A Black Kpop Idol

Chapter 8

Erina and I sat down together on the bench I was on for 5 hours, drinking our juices. I had apple juice and she drank a diet coke, it was no brainer she knew I was curious about her, probably waiting for me to ask. I wonder what talent she's auditioning for? Before I could even open my mouth to ask, she looks at me blankly and opened hers, "I'm here to rap and sing."

"Oh! uuum... I'm auditioning to sing and... dancing is part of my act," I said surprised that that was all she said, with a low suspenseful voice. She's not much of a talker, is she? But that's fine you don't have to talk if you don't want to talk. "I'm sorry for asking if you don't w--"

"I'm not much of a talker." Again a very brief voice made me rub my neck awkwardly. She was staring intensely at me, but I saw something akin to the excitement in her eyes. "I am a witch from my family."

A witch? Is she serious? I guess that's not very surprising based on what happened earlier huh? Where did all those flies come from anyway, it's not like we had the building door open like that, does Texas really have swarms of flies that chase after you? I'm still pretty skeptical about this...cause what if she stank before the fly incident?

"I can smell the doubt you have on me," she drawls a bit, though her voice remains stoic. "It's better to have doubt, than no doubt. But I can assure you that I am the real deal."

"Oh...okay, so... then what song are you doing? If you don't mind me asking." I quickly changed the topic, wanting to know what her audition is, "I'm doing a song by Alicia Keys, called Fallin', It's a good song to listen to."

Erina, instead of answering immediately, stared at the wall across from us and completely downs her diet coke in one go. Impressive. She tilts her head to the right with a dull look on her face, as if nothing bothers her, with her lips parted a bit before she spoke, "A remix of Kanye West's Heartless and All Falls Down, I rewrote the rap and sang the vocals."

"Wow... you'll have to perform it for me sometime, I love those songs, my parent used to play them all the time," I said biting my lips Erina rose an eyebrow at the 'parent' but brushes it off. The announcer went off for the number 189, and I sighed sinking into the chair while Erina put her things away and started chanting something. "Damn I really wish I had some tacos right about now."

We sat in silence most of the time, talking about nonsensical things and laughing, she was called in before me at number 197. The feelings of loneliness hit me right after she left. But I was in no mood to approach anyone else, plus more than half of the people left right after their audition. 205, 207, 211, just 6 more to go. 

Erina, right before she exited the building, gave a necklace, told me it was a charm for good luck and that I'll need it. "This will help you with your courage because I had a vision of you leaving, without trying."

Happy and perplexed about the gift and her vision, would I just give up on myself? Had that incident affected me more than I thought it did, that I've gained stage fright in front of people? "Thank you, you really don't need to give me this."

"Nonsense, you stood up to me when no one did, I want to help you too when you have no one," She smiled a bit, slipping the necklace in the palm of my hand. "If it bothers you so much, consider it a token of friendship from me to you." 

We talked for a little bit after exchanging numbers before we said our goodbyes.

215, I packed up my things into my faded orange backpack, grandma let me borrow, and went off into the bathroom to check my makeup, and make some quick clean up. My number was called and I left the waiting room and followed the announcer into a room separate and smaller, with an elevated stage on one side of the room and the judges on the side adjacent to the stage.