Jace

{3}

"Torture," Matty sighed, leaning his elbows on the table and rubbing his face with his hands. "Absolute torture."

Michael threw down his pen. "Sweetie. I'm going to try and be nice here-"

"Get the fuck off my stage," Caleb interrupted.

"Caleb!" Niall scolded, glaring at him over Michael.

"Sorry...get the fuck off my stage, PLEASE."

Stephanie Curtis ran off crying into the arms of her older cousin who was also crying after being sent away.

"Who's next?" Zayn groaned. He was hungover from a party last night and the loud music and awful dancing wasn't helping. So far we had only asked Katherine to stay. Janell Sawyer had an awful stuck up attitude, and wasn't even that good. And Caytlin Herrman tripped and dislocated her knee in the middle of the dance.

"Jacelyn Rock," Harry yelled loudly, rolling his head and shutting his eyes. He was tired and he was getting a bit goofy and grumpy.

"Hello again!" She popped onto the stage with a bounce and jogged toward the front. Her hair was up in a bun and she wore a beautiful blue galaxy design romper that had spaghetti straps and contemporary slips for her dance shoes.

"I'm Jacelyn, or Jace, Rock, I'm twenty four years old, but I turn twenty five next Tuesday, I'll be doing a lyrical solo to the song Everybody Lies by Jason Walker."

We nodded and she started to walk back toward the center of the stage.

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "Can I put my lucky turtle here?"

She opened one of her palms and set down a tiny toy turtle at the edge of the stage.

"Sure," we laughed. A lucky turtle?

Matty paused. "Cue music."

The music was beautiful. It was sad and amazing and I couldn't take my eyes off of the girl dancing across the stage. The girl with so much emotion in her face. The girl who's movements were delicate and fierce. The girl who had obviously been through some things in order to connect so well to this song. The girl who was the best dancer I'd ever seen. Three minutes and fifty-one seconds later and I was sad it ended. I was almost shocked at how sad and desperate her face looked in her ending pose, and then how it popped right back into a smile as she sauntered over to pick up the toy turtle and hear our comments.

"I...I mean..." Zayn was speechless. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was so enchanted by her solo. "Wow."

"Your movements are truly beautiful," Caleb spoke quietly. This was the first time I've ever seen him so...relaxed?

"I have to say," Louis set down his score sheet so I could see that it was covered with 10's. "I think that was the best audition we've seen all day!"

"We want you to stay after," I said.

"Liam!" Michael leaned across Niall and Matty to glare at me. "You can't make big decisions like that. That's why we're here. It's your management's job to make the big decisions."

He glanced once at Matty, and once at Caleb.

"We want you to stay after."

I exhaled loudly and leaned back annoyed. I JUST said that.

Jacelyn giggled. "Thank you Li- I mean Mr. Payne," she put on her best serious face and nodded to me. "And thank you to the rest of you too."

"We'll see you in a couple hours Miss Rock," Caleb laughed. "Thank you."

She smiled and was gone soon after.

"Riley Gianna!" I yelled. No one came. "Riley Gianna!" I tried again. No one came. "Riley?"