Chapter 2

Luke's POV

As we reached our destination, I got up and grabbed my guitar, slinging it on my back, and then reached out to grab both mine and Sara's bags. We both literally jumped off the train, laughing at how childish we were acting. Since the audition camps were 15 minutes away from the station, Sara decided that she was too lazy to walk, so we ended up taking a taxi. I silently laughed at her antics and shook my head. As we reached the camp, Sara got out and swiftly paid the driver.

"Hey! I'm meant to pay, not you" I said furiously. Me, being a boy, always learnt to pay not the girls. Guess my mom grew taught me well. As the driver went back in the taxi, I went over to a lamppost nearby and leaned against it, and put on an angry face. I saw Sara looking towards me as I stomped off.

"LUKE! OY LUKE, WAIT UP!" she yelled. I turned to look at her and she came up to me breathless as she caught up.

"Stop, with your stroppiness, and you can pay for food, okay? It's only fair since I made us take a taxi!" she pleaded. I couldn't stay mad at her, I don't know why, but she always made me smile even with her being crazy, nice or angry.

"Okay, okay, fine, Food's on me. Now let's get that audition over and done with!" I said with a smile, throwing my arms in the air. Sara laughed and linked her arm in mine and pulled me towards the entrance of the camp.

As we got there, we signed in our names, and got given stickers with numbers on them. This lady sat the desk told us we had to go through the room on the left to wait for our turn to audition. I took Sara by her hands, and walked through to the waiting area. As soon as we found empty seats, we both sat down. I looked around nervously at the other contestants, they seem like they are good. One that stood out to me was a boy, who looked a little older than me, and he was laying his guitar and singing to two little girls that looked a bit like the boy himself, that sat beside him and an older woman whom I'm assuming is his mom. I started to rub the back of my neck and then brushed my long wavy locks off my face, with a sigh. I glanced towards Sara, and she was looking at me with concern in her eyes.

"Luke, I know you're nervous, but you're going to do it and you are going to win and come out with three yeses!" she tried comforting me, but I could still feel something, like it was about to explode inside me. Sara always knew when something was wrong, she was the type to touch people to comfort them, so she gave me a big hug that I returned and we stayed in the position for a while.

A man with a clipboard approached us, as we pulled apart.

"Luke Friend?" he asked, lifting one of his eyebrows in question.

I replied saying it was me, and he told me it was my turn in five minutes. Sara reached out and took my hands and smiled at me. It was then that I realised that feeling vanished. I felt more confident, and had a strange energy around me. I stood up with a smile on my face, and looked at Sara.

"I'm ready now, come with me?" I asked Sara looking pleased.

"Well, obviously I'm coming with you, not going to miss it for the world" She said leaping up on her feet, and grabbing my hands. We both laughed simultaneously and followed the man with the clipboard into another room.

There we met the presenter, Dermot O'Leary with a camera man beside him filming him. He approached us and spoke in the microphone facing the camera.

"Well, we now have our next contestant, Hey buddy how doing?" He asked as he turned to look at us with a smile on his face. "Well who do we have here?" he asked, then pointed his microphone at us. I leaned forward and spoke.

"Hi, I'm Luke Friend, and this is my best friend Sara Shah" I replied confidently. Dermot smiled and welcomed us both on the show.

"Well, Luke how are you feeling, nervous?" He enquired.

I thought a bit before I answered him, "Yeah I'm good, nervous yes, but I guess everyone is, pretty normal to be nervous!" I replied with a smile.

"Good, right, it's time to go in Luke, good luck!" he said beckoning me to open the doors marked with the X Factor signs. I walked up to the door, but glanced behind for a few seconds to see Sara and Dermot giving me the thumbs up and big smiles. I returned the smiles and opened the door. This was it.

As I entered the room, I walked straight to the middle of the room and faced the judges who all smiled and me and greeted me. Gray was the first to speak.

"Hello, and what's your name?" he questioned confidently.

"My name's Luke Friend" I answered him with a smile. Nicole looked at me strangely and asked,

"Friend? Is that your real name?" she asked.

"Yes, it is"

"Ooh, I love your hair, how did you get it all the volume?" she asked.

"Oh I haven't washed my hair in about 9 months" I said, I could feel the hotness, knowing that a blush was creeping on my face. Sharon laughed along with Louis. While Nicole and gray exchanged strange looks. Sharon then asked that million dollar question that was always swimming in my mind.

"You think you can win the X Factor, Luke?" she asked. I looked at her straight in her eyes and honestly replied.

"I hope so"

"Well, whenever you ready, my boy" she said. That's my cue. The music stared playing.

"When the night has come
And the Land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid
Oh, I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

So darling, darling
Stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me
Stand by me"

I belted out the last note as harmoniously as I could, and then opened my eyes, which I didn't realised was closed as I started singing. I looked up at the judges expecting to see horrified faces, but I was shocked to see them grinning and standing on their feet clapping! As they sat back down, I heard I loud cheer from my best friend behind the door.

"WHOO, GO LUKEY!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. Sharon was the first to speak.

"Luke, my dear gods!" she exclaimed. "Where have you been hiding? You have a fabulous voice my dear, I really loved it" she said beaming at me. Louis then spoke.

"Oh Luke, I loved it. You have a fantastic voice, great personality and I love your hair" he chuckled.

"Thank you" I replied, my eyes filling up with tears. Gray looked straight at me and spoke.

"Luke Friend. You have the X Factor. I want to see you in the auditions" he said nodding his head. I couldn't believe all the comments I was getting, the only thing I could mutter without embarrassing myself was a "Thank You". Lastly Nicole spoke her voice breaking slightly as she had tears in her eyes.

"Oh Luke, Your wonderful, your voice really got to me. I loved it. No doubt. How old are you?" she asked.

"17" I said with a small laugh.

"17? What? Oh come on lets vote!" she exclaimed at the other judges. One by one they all said the same thing.

"Yes"

"It's a yes from me"

"No doubt, Yes"

"You have four yeses Luke Friend"

I grinned, waved and thank them, before I left the room.


Sara's POV

I couldn't believe it, he got though! I was so proud of him. He sung his soul out and was looking so beautiful with his massive grin and dimples showing, oh and not to forget his face was streaming with tears. As soon as he came through the door, I jumped on him giving him a massive hug. He returned the hug by putting his arms around me squeezing the breath out of me. As he did so he spun me around, yelling his heart out. As he finally let me go, Dermot coughed behind us. We spun with sheepish grins on our faces.

"Congratulation Luke! That was fantastic!" he said, shaking Luke's hands. He pointed us towards the exit door and Luke grabbed his stuff from the floor beside me, took my hands and led me out the exit without another word.

As soon as we were out the building, Luke leaned down and pecked my cheeks. He then stood straight with the biggest smile I'd seen in my life.

"I GOT IN" he yelled, pulling me around, doing his little 'happy dance'. Even though it was embarrassing as we were in public, I couldn't put a damper on his spirits, so I joined in with him.

"I KNOW AND I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" I laughed back at him, jumping up and down, thrusting my arms up in the air throwing invisible punches. All of a sudden Luke stood still, with a smirk on his face.

"Someone is more excited than me" He laughed. I stopped my weird dancing, and stuck my tongue out to him in return. He then proceeded to pull me into a side hug.

"Let go grab something to eat, I'm starving!" he cried out. I laughed and we both literally skipped down the streets.


Hey guys,

This is a long chapter! Phew!
Let me know what you think of this!

I probably won't update till Wednesday if I'm keeping my length this long! :D

Saira! xxx