Iris and the List

Iris and The Dinner

"I know. Bradley and Colton tried to hide it from me, but let's be honest, it takes high stakes deception to fool Rory Morgan." Rory explained.

"You knew? I wanted to tell you the whole romantic story." I stared down at my coffee.

He took a sip of his vanilla milk. "I'll still listen. Go ahead."

Immediately, I started gushing about our date and the kiss. Rory listened, interjecting appropriate comments and questions occasionally.

"Well so, it gets weird now. I drove by his house this morning and-" I began.

"You drove by his house? Stalkerish much?"

I glared at him. "I prefer investigative. Now let me finish! The house was empty, I'm pretty sure. They don't have a garage, and there were no cars there. But Colton hasn't said anything about going out of town."

Rory nodded, and looked thoughtful. "Maybe it's a last minute type thing. I'm sure it's nothing weird."

"I hope not. I'm kinda bummed though, I wanted to talk about our relationship."

"You'll get the chance. If Ginger and I can discuss our relationship, you'll be able to discuss it with Colton."

"You're so happy about being with her." I observed.

He grinned. "I am." Then he frowned. "Is that lame?"

I shook my head. "It's cute. Now come on, let's go give Bee our support at her tryouts."

"But I want another vanilla milk." Rory said, with a longing glance at the counter.

I love Rory to death. I really do. But I didn't get the vanilla milk thing. Why is it a thing? Who decided one day, "hmm, there's strawberry and chocolate milk, better make vanilla!" Seriously. Who came up with this?

We drove to school and parked right by the doors. The auditorium was right by the front doors, so it was a short walk.

People were sitting out in the hallway, practically camping out. There was food, drinks, scripts, blankets, pillows, and chargers all over the place.

Bee was sitting up against the wall with Bradley. They appeared to be running lines together. Weird.

Rory and I made our way over to her. We plopped down next to her, and I stole a gummy worm from her giant bowl of gummy snacks. There were gummy worms, bears, Sharks, and a ton of other gummy animals.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Well you don't know this, but I'm actually into music. I've never done a musical before, but Colton told me that I should try out because I'm "good" or something. That's why I was surprised when I saw Bee's audition stuff." Bradley explained.

"Cool man. What are you auditioning for?" Rory asked.

Bradley chewed his gummy shark. "Troy, obviously, but I'd be happy with getting the role of Ryan."

"Nice. Break a leg." I said.

The door to the auditorium opened, and everything was silent.

"If you hear your name called, stay. If not, thank you for auditioning. There's always next year Bay Anderson....." She went on to list a ton of names. "Beatrice Rhodes, Barney Rock, Bradley Sullivan..."

Bee and Bradley both grinned.

The musical was a huge deal at school. Tons of people auditioned every year.

People got up with their stuff, looking defeated.

"You guys should probably go. Auditions are until four. That was only the first round of cuts." Bee said.