Fly Away Hero - A Colton Love Story

Cole's P.O.V.

"I'm so nervous right now..."

My mom and sister had driven me to the very first day of boy band boot camp.

"What are you nervous about, Honey?"

"What if I'm the one that doesn't make it?"

My sister then chimed in, "You'll be great...unless you screw up royally." I gave her a very rude look as we pulled up in front of the building.

"Bye, Cole! Good luck and have fun, Sweetheart! Just relax. Everything will be fine."

As I watched my mom and my sister drive away, the butterflies in my stomach began to flutter. Sure, I was nervous about not making the cut, but I was also nervous about something much bigger than I ever could have imagined...Dalton Rapattoni.

I'd met him at the auditions in LA. He was from Texas, too, but I hadn't seen him there. The moment I set eyes on him I began to feel really strange on the inside. It was like I was crushing on somebody, but I was straight. I liked girls. Maybe I just thought he was an awesome dude or I wanted to hang out or...well, I don't know why I was feeling the way I was, but I sure didn't like it. It made me feel awkward.

As I walked through the door, the first person to greet me was Dana Vaughns, the youngest. He jumped on my back which scared the hell out of me. I screamed at him to get off until I realized he wouldn't. I decided to go with it and ran him around the room a few times, laughing because he was saying things like "GIDDY UP HORSEY!!! YAH! YAAAAAH" and pretending to crack a whip. I finally had to let him down because I was laughing too much, and so was he. We fistbumped and began walking down the hallway when the door behind us opened again. My heart rate increased a bit in anticipation, but it went right back down when Batman walked through the door.

Gabe Morales was dressed as Batman, and Dana and I both went up to him pretending to be villains.

"Hey, Bats! You'll never beat me" Dana exclaimed. Gabe, in a very Batman-esque voice replied "We'll see about that, Joker!" Gabe chased Dana around the room and finally tackled him to the ground before standing back up. I stood on the side and looked at Gabe. I was going to be a villain, too, but the door opened again.

"Um, hi everyone. I'm Will!"

We three stared at Will Behlendorf for a moment before I shouted "GET HIM!" We all ran straight at Will who screamed and crouched down in a ball. Expecting us to hit him or cause him some form of physical pain, we instead poked him and stuck our tongues out at him. He looked up at us, perplexed at first, then grateful. We helped him up and hugged him. That's when the fifth person walked through the doorframe. That's when my stomach did a flip. For the first time since auditions, I was staring at him, the one who made my heart absolutely stop beating...Dalton Rapattoni.

"Hey, guys. I'm Dalton!"

His dyed blonde hair was perfectly styled. He was wearing a Green Day t-shirt, black skinny jeans and Converse shoes. A silver chain hung from his belt loops. His nails were painted black, but they were chipping because he'd been playing guitar. He had a wrist warmer on with stars on it. Dogtags hung from his neck, and underneath his perfect eyes was his trademark guyliner.

I watched him for just a moment before I thought I was staring too long and looked away. We all said 'hey' before the sixth guy walked in. I didn't even notice him because I was too excited to be around Dalton again.

~~~Lunch Time~~~

I'd brought my own lunch, so the other guys went out while I stayed behind and waited for them to return. I was about to go off and think about Dalton for a while when Simon Fuller stopped me.

"So how are you liking the boy band experience so far, Cole?" 

"Oh, it's awesome! I'm having the time of my life. I never want it to end!" 

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. Are there any questions or concerns you have for us?"

Concerns. I looked at him for a moment and thought about my strange attraction to Dalton. I couldn't tell him. There was no way...I took a deep breath before keeping my cool and saying "Not at this time, no. Thanks for asking, though!"

He patted me on the shoulder and said "Sure," and walked away. Not 30 seconds later, the guys walked through the door.

"Cole, come eat with me! I got stuff to show you," Dalton yelled to me. I froze for a moment as he said my name then walked over and sat down next to him.