Among the Stars

by Renee Porter

  I laughed internally but a knot in my stomach made my throat seize up. The thought of being friends with Taylor made my heart race a little faster. It was a feeling so similar to being asked out by Josh, but instead of wanting to run away from that idea, this thought was surprisingly much more pleasant.

  Chapter 6

  “I swear, if another person sings the ‘Cups’ song I am going to flip.” I chuckled at Jason who was vehemently scratching off a name on the list in front of him. “I mean, I get that everyone loves the classic Pitch Perfect but if you can’t sing and can’t hold a beat then don’t try out. And for God’s sake, make sure the cup isn’t filled with water!”

  It had been a long evening. The Friday of auditions was proving to be a wash. We had already gone through four people and although I had to give them credit for trying out, it was easy to see that no one was going to make the cut. The last person who auditioned had actually asked if she was in the right place for the dance squad tryouts. When I told her that it was for the acapella group, she just shrugged her shoulders and started to sing. Badly.

  “I don’t know what we are going to do. We need another girl, or at least a guy that can hit the high notes.” I watched Justin nod in my assessment. “I think we’re done for Justin.” I sighed as I tapped the pen on the list of people in front of me. The list was long but only four people had shown up, one of them who was not even supposed to be there.

  “We can try again next week. We can pass out fliers on Monday and try to get a bigger group. There has to be someone in this school with a better voice than what we’ve heard tonight.” I agreed talking to the rest of the group who were sitting on the panel with us. We started to pack up our things, planning on next week’s activities. If we promoted hard, then there was still a chance. Before I could zip up my bag I heard a slight clearing of someone’s throat in front of us. I looked up and my eyes widened. Taylor Montgomery-Fields was standing front and center.

  “Taylor! Hey!” Justin smiled and I knew that his enthusiasm was founded. “You aren’t on the list are you?” Justin looked around but we had already put the lists away. Before he could grab it back out of his bag Taylor spoke to him.

  “No, sorry. This was sort of a last minute decision.” She smiled at Justin and I couldn’t help but mirror her own smile. Her grey-blue eyes flicked towards me and her face fell.

  “That’s okay. We’re ready when you are.” Justin glanced over at me and I nodded at him. I’d let him run this, seeing as Taylor obviously wouldn’t take direction from me. I faced forward as Taylor looked straight ahead. We all waited and then she took a deep breath. In turn, I took one as well.

  A half minute passed as we all sat, waiting for Taylor to sing something. Hell, even do something. Her eyes were still glued to the back of the auditorium and finally she let out the breath that she had taken. I think I let out mine as well.

  “Sorry,” she said as she shuffled her feet. I opened my mouth to say something but Justin piped in instead.

  “It’s okay. What are you planning on singing?” Justin’s words were soft and inviting. Taylor’s hands gripped onto one another tightly and finally released when she heard him speak.

  “Desperado. By the Eagles.” My heart thudded. It was one of my favorite songs, and not an easy song to sing.

  Justin nodded and then sang the first word flawlessly. “Desperado…” He paused as he smiled warmly at Taylor.

  She took a step forward and sang as well. “Why don’t you come to your senses…” Taylor looked at Justin, slightly nervous.

  “You’ve been out riding fences, so long now…”

  And then, something magical happened. Taylor closed her eyes and finished the song as if he words were an extension of her own body. The goosebumps that had formed at the first sound of her voice were present all the way through, and when she sang the last word I finally breathed.

  The auditorium was silent. The only sounds coming from the warm breathing of the group. I sat there, still looking in awe at Taylor but I was finally shaken out of my reverie when Justin pushed my arm.

  “What?” My voice was harsh and raspy as if I had been wandering in the desert for forty days with no water. I looked at the rest of the panel who were waiting for me to say something. I shook my head and said, “oh right.” I looked up at Taylor who was finally looking at me, waiting for me to respond to her audition. “That was…” I was trying to find the right words but they didn’t come. I don’t think any words known to the English language could even begin to describe what we just heard.

  “It was fantastic.” Justin said. Taylor nodded at him as she gave me a quick, sad glance. I didn’t want her to think I didn’t like the song. It was impeccable, it was astonishing… “It was good.” That’s what came out of my mouth. Good. Ugh. Sometimes I wonder how I made it so far in life.

  “Thanks,” Taylor said, but only to Justin.

  “We’ll be putting out the results on Monday,” Justin said. With that, Taylor nodded and waved to the group. I followed her out with my eyes and Justin had to shake me out of it yet again.

  “Good? That’s all you could give the poor girl?” I placed my hands in my face and started to chuckle sadly.

  “I couldn’t think of anything else. There were no words!”

  Justin smiled and nodded his head. “Oh there are words. Two words. She’s. In!”

  +++

  The initial shock of Taylor’s audition had fully waned by the next day. And now I was in a totally different shock all together. Laying on the ground I could feel the soft grass beneath my head. My eyes wanted to close but someone was yelling for me to keep them open. That was really rude, I thought. Why would someone be forcing me to stay awake when I was so tired.

  “Jenny! Don’t you dare close your eyes. Stay awake for me, okay?” I knew that voice. It was my teammate Brianna. She sounded a little far off but I couldn’t understand why. I kept my eyes open though, even if I wanted to sleep so badly it hurt. And then I felt adrenaline kick in. Not only did I want to sleep but there was a searing pain in my wrist.

  “Ow, shit!” The pain rocked away the fog from my mind and I realized that I had been badly hurt. Whose idea was it to find a pickup game in the park today? Oh wait, it was mine.

  “Don’t move it. I think it’s broken.” I moved my head toward Brianna’s voice and immediately regretted it. I felt like I was going to throw up, and even through the searing pain, I knew that wasn’t a good sign.

  “What do you mean it’s broken?” I managed to pull my heavy arm up to look at my wrist. It was at the oddest angle I had ever seen. “Wrists aren’t supposed to look like that? Are they?” Brianna came into focus and I could see it in her eyes.

  This time I didn’t push away the nausea.

  The contents of my breakfast emptied from my stomach. I could smell the sourness and it made me want to puke again. I was sure it had gotten into my dark hair and I imagined what a sight that must be. In the distance I heard a siren and for a moment I thought it couldn’t be for me. My wrist was just sprained, that’s why it looked like that. It couldn’t be broken. We had a game to play against Frost just next week.

  “Lay still, Jen. They are almost here.” My eyes started to tear as I told Brianna to come closer. When I could see her face as close as it could get to mine I finally found the strength to speak.

  “Tell my mom…” The words cut out as I fought that nauseas feeling threatening to overtake me again.

  “What, Jen? Tell your mom what?” Brianna was frantic. She wasn’t the best at handling stress.

  “Tell my mom that it wasn’t me who wanted to pick up a game today.” I started to laugh lightly as Brianna smacked my shoulder. I winced as the pain shot through to my wrist and she apologized quickly for causing it.

  What happened after that was all a blur. I remember being pulled into the ambulance and then the sweet nothingness of whatever pain reliever they injected into me.

  I came to eventually, hearing my
sister humming softly. My eyes were still slightly blurred but I smiled when I saw Beth sitting in the chair next to me with her earbuds in, watching and singing along with “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer”.

  “Oh honey, you’re awake.” I watched my dad stand from the chair he was sitting in and come over to the bed. My arm felt heavy and I immediately knew why when I looked down at the hot pink cast around my wrist.

  I groaned as my dad’s eyes softened. “I know. It was broken in two places. No soccer for eight weeks.” He pet my hair as I groaned again.

  “It’s hot pink dad!” I whined and my dad couldn’t help but chuckle at my small tantrum.

  “I picked it out, Jen! Pink is my favorite color!” Beth came up to my side of the bed and took out her earphones. “You got an ouchie?” She poked the cast softly and I nodded my head.

  “I got an ouchie. And I thought blue was your favorite color?” I raised an eyebrow and Beth laughed.

  “It is! I have two favorite colors. Duh!” Beth sat down awkwardly at the edge of the bed and I looked up at my dad.

  “Where’s mom?” I didn’t want to think about what he had told me about soccer. I knew I wouldn’t miss out on the whole season but being captain and not playing for eight weeks was heavy on my heart.

  “She’s getting coffee in the cafeteria. She’ll be up soon. I just texted her that you were up.” He pointed to his flip phone and I rolled my eyes.

  “How long did that take you? Five minutes?”

  My dad chuckled as he gave me a serious expression. “How are you? What happened?”

  I sighed as I tried to piece together the events from the day. “I wanted to play a pickup game and Brianna came with. I was about to kick for a score but some guy tackled me down. I fell on my wrist and I think I hit my head.” I placed my hand on the large bump on my forehead.

  “Yeah. You got a nice bump but the doc ruled out a concussion.”

  Well at least that was a little good news.

  “Jen! Jen! Watch!” Beth pushed the phone up to my face as she mimicked the snowman on the screen.

  “That’s awesome, Beth.” I tried to smile but I was suddenly very tired again. My dad seemed to take the hint from my eyes drooping and motioned Beth away from the bed.

  “Hey kiddo, let’s go find your mom so your sister can sleep.”

  Beth’s eyes lit up. “Cupcake?” My dad laughed as he nodded his head.

  “Sure. You can have half now and half later.”

  Beth was about to protest but the thought of having no cupcake outweighed just having half. She looked to me, bent down and gave me a big sloppy kiss on my cheek. “Goodnight!” Beth scurried out of the room and my dad turned and winked to me before leaving himself.

  I took a deep breath and exhaled. Doing this a few times helped me to calm down. There was nothing I could do from a hospital bed so there was no reason for me to worry about it right now. Instead, I closed my eyes.

  Chapter 7

  I hummed to myself as I made my way to the bulletin board placed in the middle of the quad. I held the piece of paper in my good hand as I tried not to notice how heavy my left hand felt and how much it itched under the cast.

  “Hey! Is that the list of people who made it in the group?” Dana sidled up to me and l nodded my head.

  “Let me see it.” She attempted to grab it out of my hand but I dodged her effort. She pouted but didn’t resist, knowing that I was at a slight handicap.

  “Why do you care? Your name isn’t on here.” I smiled at my tease and Dana huffed.

  “Like I’d want to be a part of your dorky group.” Dana put her arms over her chest and I smiled softly.

  “You know, if you had any iota of singing talent, you would be in the group.” Dana had always told me that she had wished that she could sing. But Dana didn’t need that. She was talented in her own way.

  “Yeah, yeah. But just tell me. Did Taylor make the group? I wanted to ask you on Sunday but I didn’t want to bring it up with your wrist and all that.”

  I sighed as I tried to push away the hair that had fallen in my eyes with my bad hand. I winced slightly in pain, but more with the thought that I had forgotten it was in a cast.

  “Oh, you poor baby. Let me get that for you.” Dana pushed away the hair from my eyes and placed it behind my ear. “Better?” She winked at me and I laughed while facing the bulletin board.

  “Thanks. Can you, uh, actually help me with this?” I placed the piece of paper up on the board while Dana pushed a pin through the top.

  “It’s so awesome that she’s the only one who made it.” Dana was smiling and in turn it made me smile as well.

  “She was good.” I furrowed my brows as I faced my friend. “Actually, she was better than good. We’re lucky to have her.”

  Dana’s eyebrows raised at my praise. She smiled at me and tilted her head. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said. Isn’t that right Taylor?” I looked quickly behind me as Dana started to buckle down over her knees and laugh. I looked over at Dana after finding no one at my back. I gave her a hardened stare.

  “Oh gosh. Don’t look at me like that,” she took a breath between her chuckle, “the look on your face was priceless.”

  I muttered a ‘whatever’ under my breath and stepped back from the board.

  “Why’d you freak out anyway? It wouldn’t be so bad if she heard you say something nice about her, you know?”

  I rolled my shoulders, trying to ease the tension from my neck. “Like she would even care if I said anything nice to her.”

  Dana gave me her trademark eye roll. “You know, now that she’s in the group, you’re going to actually have to converse with her.”

  “I told you. I don’t have a problem conversing with her. She’s the one that doesn’t like me. It’s like I did her some great injustice that I have no idea about. Or maybe…” Dana held up a finger to tell me to stop but I didn’t. I was on a roll. “Maybe I was horrible to her in a previous life and that’s why she won’t talk to me. Hell, maybe I was a dude before now and I stole her girlfriend.” I chuckled as Dana just closed her eyes and shook her head. I was sure that last bit would make my friend laugh, seeing as we had been discussing the preposterous notion that Taylor was gay but instead Dana was still looking down. It’s then that I realized it. “She’s right behind me, isn’t she?”

  “Yeah.” I turned around at the voice. Taylor was standing there with her arms wrapped around herself. My face and ears were hot. She had heard everything I said.

  “Sorry,” I apologized, not wanting to look at the girl but not daring to look away. I wanted her to know that I was just joking. Sort of.

  Instead of saying anything, Taylor just bore her eyes into me. As if to say that she couldn’t believe I would be talking about her like that. The silence was thick and Dana cleared her throat while kicking my shoe to say something.

  “Yeah, well. Um, congrats. You made it.” I heard Dana sigh behind me. Had that not been the right thing to say?

  “I see that.” Taylor opened her mouth as if to say something but instead she shook her head. “When do we meet?”

  “What?” I was confused with what she was asking and also slightly astonished that she was talking to me in more ways than one.

  “When do we get together to practice?” She raised an eyebrow at me and I could tell she was holding back her frustration. I couldn’t blame her.

  “Oh. Um.” For the life of me I couldn’t think of the days we practiced. Was it Tuesdays? Wait no, that was soccer. Or Thursday? Nope that was the astronomy club.

  “Wednesdays at four and Friday’s at the same time.” Dana piped in and I could’ve hugged her for saving me.

  “Thanks, Dana.” She turned to go but then, with one last look said, “I’ll be sure to let my moms know I’ll be late those days.”

  I groaned as she walked away and heard Dana cluck her tongue behind me. “Well, that went bad to horrible quite quickly.”

  I tur
ned around quickly and gritted my teeth. “You’re an ass.”

  Dana’s shocked face made me reign in my own frustration. “I’m an ass? You’re the one who ranted off and called her a lesbian to her face!”

  Breathing deeply I shook my head. “You should have told me she was there.”

  “Uh, uh. You’re not pinning this on me. And I did try to get you to stop but you just kept spewing diarrhea from your mouth. And you made fun of her…not cool, Jen.”

  I wanted to defend myself but I knew she was right. “I know, okay? But it was all a joke. I wasn’t trying to be mean.”

  “I know you weren’t. But Taylor doesn’t know you. And even if she isn’t gay, it’s like you were making fun of her parents. She doesn’t deserve that. So you better make it right.”

  Dana started walking off as I yelled after her. “How the hell do I do that?”

  “Figure it out!” Dana responded back. I sighed as I took my frustration out on the board, hitting it hard with my left hand. Not a good idea. Not a good idea at all.

  Chapter 8

  It turned out that I didn’t need to hash out some grand plan to apologize to Taylor. Fate was there to push me to do it instead.

  It had been five days since Taylor heard me talking about her and every day that passed I felt worse about the whole situation. It wasn’t like me to spew off like that and I had considered every reason why I spoke about Taylor the way I had. It wasn’t as if I was saying it to be malicious, but looking back now I know how it must have sounded to her. There was absolutely no excuse for what I said but when I would get up the courage to confront her and apologize, her heated glare told me that I should stay away. I had come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, I could get away without apologizing, that everything would blow over and we could go back to her not speaking to me and me wondering why she didn’t. Although now, I knew she would have a valid reason.

  “Jen, will you help me out today?” I looked up from the television as I was mindlessly flipping through the channels.