In Love With Alex Brightman

chapter six

September 24, 2018 [Monday]
•30 weeks left•

I left my apartment Monday morning about eleven—an hour earlier—so I could run to the coffee shop and see Alex. After I told him about the email, he demanded that we meet up again. He wanted to congratulate me in person, which I thought was pretty sweet.

It was a mistake to tell Katie about meeting Alex because she teased me all morning. She kept cooing at the fact I decided to curl my hair when I always had it straight. "Jeez, Sarah, you've only known him for like two weeks and he's already changing you."

"Maybe I just wanted my hair curled today," I snapped at her, concentrating on using the curling iron for my hair and not to throw it at Katie's head. "I'm not only meeting Alex, but I'm also going to callbacks. Maybe that's the reason I'm curling it."

"You hate your hair curled," she commented, watching me in the mirror. We made short eye contact through it, making Katie lift her eyebrows in amusement.

"Do I?" I asked sarcastically. Katie nodded with a smile. "Are you sure?"

A teasing gasps left her lips. "He even made you sarcastic. Wow."

"No, your comments make me sarcastic," I argued.

Katie followed me around to make sure I didn't leave without a hug and a good luck kiss on the cheek. And she made sure to add a sneaky remark about Alex. I knew she only did it to make me blush because she called me out as soon as my cheeks reddened.

Even though she could be a pain, I really enjoyed Katie being my roommate. She probably didn't even notice, but she's helped a lot with my nerves. I woke up that morning with a weird anxious feeling about callbacks, but Katie made me take my mind off of it for a while. In which that contained lots of teasing and annoying comments. It still worked, though.

It didn't take long to make my way to the coffee shop I asked Alex to meet me at. He didn't even give me second to react before he tackled me into a hug as soon as I stepped through the glass doors. I laughed loudly as he effortlessly lifted me up and spun us around.

"Why hello," I giggled out, gripping him tightly so I wouldn't fall out of his arms.

"Hi," he whispered, squeezing me again, before staring at me intensely.

"Someone is happy to see me," I snorted, ruffling his hair.

"I'm sorry. I'm just really excited," he smiled, setting me down on my feet. He rubbed my arms as he explained how he almost showed up at my apartment when I texted him about email. If he knew where it was, he would've definitely showed up.

"You're crazy," I hit his chest with a chuckle. He shrugged, not denying it.

We walked up the counter to order our food, and once again I got scolded by him as I reached for my wallet. I stared him down, but he just smiled and handed the cashier his card. I rolled my eyes and mumbled under my breath, following him to the table he was sitting at.

I barely got to speak because Alex kept talking and congratulating me the whole time. He held my hand on top of the table and consistently squeezed it. I watched amusingly as he ranted on how much fun it would be to be on Broadway with me. I told him it was only callbacks, but when he asked me to pull up the email so he could read it himself, he confirmed I got in.

"You don't know that, Alex. They are probably choosing between me and some other girl," I shrugged with a little frown. I felt a weird wave of pressure weigh on me. I had to do even better than last time to show that I was better than the other girl they were thinking about.

"Sarah, it's you they want. Trust me on this, okay?" He softened his voice. He squeezed my hand once again, rubbing his thumb against the back of it.