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reason to go in now so I’ll risk the embarrassment of being seen. Although, I doubt I’ll be seen by anyone important in this crowd.
    After a few minutes of wandering the huge lobby, I make it to the double doors of the auditorium. My ears perk up to the sound of echoing voices inside and I instantly recognize Eliza’s deep, yet wickedly feminine, tone.
    Then the voices get louder and I pause, realizing that she’s arguing with some guy.
    I pull open the auditorium doors. She’s up on the stage, her face contorted with anger and sadness as this punk screams at her. He’s tall, nearly as fit as I am, and perfectly capable of hurting her if he wants to.
    “Do you see what you did, eh?! You made a fool outta me.”
    “I’m sorry!” she cries. “I don’t know how many times I can say it…”
    I step faster, bounding up towards the stage.
    “Say it again,” he challenges. “Say it like you mean it this time or so help me—” He grabs her arm and she winces with pain.
    “You’re hurting me!”
    “Good!”
    “Hey!” I launch up onto the stage and step between them, forcing the guy away from Eliza with a hard push with my palm. “Leave her alone.”
    He looks at Eliza and they both burst into laughter.
    “It’s okay, Junior…” Eliza guides me away from him. “We’re just rehearsing a scene.”
    “And I guess we nailed it,” the guy nods, his tone suddenly soft as clouds. “Finally.”
    “I told you we needed to make it more aggressive,” she says to him.
    “Wait…” My eyes bounce between them. “That wasn’t real?”
    “No,” he says, “but that sudden burst of powerful masculinity certainly was…” He rubs my shoulders and his hand lingers for a second too long.
    I pause, trapped between extreme embarrassment and awful confusion.
    Eliza clears her throat. “Junior, this is Grant. I doubt you’ve met before.”
    “Not officially,” Grant confirms. He glances me up and down once before looking back at Eliza. “Anyway, I’m going to call it a night. You two have fun — but not too much. That’s my job.” He winks as he bends over to grab his backpack off the floor.
    “Bye, Grant,” she says.
    He hops off the stage and heads for the hallway exit, giving Eliza plenty of time to stare me down, amusement bleeding from her eyeballs.
    “Now that we have the unsolicited chivalry portion of tonight’s events out of the way—”
    “Hey—” I defend. “Anyone could have walked in here and got the same idea I did.”
    “I know,” she chuckles. “Grant and I are auditioning for the leads in the fall play, so we’re pulling out all the stops — the more intense, the better.”
    I study her face. Her cheeks are still pulsing red but her eyes show absolutely nothing of the fear I saw before. One snap of her fingers and it’s all gone, almost as if it never existed at all. “You all right?”
    She waves her hand and bends over to grab a bottle of water from her bag. “I’m fine. The adrenaline will wear off soon.”
    I take a breath, feeling my own bit of adrenaline firing through me. The way I leapt up there to defend her… I’ve never done that before. I’m not sure how I feel about it, honestly.
    “So… you have a tryout?”
    Eliza laughs mid-sip, nearly spilling water down her chin. “I have an audition .”
    “What’s the difference?”
    She pauses for a moment. “Nothing, I guess.” Her head tilts as she slips her messenger bag onto her shoulder. “Come to think of it, there’s really not much of a difference between what you do and what I do at all.”
    I glance around at the stage. Red curtains and a grand piano. “It’s completely different…” I argue.
    “How?”
    I smirk. “I play football , Ellie.”
    “So?”
    “So…” I shake my head. “One is football and the other is… a little performance on a stage.”
    Her face twists. “Isn’t that what football is?”
    “No,” I argue. “Sports are about strategy and anticipating the opponent’s