CHAPTER 13

[ Noah ]

    Holly was the most ecstatic that I had ever seen her. Ever since we walked into the auditorium when the bell for free period rang, she hasn't been able to stand still. Her excitement would most likely be attributed to the fact that she was really happy that I was auditioning for the play and also because she was running on three cups of coffee since she was up all night studying for our big World History test.

It had only been twenty minutes into auditions and with every passing second, I was internally freaking out. Presently, Greg was on stage, reciting his lines from perfect memory while I was standing backstage, growing anxious because I was up next. I wanted to bail, to throw in the towel right there and then, but Michael was sitting amongst the spectators just as he said he would. It would be stupid of me to have him miss soccer practice for me when I didn't even audition.

"Hey, you're gonna do great!" Holly reassured me as she grabbed my shoulders and spun me around to face her. "Just remember, project your voice so everyone can hear you. Sing like your life depends on it, which it kinda does, and have fun!"

I gulped down the lump rising in my throat. "Um, okay, but what maybe we should go over my lines one more—" Before I could finish my sentence, I heard the very few people who decided to show up to watch the auditions erupt in applause which was quickly followed by Mr. CJ's voice yelling, "Next!" I turned back to Holly, eyes wide with fear.

"Go!" she urged while simultaneously pushing me onto the stage.

I stumbled forward, nearly tripping over my feet, until I was at center-stage. Lifting my eyes to meet Mr.CJ and the audience behind him, I let go of a shaky breath and tried to speak in a calm and controlled voice. "Uh, I'm Noah Taylor and I'm auditioning for the Beast."

Mr. CJ grinned. "I'm glad you finally came to your senses, Noah." He grabbed a copy of the script from his assistant and flipped to the scene I was seconds away from reciting. "Whenever you're ready."

The auditorium became eerily silent when everyone ceased their side conversations and waited for me to start speaking. Out of habit, I glanced over at Holly who was standing behind the curtains with an eager smile on her face. Beside her, was Greg who contrasted her cherry expression with a mean scowl. Swallowing harshly, I brought my attention back to the audience, momentarily locking eyes with Michael. His lips stretched into a smile once he caught my gaze and be raised his hands to give me a thumbs-up.

That seemed to be the push I needed because shortly after, I straightened my posture and began to speak. "What are you doing here?" I said in a voice that was several octaves lower than my own. I tried my best to channel as much anger as I could in order to portray the emotions necessary for the scene, but It wasn't that hard to convey once I thought about what Poppa had told me on Saturday.

"I've come for my father. Please let him out! Can't you see he's sick?" Mr. CJ recited.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Then he shouldn't have trespassed here."

"But he could die. Please, I'll do anything!"

"There's nothing you could do," I snapped, my voice sharp and bitter. "He's my prisoner now."

"Oh, there must be a way I can ... wait! Take me, instead!"

I pulled my brows together, feigning confusion. I waited for a moment to respond, remembering when Holly mentioned that pauses added dramatic effect. "You..." I trailed off, letting my confusion get the best of me. "You would take his place?"

"If I did, would you let him go?"

I paused again, but this time it wasn't for dramatic effect. It was because I had started to draw similarities between the scene and the actual reality of my parents' relationship. Here, Belle was so desperate to save her father's life while he was ill that she had willingly suggested to take his place, instead. What had Poppa done when Dad was in the coma? He didn't offer to take his place. He didn't even stay by his side to comfort him through his ailments. He cheated on him! He found comfort in someone else when Dad clearly needed him!

"Yes," I answered with my voice wavering a little, "but you must promise to stay here forever."

I managed to push the thoughts of my parents' predicament aside as I continued to portray the scene in the best way possible. When we were finished with that, I was instructed to sing a section of the Beauty and the Beast theme song. I had doubts on whether or not I was above par, but the audience had a different opinion based on the way they cheered and clapped, although they were probably required to do so. The loudest cheers of them all belonged to Michael who had stood up from his seat and hollered at an absurd volume.

I shook my head in disbelief as I walked off stage to give someone else the floor. Holly was soon at my side, arms instinctively looping through mine. "Noah, you were amazing! Oh my gosh! You're totally gonna get the part. Greg can suck it. He can suck a big, prickly one, too."

Inwardly rolling my eyes, I continued my journey to where Michael stood. He greeted me with such a giant bear hug that Holly had to detach herself from my arm in order to escape the embrace. "You fucking killed it!" he exclaimed. "Your voice is like butter, literally, and those lines? Didn't know your voice could go so deep, which I should've known since you can take it deep, too, so I don't—"

"Mikey," I interrupted him.

He came to his senses and shot me an apologetic look. "Right, uh, sorry. You were great. Good job."

I smiled at him. "Thanks."

Holly stepped in front of me. "Hi, my name's Holly!" She held out her hand for Michael to shake. "I'm Noah's best friend and you guys' number one fan."

He frowned. "Huh?"

"I ship you guys, like really hard." Her lips curved into a full grin. "You're such a cute couple."

As soon as Holly said those words, I wanted to clamp a hand over her mouth and throw her to a herd of human-eating dogs, but it was already too late. Michael's face had twisted in confusion as he looked past her at me for some sort of explanation to her delusion. I could've told him that I hadn't told Holly about our little deal yet, but I didn't want Holly to think that I had been holding out on her.

"Couple, huh?" Michael questioned, his eyes glued to me and a mocking smirk on his face. He leaned over to snake an arm around my neck and pulled me into his armpit while running a hand through my curly hair. "I guess we do make quite a cute couple, don't we, babe?"

Even though Michael had obnoxiously buried my face in his armpit which didn't smell all that great, I was thankful for it because he couldn't see the blush that had made its way to my cheeks shortly after his comment. Moments later, I managed to twist my way out his grasp and retreated to Holly's side. "You need to shower!"

He laughed. "Yeah..."

I was going to add something else, but my lips quickly sewed themselves shut when Greg joined the conversation with his arms folded against his chest in disapproval and his bright grey eyes narrowed at me in suspicion. "God, you're so fucking disgusting," he commented with obvious disdain in his voice. "Of course you'd bring your gross boyfriend to tryouts."

My eyes widened. "I'm not—we're not, um..."

"And this is all coming from the sophomore who likes to wear makeup and play pretend," Michael felt the need to say. I should've known that I didn't need to defend him since he was capable of defending himself with his clever remarks.

Greg's jaw clenched. "Acting is an art," he stated like it was an irrefutable fact. "But don't think that just because you're a junior and you're older than me that I'm scared of you. I'm not and apparently nobody is since all you do is kiss Derek Fletcher's ass all day."

Michael scoffed as he pushed past me to take a challenging step toward Greg. "Interesting observation, kid. How about I show what it's like by having you kiss my ass?"

"Okay, okay, break it up!" A loud, strong voice interrupted the altercation before it could escalate any further. We all turned our heads to look at the source of the voice, Mr. CJ. "I was gonna wait to announce who got the parts, but I just couldn't wait especially when my wonderful Beast is my favorite student, Mr. Granger."

Greg's eyes lit up with excitement. It was weird to see him so happy when he looked so angry all the time. "I got the part?"

Mr. CJ nodded. "Of course."

I hadn't actually noticed that my shoulders fell in disappointment until Michael wrapped his arms around them, as though trying to comfort me somehow. It was stupid of me to audition in the first place. There was no way I would get the part over Greg, who had been doing this for years.

Holly huffed in disapproval. "That's not fair!" she nearly shouted, her dainty voice turning loud and violent. "You only picked him because he played the leads in the past plays. Noah's audition was just as good as his."

Mr. CJ glanced at Holly with tentative deep brown eyes before nodding in agreement. "Yes, Noah's performance was rather spectacular which is why I think he'll be better suited for a different role."

My heart lifted at that very moment. "A different role?" I questioned.

"Yes." He grinned. "With your talent, your voice, and your appearance, I think you'll be the perfect Belle."

Then my heart dropped to my knees again, crushing any sliver of hope I originally had. "What?" I had to ask to be sure that I wasn't hearing things, but based on the serious expression cast on Mr. CJ's face, he wasn't joking around. "Wait, n-no, but I auditioned for the Beast a-and ... I'm a boy!"

Mr. CJ raised a furry orange eyebrow at my remark. "Which makes it all the more interesting, doesn't it? Wouldn't it be spectacular if our school's drama program was praised for implementing gender fluidity with their characters? Don't worry, with Holly's help and my coaching, you'll make the perfect girl and the perfect Belle!"

There was a weird pang of pain in my chest and I didn't know what it was. All I was really able to gather was that the drama teacher had just given me a role meant for girls because I "looked" the part. If that wasn't a backhanded compliment, then I didn't know what was.

I wanted to say something to him, but I didn't know what. It wasn't like I could just give him a piece of my mind since I needed him to give me a role in this play, so I could get my mind off things at home. But I couldn't allow him to insult me like that!

Luckily for me, I didn't have to say anything because Greg decided to speak. "You've got to be kidding me," he spat as he folded his arms over his chest. "The Beast and Belle have to kiss. There's no way I'm kissing another dude and especially not Noah Gaylor. Let him be the teapot or the candle or I don't know! Anything else! Julia's audition was amazing. She should be Belle!"

Mr. CJ turned to face Greg while lowering his glasses onto the rim of his nose. "Greg, if you're thinking about becoming a serious actor in the future, you must know that sometimes you'll work with people you don't like and sometimes you'll play characters that don't have the same beliefs as your own. It's called acting for a reason. Noah will be playing Belle and that's final. Now, I'd advise you two to get together outside of school to practice your lines because we need to spend most of our time on the dance sequences and the music."

"And Holly, I need your help with several ideas I have for how the characters' appearances should look," he noted in which Holly nodded obediently. He sent us one final look and said, "Ta ta!" before walking off with Holly attached to his side.

A bitter silence fell over us until a loud groan erupted from Greg. "I hate you," he hissed, shaking his head in disbelief. His lip curled slightly with disgust as he stared me down with unfriendly grey eyes. "I hate you and those faggots that you call parents." A scoff of contempt fell from his lips before he turned on his heel and sauntered away from us, disappearing into the depths of the auditorium.

More silence endured, but it was Michael who decided to cut the tension this time. "Okay, what's his deal?"

I shrugged. "He's just ... mad."

"At?" Michael pried.

"Me," I said, short.

"For?"

Sighing heavily, I lifted my eyes to his, basically pleading for him to stop prying. "For being me, obviously."

"Or..." Michael raised a finger in the air like he had just found the cure for cancer, "...he has a major crush on you."

I frowned. That was the most absurd thing I had ever heard. "No," I refuted immediately. "No, he doesn't. Greg hates me."

But no matter what I said, Michael's smile continued to turn into a smirk. "Or maybe he just hates the way you make him feel. You know, I used to get those sophomore butterflies ... it was a very awkward phase of my life ... but the point is, he totally faps to you."

Michael had a natural non-serious nature about him and sometimes it was a great feature, but now it was growing to be quite annoying. He was wrong, so wrong that he didn't even know.

"His mom used to date my poppa when they were back in high school," I blurted out without thinking about the
gravity of the words I was saying. "He, uh, he cheated on her with my dad." As soon as I said those words, I clamped my lips shut. It was funny how cheating appeared to be a common occurrence with Poppa and I hadn't even realized it until now.

"Oh, shit." Michael clamped a hand over his mouth. "Wait, that means that Greg could've been your brother! Wow, then he'd really hate you for giving him all those incestuous thoughts, if ya know what I mean." He finished with a teasing smirk.

"That's not funny," I said.

His mouth fell open. "Aw, come on. It's a little funny."

I folded my arms across my chest. "No, not even a little bit."

"Seriously?" He cocked his head to the side, allowing a few strands of light blond hair to fall over his forehead and into his eyes. "Then what's that little smile that I see coming onto your face?"

As soon as I caught my lips slowly creeping into a smile, I pressed them together to refrain from giving in. "I'm not smiling."

Michael raised a skeptical eyebrow as he gazed back at me, but he eventually gave in with a sigh. "You're right, it was a definite frown. Cute, though."

And all hope of me ever refusing to give him what he wanted instantly went out the window when I cracked into a toothy grin. "You know what? I actually hate you."

Michael smirked. "Right."

"I think you should make it up to me," I suggested without having any idea why I was doing so. What made me believe that I could try to be sexy and seductive when I was the complete opposite?

He pushed off the seat he was leaning against and stared down at me with careful eyes. "How do you suggest I do that?"

"Um, well you haven't, uh, you know..."

"No, actually I don't know."

I rolled my eyes at his seemingly ever-present smug attitude. "Don't make me say it."

He shrugged. "I wouldn't make you say it if I knew what it was."

"Mikey..."

"Noah..."

Quickly assessing my surroundings to make sure no one was eavesdropping on our conversation, I leaned in to whisper softly, "A blowjob."

His light colored eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I'm sorry, I don't know what that is."

I gaped. "Mikey!"

"Is it a game?" he questioned. "You know, like chutes and ladders? Because I'm amazing at that game."

Studying him carefully, I realized there was no chance that he would let up anytime soon. "Yeah," I said with a frustrated sigh. "I do hate you." Rolling my eyes again, I swung my backpack over my shoulder and prepared to take off in the other direction, but my body was tugged back in place by a strong grip on my wrist.

"Now, let's observe as the tame animal turns into a ravaging beast with a sex drive that is out of this planet," Michael narrated in an abnormally low voice just as he pulled me under his arm, and then rushing us both to the nearest exit. It was clear that he was having fun with our little exchange and that was a bit of a relief to see.

As he led us out of the auditorium and to the doors that led to the roof—the place where we spent most of our time whether it was to talk to make out—I responded to his previous comment. "If my sex drive is out of this planet, then your sex drive must be out of this galaxy."

Michael sucked in a breath. "And he strikes again with his savagery. The tame animal is anything but tame when it comes to dragging people to hell and back. A dangerous, but clever strategy."

I rolled my eyes for the third time that day. "You're so weird."

"That's what she said," he commented.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What? That doesn't work."

He narrowed his icy gaze at me. "Oh, so now you know what it means?"

I giggled softly as I patted his chest. "I've always known. I just like to see you all hot and bothered."

"Funny that you should say that." Once we were at the top of the staircase, he pushed open the doors, allowing a gust of warm wind to greet us. The sun was slowly descending, but its rays still managed to warm my skin. "Because I'm gonna get you hot and bothered right now. Take off your pants."

"Always so straight forward," I remarked as my hands worked their way to the button on my jeans. The second I undid my zipper, it came to my attention that I was going to receive my first ever blowjob and Michael, of all people, was giving it to me. Basically, it was more than safe to say that my mind was currently a jumbled puddle of incoherent thoughts and emotions. The emotion that I did recognize was lust and boy, did I lust for him.

*

*

Despite the amount of fun I had at school that day, there was just no escaping the dreadful bus ride home. Normally, I hated riding the bus, but today I wanted the bus ride to last forever, so that I wouldn't have to face my parents. Dad was mad at me and I was mad at Poppa—nothing good could come from that.

So when I strolled into the front door nearly twenty minutes after school ended, I was surprised to hear that my parents were laughing.  Not fake laughter, not forced laughter—it was real, collective laughter. I tip-toed into the kitchen to catch a glimpse of what could've caused all the giddy energy. Poppa was chasing Dad around the island while throwing handfuls of flour at him. Dad did his best to dodge the flour, but judging by the way he seemed to be covered in the white powder from head to toe, he hadn't done a good job at it.

"Ian, I swear, you're the absolute worst," Dad squealed as he ducked behind the island. "I can never get anything done with you."

"That's because you're always so serious all the time. Come on, baby, have some fun." Poppa threw another handful of flour over the island, but he missed.

In that moment, Dad snapped out of whatever trance-like state he was in, letting his smile fade away. "Right," he said, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "You know all about having fun."

Poppa straightened his posture and scoffed. "Seriously? We were just starting to get somewhere." Dad turned his back to him and focused his attention on the mixing bowl set on the counter, ignoring him. "It's bad enough that Noah won't talk to me. I don't need this from you, too."

Dad glanced over his shoulder. "What do you mean Noah won't talk to you?"

"I told him about what happened," he admitted. "About what happened when you were in the hospital. He was pretty upset over it."

Dad laughed, but this time, it was a dry, humorless laugh. "Right, because that's the appropriate reaction when you find out that your husband is a cheater."

"Jay," Poppa said in a soft voice. "What do I have to do to show you that I'm sorry? I think about it every day and—"

"You think about it?" Dad questioned with incredulity in his voice. "Great, so you have the memory of you sticking your dick up someone else's ass while I was in a coma on replay?"

"Jay, that's not what I meant."

"It's your fault that it even happened!" Dad shouted. "You and your stupid asshole friends! The least you could've done was stay by my side and apologize for doing this to me, but no, you were too scared of the guilt so you buried your problems in someone else. And you know what? If you had just left me alone back then, if you didn't insist on bothering me back in high school, then this would've never happened. The only good thing that came out of this excuse of a relationship is Noah. You were a cheater then and you're a cheater now."

Poppa had that glassy look in his eye again and I didn't like seeing that look on him, despite the fact that I was supposed to be hating him and giving him the silent treatment. "Jay, please don't say that. Please don't say that these eighteen years were a waste of time because I refuse to believe that. I love you, Jay. God knows how much I love you. I'll fix this, I promise. I'll do anything. Just tell me what you want me to do."

A long moment of silence passed between them before Dad sighed and returned his attention to his current task at hand. "You don't have to do anything because soon enough, I won't have to see your face everyday."

I had to cup a hand over my mouth to stop my gasp from being overly audible. Of course I was angry with Poppa for cheating on Dad, but that didn't mean I wanted them to break up! They couldn't.

Poppa folded his arms across his chest and nodded, but I could tell he was holding something back. "Okay," he said softly as he grabbed his car keys from the kitchen counter, "well, Noah should be here soon, so I'll pick up the pizza." Dad didn't answer; he just continued to stir the contents in the mixing bowl.

Not wanting to make my presence known, I inched out of the kitchen and retreated upstairs to my bedroom where I pulled out my cell phone to dial the number of the the one and only person I could depend on.

"Hello?" Michael answered on the second ring.

"I-I need to talk t-to you," I choked out, barely able to form a full sentence without my voice wavering.

There wasn't even a second of silence before Michael responded with, "I'm all ears."

**

a/n: Aww, I think this chapter was so cute, like I don't know why! Jay and Ian's sideline story is grabbing my attention too, so I'm constantly trying to spread light on it when I get the chance.

Alright, there's a lot of things that I can ask for your opinion on with this chapter, but I'll just settle on two: What do you think of Greg and the tension in Jay & Ian's relationship? Poor Noah will slowly unravel and fall apart and I'm so excited!

If you liked this chapter, then feel free to vote and leave a comment!

Until next time,
Lara <3