You Belong To Me (Phantom of the Opera fanfic)

Chapter 6

                There was seriously like one hundred women auditioning for Wicked and like, twenty guys. I could see people that clearly couldn’t sing. Like Nicole, where you’d go deaf after listening to her. I swear, there was no star quality in her. The only good thing about her was her perfect outside. If she was nice, I could definitely see Ryan with her. And I’d be happy about them too! But she was hateful and cruel, so how could I see her with somebody neither hateful nor cruel?

            Penelope took a sip of her water. “I really hope I don’t get a leading role.”

            “Why? You’re an amazing singer!”

            “Because if I get a leading role, it means that I’ll have to sing in front of a million people. I’m shooting for more of Nessarose.” She straightened herself up and smiled. “Besides, I’m sure Grandpa Phantom will want to see his lady as the leading lady.”

            “I am not his lady.” I’d meant the words I spoke. No freaking way was I going to stay with him! I mean, I seriously will feel remorse and hate myself because of it, but like Penelope said, he is old. I couldn’t keep telling myself he wasn’t. Somewhere deep in my heart, I knew I loved him. He was so sweet, so musical, so amazing. But I hadn’t meant for it to get as far as…well…you know…

            She stared at me with her emerald-green eyes. “Are you sure about that?” She lowered her voice. “You had flipping s-”

            “Shut up. Don’t remind me.”

            Before she could respond, Mr. Nicholas hopped onto stage with his usual, perky attitude. “Welcome everybody! Thank you so much for being here. Sadly, not all of you will get a role, and I am sorry for that. But just being here is an accomplishment and we should all be proud of ourselves for accomplishing the first part. Now, first on my list is Abigail Donnelly.”

            I bit my lip as person after person auditioned. Was I just nervous about not getting a part, or facing Erik when I didn’t get a part?

            Erik. Ryan. Me.

            Erik was sweet, musically talented, and romantic. But Ryan was gentle, loving, hot, and so much more! It was obvious that deep in my heart I honestly loved Ryan but Erik was just too sweet and amazing that I had to hold on to him. He also made me feel older, like a woman, not a scared 19-year-old girl. I always felt so mature around him, whereas with Ryan, I felt like a little girl with a crush. Sure, Ryan was older than me, but not by much. But since when did age matter?

            Well, age mattered when he’s 150 years older than you. (Nice goin’, Gracie!)

            Then Penelope was called onto the stage. I gave her arm a good-luck-squeeze and smiled brightly as she made her way onto the stage. She pressed play on her music and began to sing. I rolled my eyes as I noticed it was a One Direction song.

            “Baby you light up my world like nobody else

            The way that you flip you hair gets me overwhelmed

            And when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell

            You tell ‘em oh-whoa-oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful!”

            She finished her song and everyone clapped. I clapped the loudest, of course, but nobody heard because I was outnumbered with the hundreds of people clapping as well. Penelope sunk into the seat next to me and I could see her face was red as a cherry tomato. Penelope looked at me and said, “Hardest thing I’ve had to do. Ever.”