Hello y'all. This is the second story I work on – the first one being Alex and Sebastian. I'll place the link for that one below.

Hope you guys enjoy!

 

http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/college/alex-and-sebastian/

 

A fellow reader made a playlist with most of the songs I've either used or will use in the A&S series. I've given him full control as to whether he wasn't a new channel for this story or just to continue on the other channel. If y'all want to listen to it while reading the chapters the link for it is this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJZWEUrY9KRSfQ98rYlMYix46VM0CJ7XS

 

One new song will be added to the playlist,

Hurricane – Jacob Johnson

 

Also, please don't forget to donate to nifty here, without which we wouldn't have this collection of great stories!

Every story is free on here, so please let's keep it that way and donate, guys.

http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html

 

 

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The Audition

 

For the past week, I had tried to push the odd events of Monday out of my mind. Juggling school, family, and a part time job, I thought it wouldn't be too hard to forget, though.

 

Well, it was.

 

In class, at work, even at home, I couldn't get Michael's singing out of my head. Part of me was curious and wondered what might happen Friday if I went to Emanon's auditions. Another part of me was worried I would get stage fright and make a fool of myself. I decided it would be best for me not to go alone so I invited Taylor, a close friend of both Kyle and me.

 

Kyle and I had known Taylor since our freshman year when the three of us got put together for a biology presentation. She had always been pretty but only recently did she start to actually grow into herself. Like us, Taylor was 16, a junior at our school and involved in athletics. In fact, because both Taylor and I ran cross country, we had gotten closer as friends.

 

"How come you didn't invite Kyle to come with you, Darren?" She asked, twirling her brown, wavy hair between her fingers as we walked to M103 for auditions.

 

"You know him," I said. "If I fucked up, he'd never let me live it down. Besides, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with you here instead." That was true. I would rather have Tay here to keep me company than Kyle. Although my best friend, Kyle tended to distract me a lot. We weren't the best combination when it came to being serious.

 

"Remind me again why you want to join this club thing?" She asked as we stopped outside M pod's doors.

 

"I told you, I need extra curriculars for my resume. Besides, they said I could be their photographer. I'm sure that'd be fun."

 

"If you say so," she smiled as I walked in front of her into M103.

 

Like last time, only the stage lights were turned on giving the room a more audition-esque feel.

 

"Hey, you came!" The guy I remember being called Chris walked up to me. "Hi, Chris here." He waved hello to Tay after greeting me.

 

"Hey, Chris. This is Tay. She's a friend of mine. Hope it's okay I brought her."

 

"Yeah, the more the merrier."

 

"You must be Darren," a guy of about twenty-six walked up to us. "I'm Mr. Holland, the club's sponsor and the school's guitar teacher."

 

"Hello, Mr. Holland," I said. "This is Tay. She's a friend of mine."

 

"Nice to meet you, Tay," he smiled. I realized that, for a teacher, not only was Mr. Holland on the younger side, but he was also one of the better looking teachers, too. "Are you here to audition, too?"

 

"Actually, no," she smiled. I noticed that Tay was standing differently, almost ... oh. I smiled as I realized that my friend was totally hot for teacher. "But I was considering it, actually." Nonchalantly, I elbowed Tay in the ribs but neither Chris nor Mr. Holland noticed.

 

"Well, we're about to start. Today we have just two auditions. If you like, you guys can sit up front." With that, we followed Chris and Mr. Holland to the front of the class. Looking around, I noticed that only Allyssa, Ileana, Chris and one other guy were here.

 

"Where are the seniors?" I asked Chris as we sat down, referring to Diana and Michael.

 

"Seniors had a beginning of the year rally in the gym today. They should be here in a few more minutes."

 

I nodded as Mr. Holland introduced himself again to the group and invited Sam, a sophomore to the stage. "Hey, guys," Sam introduced himself. "My name is Sam." He paused for a second before moving back closer to the mic. "Sam I am." He couldn't help it, "And I don't like green eggs and ham," he smiled.

 

I looked over at Tay and she was hiding a grin. It was a good thing that Sam was a good looking sophomore otherwise I would have said he had no game. Regardless of how stupid his joke might have been, I caught myself hiding a grin, too.

 

Sam continued to introduce himself letting us know he was a sophomore hoping to graduate and become a doctor like his dad. After his small introduction, he handed his copy of the song to Mr. Holland who had volunteered to play the guitar for our auditions.

 

 

.

"Oh, her eyes make the stars look like they're not shining.

Her hair falls perfectly without her trying.

She's so beautiful.

I tell her everyday ..."

.

 

 

For a sophomore who introduced himself with a Dr. Seuss' quote, his voice was a pleasant surprise. As he continued to sing his song, I caught myself looking towards the door.

 

Funnily enough, I wasn't nervous about singing in front of these people. I had been used to singing Christmas carols with my brother and cousins when I was younger. I guess I was just nervous to sing in front of Michael.

 

Why?

 

I don't know.

 

But I was.

 

Before I knew it, we were applauding as Sam finished his song.

 

I was up next.

 

I stood up as Mr. Holland introduced me and I walked on stage with a last good luck from Tay and Chris. "Hey, guys," I introduced myself. "My name is Darren. I'm a junior and I guess I'm looking to get into UT, graduate and work as a professional photographer." Just as I finished talking, a blonde haired girl walked into the room and headed towards the back. Diana.

 

Immediately after, I saw someone who I recognized as Michael walk in, too. Trying not to let that distract me, I gave Mr. Holland my sheet music and waited for him to give me the okay to start. Surprisingly, as Michael sat next to Diana, he shot me a thumbs up.

 

There it was again: that feeling in the pit of my stomach like when I was about to start a cross country race. The excitement, the nervousness, the constant ringing in my ears, it was all there.

 

I gave Tay one last glance and cleared my throat before I began to sing.

 

 

.

"Hadn't had a good time since you know when.

Got talked into going out with hopes you were staying in.

I was feeling like myself for the first time in a long time.

Till I bumped into some of your friends over there talking to mine."

.

 

 

If I have to be honest, I didn't know what my feelings were telling me. To be fair, I'd never had "feelings" for a guy before. Not that there was any problem with that. Hell, my own brother was gay. He was even living together with his boyfriend upstate. I guess, I just thought I was different than him.

 

But even now, I didn't want to put a label on my feelings yet. As good looking or popular as I might be, I didn't think my social life could handle such a dramatic change.

 

 

.

"Knew it was gonna be a long time from the moment when

We locked eyes over whiskey on ice – started talking about us again.

If I would've just laid my drink down and walked out,

I wouldn't be in my truck driving us to your house."

.

 

 

What the hell was I saying?

 

Of course I wasn't gay.

 

I just had a teensy bit of a man crush. There was nothing wrong with that. I looked around the stage and saw Tay smile at me, I returned a smile but found my eyes shifting over to where Diana and Michael were sitting. Both of them were looking at me as if studying me, which, considering they were veterans of the group, they probably were.

 

Still, something about the way Michael was looking at me made my heart beat faster.

 

 

.

"Then you rolled in with your hair in the wind

Baby, without warning.

I was doin' alright but just your sight

Had my heart stormin'."

.

 

 

The more I thought about it, the more confused I was. In the end, it took all I had to push those thought aside and keep singing. I looked over at Mr. Holland and he shot me a smile letting me know I was doing well. I smiled back and sang the last verse of the song.

 

 

.

"The moon went hiding – stars quit shining.

Rain was dropping – thunder 'n lightning

You wrecked my whole world when you came

And hit me like a hurricane.

You hit me like a hurricane."

.

 

 

The classroom was filled with the sounds of scattered applause as I thanked everyone for their time and walked off the stage. Even as I walked over to where Tay was, I could feel someone's eyes on me. I nonchalantly looked over to where I felt the gaze was coming from and saw Michael staring at me as I sat down. I turned to face Mr. Holland standing in front of us as he congratulated us on our auditions.

 

"Great job, guys! We will be posting the results by next Wednesday but it's clear that both of you have nothing to worry about. Auditions are over for today but the rest of the club should stay to go over details on the activities this upcoming semester."

 

I looked over to where Sam the sophomore was sitting and we understood this meant we were no longer needed for this next part. I stood up again and thanked Mr. Holland and Chris before leaving with Tay.

 

"Is it me, or is that professor hot as fuck?"

 

I nearly choked at how blunt Tay was being. She wasn't wrong, though. Mr. Holland was definitely a hot guy.

 

"He's single, too, you know."

 

Both Tay and I turned around in surprise s Sam came and joined us.

 

"He's single?" Tay asked, a mischievous grin on her face.

 

I turned to face her. "He may be single but that doesn't mean he has any interest in a 16 year old junior. Although," I gave her a side glance, "Your tits do give you an advantage," I teased.

 

Both Sam and Tay looked at her tits. "Hey, thanks!"

 

I rolled my eyes but couldn't stillfe a laugh.

 

"Are you guys hungry?" Sam asked. "I know a neat little taco place not too far away. On me."

 

"Tay threw herself on Sam's shoulders. "You had me at `on me'."

 

I smiled at the two of them and, against all my better judgement, I resigned myself to go get free tacos.

 

I'm a martyr, I am.