[Shane,Carter] Life Doesn't Hold Auditions

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire took in a deep breath as she looked through the glass doors. There were streams of young girls and guys walking in and out. Some were excited, about to audition. Others were disappointed, holding back tears as they left. “ Shane.. I..” she said, unable to find her words as she shook her head, staring straight in front of her. The plane ride over had been entertaining at least. The seats had been so packed that when she bent her legs and put them in Shane’s lap, she had to ask him to hold a lighter out and hide it from the flight attendant. She’d worn out the pair of pointe shoes she’d brought with her and hadn’t expected to need any so soon. It wasn’t going to be easy to dance in shoes for an audition that hadn’t been worn in. He had been so sweet, trying to help. Instead she’d just yelled at him.For everything. For wishing her luck. For having her eat a bacon cheeseburger. For letting her goof around. None of which was actually his fault, but it seemed easy to just get angry when she was so nervous. Plus he had just smiled through it all, asking if there was anything he could do. She’d put her hair up quickly, not bothering to make sure that it was ‘stage ready’. It would get messy anyways, what did it matter.

Claire blinked, turning her head to face Shane finally before she saw Carter Preston walk by and into the building.She felt her stomach drop as she watched him go inside and tried to catch her breath. ‘ Uh uh. Nope.” she said turning around and away from the building. “ Shane that’s Carter Preston” she said, though he would have no idea who that was. “ I can’t dance in front of him. Jonathan is one thing he’s… out of his prime. But Carter? Carter Preston?” Claire placed her hand over her stomach as she looked down the street and began to walk quickly away. She probably looked like an idiot, wearing her ugg boots with her ballet gear. But once she had ‘fitted’ her pointe shoes she had taken them off. You didn’t just walk around New York in pointe shoes. “ Maybe I’ll just eat a bunch of cheeseburgers. Get fat. Buy some cats.” she said , rambling to herself quickly. “ I can’t do this,”.Claire reached her hand up, taking her hair down quickly and shook it out. “ I’m not…Jacques d’Amboise. It’s my hobby.It’s fine. I mean who cares about this stuff anyways…” Claire ran her hand over her face looking back over her shoulder for Shane before she lifted her hand to hail a cab.

Outfit

[carter]

Carter shook his hand out of over his hair as he took off his helmet and climbed off of his motorcycle. The last forty-eight hours had gone by too quickly and Jonathan needed him to come in for last minute auditions. He took his phone out of his back pocket and called Hunter quickly to see if they still had plans for a beer later. He looked at a girl who was clearly a ballerina judging by her spandex shorts and tights, though she was wearing a mens flannel shirt and was with a guy who looked like he had no idea where he was. ’Interesting’ he thought to himself, giving her a small nod before he headed inside. Apparently they let anyone audition for these things nowadays. Once he was inside he moved past a group of girls crying, clearly having not done well on their own auditions. “ Excuse me,” he said, trying to move past them politely as he made his way over to the elevator.

“Afternoon, Jonathan” he said tiredly as he came into the top floor studio. He dropped his stuff down by one of the chairs and started taking his leather jacket off. “ And how many of these am I watching?” he questioned looking up at Jonathan. ‘ I guess as many as it takes for us to find the proper amount of students’. Carter flashed a sarcastic smile, “ Joy,”. He hated the audition process. He hated it when he was younger, and he really hated it now. He just wanted to know which students he was working with, and to choreograph. Dealing with the tears and sadness, was not something he had signed up for. Especially when every kid that walked through those doors thought they were god’s gift to dancing. He went over and picked up a cup of coffee before he sat back down and sighed, leaning against the back of his chair. “ Well hey let’s get this dog and pony show started, huh?” he said, looking back over at Jonathan before he smiled again and picked up the list of people auditioning for today.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane stood beside her in front of the building, his hands in his pockets, watching people stream in and out. He'd seen only one girl, two tops, come out in good spirits, but mostly girls, and a couple of dudes, had come out in tears. Shane had no idea ballet was that intense. But apparently this American Ballet Academy or whatever was really hardcore. Claire looked nervous as all hell, but if he was about to have like, the biggest audition of his life he'd be scared as shit too. The plane ride back to the city had been a mix of trying to keep Claire calmed down and learning a lot of ways to break in a pair of pointe shoes. Those things went through hell in order to work the right way. Shane thought of his guitars, he'd never treat them with such brutality. But shoes had to be workable. Claire stopped herself midsentence, Shane turning to look at her. Some guy passed them, Claire stopping but Shane just shook his head, "Who?..." he didn't know who Carter Preston was. But he was sure he'd find out eventually. This was a completely different world to him. The people, the way things were done, the do's and don't's... all a mystery to Shane. Claire rambled on, talking about cheeseburgers and cats, Shane just trying to think of a way to convince her to at least go inside, but before he could even speak, she had walked away and was now trying to hail a cab.

Shane went after her, "Claire hang on a second, wait," he said catching up to her. She'd reached up to hail a cab but he took her hand and brought it back down, pulling her back toward the building, "I know you're nervous, I understand enough to know it's a big deal, but you will be so mad at yourself if you back out and miss this. And you didn't fly all the way from California to miss this either." He stopped outside the door, dropping her hand and opened the door for her, waiting for her to go inside. "You can do this, give yourself some credit, you wouldn't be here if you didn't have a shot in hell, obviously someone thinks you're worth giving a shot. Go show them you're worth giving a spot in their school." Shane placed his hand on her back, nudging her through the door and following her inside, "I mean, look at that girl, you could probably kick her ass in a dance off." Shane had no idea if it were true, but he'd say just about anything to get Claire's ass in the audition room.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire groaned as Shane pulled her away from the cab she was trying to get into and looked back at the building with disgust instead of excitement. If she didn’t go in and audition, then they couldn’t tell her no and she could just assume that she would have gotten in anyways, but that the choice to not audition was her own. But apparently Shane wasn’t going to let her get away with that mentality. She took in a deep breath and sighed, listening to him go on about how she would regret missing this opportunity. True. But as he said that he could probably beat a girl in a dance off, she narrowed her eyebrows before she smiled and just started laughing as she turned to look at him. “ It’s kind of adorable that you know absolutely nothing about this world. We don’t really uh.. do dance offs..” she said, laughing as she reached up and hugged him. “ Okay.. you don’t have to wait here though. You can go home, I’ll text you? I’m so nervous..” she said before she puffed out her cheeks and looked back over her shoulder towards the elevator. “ Okay..” she said before she smiled back at him. “ Okay I’m saying okay a lot. And you’re distracting me. Just go… go!” Claire started to head off before she turned back around quickly, “ Wait!” she yelled out and dug her hand through his jacket pocket where she had seen him put her iPod that she had handed to him earlier. “ Thanks!” she hopped out of her uggs as she picked up her pointe shoes and headed outside of the room where she began to lace up her shoes.

Claire stood in front of Jonathan and Carter quietly, though she could have sworn they could hear her heart through her chest. ‘….Go ahead’ Jonathan said with an encouraging smile before Claire looked away from Carter and at him. “ If I don’t get this off my chest, then I won’t be able to move..” she started off quietly, ” Thank you… just for this opportunity. It’s more than a lot of dancers can ask for. I genuinely appreciate it. I don’t need you to accept me to continue being a dancer. So whatever happens today… thanks for letting me audition.” she said before she lowered her hands to the side and shook them out. Claire turned her neck to both sides and let it pop before she shook out her shoulders and went over to the ipod. She turned it on quickly and scrolled through the music when she felt her heart drop. ‘Shit’ she thought to herself, realizing she had grabbed Shane’s ipod instead of her own. ‘Everything okay?”. Claire stretched her foot out in pointe as she put his iPod on shuffle quickly.” Yep,” she said distractedly before she slammed it into the speaker system.

Claire stepped quickly back to the center of the floor and felt her jaw slack slightly as she heard the music. Seriously, Shane? She was going to have to put some of her music on his ipod. And quickly .If she was ever stuck in this situation again she didn’t want to have any ammo for kicking his ass. She took in a deep breath and lifted her hand to her bun. If this is what she had to work with, then fine. She lowered her hair quickly and shook her hair back out, tossing her ponytail holder to the side before she tapped her pointe quietly against the floor and stepped up quickly onto both pointes. She felt a nervous sinking in her stomach as Carter’s attention seemed to move away from the paper in his lap and onto her. Though what was she really expecting? He was there to help, wasn’t he? She placed her arms out delicately and held them out straight and extended with each movement she made. It wasn’t exactly easy making up choreography on the spot, especially to music like this. Her mind flashed back to dancing with Shane in the studio he had helped set up for her and she relaxed slightly, mimicking her hip movements to what she had choreographed with him. She did her best to not watch herself in the mirror, but even she had to admit that it was a bit out there to be performing not only with her hair down, but to this song, and not only that but she wasn’t even doing classical ballet. It wasn’t often that you saw someone moving their hips while on pointe.

Song

[carter]

Carter crossed off another girls name. Wow. Another girl who could execute a few fouettes while looking like daddy’s little princess. Just like the three before her. He scratched his finger over the side of his eyebrow before he laid his head back against the wall and sighed. ‘ Clarissa Fox is next. She just found out this morning she was auditioning’ Jonathan said as he shuffled through his papers. ” That sucks” Carter said through a yawn before he lifted his head and looked down at the paper work. When the girl stepped inside, Carter lifted his eyebrow at how nervous she seemed. Well even if she wasn’t dressed the part, at least she understood how important this was. He grinned as she started her little speech and chuckled quietly, looking in Jonathan’s direction. Most girls begged to be let in.

Carter looked back down at his sheet as the girl went to go over to start her music. Probably more Nutcracker, or Madame Butterfly like they’d heard all day. He lifted his eyes away from the sheet in his lap and looked up at Claire as he heard the music she had chosen. Gutsy. A small smile spread across his lips as he watched the way she turned her body. She showed both elements of classic pointe while at the same time making it her own, modern, entertaining.The talent was definitely there, but she was also capable of being raw. He leaned over to whisper to Jonathan, who seemed to be more stunned by what she was doing than actually impressed. “ She will be accepted into your program” he said matter-of-factly before he started standing up as the song ended. Jonathan was quiet, but the look in his eyes was serious as he looked at Carter. ’ Too risky. That’s not the type of ‘talent’ we’re looking for’. Carter smirked as he shook his head. “With all due respect, Jonathan. Maybe that’s exactly the type of talent you should be looking for. She’s in.”. He puts his jacket on before casting her a look and making his way out of the studio.

Carter handled his helmet loosely as he saw the kid that Claire had been outside with sitting down and made his way over to him. “ You here with Claire Fox?” he said. That was a name he wasn’t exactly going to forget so quickly. She’d impressed him with her audition, but he was hoping she’d be able to continue to do so instead of just having a moment of surprise. He nodded, already knowing that he was the kid from earlier. You didn’t see many people that looked like him hanging around here. Or her for that matter. “ We’re looking forward to seeing her here on the fifth,” he said before he stepped away from him and made his way back outside towards his motorcycle. He didn’t need to stick around, honestly he’d been bored shitless before Claire danced, and now that he had seen her he would just be itching to get out of that studio anyways.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane watched her run off to the elevator and go to her audition. At least she was going, and she was going with a smile. He stood in by the door with his hands in his pocket, not really intending to actually leave he there. He spotted a vending machine, heading over and decided to get some twizzlers since airplane food sucked and they hadn't had time to stop and get anything else. He opened the twizzlers, eating one and then bought a water for Claire, realizing she didn't have one. He stuck his hand in his jacket pocket, waiting and felt his Ipod in there, realizing it had been in the same pocket as Claire's. With out thinking, he pulled it out and turned it on, it was Claire's. Which meant she had just taken his Ipod to her audition. Which meant she didn't have her music. Instead of standing there nay longer, her ran to the elevator, pushing the button furiously before it opened and he got in, pushing the buttons inside as if they were going to catch fire. He had to give her her Ipod before she auditioned. As the door opened into the lobby he hurried out, looking around and saw a lady at a table where he guessed you were supposed to check in. Shane walked quickly to the table, startling the older woman sitting there as she looked at him with wide eyes like she'd never seen a guy with black jeans and tattoos before. Man, these people needed to get out more, or at least take a walk down to the lower east side. The woman looked him up and down, obviously judging him before he had even said anything, but Shane didn't really care, he just had to get Claire her music. "Can I help you, young man?" the lady asked, raising her eyebrows and looking at him over the rims of her glasses. "Yeah, did Claire Fox already sign in? I have to talk to her." The lady didn't even look down, "She already signed in and she's in her audition currently, you'll have to wait. The audition rooms are down this hall, you can wait for her outside with the other friends and family accompanying the dancers." "No it can't wait." Shane said exasperatedly, turning to look down the hall and then headed down to where she pointed, starting to jog a little. "You can't go in that room, young man, do you hear me?" The lady called after him.

Shane found the door that was marked as the audition room, looking at all the people sitting outside waiting to go in. As he met people's eyes he realized everyone was staring at him. He so didn't belong in here. He eyed the door, knowing he couldn't just walk in, so he waited a second more. Maybe she'd find something that was usable. His question was answered the second he heard her music, the guitar seeping under the door and all the people sitting there had wide eyes. He heard one girl, probably the same age as Claire whisper, "Oh my gosh, I can not believe that is her music. That's like suicide, she really should just quit before she makes a fool of herself. Did you see what she was wearing?" The mother of the girl whispered back, "Yeah but look at what is so obviously her boyfriend. Girls like her don't belong here." Shane rolled his eyes, looking at them, changing the subject, "Great song, huh? Framing Hanley, check 'em out. Pretty sick band. Okay..." he trailed off and then headed further down the hall and turned a corner. He walked a little ways down before he realized there was another door, cracked open just the littlest bit, Claire's music creeping out. Shane peeked in, seeing a stand up piano pushed right into the corner where this door was. Shane opened the door just the littlest bit more, sliding through and crouched down behind the piano, watching Claire as she began her dance, but Shane knew she was making it up on the spot.

He watched her. Both the guys judging had their backs to him mostly and Claire wasn't even noticing him, but eh was sure as hell noticing her. Yeah, he'd seen her dance at his house in Malibu he knew she was good. But when you were dancing your ass off because your future depended on it, he could see all the passion in the world, in every movement. She was as passionate about dancing as he was about writing music and playing it. She was like a combo between Sam and Mack, all the technical training like Sam but all the passion, like Mackenzie. He was so engrossed in watching her audition he couldn't take his eyes off her, until he realized out of the corner of his eye that one of the guys, the Carter something or other guy she'd mentioned earlier, had stood up and was leaving the audition. Why would he walk out why she was auditioning, wasn't that rude? He half wanted to tell this guy to sit his ass back down but Shane saw that he was leaving, and he was going out this door. The one Shane had snuck in and he would certainly find Shane crouched there. Before getting caught, because Shane's number one rule to breaking rules was never to get caught, Shane slid back through the door and hurried down the hallway, turning the corner quickly. Of course he got more stares for looking like he was up to no good but he contained himself walking over and leaning up against the wall directly across from the door Claire would come out.

Carter some thing or other rounded the corner, seeing Shane and walked right up to him. Shane couldn't understand how he could possibly know that Shane was there with Claire but then again, he was the only person standing there that looked like he could have produced Framing Hanley out of his Ipod. Shane stood up straight, pushing himself off the wall, "Yeah," he said, wanting to tell the guy he was an ass for walking out of her audition like that. he didn't care if he got in trouble for being in there or whatever. But before Shane could say anything the guy simply said that they'd be seeing her on the fifth, and walked away. Shane looked back at the door. She got in. With not even a days notice, proper time to prepare or even the right kind of music, she'd gotten in. Well yeah, Shane thought to himself, with dancing like that how could she not? Shane slipped her Ipod back into his jacket pocket, still holding her water bottle and took his twizzlers out of his back pocket where he'd shoved them earlier, ripping one in half with his teeth and offered one to the girl sitting in the chair a little ways down from him. They ll looked at him as if he was retarded, but Shane just shrugged, "More for me..." He waited. He knew she'd gotten in, but she'd be beyond excited. And she probably thought he'd left, so at least this way she had someone to celebrate with on the spot.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire took in heavy breaths as she watched Carter leave the room. She felt like she was about to die inside. If Shane had only let her get in that damn cab…she looked up at Jonathan. ‘ Thank you,Clarissa. Could you step to the side,please? We have one more audition and then we’ll let you know individually how you did,”. Claire nodded, unable to speak since she was trying to catch her breath and knew, just knew in the bottom of her heart what the result was. Carter had thought she was completely horrible, and hated it so much that he just had to leave the studio. She had forced Carter Preston out of a ballet studio but sucking it up so bad. She sat down, keeping her eyes on the door before she closed her eyes and hit the back of her head against the wall she was sitting against. She kept her eyes closed the entire time the next girl auditioned and didn’t open them again until Jonathan stood in front of her. “ Clarissa?”. She sat up quickly and pushed away from the wall. “ Hi, that’s me.” she picked up Shane’s shirt she had worn in and started pulling it on quickly as Jonathan laughed at her. ‘Yeah I know that’s you. Do you want to follow me?’. Claire frowned as she watched him but nodded her head slowly. He was separating her from the pack… taking her away to just slaughter her.

As Claire followed him she put her hair into a messy fishtail braid nervously, just trying to distract herself. She followed him into his office and sat down in the chair opposite his desk. ‘Miss Fox..’ he started off and Claire watched him nervously, giving a small smile. ’ Your audition was..interesting.” he started off and Claire could tell that it hadn’t exactly been his cup of tea just by his tone. She flickered another nervous smile, not saying anything because she was afraid if she opened her mouth she would just get sick. ‘ We want to offer you a place at the American Ballet Academy. Mr.Preston has taken an interest in working with you, and even I have to admit that though your audition was… different ? It was impressive. Orientation is next week but um,.. I wanted to officially congratulate you,”. Claire blinked as she looked at him. “ You’ve gotta be shitting me” she said as she stared at him blankly. ‘ I…what?” he questioned her before she stood up, smiling brightly. “ I’m sorry. No. I mean yes. Yes.. thank you. Thank you , so much” She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to shake his hand or how this was supposed to work but he was standing up to so she reached over and hugged him quickly. ‘Not necessary Miss Fox’ he said uncomfortably before Claire let go of him.

Claire pushed the sleeves of Shane’s shirt up back over her elbows before she made her way back out into the designated waiting area where it seemed like everyone’s loved ones had waited.She needed to call Ethan or Dalton; someone to come pick her up.But as she saw Shane she lit up into a bright smile. He’d waited for her. “ Shane!” she yelled out before she made her way over to him quickly. As she reached him she jumped up and basically tackled him with excitement. “ Shane! I got in! I have no idea how, there was that stupid, STUPID lollipop song.I don’t even remember what I did. But I got in!” she said, tightening her legs around his waist as she leaned forward to wrap her arms around his neck and squeeze him tightly. She leaned her upper body away from him and moved her arms so that her hands clung tightly to the back of his neck. She held her breath as she looked at his eyes and lowered her own to his lips before she blinked and looked back at his eyes quickly. ‘ Do not kiss him. Do not kiss him’ she thought to herself before she smiled. ‘Totally just excited about the school.’. She realized that there had been too much time of them being silent ..with her just..staring at his eyes and lips. With that realization she suddenly realized how she was still wrapped around him. ‘Oh’ she said before she moved her hands too quickly away from his neck and put them on his shoulders. She looked down at her legs, wrapped around him. “ This.. cause.. hahaa” she laughed before she squeezed her hands against his shoulders and slowly moved her legs away from him and meticulously lowered them back to the floor before she took a step away from him. “I can’t believe you stayed. I can’t believe I got in”. She caught herself looking at his lips again and took another step back until she stumbled over a chair that was behind her. She quickly caught herself, thankful that she hadn’t fallen completely over. “ I owe you a drink. I promised on the plane that we could have a drink after you dealt with all of the ballet stuff.” she coughed, pushing her hair away from her face. “ We can go to my place. It’s…mine. And empty. I mean not that it matters. I’m just saying. We can’t really go to a club cause you’re..twenty. Well, that doesn’t really matter either. Cause you’re Shane Madden. But I’m….not.”. She smiled tightly before she placed her hands on her hips. “Great. Celebratory drinks. My place. We’re going” Shane really was a good friend to her, and whatever she was feeling it was just the excitement from the audition, getting into the ABA. Claire took in another deep breath and smiled. It was ridiculous, she legitimately could not stop smiling.

Claire narrowed her eyebrows as she finally looked around,noticing the way people were looking at them. She could fit in with the picket fence WASPs when she needed to, but she found herself getting insulted at the way they were looking at Shane, and herself in turn. She smirked before she licked her lips and started untying her pointe shoes.She lifted her foot onto the chair, working at untying the ribbon laced around her ankles quickly, as she looked at one of the girls that was there with her mother. “ You know what sucks? When money can’t buy you talent”she said tearing the pointe shoe off quickly and stepping into her ugg. “ But fortunately.. it can pay for plastic surgery. So if you can’t wipe that smug, arrogant, cocky, conceited, pretentious look off your face.. then you can sure as hell have any plastic surgeon on the upper east side take a look for you. But here’s a newsflash, they tend to leave cases like yours to the charity pro-bono workers. “ Claire took off her other pointe shoe and stepped into her other ugg before she smiled at the pair. “ Have fun eating your criticism and your judgment. I on the other hand.. am going to go do lots of careless, trashy, dirty things with my grungy boyfriend. And.. maybe I’ll get a middle finger tattooed on my ass. But… at the end of the day. I’m still here. Best of luck.” she smiled again sweetly before she grabbed Shane’s hand and left the building. “ God. I can be all .. upper east side when I need to be… but sometimes they just piss me off.’ she said, letting go of his hand as they got outside. Claire smiled again, swinging her pointe shoes at the side before she realized how thirsty she was. “ Is that for me?” she asked,pointing at the water in his hand before she smiled at him again and held her hand out.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane shoved the pack of twizzlers back into his back pocket, and scratched his hair beneath his hat before crossing his arms. She had to be back out any time now. He just stood there, thinking back to her audition. He couldn’t wipe her dancing out of his head. It was interesting to him, how everyone had that one thing that they were passionate about and how you could tell just by watching them that it was their whole life. And it was interesting to him that as different as your passions may be, Shane still understood what it was like to be passionate about something, he could respect Claire as a ballerina. He respected that she felt about dancing the way he felt about his music, which was a hefty comparison, but an accurate one. He didn’t have to wait much longer because the second the door opened and she saw him waiting, she had run up to him, practically tackling him in a hug and wrapped her legs around him. Of course he knew she’d gotten in, but all the same, he was excited for her. He hugged her back, squeezing her gently, feeling about as happy as she was. The plane ride and all the freaking out had been worth it to see her get in at the ABA. Not letting her get into that cab had been oh so worth it. She leaned back away from him, and he just smiled, “That’s great, Claire. Seriously, you were awesome.” Whoops, he wondered if she’d catch his phrasing but it seemed she was too excited to notice. For a moment he just looked at her looking at him. The way she was looking at him. The way he was looking at her. He watched her eyes trail down to his lips, for a second he thought she wanted to kiss him, but he didn’t think so. They were friends, that was ridiculous. Probably just like a, I’m so excited I could just kiss somebody, kind of feeling. It really was exciting. He laughed quietly when she hopped down, “Well I wasn’t gonna just leave,” he said as she began telling him about celebratory drinks at her empty place, she had so nicely pointed out. Like she said, not that it mattered, but he figured all the excitement had probably just jumbled her mind.

Shane had to force himself not to laugh out loud when she basically told the other girl sitting there, the same one who’d made comments earlier, to basically fuck off as she took off her shoes and put her uggs back on. Shane actually covered his mouth with his hand when she finished that rant about him being her boyfriend and just shook his head as she took his free hand and got on the elevator. That was one way to put them in their place. But it was nothing short of anything Shane had been thinking. As they got outside, she asked if the water was hers, to which he nodded, handing it out to her and hopped up on the ledge so she could take a breather. He still had one twizzler left, eating it while she drank her water. “So now what? Do you want to call your bro and tell him the good news? He called my phone like fifty times. And yours like a hundred. Or we can just go back to your empty place.” Shane laughed.

[carter]

Carter was about to slide onto his motorcycle when he noticed Claire walking down the street with Shane. He scratched his thumb over the edge of his jaw before he looked back over at them and waited for them to start passing his bike but noted that they had sat down on the curb not too far from him. “ Congratulations,Claire” he said , looking up at her. He smiled as she stood in front of him and seemed to be at a loss for words. Ballet students or enthusiasts were the only people who really know who he was.It was sort of funny how in a world where he relatively didn’t matter, in the ballet world , he was a pretty damn big deal. He gestured to the two of them and laughed slightly. “So uh. That explains your song choice. And your …rock influence,” he said, spinning his helmet loosely in his hands as he leaned gently against his motorcycle. “ Hey I get it… leather meets lace. I’m sure it’s all very exciting,” he said as he looked away from them and down the street at other people passing them by.

Carter smiled as he looked back at Claire, looking from her feet up her body and to her face as he grinned.” I’m looking forward to working with you, Miss Fox”. He leaned away from his motorcycle and walked over to them. Now that Shane was off the phone he could introduce himself. “ I’m Carter. I’ll be working with your girlfriend. Very closely,” he said, smiling at Claire before he offered his hand back to Shane. He looked pretty familiar but he couldn’t name exactly from what. But once he got his name he was sure he would piece it all together pretty quickly. He looked back at Claire and placed his hands in his front pockets. “I’ve got some good ideas lined up for this year. Hopefully you’ll be just as passionate about them as I am. Or at least, bring what you brought today for the rest of the year,”

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire took the bottle of water from him while thanking him and screwed off the cap eagerly. With all of the excitement it was hard to notice how thirsty she really was. She took a few drinks before she covered her mouth and laughed at how easily he had gone from talking about Ethan and calling him, to joking about her’empty’place. “ Yeah call him. He’s probably worried. Which means he’s probably called Dalton. And we can call off the search party,” she said, smiling as she took a seat next to him on the ledge. Claire looked up from her water bottle as Carter approached them and stared at him again with her jaw slightly unhinged. She made a confused face as he talked about leather and lace and looked at Shane on the phone and then back at Carter, realizing he was under the same impression as everyone else.

“ Oh he’s so not my boyfriend.Soooo not my boyfriend,” she said again, shaking her head as him and Shane were introducing themselves. “ He’s my friend.” Claire explained as she lifted the water bottle back to her lips. She hadn’t even fully understood the fact that Carter had just said he’d be working with her a lot. She looked back over him, not even trying to hide the fact that she was checking him out before she looked back at Shane happily. But Claire wasn’t one to ever let her ‘career’ interfere with her friendship or her plans. She stood up and wiped her hands on her shorts. “Sorry but we were just heading out. It really was great to meet you. I’ll see you on the fifth,” she said, grinning before she turned to Shane and tilted her head back towards the sidewalk so they could start walking to her place. She squealed quietly out of excitement as she walked with him, “ It’s like getting to work with Mark Hoppus. Every day,” she said, trying to explain to Shane his important. “ And you ate all the twizzlers. Jerk. Those are my fav,” she said. Now that he had eaten them all she could joke with him about them and not have him offer her one.