Page 49 of You're the Reason

Grace hurried back along the corridor until she found Alec. “I’m here.”

He didn’t even look up from his clipboard. “Get stretched, you’ll be up first.”

Grace pulled off her sweats, then tugged her convertible tights over her toes and reached for her pointe shoes.

“The Storm?” Mallory plopped down next to her, stretching her long legs out. “Tell me how you know him and how do I get one for myself?”

“What are you talking about?” She sat up straighter, then stretched over her leg.

“The guy you were sitting with when we came in.”

“Seth?” She sat up and switched legs. Mallory was still on the same leg, not that she seemed to be doing much stretching.

“Seth is The Storm? No wonder you couldn’t talk to him.” Mallory faked a swoon backwards. “Can you get me his autograph?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Hello?” She sat up, really studying Grace’s face like she’d gone mad. “Ninja Warrior?”

“That show you’re all obsessed with?”

“Yup.” Mallory pointed out toward the auditorium. “And you just walked in with one of the hottest guys of this season. Do you call him The Storm to his face?”

“Stop calling him that. It’s Seth. Just Seth. And we’re just friends.” The way his fingers had snagged hers a few minutes ago flashed in her mind. “By the way, he did help me with my turns.”

Mallory wiggled her eyebrows and leaned in as if waiting for juicy gossip. “And by helping you with your turns, you mean?—”

“No!” She shoved her away.

“Don’t destroy my fantasy.”

“It’s true.” There had been some looks and some flirting, but nothing had really happened, and by the way he was quick to pull back every time they got close, she didn’t expect anything to happen.

“Well, maybe you should stake your claim because he has caught the attention of all the other dancers.” Mallory nodded toward the edge of the stage where several girls stood whispering and staring in the direction of Seth still sitting in the audience.

An unfamiliar swirl of anger filled her stomach. Why was she angry? No, this felt different than anger. She just wanted to yank them all back by their tight little buns and say back off.

“Grace.” Mallory snapped her fingers in her face.

She blinked at her friend. What had just happened?

“And that, my friend, is a green monster called jealousy.” She helped her to her feet.

Grace shook her head. She had to clear her head. She had no reason to be jealous, he wasn’t hers. He wasn’t hers, and she needed to nail this audition. She didn’t need to think about how easy and fun the conversation had been the whole way here. Or that he made her laugh like she hadn’t in a long time.

“Grace Howell.”

Grace’s head jerked up at her name.

Focus.

A skinny guy with horn-rimmed glasses and floppy brown hair tapped his pencil against his clipboard.

“You’ve got this. You deserve this part. I know it, and so do you. Now sell it to them.”

Grace stepped out onto the stage with all the poise she could muster. She struck a pose and waited for the music to start. When the first note hit, everything faded into the distance. The weight of the audition, Seth watching, and even the chatter off to the side disappeared. It was just her and the music.

She had just made it through the first third of her piece when the music cut off. Grace’s heart dropped and she looked to Madame Laurent, but the woman was staring at a paper before her. She shot a look at Alec just as he waved her over.

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