah taps her chin. "I have an idea."

Hannah walks out of the dressing room. I guess I'll wait here then. I can tell Hannah and I will get along just fine. She actually talks to me instead of ignoring my existence like Bonnie did. I wonder what kind of shoe she is going to make me wear. With my ankle stil being swollen it will be harder for me to wear shoes. My foot is even slightly swollen. Hopefully, in a few days it will go down, then I could wear shoes again.

I can't believe tonight someone will go home. I'm not ready. In less than two hours, there will only be fourteen of us left. I don't want to go home, but I would rather go home then have One Direction, Cher, Aiden, Rebecca, or Matt leave. They all deserve to be here more than I do. Everyone deserves to be here. Why can't we all be winners? Simon can just sign all of us over.

The dressing room door swings back open and Hannah strolls in, carrying a pair of white slippers. Slippers and an elegant dress. Odd combination. Hannah lifts up my bad ankle and slides the slipper on. My foot easily fits in the slipper without any pain.

"Just make sure that your feet don't show when you are walking out on the stage." Hannah points her finger at me.

"Gotcha, boss." I give her two thumbs up.

After that, Hannah started doing my hair and make up. We get along really well. She has been a stylist for four years. Hannah became a stylist when she was twenty. I knew she looked young. Hannah didn't make my make up look crazy. It looks really natural. My hair looks even better than it did yesterday. It took about an hour to finish my make up and hair.

I'm not used to someone doing my hair and make up for me. It's so much better when you have your own stylist. When I do my own hair it always looks terrible. I don't really bother with doing my make up at home. I have no one to impress. Riley and I are the kind of people that stay away from the popular crowd.

Hannah had turned on the tv in the corner of the room. We have been watching the show from inside the dressing room since it started at eight. We just watched Usher perform two of his songs on stage. I was never a big fan of Usher. I wanted to go out and meet him after his performance, but Hannah didn't want me to put weight on my ankle until it was absolutely necessary. Maybe I'll get lucky and Usher will still be here after the show.

"Hey, Carter. Are you ready?" Aiden pokes his head in the room.

Is it time to go on stage already? I can't do this. I could be going home tonight. Two people are being eliminated. Not just one, but two.

"It's going to be okay." Hannah gives me a quick hug.

Aiden steps in the room. "We go on stage in a few minutes."

"Okay." I nod and start to stand up.

Aiden stops me before I can put my feet on the ground. He scoops me up in his arms. I wave at Hannah as we leave my dressing room. I've gotten used to having someone carry me around. If Aiden isn't carrying me then it is either Matt, Louis, Niall, or Harry. I don't mind anymore. They told me to get over it when I kept telling them to put me down.

I rest my head on Aiden's chest as he carries me to where everyone else is. Treyc is hugging Rebecca with a huge grin on her face. She must have made it through. John is standing off to the side with a smile on his face. Who else made it through to next week?

"One Direction, FYD, Aiden, and Storm to the stage." A worker motions for them to head to the stage.

I wiggle out of Aiden's arms quickly. I ignore the pain in my ankle and limp over to Louis. He pulls me in a tight hug. Niall, Harry, Liam, and Zayn hug the two of us from different angles turning this hug into a group hug. They can't go home. They deserve to be here.

"It'll be okay. I promise." Harry whispers in my ear.

I keep my face buried in Louis's chest. Harry shouldn't make a promise like that. He doesn't know if One Direction will be going through to next week. He doesn't know if I'll be safe. Everything might not be okay. We could both be eliminated tonight. The last thing I want is someone telling me that it will be okay when it most likely won't be.

"Aiden, FYD, Storm, and One Direction to the stage." The worker repeats himself.

All of the guys step out of the group hug except for Louis. Mostly because I have such a tight grip on him. He probably can't move. I don't want to let Louis go. If I let him go then he will have to go out on the stage and find out if he is safe or not. I don't want to know the answer.

"Carter, you have to let go of me." Louis attempts to step out of my grip.

"No." I tighten my grip around his waist.

"I have to go out on stage." Louis let's go of my waist and pulls my hands away from his waist.

Two hands snake around my waist and pulls me away from Louis gently. I get pulled against another body. Louis grabs my face and kisses my forehead before jogging up the stairs with everyone else. I slump against the person holding me up. I don't even know who pulled me away. It's most likely Matt.

"It's going to be okay."

I tilt my head up to see Matt, towering over me. "You don't know that. I don't want anyone to go home."

"No one does."

I spin around in Matt's arms and hug him. I hate this feeling. I blocked out everyone's voices. I don't want to know who is safe. When they walk off the stage their expressions will tell me what I need to know. Matt rubs my back soothingly. Matt is like my older brother that I never had.

I hear the audience cheering loudly. I turn my head away from Matt's chest to see who walks off the stage first. Either they all made it through or one of them is in the bottom three. Storm walks down the stairs first with a grin on his face. He made it.

Aiden runs down the stairs next and heads for me. Matt releases his grip from me just as Aiden envelopes me in a hug. I take it that he made it, too. I try to hug Aiden back, but I'm too worried about my best friend. Aiden realises I'm not going to hug him back and drops his arms.

Liam walks down the stairs first with a small smile on his face. Zayn and Harry follow behind him, high giving each other. Niall has a massive grin on his face. They made it through to next week. They did it! I rush forward, ignoring the throbbing in my foot, and launch myself into Louis's arms. He stumbles backwards, but regains his balance.

"I told you everything would be okay." Louis the top of my head.

"It's my turn now." I look up at him. "I could go home."

"Okay. Cher, Matt, Carter, and Nicola to the stage next. We're on a commercial break at the moment." The worker from before states.

"Come on, Carter." Cher drags me away from Louis.

"Good luck." Louis hugs me one last time.

Matt sets his arm around my waist to help me walk on the stage. I try my best to not limp while walking. Dermot is standing in the middle of the stage, adjusting his blazer. There are four tiny black 'x' marks on the ground for each of us to stand on. Matt helps me get to the one in the middle right. He stands next to me on the end. Cher is on my left and then Nicola is on the other end.

I can't do this.

One of the camera crew at the bottom of the stage counts down from five on their fingers. This is it. I'm about to find out if I'm still on the show.

"Welcome back to the show." Dermot says into his microphone. "Right now we have the last four contestants to find out who will be in the bottom three. One of these four will have to sing for the judge's tonight."

We're the last four? I didn't know that. Who are the other two going into the bottom three? It could be any of us that could be joining them.

"The person in the bottom three is.." Dermot stops talking to make it more suspenseful.

I don't want to be in the bottom three. Cher is my best friend. I will cry if she gets in the bottom three. Matt is like my older brother. He is so talented. I'm not really that close with Nicola. We've talked a few times, but he doesn't deserve to go home either.

I glance at Dermot in between Cher and I. He continues looking into the camera not saying anything. It feels like its been thirty minutes.

"Nicola Festa."

••••••

Author's Note:

I was going to leave a cliffhanger, but decided against it. What did you think? I needed to update today because I'm going to Disney tomorrow. :)

Remember how I said that this story would have a sequel? Well, something has changed. I can't really tell you what it is. I want it to be a surprise. All I can tell you is that it will be a new story and I have to finish this story and SIUTK before I can start writing it. @KaryOrtiz helped me so much with figuring everything out.

Question...What do you think that my new story is about? If you already know (@KaryOrtiz) then do NOT answer this question. I want my readers to be surprised.

So, yeah. Comment! :)