No Rules To Love

Chapter Ten:

"Okay, thank you so much. Bye!" I said into my phone. I grinned as I hung up and slid the phone back into my pocket.

I'd phoned David to arrange an audition time and — to my pleasant surprise — he remembered who I was. He seemed delighted that I had called because he feared I had forgotten about it. But it was almost impossible to forget. But the fact that David remembered me was a good sign. People like him were always meeting new people, and he saw a range of talent almost daily. It was impossible to remember every face that you came across.

We scheduled the audition for the following Sunday at noon. It was a day after the party, so I made a mental note to myself to not stay too long. I didn't want to be too tired and groggy for my audition. The audition would take place at Pineapple Dance Studios — which wasn't too far from where I lived, so that was a plus. Our primary task for this audition was to sing. If we were successful with the audition, we'd have a call-back, where we would have to sing again. If we were successful with the call-back, we'd have a second call-back, in which we would read a piece of the script. But anything could change in the meantime.

Auditions were a long and gruelling process.

That meant I would have to prepare a song. I had an extensive repertoire of songs, so I had a lot to choose from, but it made my decision quite difficult. With a gust of enthusiasm, I went to my room and fetched my folder with all my sheet music in. I had used my folder so much and so many pieces of paper were inside it that it was almost falling apart at the seams. But it still did its job. I took the folder back to the living room and started rifling through it as I searched for the right song to sing.

Searching for a song had engrossed me so much that I didn't hear Ashley's bedroom door close. She and Michael scurried into the room.

"Oh." I heard Ashley say. I jerked my head up and turned around. I saw Ashley and her boyfriend standing there, looking a little dishevelled. They walked around to face me, and I placed the folder beside me on the sofa. "I didn't realise you'd be back so soon," Ashley said.

"Well, my shift at the café did finish almost an hour ago." I pointed out with a smile, choosing to ignore the humongous elephant in the room. The elephant was my two best friends, looking extremely embarrassed, and we all knew why. We weren't stupid, and we were adults... supposedly.

"Did Hunter find you then?" Ashley asked in haste, trying to deflect the attention from her and her boyfriend. She slid into the loveseat opposite me. Michael followed suit and sat beside her.

"Yeah, he did," I said, smiling a little as I thought of the conversation. And the fact that we were avoiding talking about them. "After you told him where I was." I rolled my eyes at her. She hadn't annoyed me; I was only still a little confused about why she was so quick to tell him.

"Well, he wanted to know. He explained he wanted to apologise, and he seemed sincere and I don't know. I guess I was just..." She struggled to find the appropriate word.

"Distracted?" I finished for her, chuckling. I knew how she could act around her boyfriend. Even after almost three years of dating, they were still very much in that honeymoon phase. I doubted they would ever be out of it. Which was good for them, but not so good for anyone within a four-foot radius of them.

When they first started dating, I could not get a word in edgewise when we were all together. Not because they were kissing so much. Oh no, that would be more plausible. But because they sat there for hours on end, staring into each other's eyes. That was it. Nothing else.

Seriously.

Ashley and Michael didn't answer me. They didn't need to because we all knew I was right. At least they had the decency to look abashed. I chuckled at them. What they did in their spare time didn't bother me. They were a serious couple, after all, as well as responsible adults. I was used to it, to be honest. I would not lie, though; it did creep me out a little. I felt a little like a third wheel, if I was being honest, but I took it all in my stride. They always made their best efforts to include me whenever they could.