In Love With Alex Brightman

chapter six

"Alex, thank you for all the support, but—"

"But nothing, Sarah," He immediately stopped me. "You got the role, okay? Even if you didn't get Lydia—which you most definitely did—you at least got an ensemble role," He argued. I huffed in frustration and laid my cheek on my fist. My eyes wandered away from his and stared out the window.

I appreciated all the confidence Alex had in me, but I didn't want it all crashing down on him if no role was handed to me. And I wasn't going to waste my time continuing to argue with him.

All of a sudden, I heard a quick snap. I whipped my head towards Alex and my eyes met with a phone in my face. I gasped offendedly, quickly reaching for it, but he pulled away out of my reach.

"Did you take a picture of me?" My voice deepened.

"Yes I did," Alex smiled, stuffing his phone back in his pocket.

"Alexander!" I yelled, probably getting some stares. "Give me your phone," I hissed lowly. He squinted his eyes at me, mimicking my deathly glare. I was never good at intimation.

"Now why would I do such a thing?" He wiggled his eyebrows. "And you look nice in it. I may make it my home screen," He teased, poking my nose, making it scrunch. I waved my hand in front of my face to smack his hand away.

"You wouldn't," I tested, leaning in close. Alex moved forward as well with a cheeky smirk. Our eyes stayed connected, staring each other down.

"Oh, I would," he replied with a slight nod. I kept my cold glare for a few more beats, before huffing and looking away. "Don't look so down, Sarah. You're very pretty, I wouldn't take a picture if I didn't think so." I felt my cheeks getting hot as I kept my eyes on my coffee.

"Stop," I mumbled, tracing the coffee shop logo on the cup. Alex was way too sweet. My heart couldn't take it.

"You're so shy," he laughed, nudging his leg against mine under the table. I roughly stomped on his foot, catching him off guard.

Alex gasped from the unexpected action, pushing his chair back to look down under the table. "Did you just kick me?" He pointed at my leg hiding behind the footrest. I covered my mouth from releasing any laughter. He glanced up at me and smirked. I took that as another chance to kick him again, but not as hard. His eyes went straight back down under the table, then back at me. "Your leg is a mischievous thing, huh?"

I shrugged innocently, sipping my coffee.

Alex and I spent a few more minutes talking and catching up on each other. As he was speaking, I quickly flipped my phone over to read the time. He caught my screen and started to scoot back in his chair.

"I think we should start heading to the theater if we want to make it on time," He suggested, getting up to throw away his empty coffee cup. I lifted a curious eyebrow at him.

"We?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah, I'm coming with you. I want to be there when you get the news," He smirked, reaching his hand out for me. I rolled my eyes, standing up to grab his hand.

"Thank you," I told him, ruffling his short hair as we walked.

"No problem, Broadway buddy. I'll always be here for you," He smiled comfortingly at me. I bit my lip and looked forward at the tall buildings. "You're cute when you're shy." I glanced over at him to meet his light eyes.

"I'm not shy. I'm just thinking about the audition," I made up on the spot. Alex let go of my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulder and pull me into a side hug. I mindlessly rested my head against him in response.

"You're a small girl with an amazing voice who is going to kill it on that stage today," He teased. "Don't even worry about it."

"I don't know if I should be thanking you or not," I snorted, squinting my eyes in thought. He chuckled and squeezed my shoulder.

"Definitely take it as a compliment."

I threw my head back in laughter. "Sure thing."

~It's Showtime~

"I'll be right here in the hallway, waiting for you," Alex reassured me. There was a big TV in the hallway showing the stage for people to know when it was okay to open the backstage door.

"Okay," I breathed out loudly, shaking my hands rapidly.

"Hey, calm down. We've been through this. You'll do great, but I'll be here just in case you need to run out and throw up," He joked.

"Stop," I groaned, hitting his chest. He quickly caught my hands and brought them in between us. He squeezed them slightly to make sure I was listening as I kept glancing at the backstage door.

"Get out there and show them you want this part, okay?" He encouraged me. I closed my eyes to breath, before opening them again with a small nod. He squeezed my hands again, before letting me go. I reached for the backstage door, but stopped in mid-step.

My hand slipped off the handle as I turned back around to hug Alex. We both sighed into the hug and held onto each other right. His body was comfortingly warm, which helped a little.

"Thank you so much, Alex," I whispered loud enough for him to hear over the TV. I pulled away from him and swung the door open to enter backstage, not giving Alex a chance to respond. I didn't want to start blushing again if he said something sweet, I needed to focus.

I walked around the big room in search for someone, and eventually I found the guy that called me on stage last time. Matty—the stage manager.

"There you are, Sarah," he exclaimed, walking up to me. "Are you ready?" He asked, motioning me to the right wing.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I sighed, letting my shoulders consistently rise and fall. He nodded and started talking in his microphone. He waited a few seconds before giving me a thumbs up and saying, "Ok, she's coming on now."

I took a long deep breath, washing away all my chills. You can do it, Sarah. Matty gave me a pat on the back, before pushing the curtains open for me to walk through. And that was when the familiar bright light hit me and all the nerves I ever had, disappeared. I was on the stage.

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