"Why are you still here?" I ask him.

"You look like shit." He says bluntly, "and you told me to wait." He answers my question.

"Well I didn't expect you to." I say wiping my face with the back of my sleeve."

"I did. Are you okay?" He asks with concern.

"Yes, I'm fine, what is it that you wanted to say?," I ask him as we walk down the hallway. I'm in a hurry. I was already late for the audition as it is. Another 2hours of torture.

His concern look turns to a mischievous one, then I know something is up. "You know you never cease to amaze me," he starts still smirking.

"What do you mean?" I ask genuinely confused. He laughs and takes out his phone, he taps on it and brings it to my face, showing me a video, he taps play and the video start. It was a recorded video of me singing in the class when I thought no one was around.

"Damn! Would you hear that voice." He says and my face heats up.

"How?..w.where did you get that?" I stutter nervously.

"I don't know." He shrugs," but what I want to know is why the hell are you not auditioning?."

"Because of the rule." I blurt out still panicking.

"Rule smule, you were amazing, I didn't know you could sing like that, you know with the way your voice always sounds like a mouse," I glare at him, "I am so going to show this to Will."

"No you won't!" I say quickly, "delete it!" I try to snatch it but he keeps it out of my reach, this is the second time today I've been trying to take things from people but can't reach it because of my shortness. Curse you genes.

"No way! Why would I do that?"

"Because...because I don't like singing." I say lamely. I mentally hit my forehead. Really?. He gives me an incredulous look, "yeah, I sing but I hate singing, it sprains my vocal chord, that's why I always sound like a mouse."

"Yeah, right." He snorts.

"Listen, James please don't show that video to will, I beg you." I beg desperately. He look into my eyes and thinks for a while before he sighs.

"Fine!, I won't tell him, only because I want you to do it yourself" I sigh in relief, because I know, I'll never do that, "but, I am not going to delete it, in fact I will make a thousand copies because I don't trust your nerdy self not to hack in my phone...."

Is this guy for real? 

"..but tell me this.." He leans forward and looks into my eye, "does Stephanie have anything to do with you not singing?"

I gulp, "w..what? W..why would you say that, of cause not!." I stutter nervously. He scrutinizes my face and furrows his eyebrow. "I know I have a great voice, but I don't want to make a career out of it, it's just a hobby." I lie smoothly.

"Sure...." He drawls as he stands upright. He doesn't believe it. He tucks his phone into his back pocket and sighs, "but you have no idea what you're doing, others would kill for a talent like yours, even Stephanie." He says and I look away.

If only you knew.

"Are you still going to make my sister's chocolates?" He asks changing the subject which I'm grateful for.

"Yeah." I shrug.

"So how much?" He asks taking out his phone again. "Do you prefer venmo or PayPal?" He asks me and I know where he got that line from.

I fold my hand on my chest, "no I prefer cash." I say.

He looks up from his phone, "yeah sure, I'll pay you tomorrow."

"You know I have to buy ingredients right?"

"Yeah," he takes out his wallet and starts counting his money and hands me a $200 bill. I smile and take it from him.  It's not going to be enough but I'll take it, besides I still have ingredients at home.

"That should cover it?" He asks and I nod. He smiles in satisfaction. "Don't look now, Will is coming this way and I think he is going to cut off our heads."

"What?" I start to panic and turn around and see Will standing by the door, glancing everywhere with an annoyed expression. He most be looking for me.

Shit! I knew I'd be late.

"Colton!" He yells when he See's me.

Oops.

"Lee, we made up our rules when we were six."

"What are you saying?."

"I'm saying that I love Noah, I want him and I'm sorry if that hurts and I'm sorry that I lied to you before. I was wrong, but I'd be lying to you again, if I didn't tell you that I love him."

"Boo!" I throw popcorn at the TV.

"Shhh!" Mum and Tiana shushes me. "Watch!" Mum orders.

"It's boring." I whine.

"No it's not." Tiana says and I roll my eyes, you would think she was 13, instead of  18 and a half.

My family thought it would be nice to have a family movie night, since it had been a shitty week. You'd think they'll let me pick the movie, but as usual, Tiana gets to pick, so she picked 'The Kissing booth' and mum agreed with her.

I'm not a fan of romance movies or chick flicks, I'm more of an action or horror type of girl, I think that's what I have in common with my dad. I can watch thriller and sci-fi, but not this.

"Why are we watching this again?" My dad asks, he is seated at the other couch, while I am seated in between mum and Tiana.

"Because Maria is sad and she needs love in her life." Tiana says.

"Okay, I'm not sad, I'm just exhausted," I correct, "and I don't need love in my life, my life is perfectly fine."

"Yeah right." Tiana snorts.

"Can we watch Gemini man after this?" I ask just testing my luck.

"God no! We still have to watch Mean girls." Tiana says.

"We've watched that movie like a million times." I complain.

"I never get tired of it." She simply says.

"Great!" I mutter.

"I think we need more popcorn," my dad says, "Maria?" He says silently asking me to come with him.

"Sure dad." I stand up from where I am squished and follow my dad to the kitchen.

When we enter the kitchen I put the microwave popcorn into the microwave and sit on the counter waiting for it to pop.

So much for family movie night.

"So how is Stephanie?" Dad asks from nowhere.

"Um," how do you tell your father that his boss's daughter is no longer friends with you? You don't, "she's fine."

He laughs and ruffles my hair, "I know you're no longer friends with her, Maria." I raise my eyebrow, "your mum told me." Of course she did. "It's going to be alright." He assures me and I nod.

"So  how is that Tucker boy? Is he feeling any better?." He asks.

"Yeah, we're actually working on the audition together."

"Yeah?"

"Yup."

"That reminds me, why are you not auditioning?. Your mum said you were working on a song and all of a sudden we don't hear anything again." 

So he actually notices things around here.

"Um, there's a rule that says that people working in the audition should not audition."

He frowns, "really?"

"Yeah, I think its to reduce the amount of people  for the competition."

"Oh." He says and keeps mute.

"Where the hell is the popcorn?!" Tiana yells from the living room. I laugh and after a while dad joined me.

I may not have enjoyed the movie part of family movie night, but it was nice catching up with dad, I just hope it doesn't change.

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Hannah