Show Stoppin (on hold)

Chapter 5 - Sydney and Chris Meet

It was official. Sydney was insane. Ava looked at her phone, watching as the time slowly, dragged out the conversation Sydney wouldn’t stop talking about. She glanced at Chris, playing with the settings of his camera. Watching as his face scrunched up at something the camera wasn’t doing right.

“Earth to Ava, are you even listening to me?” Sydney said, waving her hand in front of her friends face. She started snapping before Ava could answer “what? Yes, I was”.  Sydney shook her head “what have I been saying then?” she asked, looking past Ava to see what she had been staring at.

“Something about a guy” Ava said, her tone questioning. She waited for her friend to respond, knowing that her answer was most likely right. It was always about a guy when it came to Sydney, that or complaining about how she had to work for her parents.

“What’s his name then” Sydney said, smirking and crossing her arms. Ava shrugged, looking around the arena to avoid eye contact. It had been a few hours since she had first sat down and the arena that was once just a mass of blue chairs had now turned into a hive of chatter. “Come on, I’ve repeated it like ten times cause I was saying how unique it was” Ava turned back to Sydney, watching as she took a sip of water before talking again.

“It’s Gordon, I know, weird right?” she put the cap on her water bottle “but he’s hot so the name totally doesn’t matter”. And just like that any attention Ava was actually paying her friend turned into a blur. Nodding occasionally when Sydney stopped talking she started picking at the remains of the nacho’s she had gotten earlier, realizing that she hadn’t touched them once.

“Apparently he’s like the sound check guy or something. So if I get past auditions I am setting you two up. You’d be the cutest couple” Sydney said, sighing dramatically at the thought. Eyeing her friend warily Ava asked “so have you planned my future wedding for me yet or will I get to decide that?”

Sydney smiled “be realistic, you hate planning. And besides we already agreed we would be having a double wedding”. Chewing the last part of the soggy nacho she had started eating Ava swallowed before replying “that was when we were five and still thought playing house was what the cool kids did”.

 Ava stared at her nacho platter, it was really a shame to let them go to waste but they tasted disgusting.  “Its food Aves get over it” Ava poked the food wishing she had eaten it earlier. Sydney reached over, grabbing the flimsy container before setting it on ground next to her.

“Now will you pay attention to what else I have to say” she asked while Ava stared longingly at her food. Focusing back on Sydney Ava nodded before waiting for her to speak. “I I think that I should go first when we get called. That way I won’t be standing outside freaking out all by myself beforehand”.

Ava smiled “so does that mean if you don’t make it then I don’t actually have to sing”? Watching as Sydney’s eyes turned to saucers she quickly backtracked “not that you won’t make it. Of course you will make it. Just don’t listen to me, you know I have a tendency to say the wrong thing” she said, taking a deep breath before talking again.

“Just stop talking” Sydney said, holding up her hand and cutting her off. “You’re going to jinx me, just seriously please stop talking” Ava nodded, trying not to add to her problem.

Hearing a chuckle besides her she glanced in Chris’ direction. “It’s not funny” she said, whispering harshly as her eyes narrowed. Ava quickly glanced back at Sydney, checking to make sure she hadn’t heard what she said. Mentally sighing as she realized Sydney had been too busy putting in her headphones.

Well that was a quick conversation.

When she looked back she noticed Chris nodding his head “yes, yes it was too funny. You really are bad with words”. Ava crossed her arms defiantly before she turned away from him, deciding not to argue the truth. Bending down to rummage through her bag she pulled out a crossword puzzle book that she had thought she wouldn’t need.

 “So you’re going to ignore me? Is that the plan?” asked Chris, a smile hidden in his voice. Running her fingers through her hair she looked up, silently asking why he wouldn’t drop it. “Look you don’t get it do you? If she thinks I jinxed her and she doesn’t pass on to whatever the next level is I am going to hear about it for the rest of my life”.

Chris looked past her over at Sydney who now had her eyes closed, probably mentally doing her audition. “She’s a big girl Ava, she won’t blame you” he said, his smile slowly disappearing. “You don’t know her though. I mean she still blames me for her goldfish dying in the second grade because I decided to feed it gold fish crackers”.

“Gold fish crackers?  Like the human kind?” Chris said, giving Ava a look that made her squirm. “Yes. I thought it would be cool to know a cannibal” she said while grabbing a pen and purposely not looking at him. “Mmhmm” Chris said, turning back to the camera in his hand.

“Why do you have that any way?” Ava asked, gesturing to the thing in his hand as he raised it and took a shot of the full arena. The girl that had quit bothering her turned back around to give Chris a dirty look because of the flash. 

He took a picture of her face before lowering the camera and smirking, almost daring the girl to say something. Ava smiled as she watched the girl huff before turning back around. “It gives me something else to focus on” Chris said, wiping at the lens to make sure they were clean.

Nodding in acknowledgment Ava noticed some of the employee’s for the show coming into their section. “Mind me taking a pic? You can be ‘that random girl I started talking to’ when my dad decides to be nosy and look through the memory”.

Biting her lip she thought about telling him no. She didn’t know the guy and hated any picture people took of her “oh come on, please? I know you can’t resist my charm”. He started moving his eyebrows at the word ‘charm’ and Ava found herself rolling her eyes before agreeing.

Right before the flash Sydney popped her head right next to Ava’s and smiled with her. “I want a copy of that” she said as Chris checked to make sure that it came out. “Yeah, of course” he said, still looking at the screen.

“I’m Sydney by the way. Best friend of the girl you kept talking to” Ava looked at Sydney mouthing ‘no’ before Chris looked back up. She knew where Sydney was going with this and silently started wondering when her friend had stopped listening to her ipod. “Names Chris” he said, not giving Sydney a second glance before looking at his camera again.

“You’re cute” Sydney said, making a statement to get him to look at her. Ava closed her eyes, unable to understand how her friend just flat out said that. Chris glanced at her before looking at Sydney “I know”.

Ava blinked several times before believing that he just said that. Not once while talking to him did she think of him as arrogant. Till now.

Wanting to break the sudden silence due to Sydney for once not being able to speak Ava pointed towards to the woman talking to themselves. “Why are they here?” she asked. Sydney shrugged before taking Ava’s crossword book and pen from her hands.

“Think it means that they are about to call our section” Chris said, packing up his camera and zipping it closed. “But they are still like twenty-five numbers ahead of us” Ava said while trying to get her book back from Sydney.

“And how many people are in this section?” He asked looking around as the rest of the group started eyeing the employee’s. “Oh” Ava said, feeling silly for even asking the question.

“Hey Chris?” Sydney asked while tearing out a half finished puzzle from the book. “Yeah?” Chris said, turning towards them and waiting for Sydney to speak. “I want that picture” she said, handing him the piece of paper.

Ava whimpered as she watched Chris fold the paper before answering with an “okay”. She had worked hard on that puzzle, the words were near impossible to find. “Ava, we have been over this. Your love for crossword puzzles is not normal, get over it. Besides you would have eventually cheated on it any way” Sydney said, closing the book before happily handing it back.

---Show Stoppin---

Hi peoples! So a few days ago I noticed that Show Stoppin made it to the what’s hot page for both humor and teen fiction! I freaked out!! Can't believe it :) Anyways please keep voting and commenting :) I really appreciate it. Thanks for reading:)