"Excuse me!" Scores of tourists and L.A. natives kept passing by her not even taking a second look. "Excuse me sir!" One finally stopped. Heather was relieved that someone was decent enough to point her in the direction of Paramount studios. The GPS on her phone wasn't helping out much.
"Oh honey," The very flamboyant man said, " you're going the wrong way! Take North Wilton to Melrose and you'll be right there!"
"Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!" She started to walk fast toward Melrose when the jazzy man yelled out to her. She turned around to his sassy high-pitched voice.
"Honey wait! Are you an actor?"
"Well that's what I'm going there to try and be!" the blonde replied with a smile.
He started to walk toward her but she was already half way down the block.
"Then you are going to need to go through this entrance," He pointed to another entrance on her phone GPS. "That's where you need to be. The place I told you was the tour entrance. Are you auditioning for something?
"Yes I am!" Heather was proud of the fact that she had finally moved to L.A to pursue her dreams. Even though dancing was her passion, it was much easier to get acting auditions. she knew that the faster she booked a job, the faster she could break up with Taylor get her own place. She hated living with him. Ever since they both moved to L.A. together he had started drinking again. And not like the drinking they both did in college, but binge drinking. And it was good to get out of the house to breathe the smoggy Los Angeles air instead of the Heineken smell that she couldn't get off the couch.
"What are you going in for?" the man asked. She could see herself being friends with him. He had just the right amount of sass in him that went great with Heather's cheeky, outgoing personality.
"It's a pilot called Glee. It's some kind of musical show, I don't know." But Heather did know. She was perfect for the job. Dancing, Acting, and yes she even admit that she was a good singer. She did so much research on the writers, the creators, anyone that could be involved. She had to book this show.
"A musical? On TV?" The man was taken a back. He sure looked like he knew a lot about musicals. "Well more power to the producers. And to you, honey. Break legs!"
"Thank you!" As they parted, she got nervous. It was her first big audition in the city of dreams and her adrenaline was starting to kick in.
Heather was exhausted by the time she sat down in the waiting room of the audition studios. She let out a big sigh as she plopped into the chair next to a dark haired girl going over her sides. The girl looked over at Heather who was breathing heavily, "Are you okay?"
Heather looked at the girl and was taken aback for a minute. Her pink plump lips spread into a small smile but her dark chestnut eyes were filled with concern. She was very pretty. More pretty that she would have to compete against for the part.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just got lost getting here and I thought I was going to be late, but I just found out my audition time got moved back."
"They are running a bit behind today and by a bit I mean an hour behind."
The girl leaned in closer to Heather and talked softly into her ear, "I heard that the one of the creators is a diva and made everyone wait until he got there to start the auditions."
She felt nervous that this very attractive girl was so close to her. It was a weird feeling that she had never experienced before. Heather regained calmness when the girl slowly moved away from her.
"At least now I have time to run over these lines!" Heather smiled and the girl smiled back. When they looked at each other Heather had an odd feeling, something that she has only felt with Taylor. She brushed it off as audition jitters and continued reading over her lines.
The script had a very simple plot. She was reading for a character named Sarah, who was one of the sidekicks to the head cheerleader Quinn. The role seemed easy enough, there weren't too many speaking parts, just a lot bitchy comebacks and following Quinn around. Heather looked around the room at the other girls who were auditioning. They all looked perfect. Perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect makeup. Out of the corner of her eye she sees the brown haired girl looking at her, she turns her head and they make eye contact. Swiftly they both turn away and Heather feels her face flushing with embarrassment. She quickly rummaged through her bag to distract from the bizarre moment they just shared. Heather pulled out a small mirror and started to check her hair to see if it was even up to par with these Los Angeles girls. She can feel the girl looking at her ever so often until the girl finally broke the silence.
"I'm Naya, by the way."
"Heather. Nice to meet you." She held out her hand and Naya looked at it puzzled for a second until she grabbed it and shook it. They abruptly let go feeling strange about the encounter.
"What role are you going in for?" Naya asked.
"Sarah. What about you?"
"Brittany. She's kind of an odd character. She doesn't even appear until the second episode but she does get to sing and dance, which I love to do!"
"Wait, aren't Sarah and Brittany best friends with Quinn?"
Naya picks up her sides to double check..
"Yeah, I guess they are! So if we get the part we will be seeing a lot more of each other!" She smiled wide and gave Heather smiled back. She hadn't smiled like that in a while.
"Yeah I guess we would. Fingers crossed we get-"
The door to the audition room opened and a small girl with glasses and stringy black hair peeks through the doorframe with a clipboard in hand.
"Naya?" She looks around the room for the girl.
"That's me!" She picks up her bag and script and gets up from her seat. "I guess they are on time now!" She starts to walk toward the stringy haired assistant then turns around to look back at Heather.
"It was really nice to meet you! Good luck with your audition!" The emphasis on "really" made Heather's stomach flutter.
"Yeah, you too! Break a leg!" They smiled at each other and then Naya disappeared into the audition room.
Heather could help but smile to herself thinking about the brown haired girl. She was so friendly, unlike most of the girls in L.A. There was just something about Naya that Heather just couldn't put together. She went back to looking over her sides until the room next door to Naya's opened up. A man with a scruffy beard stuck his head out of the door and looked down at the papers he was holding.
"Heather Morris?"
The call of her name alerted Heather right away and she got up confident and ready for the audition. But at the same time she couldn't help but feel doubtful that she would probably never see Naya ever again.
It took Heather 3 busses, a taxi and 2 hours to get back to her apartment from the Paramount lot after her audition. She had thought she had done extremely well and was proud that she could identify some of the writers that were watching her do the scene. They told her that liked her and that they would keep in touch. But that's what all of them say. There were so many other girls in that waiting room I'm sure there was someone that was better than her. There always was. Heather reached the door to her apartment that was on the 6th floor of the complex. It was the cheapest thing her and Taylor could find when they first moved to L.A. Heather was too busy to look for a nicer place and Taylor was just too lazy. They used the money they had to fix it up as nice as they could for what they were given. As she started to put the key in the door she heard the pop-top of a beer opening. Greatshe thought another day another drunk boyfriend to come home too. She opened the door to find Taylor sitting on the couch watching highlights of the Lakers game from the night before. He turned to look at her when walked into the small apartment and she could already smell the alcohol like it was burning from a candle.
"Classy Taylor. It's only 2 o'clock and you are already wasted." She put her bag and keys on the table next to the door and she walked toward the kitchen.
Taylor stumbled in after her and started to rub her back sensually while she got a bottle of water out of the fridge.
"Hey baby" he whispered in her ear. She instantly thought of Naya whispering in her ear earlier in the day, but then realized who it actually was. She pulled away with the stench of alcohol lingering next to her face. The smell repulsed her.
"Hi Taylor"
She quickly walked away from him and into the living room and sat on the couch. Taylor stumbled behind her falling next to her on the couch making her spill a little water on her jeans. She gives him a aggravated look but then she realized his eyes were closed and he started to fall asleep.
"Thanks for asking about my day baby," She started to say out loud but Taylor didn't move. He just started to snore. "It was actually pretty good. I had a great audition, but there were so many other girls that were probably better than me there. Don't you think I'm better than them baby?" She looked down at him but he didn't budge. "I met this interesting girl today the audition. Her name was Naya. There's something about her. Something that I've never-"
Taylor abruptly sat up.
"Hey what are we having for dinner?" he slurred.
Heather got up and walked toward the fridge, which was not far from the couch since it was such a small apartment. She opened it only to find a gallon of milk, shredded cheese and 3 cases of beer. She slammed the door shut and turned to face Taylor who was now consuming the whole couch with his lanky body.
"I don't know Taylor, weren't you supposed to go to the store today and get stuff for me to make dinner? I left you money." She looked at the counter where earlier in the day she left a $20 bill. Now it was empty.
"I did go to the store! I bought cheese!" he started to laugh in his drunken state "and beer!"
"That's not dinner Taylor! God you are so irresponsible! You do remember that I'm only staying with you because you are a fucking mess and I promised your mom that I would take care of you while were out here? When are you going to get a fucking job? Were almost out of our savings money that you spend everyday on beer that you already have!" She was yelling now. Her patience wore thin when it come to Taylor. They have been inseparable since high school when they first started dating. But spending every day with him since had shown her his true colors.
"Whoa, whoa baby calm down. If you would just listen to what I have to say maybe you wouldn't yell at me so much."
She wanted to tell him that whatever came out of his mouth was either something stupid or something about how he loved her ass, but she decided to listen to him.
"When I went to the store today I met some really fancy rich guy and we stared talking about baseball and I told him about how I played on the college team and everything and he was so fascinated by my amazingilng baseball skills that he invited us to a fancy party tonight as his fancy house in fancy Beverly Hills." The way Taylor explained the invitation sounded like a five year old talking, but she was intrigued by the invitation. She had never been to an L.A. party before.
"Does this guy know you're a drunk shlub that can't even play baseball anymore because of your injurly? "
"What doesn't know can't hurt him. And free food!" he took another sip of his beer before Heather came and snatched it out of his hands.
"Why did you even ask about dinner if you got invited to this party?" She looked at him but he was too busy chugging his can. "Fine we can go, but you're going to have to sober up first. I don't want you to embarrass me. Go take a shower and take a nap. I'll pick out your clothes for you so you don't look homeless."
"That's why I love you HeMo. You know what's best in the name of love." She laughed at his drunken comment as he kissed her on the cheek before he stumbled into the bathroom. Heather was weirdly excited about the party, even though she usually didn't trust Taylor in making plans and she especially didn't trust him in places where they served alcohol, but deep down she knew it was the right decision.
