Hey! Here's chapter two!

Chapter 2

The day had finally come. I was flying to New York a couple of days before the audition date and Jason was going with me. After my parents extracted a promise from him to behave, we were dropped off at the airport and then we were off into the skies. After takeoff, I pulled my book out and started reading, trying to avoid any conversation with Jason because my voice had gotten a bit scratchy a couple of days ago, and I was trying to rest it for the audition. Plus I was in one of those moods where I wanted to read, not talk. Jason, of course, was oblivious. "I can't believe this, Em. It's amazing. I'm so excited. Are you?" I murmured my agreement and returned my focus to my book. He kept on, talking about anything and everything, me occasionally answering a question until my eyes grew so heavy I couldn't keep my eyes focused on the page I had been staring at for an hour. My eyes closed and I was out.

I looked over at her. She was sound asleep, resting against my shoulder. Her book was open to the same page it had been at for the entire trip. I'd been trying to get her to engage, to have some of the spark she'd had at the beginning of the school year, but she hadn't been willing. I probably should have just let her read because I knew she was trying to save her voice, but I got nervous whenever I flew and I couldn't help the stream of questions that just seemed to flow continuously out of my mouth. She had nodded off about an hour and a half into the flight and she looked so peaceful. She hadn't looked truly at ease for quite some time. I was really excited about this trip. It felt like something was going to happen, something good. I was totally happy in this moment.

I let my head rest against hers and I looked down at her hands. They were so small, her fingers slender and long. She had fallen asleep holding her book, so her wrists were turned up. A glimmer of white caught my eye. I froze, my contentedness falling away. No. It couldn't be. She had said it was gone. I gently reached over and pulled her left hand away from her book and up towards me. I rubbed my thumb softly against her wrist. Some of whatever she had used to cover up that mark came off against my finger. I stared down at it. The rose was still there. Stronger than ever.

She had lied to me.

I carefully set her arm back down in her lap. She had lied to me. She was still under his spell. He wasn't even here, and he was still influencing her. It explained so much about her behavior towards me. I didn't know exactly what the rose on her wrist meant, but all I knew was that it was a connection to Ty- something she shouldn't- couldn't have. It was supposed to be gone. "Why?" I whispered. She shifted a little, but stayed asleep.

Jason woke me by moving some and calling my name. "Emily. We've landed." I sat up from leaning on him (oops) and yawned. I hadn't meant to fall asleep. I closed my book that had somehow managed to stay on my lap and unbuckled. I noticed that some of the makeup on my wrist had smudged a little, revealing a portion of the petals of the rose. I glanced at Jason out of the corner of my eye. He was looking the other way so I tried to smooth out the makeup to cover it and succeeded in only rubbing more off. I had a tiny amount of foundation in my carry-on, but I wouldn't be able to get to it until after we got off. Terrified he might see it, I tried to casually grab my book with my left hand to conceal my wrist and didn't let it go of it until we got out of the plane and I was safely in the bathroom. I dug out my foundation and hastily reapplied it and then slipped it and my book into my bag. I let out a sigh. It was going to be fine.

We caught a taxi to our hotel and checked in. We had rooms on the same floor, but on opposite sides of the hall from each other. We stood in front of our doors, chatting about nothing. Jason looked a little off. "You okay?" I asked, concerned. "Yeah." He said. "I just feel a little nauseous. I'm fine."

"The plane?" I wondered. He nodded. I knew he was a little nervous when it came to flying, but it felt like something else was going on. "You sure? Is something else bugging you?" He stared at me for a moment until I shifted under his gaze. Then he shook his head and unlocked his room, leaving me standing in the hallway. Alone.

We spent our one free day in New York exploring. It was actually fun, despite the awkwardness that had been between us since the plane ride. He still wouldn't tell me what was wrong, but he acted almost… relieved? I wasn't sure, but something was up.

We got to see a Broadway musical, which was fabulous, and then we wandered our way around until we found the theater we would be auditioning at. It was beautiful. It didn't look like much from the outside, but it still had an air of majesty around it. We tried to see if we could go in, but it was closed for auditions for the equity performers. "Jason." He turned to me. "Hmm?"

"Look at it." I gave a breathy laugh. "We could be performing here this summer." I turned to him with a grin. "I'm so excited for tomorrow. It's gonna be awesome." He laughed and grabbed my hand. "Yep. Awesome."

We rode a subway back to our hotel and tried to find a place in the hotel where we could practice our audition pieces without disturbing anyone. We were directed to a small conference room behind the grand ballroom. We were at a freaking gorgeous hotel. Jason's mom had something to do with it, but Jason and his mom refused to give me or my parents any details other than our living arrangements.

When the hotel staff member had left and the door closed with a soft thud, Jason whipped out his phone and we started warming up. We ran through scales, diction exercises, the whole shebang, and then I sat down to critique Jason's audition piece. He had chosen to sing 'Till I Hear You Sing and I had mixed feelings about it. He did it well, it's just that I couldn't picture him as the Phantom at all. When I pointed this out to him, he replied with, "Well, the only song Raoul sings by himself isn't very audition-y."

"True." There were actually very few songs that were sung by individuals in this musical. I had narrowed my selection to three songs: Beneath a Moonless Sky, Once Upon Another Time, and Love Never Dies. I was very reluctant to sing the last one, because I just knew that every other female auditioning would be singing it. But it was Christine's only full solo. I knew them all by heart and wanted to sing Moonless Sky, but I couldn't sing it with Jason. It didn't work. "Well?" Jason asked. "Which one have you decided on?" I took a deep breath in and just went for it. "Title song." Jason played the music. I sang, I tried to grasp that truth in the song that was always out of Jason's comprehending. When I finished singing, I felt utterly disappointed in myself. "No. It doesn't feel right. But I can't sing the others. They don't feel right either." We sang for each other a few more times and then went up to our rooms so as not to strain our voices the night before the audition.

I was watching a cooking show when a knock on my door pulled me away. I peered out the peephole and saw Jason standing in the hall. I opened the door. "Yes? Can I help you?" I asked with a smile. "I was wondering if, maybe, you wanted to hang out some. Watch a movie?" That would be nice, as watching cooking shows made me hungry. "Sure! Yours or mine?"

"Mine work?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Let me grab my key and my phone. Don't want to freak the parents out if they call and I miss it. Give me a second." I grabbed both items and paused as I headed back for the door. I was in my pajamas already, a huge long sleeved t-shirt and flannel pants, and considered changing. I decided against it, then slipped into a sports bra and readjusted my shirt. I opened the door and Jason was still standing there, waiting. He lit up when he saw me open the door. "Gorgeous." He said. I couldn't keep the small smile off my lips as I rolled my eyes. He did know how to make me smile. "Liar." He laughed and opened his door. He pulled his laptop from the desk it rested on and started browsing through Netflix. "What movie are you thinking?" I looked through the movies and finally settled on Sherlock Holmes. The one with Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock. Those movies are the best. (The TV show is pretty awesome, too, but it was a lot of effort just to convince Jason to watch the movie.) We settled back on his bed with the laptop in front of us. Within minutes, Jason was asleep with his arm around me and hugging me to his chest. I sat there watching the movie until my excitement for the next day faded and gave way to fatigue.

I don't know how long I had been asleep, but the movie was still playing. My phone was buzzing next to me, which was what had woken me up. It was my mom. "Hey, sweetheart." She said. "How'd your day go?" We chatted for a brief moment before she bid me goodnight. "Was that your mom?" Jason asked, making me jump a little. I hadn't realized he'd woken up. "Yeah. She just wanted to know how the day went and stuff." He grunted in acknowledgement. After a few minutes of slightly awkward silence other than the movie, I asked, "So nothing's wrong?" He didn't answer me and I thought maybe he had fallen asleep again, but he reached over and grabbed my left hand. The shock made us both jerk away from each other. "I'd like to talk about that, since you keep asking." Dread filling my stomach, but playing naïve, I asked, "What? The shock? It's probably just- um-," He cut me off. "I know, Emily."

"You know? Know what?" My brain was scrambling, searching desperately for something plausible that would explain the situation. I pushed myself up and away from him. he sat up as well and reached out for my arm. He shoved my sleeve up exposing the rose in all its pale glory. "The rose is still there." He stated.

"No- no it's- not that rose- I just-," His sigh was full of disappointment and it made my voice catch. "Why are you lying to me, Emily?"

"I was going to tell you." I whispered. "When?" He asked. "Why did you tell me it was gone?"

"Because I thought it was fading when I first told you, and then it actually wasn't, but then the shocks stopped, so I figured it wasn't a big deal, and then when it actually started to get darker, I knew then there would be no chance of you ever accepting that my thoughts and feelings are my own. There would be no chance of you ever letting me go."

"But why did you have to lie-,"

"Because you don't listen! You haven't for a long time." I snapped at him.

"What do you mean? I listen to you-,"

"Do you? Then why don't you believe anything I say about how I feel?"

"That's- because that's not- you don't- mean it." He finished, quietly. He wouldn't look at me. It made me furious. "So basically, all you do is decide what I mean, you don't listen to what I'm actually saying, and you also lie." He tried to interrupt at that, but I continued, "You're lying to yourself, and you know it. You're refusing to see what I've been trying to tell you. This whole thing is a lie. I don't know how to make it better. I sat you and Abby down to try and explain to you, but you still ignore me. I'm not sure I even want to try anymore." I said.

"How can you say that?" He had the gall to look affronted.

"Every time we talk, like this, we end up arguing about something."

"That's not true-,"

"It is true!" I yelled. "We are right now!" Pounding on the wall pulled me out of my angry rant. "We are right now." I whispered. "Always. Always fighting. I can't-," I pressed my fists into my eyes, trying to block out this conversation that wouldn't get us anywhere. Jason interrupted, pulling my hands away from my face, "Not tonight." I let out a frustrated and angry snort. He sighed. "Emily, let's not go there tonight. Please. I'll listen to you, I promise." When he caught my dubious look, he added, "Just not tonight. After we get home. Please. Because whatever you might think, I do care about you and I want you to do well tomorrow, and I think hashing all this out tonight would make for a poor audition tomorrow." I closed my eyes and counted backwards from twenty. I took in a deep breath and stood up. "Whatever. Night." I grabbed my key card and made for the door. I had turned the handle and had barely opened the door when Jason's hand came over my shoulder and gently pushed the door closed. "What?" I asked without turning. "Em, I-," He sighed and I felt his breath on my neck. "I don't want tonight to end this way."

"Oh? How did you want it to end?" I said to the door. "More like this." He whispered and suddenly I was against the wall, trapped. He had my arms pinned next to me and he was attempting to kiss his way up my neck. The little bit of light and color that had returned in my life vanished. I felt nothing other than disgust. "Let me go." I choked out. When he tried to kiss me full on, I turned away. "Jason." Now the disgust was fading away into pure numbness. "Let. Me. Go." I could feel him tense up and he looked down at me, his expression suddenly terrified. "Emily?" He whispered. "Are you o-,"

"So this is all you want from me. Just being friendly isn't enough. Hanging out, just enjoying each other's company's not enough for you. Even though I've told you I can't do this." I looked up at him, straight into his worried eyes. "Let me go. Now."

The dead look in her eyes scared me more than the look she had when Ty had been messing with her head. A lightning hot shock caused me to jerk my hands away from the girl I'd been trying to hold. I backed away from her. She turned from me and slowly opened the door. And she left. What had I just done?

I locked the door behind me. I managed to brush my teeth and wash my face. I stumbled to my bed and plugged my phone up. I set my alarm for enough time to get up and get ready for the audition. The audition wasn't until two, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to be leaving my room for anything other than that. I laid back in my bed and stared at the ceiling until my eyes closed on their own.

I did not dream that night.

There you go! Chapter three will be up next week!