Heartbreak Hotel (Editing)

Chapter 99: Try

A couple of weeks after we had landed back in California that was our first order of business. Finding a replacement. We all sat in a dance studio and watched nearly one hundred girls audition for us. Some were pretty, others weren't. Some were talented, others made me wonder why they were there. One girl couldn't even carry a tune and I remember Liyah stopping the music and looking at the girl as if she had two heads.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said to us. Clearly frustrated. " Is that the best you got?" She asked her.

The girl looked at her with her eyebrow raising higher above the other one. "What'chu talkin' about? I can sing." She told her, rolling her neck.

"Shit, if that's singing. I don't know what we've been doing then." She mumbled, as she picked her coke up. Before drinking she looked up at the girl, " Maybe you should rethink some things. You know," she took a sip from her soda and placed it back down on the long white table where we were sitting. " It's a talent to know you don't have any. You can start there." She gave her a cheek-to-cheek smile. " Let yourself out."

The girl rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth. Mumbling something under her breath as she walked out of the room.

"Throw her out," Liyah said, as she handed me the girl's head shot.

"Her momma was just too nice to her growing up." Leena laughed.

"No, it's not only that. The girl had a bad attitude, and I'm not dealing with that."

"That's half the girls, and none of these chicks are cutting it," Jojo flipped the through more of the head shots. "What are we gonna do?"

"Tell the company that we can't find one. Maybe they'll let us go without one. " I suggested.

"No, they'll just up more auditions." Jojo said. "They've already made up their minds that there need to be five girls. Not four."

"Ugh, I need a drink." Liyah groan, as she began rubbing her face with her hands.

"Fuck that, I need some dick."

We all looked at Leena -who had her head buried in her arms- and bursted out with laughter.

She looked up at us, confused. "What y'all laughing for? I'm dead serious?" It was that serious look on her face that made it even more funnier than it was. "I need a big black one to get through all of this shit!"

"Well," Liyah laughed. "Unlike you, I have to wait a whole month before I can even think about any of that."

"And that's you're fault!" Leena pushed Liyah's forehead back. " Should've used a condom."

"Hey, I am married. That rule doesn't exactly apply to me anymore."

I think we may have gone through at least twenty different girls before Tammy showed up. She was a twenty three year old college student from Decatur Georgia. She was tall and slender, had the body of a dancer. Her skin was carmel colored-maybe a shade darker than Leena-and she had soft dimples on each sides if her cheeks. She had a squared jaw-line, and perfect straight white teeth.

She gave us exactly what we was looking for: home training, passion, and a voice. She went through our hardest dance routine with no problem at all, and sung Too Little Too Late with a voice so strong that I thought I would've fallen out of my chair.

When her audition was over, Liyah placed her pen down and began questioning her. Starting off with name, age, and where she was from. "You don't seem nervous. Have you performed in front of a people before?"