Chapter 2: Girls Night Out!


Robert rubbed his temples, trying to ward off the inevitable headache. He picked up a dozen applications and started to look over them. This was going to be a long day and Erik was getting very irritable. Erik picked up a stack of papers and started shifted through them, tossing application after application carelessly on the table. Three quarters through the pile, Erik stopped and pulled an application out of the pile, looking over it slowly.

"What do you think?" he asked, putting the application on top of the one that he was looking over. Robert straightened his poise and looked over the application, lowering his glasses slightly.

After a few moments, he looked up at Erik, let out a small laugh, held up the applications, and said, "You're not serious are you?"

Erik's eyes dimmed slightly showing Robert that he was serious. "Serious as a heart attack," he replied in a low voice.

Robert stuttered for a few seconds and fell silent, thinking of how to word what he wanted to say.

"Erik, she's 19. If she's in the chorus, she would have to play a prostitute. She's still a child. I don't think that people would take too well to having a child playing a prostitute. Plus, look at this." He held up the application. "She has no listed formal training and she doesn't have any experience. "

"And who are we to stop her from gaining experience?"

Rob groaned at Erik's persistency. He looked at Erik warily and said, "Okay, how about we put her in the 'maybe' pile?" Before he could answer, Rob handed him another huge stack of applications and said,"Here, go through these and tell me what is what."

Erik's jaw set in anger and he started to flex his fist in and out, making fist after fist. Erik never was one for patience and he tended to get angry quite easily. Erik sat back further in the chair, taking approximately thirty seconds to look on all of the other applications. After five minutes, he finished the pile and reached across the table to pick up the "maybe" file. He shuffled through the pile and eventually came to the application he was looking for. He pulled it out and looked over it again.

Her name was Christine. She was 19 years old, live in New York on her own, had no remote family, and was trying to make it as an actress apparently. His mind started to cloud up. New York City wasn't exactly the best or safest place for a teenager to be living in alone. Erik looked at the application in his hand blindly.

"You wanna grab lunch?" Rob's voice came through Erik's thoughts. Erik looked up at Robert, confused.

"What?"

"Lunch? Want to go get lunch?"

Erik nodded and said,"No, go without me." He turned his attention back to the paper.

"You want me to bring you back anything?"

"No, thanks," Erik said in an annoyed voice.

Robert put his head up defensively and said, "Okay, okay, just asking."

Erik didn't look up or say anything. He just kept looking down at the application. Robert looked at him hopelessly, put his long gray trenchcoat on, and left. Erik reached across the table and picked up a notepad. He pulled the pen out from behind his ear and wrote down all of her contact information. After he was finished writing everything down, Erik picked up the application and put it in the "definitely" pile. He had a few favors he was owed and now was a perfect time to use them. He would take care of everything.

"No,"Erik muttered. "She's in."


* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Christine looked down at the sea of papers in front of her and let her head hang down slightly. College applications. Everybody eventually had to fill them out, she kept telling herself.

"New York University? Bernard University? Boricua College? Columbia University?" she muttered as she flipped through each application. Christine had been a wonderful student, received really good grades, and scored a 1,400 on the SAT's. She was set. She could be a doctor, a lawyer, a stock broker, but none of it really interested her. She only wanted to sing. Yet, there was the practical side that said, "What if it doesn't pan out? Then where are you?"

Christine decided to try for one serious major and use music as her minor. She decided that if music didn't work out, she would be a doctor. She was certainly smart enough to be a doctor and she couldn't sing forever. That way if music didn't work out at all, as she suspected, she would be a doctor. Then, if health didn't work out, there would be music. She knew that she'd be alright.

"Then again..." she muttered aloud. She looked down at her clothes and bit her lips. She wasn't exactly doctor material. She was wearing olive green baggy army print pants, a white spaghetti strapped tank top that said, "It's a small world, so you've got to use your arms a lot" in black writing, and a pair of black Doc Marten boots.

After filling out most of the applications, there came a loud knock at the door.

"What the..." she muttered as she made her way to the door. Peeking out the peephole at the top of the door, she saw Meg standing there clutching a pile of videos.

"Meggie," she muttered, with a giggle as she opened the door.

"Hello! I come baring..."she said dramatically, as she held the videos above her head. "Chick flicks!"

Christine started laughing and said,"Okay, what is it today?"

"Let's see...I got 'A Room with a View' which is too cute! Ummm..'Waking the Dead', and in case we got too bummed afterwards, I got..." She stopped, trying to make a deafening pause. Christine laughed and grabbed the video from her grasp.

She started laughing hysterically after she opened the case. "You got...'Basket Case'?' she said, trying to catch her breath as she talked in between laughs.

" Yup," she replied. "I thought that if we're going to be watching some movies that we'll most likely end up crying over, I might as well grab the funniest horror movie ever made."

"Okay," she said, taking the movies and leading Meg inside. "Which one do you want to watch first?"

"A Room with a View," she answered immediately.

"Whatever," she answered, taking the video from her and taking it out of it's case.

"Come on, sweeetie, haven't you ever seen it?"

"Nope," she uttered while putting it in the vcr, making a note to herself to get her dd player out of storage.

"Are you kidding me?!?"

"No."

"Ohhhhh, it's so...tasty," Meg said, licking her lips.

"Really?" she she said curiously.

"Oh yeah! I mean, Rupert Graves and Julian Sands in the bare. Daniel Day-Lewis pretending to be a prissy frilly fru-fru boy. It's everything a girl wants. Cute boys, romantic plot, and it takes place in England and Italy. I'm surprised that you haven't read the book already?"

"I actually read it in high school. It was pretty goo, but I didn't think to see the movie." She explained as she plopped herself on the couch next to her.

An hour and a half later, Christine was still giggling. She didn't think that it would get as graphic as it did. Meggie, however, was blushing and the expression on her face, made her laugh harder.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad," Christine said, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Okay," Meg said slowly. "Whatever, let's just put the next movie in."

She picked up "Waking the Dead" and started it. Within the time the movie started and the movie ended, Meg and Christine were both crying and were both rather freaked out. The movie was about a man, Fielding, who wanted to be the president and his girlfriend, Sarah, who was a revolutionist in the 70's. Sarah died in a car explosion and later Fielding had a chance to run for congress, Sarah came back to haunt him to the point where he thought he saw her and could talk to her. It was depressing as well as somewhat haunting at the same time.

"Uh...Chrissy, I think it's time for a laugh. That was kind of...disturbing", Meg said steadily.

"Yeah, let's watch 'A Room with A View' again,' she joked. Meg looked at her, obviously not quite getting her joke. "Alright, let's watch the other one," Christine said, as she got off the couch and switched cassettes. Within twenty minutes, they were both laughing about the idiotic plot of the movie, but Christine was still somewhat apprehensive. Not that she'd show it to Meg. Meg looked at the clock after it ended and sat up slowly, stretching her arms over her head.

Christine's eyes widened all of a sudden. Meg looked at her with concern. "What is it, Chrissy?"

"Meg, do you know what today is?"

"The third," she guessed. Christine shook her head and made a look on her face that said, "Come on. Think!" Soon enough, Meg realized.

"Oh crap! Call backs are today! Oh, damn it! See ya later hon," Meg said quickly, grabbing her duffle bag and running out of the apartment, without so much as a glance back.

"Okay," Christine muttered. She went back to the table and tried to focus on filling out more college applications. As she started to fill out more applications, she started to sing a little bit.

Now when the rain falls,
It's heavy and gray.
It tumbles and pitches through space.
I can remember when rain was soft and
You to kiss the rain from my face.
Now when the rain falls, it runs from it's touch.
With you wind was silk on my skin.
People in love, walk inside the wind.
Where nothing can hurt you, it holds you too close,
But now I'm outside looking in.

One day, all I was circled about you,
Now when I move on without you,
Nothing on Earth is the same.

Do you remember the sweep of the rain?
The sound of it's drumming the sky?
People in love, walk inside that song,
But now when I listen, the melody's changed.
The rain only whispers good bye.
I don't want to cry when I think of you,
But now when the rain falls, I do.

Almost as if one cue, the cordless phone let out a high pitched shriek, making Christine jump. She stood up slowly and looked at the phone nervously. Picking up the phone, she looked at it nervously, and pushed in the little black button that said, "Talk". Her heart doubled it's pace and she began to feel a little queasy. Her hand shook a bit as she put the receiver up to her ear.

"Hello?"