Chapter Eighteen: Auditions & Thomas

Chapter Eighteen: Auditions & Thomas

**Lilah's POV**

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you shouldn't be late to anything."

Jared lowers himself into a seat beside Harry. He takes in a breath finally after a non-stop hour of ranting about why being late is unfashionable and totally shamed upon. I've recieved similiar rants from him before so I really am used to it by now, but it's the looks on the boys' faces that has me cracking up once Jared is done talking. They all look the same: wide eyes, open mouths, and shock painted beautifully across their faces. Yup, the Jared Rant definitely does that to people.

"Damn," Niall mutters. "I thought I could talk alot."

"No, you eat alot. Louis talks a lot," Liam teases.

Niall nods. "True."

"Well, now that we are done with that whole rant, I think we should start heading over to the drama department. The auditioners might start showing up early," Thomas says as he gets to his feet. He has a binder in his hands and I look over at him in confusion. Was he planning on judging auditions as well?

The boys all start filing out. I hang back a bit so I can talk to Thomas without the interference of anyone. When everyones already headed out, I go over to Thomas.

"Hey," I say.

"What's up, Lilah?"

"Nothing much, but uh, are you planning on running auditions?"

Thomas shrugs as we walk out of the apartment the boys are renting. I watch as they pile into the limo waiting for them. Thomas heads towards his car and I have to seriously debate between ending discussion and going to the boys or finishing our conversation and riding with Thomas.

"You can go over there if you want," Thomas says quietly. He must notice my glancing at the limo. Niall appears through the sun roof and he waves at us. "I'm sure you must be really itching to get in that limo with them."

I look away from Niall and look at Thomas instead. His curls are falling onto his face but he doesn't push them away. It's as if he leaves them there so that I can push them away for him. But I refuse to give in.

"You should come with us," I say because I know that I should invite him. "The boys are great once you get to know them."

Thomas laughs and smiles down at the ground. "Yeah, they're totally great," he says but part of me doesn't believe he means it. At least not all of it. "Listen, Lilah, I just really want-"

"LILAH! HEY LILAH! COME ON!" I spin towards the limo and there's Zayn with his entire upper body sticking out of the limo sun roof. He waves his arms in the air at me with a wide grin on his face. My entire body starts picking up pace with the beats and heartbeats and shivers and everything girly that's within me.

"COMING!" I yell back with a wave as well.

Thomas coughs. "Lilah."

"Oh, sorry! What was happening?" I ask Thomas. Zayn's waiting for me. They're all waiting for me!

Thomas sighs and shakes his head. "Nothing, just enjoy the ride. Oh and to answer your question, yeah I'm helping with the auditions. I thought you could all use a hand since the boys probably have no idea what to look out for," Thomas says in a complete monotone. HIs eyes are drawn to the floor and I feel awkward just standing here and staring up at him.

I rock on my heels and toes. "Well...okay. I'll just see you there then!"

"Thomas nods. "Yeah, see you there," he says.

He suddenly leans towards me, a slight smile playing on his lips as he tucks a loose strand of blond hair behind my ear. His fingertips brush against my cheek and I just shiver.

He turns and walks away with his head down.

My stomach knots. Why does seeing Thomas upset make me feel sick? I have the urge to go back to him and just ride with him so that we can talk.

"LILAH! COME ON!" Zayn yells again and every single thought previously occupying my head disappears and is instead replaced with thoughts of a limo ride with One Direction.

"COMING!" I yell and run towards the limo.

This would be a good limo ride. With or without Thomas.

**Jared's POV**

I really hate being Lilah's best friend sometimes. It's not that I don't love her, because I do, but it's just her decisions that make me regret being her best friends sometimes.

Like right now for instance. Lilah is sitting between Liam and Zayn and her eyes are completely and totally on Zayn. She has those green goddamn eyes glued to his face, and lips, and mouth, and every freaking part of his gorgeous body. Now, I'm not saying that it's bad that she has such good taste in guys, but she isn't noticing Thomas at all!

Personally, I would love if Lilah were to date one of the boys from One Direction, but I really have to admit I'm rooting for Thomas. I mean how long have they known eachother? Plus, that one night we all went to the college party and got completely drunk out of our minds, the truth came out. And the truth is that both Lilah and Thomas have feelings towards eachother, but neither of them are willing to make a move.

So that leaves me to do all the dirty work.

"Hey Lilah, where's Thomas?" I ask. Lilah giggles about something Zayn says and bats those eyelashes of hers at him. He doesn't even notice she's flirting with him. I kick her foot to get her attention. "Hey! Lilah, where's Thomas?" I ask again.

"Huh? Oh sorry," Lilah pushes some blonde hair behind her ear and giggles again. "He, uh, decided to drive there. Stop Zayn!" Lilah pushes away Zayn's hands that poke at her sides.

Oh god. I'm going to have to do a lot better if I want Thomas and Lilah to end up together. "Hey Lilah, Thomas was talking about you earlier." I approach her with something I know she can't resist.

"Oh that's cool," she waves it away. "Zayn! Stop it!" She yells as Zayn tickles her. She starts laughing so uncontrollably that she ends up on Liam's lap to get away from Zayn's fingers. "Sorry!" She pipes up, her cheeks blazing a bright red color.

Great, so if Zayn fails her, then there's always Liam. I know she has a huge thing for him as well.

The rest of the car ride I sit silently and think of ways to get Thomas and Lilah together. The boys all start talking about some tour annoucement thing that they have to do tomorrow and that's probably the best time for me to get anything to happen between Thomas and Lilah. Lilah's been concentrating too much on the boys that we haven't even started the movie.

The driver pulls up by the theater building and parks. We all climb out and meet up with Thomaos who parks his car right outside the building. There's no one around yet so I'm sure we have some time to get ready.

The theater is a large building that can seat thousands of people in an upper and lower audience seating section. The stage has been used for plays and even concerts.

We take seats in the front row of the second section behind a rail. I run my hands over the red seat material and smile. This place is beautiful.

"Ouch! Sorry Hazz, I didn't mean to step on you."

"That's okay Lou. You can sit next to me."

Thomas sits beside me and props his feet up on the rail. He glances over at me. "Hey."

"Hey," I say back. God he's cute. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with Lilah? Those curls and that smile!

"So how do you think auditions are going to go?" Thomas asks.

"Well I'm hoping they go well. I'd hate to have the boys sit through a bunch of bad actors. It's kind of like a bad rep for our school."

Thomas laughs, his mouth curving up in a way that is downright sexy. Delilah fucking McKinley has some serious eyesight issues.

"Hey Jare! Can you ask Thomas how many auditions there are planned for today?" Lilah leans over Liam, Harry and Louis to whisper-yell to me. She squeaks and sits upright suddenly. "Zayn! Stop poking me!"

I roll my eyes. Zayn is laying it on real thick right now. This is not tolerable. "Lilah! Girl you get your ass down here and sit beside me!"

"Jared, I can't just move seats. Besides, this is kind of important to me," Lilah hisses back, annoyance lacing her words.

I cross my arms. "Well how are we supposed to discuss our thoughts on them? And shouldn't One Direction sit with eachother anyways since they are the ones choosing who their lead female will be?" I point out and Harry, Louis, and Liam make an oh noise.

"But Jared, I prefer this seat."

"Lilah, don't you think in order for the movie to benefit from these auditions we should have you seated with me and Thomas?" Okay so I'm laying it down a bit thicker than needed, but goddamnit I'm determined to have her date Thomas.

"What are you doing?" Thomas whispers to me.

"Just go with it," I mutter to him through the side of my mouth. "Well Lilah?" I ask her.

Lilah's eyes narrow at me, her green eyes glaring at me with hate for ruining her moment with Zayn. She hates me but I don't care. She'll get over it.

Lilah stands and the boys all scoot down a chair, leaving the one beside me open. Before Lilah can sit in it, I move down a chair as well, leaving the seat between Thomas and I open. Lilah scowls down at me as she flops down into it. She crosses her arms.

"I know what you're doing," she whispers to me. "It's not going to work."

"And I'm okay with that," I say with a smirk on my face.

Phase One of Lilah and Thomas dating has now commenced.

**Lilah's POV**

The auditions start and we all sit back and watch as girl after girl after girl get on stage and act out a dramatic monologue. I take notes on my phone since I forgot to bring any paper with me. Honestly, I hope there aren't a lot more girls auditioning. I haven't seen anyone too good yet and I plan on keeping it that way. I've decided to audition near the end so that I can leave an impact towards their choice of female lead.

"She has a real nice voice," Thomas whispers to me. He's been doing that a lot. Leaning in close and whispering to me. It's driving me crazy.

"I guess, but she didn't memorize her monologue. How are we supposed to know she's trustworthy?" The girl has a folded piece of paper in her hands and her eyes hardly leave the paper. That's definitely a negative point to her score.

Thomas' leg brushes up against mine and I glance down at it. Jeans on jeans. Two layers between us.

There's applause and I realize she's done with her monologue. She thanks us before making her way out.

"She sucked," Louis blurts as soon as the door closes.

"Louis, that's not nice."

"But it's true! She had that damn paper covering her face majority of the time. Even I know that that's a no in theater," Niall says.

"That may be true, but she was very pretty."

"Harry, that hardly matters right now," Liam shakes his head at the curly haired boy.

"What'd you think, Lilah?" Everyone turns to me. Zayn looks at me with wide brown eyes.

"I think there are better auditions to be seen," I say.

They all sit back in their seats. "Agreed."

"Alright. NEXT!" I yell out to the stagehand we have as a runner letting in the next people. The door opens and we all sit and stare at the stage, waiting for someone to come and amaze us.

"Oh, excellent," Thomas chuckles under his breath and leans forward.

On stage Lena approaches center stage. Her brown hair is curled loosely and she has eyeliner on. Eyeliner. A girl who couldn't care less about how she looks as long as she has a good book is wearing eyeliner. She's dressed in black skin right jeans, a strapless mint shirt, and black heels that are more than a little familiar to me.

One of the boys whistle. Jealousy spikes in me a tad bit.

"Hello, please state your name and what you're doing," Thomas says, his entire body leaning towards her. I know she can't see us because of the bright stage lights, but I can definitely see Thomas.

My fist involuntarily curls.

"Hi, I'm Lena and I'll be auditioning with a piece from 'Come Back to Me.'"

"She's really fit," I hear Harry whisper and a couple of the boys agree and add in their opinions as well.

"Start whenever you're ready," Thomas says. I grab his arm and pull him back to his seat. "What?" He asks.

"Nothing, just distracted when you sit like that," I say, trying to sound as disinterested as possible. Jared snorts beside me and I have to hold myself back from glaring at him.

"Lilah, do you remember back in high school when we had to do the trust exercises in class? We were partnered and we had to ask all these random questions."

Lena starts her monologue but my focus is on Thomas.

"Yeah, I guess," I say quietly, trying not to attract any attention to myself.

"I learned a couple things that week. And one of them is that you are a terrible liar." Thomas leans closer to me, his elbow on the arm rest between us. If I turn my head any farther in his direction, our lips would hover a mere hair's breath away.

"What do you mean?" I ask back quietly. If it weren't for the dark room, Thomas would notice blush on my cheeks and goosebumps up and down my arms.

"Nothing exactly. Just keep that in mind. Oh, and also, I think you look really beautiful today."

I can't breathe. My heart stops and I have to strain my ears to block out the loud whooshing in them. I couldn't have heard him right. Did he just call me beautiful?

"I think you look really beautiful today, Mrs. Robinson," Lena says on stage, captivating my attention.

"Damn, I was a little early," Thomas mutters to me, amusement in his voice. Jared laughs quietly but keeps his gaze on stage.

"Damn is right," I say.

Damn it. Thomas was just reciting a line of the monologue. He wasn't complimenting me at all.

Oh well. I have Zayn to think about.