Falling for you.

1

The rain banged against thus bus window and danced on the pavement. It was a grey day. The houses, the sky, the ground – all grey.

Grey. Dull. Boring. Like my life.

Maybe today would change that.

“I think we’re there” Eleanor said, leaning over me to stare out the window. “So..” She sat back in her seat. “You know if you’re gonna try for it?”

I gulped. It referred to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. We were on our way to St Patrick’s – an all boys school local to our own. They had invited the year 12 girl’s from our school to try out for the female parts in the play. Juliet was the main female part, of course, but that wasn’t why I wanted it.

I looked out the window again. The rain stared to fall harder now, I could even hear it drumming on the roof over all the girls excited chatter and nervous laughs. There were about 15 of us – most girls were doing GCSE Drama, along with Mrs Clarke, the drama teacher. I’m pretty sure everyone was here for a laugh

. But not me. I wanted to be Juliet in the play because I wanted to be Juliet in real life. I wanted to be in love. To be loved.

I was only fifteen. I’d never met a boy I’d ever loved before. I’ve fancied quite a few, but it never ran deeper than that. I spent a long time imagining love. Imagining what he was look like. Tall. With blue eyes that would just melt me with their gaze. Hair that curled onto his neck. He wouldn’t be able to talk his eyes off me. We’d move towards eachother like magnets. Then we’d talk. About everything and anything. What we hate and what we love. Our hopes. Our fears. Our dreams. And then we’d kiss. A slow, deep, magical . . .

“Hello, Liv” Eleanor’s amused laugh broke me out of my thoughts. “Are you going to audition for Juliet or not?”

I glanced as Eleanor’s diamond-shaped face. My best friend had a sharp prettiness. All sparkling dark eyes and dramatically-long silky hair. Unlike me, she was confident and out-going. She was the obvious choice for Juliet.

Whoever played Juliet had to be able to imagine what it would be like to fall in love with someone else. I was pretty sure Eleanor was no more able to do that than she was to stop flirting with every boy she met.

“Don’t see why not” I shrugged, trying not to look to worried about the situation. “I don’t really care who I end up playing”

“Yeah right, Liv” El giggled.

I shrugged again and looked out the window trying to hide my red face. Eleanor was able to see right through me.

The bus turned into a long, wide stone drive with a huge mansion sitting at the end of it. Grass occupied the ground around it. It looked empty. I checked the time on my phone. Four p.m.

“Guess all the boys have gone home” El’s voice was lced with disappointment.

“Good” I pushed her shoulder gently to get her to get up. “The last thing we need is an audience.

El laughed. “Isn’t an audience exactly what we are here for?

We got off the bus and stood awkwardly in the car park. The rain had luckily lightened to a soft drizzle. A tall man with a huge forehead made his way toward us in a hurry. A boy in the St Patrick’s uniform followed lazily behind him. White shirt and an ugly coloured tie with black trousers covered him.

Mrs Clarke smiled nervously at us. “That’s the head of drama here.” She looked at us in a way to tell us to behave.

“Hello there,” For such a thin person, his voice was surprisingly deep. “I’m Mr Claud. Welcome to St Patrick’s.” He gave a warm smile and flung his arm to the boy beside him. “This is Liam Payne. If anyone needs the bathroom, he will show you.”

Fifteen eyes looked at Liam Payne as he smiled awkwardly at us all. He had dirty-blonde nearly brown wavy hair and a squishy face. I could see he looked nice.

You can’t fall in love with nice.

“Now let’s get out of the rain, eh?” Mr Claud said. He turned and started walking back to the school building. We all scuttled after him.

Liam Payne had – surprise – gravitated to El’s side.

“Hi,” He said hopefully, a blush sitting warmly on his cheeks.

El flashed a dimpled smile. “Hi” she purred. “I’m Eleanor, but you can call me El”

I giggled as Liam gulped. He look as if he was desperately thinking of what to say.

We reached the large black, wooden door that Mr Claud has just walked through. Liam help it open to le El past, then dived after her.

“We’re going to the sixth form common room” he said. “The auditions will be un there”

El glanced at him and cocked her perfectly arched eyebrow at him. “Will boys be watching?” She asked in a silky voice. She was really turning him on, but I could tell it was all for effect. El liked to know that she could have boy she wanted, when she wanted. I’ve never seen her get bothered buy any of them though. Any other girl would be labelled a slag, but El got away with it somehow.

Poor Liam Payne’s face was now the colour of a tomato.

“Er, no” he stuttered. . “That is no until the second round. Mr Claud will ask for the main roles to stay after school with the boys when he’s heard all of you”

“Ah,” El said knowingly.

Gosh, that meant having to do bits with the boys later. How come El wasn’t the slightest bit effected by this?

“So the boys’ parts are already given?” Danielle asked. Dani is my other best friend. She is the complete opposite of El: shy and quiet. Plus she has been with the same guy for ages.

Liam nodded then led us through chilly corridors until he finally stopped in front of door. The room was complete with lockers, a pool table and some sofas.

“Please, take off your coats and make yourself at home” Mr Claud voiced once we had all entered.

Everyone nodded vaguely and wandered across the room. I turned to Liam.

“What part are you playing?”

“Mercutio,” He blushed. “Romeo’s best friend. Which is cool, because the guy playing Romeo is my best friends. 

Liam’s eyes drifted sideways to where El was self-consciously twisting a strand of her brown hair around her finger. I watched his gaze flick over her tall, slim body. She always seemed to have her skirt a few centimetres higher than everyone else. She also wore her sweater tighter and undone an extra button of her shirt. When she walked she wiggled her bum and flashed off legs that went on forever.

My heart sank. There was no way I was getting the part of Juliet instead of her. Not unless Mr Claud was blind.

I knew I should have been pleased for El, but I wanted this so badly, and I didn’t stand a chance.

“El’s my best friend.” I said confidingly.

Liam Payne looked down at me. It was then that I saw myself the way he sees me. Short and dumply. God I was like him. Squishy and comfortable.