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Chapter 5: Irony

They pass by each other without a glance, Crystal forces hers into ignorance. She shouldn't have a care about him right now, Meena is what she came here for. Without any words of encouragement before the audition, it's as expected that her best friend's behaviour got stuck through her nerves. Meena started hyperventilating from stage fright, and right before Crystal could step up the game, a mouse walks out to the spotlight to push the elephant away.

"All right, enough of that. That's quite enough of that. That's it. Come on. Off the stage, Helga. Go on. You're useless," he says while pushing Meena out of the way.

Crystal's face distorted in anger, "Why you little--"

The mouse tosses his hat to Moon, "Right. Here we go. Hit it!" and the music plays for him.

"Meena..." Crystal swore to come quickly to the girl's aid, but she can't push through these many people, and she sure doesn't wanna interrupt the little bastard on stage by running to the other side. Her name will be called after the mouse, so it's best to get this over with before going after Meena. Knowing her, she'd surely say it was a complete waste of chance if Crystal ever decided to quit right before she's called and will nag her for days about it.

"Can we see, Crystal on stage please?" said the old iguana beside Moon.

'Here comes nothing,' after a quick deep breath, she steps out to the stage, facing two audience on front row seats. "Hey, there."

"Hi! The floor is yours, Crystal," says Buster Moon.

Music immediately starts right after, using her phone that she held in her hand that grabbed the mic. She couldn't care less to show much emotion to the song, so it's a guaranteed lose.

"Stone cold, stone cold. You see me standing, but I'm dying on the floor. Stone cold, stone cold. Maybe if I don't cry, I won't feel anymore—"

Unknowingly to her, Johnny walks back to the view of the stage from the side curtains. He rushed to get back as soon as he heard the name, and the voice—and greeting— confirmed his suspicions.

"—Stone cold, baby. God knows I try to feel... Happy for you. Know that I am, even if I can't understand. I'll take the pain. Give me the truth. Me and my heart, we'll make it through. If happy is her, I'm happy for you...."

There was no particular reason for picking this song, but Johnny felt like it was directed right at him. His own words bouncing back like a bullet after years he had left her.

Mr. Moon looked impressed, just as his assistant is. They jotted down notes of her performance, and went on to the next contestant. Crystal went to the left side of the curtain and Johnny squeezes through lots of other contestants to try and catch her, but as soon as he gets back to that spot, she was nowhere to be found.

Crystal ran out the theatre, luckily spotting Meena inside a café nearby and sipping a cappuccino with a very down-hearted expression. The bells ring as she comes in, catching the elephant's attention. "Meena!"

"C-Crystal? How—I— What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?—What are you doing here? That pathetic rat stole your chance!"

"It wasn't his fault, he saw that I wasn't going to cut it with my stage fright and would only end up wasting everyone's time."

The half-gorilla half-red-shanked douc female bangs her hands on the table, "You think that was enough reason for him to flip you off and ruin your spotlight?!"

"Hey, hey, no need to shout, girlie. Sit down and talk calmly, you're scaring the other customers here," the waiter passes by to deal with her in behalf of the customers who are staring at her ever since she entered the store.

"Sorry, sir," Meena apologizes and pulls her friend down to the chair beside her. "Crystal, I know why you're acting like this, but we gotta accept that this is all that's ever going to happen for me. I'm too nervous to be on the stage, I'm just not cut out for it."

"You can't be serious. We've been doing karaoke for a long while now, I know you're great at it."

"I'm sorry. I am who I am," she smiles, "How's your audition? Did you nailed it?"

"I know fully well it sucks, it's not even worth coming back for," Crystal rolls her eyes.

"Mr. Moon still haven't made the decision yet, you'll never know, you might be picked for the soloist act. You got a good set of pipes too, you know."

"Well, at least it's not as natural of a talent like yours. I mean yours is like talking with no effort into the topic."

The two chatted for almost an hour until Meena pushed the girl out to go back in the theater, "Stay put and see the end of this. If you weren't chosen, then we're both gonna stand on the looser's isle at school."

"Won't that make you feel bad though if I was actually chosen? Not that there will be a chance," Crystal glances to her with a brow raised.

"It'll be even better if you were chosen! I'll be here to support you no matter what, just as you do for me, Crystal," Meena side hugs her, "Now go back in there and wait for the results."

They look to the long line outside the theater with a cold sweat running down their foreheads, 'Geez, this could take hours.'