Don't You Want the Way I Feel for You?

Chapter One- Coachella

“Lil I’m so bummed you can’t make it today” I said into my Iphone while I packed my backpack for the concert. Josh and I were heading out to Coachella to see a few of our favorite bands. Living in California is great if you’re into music like Josh and I are. Lily normally tags along but she had a 2 hour dance intensive today and was already on her way there so she wouldn’t be going until later tonight if she was up to it.

“You’ll have to text me and let me know if it’s worth me showing up later. If all the crap bands are playing I won’t bother.” Lily said.

“So any word about the glee audition from your mom?”

I’m Autumn by the way. I’m an aspiring performer living in the sunny city that is Los Angeles. Lily is my best friend/roommate who’s also an aspiring performer. Lil is a hardcore dancer and she’s totally awesome. She’s been in a handful of music videos and even performed as a background dancer on a leg of the last Britney Spears tour. I on the other hand do a little of everything. I sing, act, dance, whatever job there is I’ll take it. I’ve learned being trained to do multiple things can only help in this business. I’d done some background vocals for a few different tracks and had some extra roles but nothing too ground breaking. And our Joshy has been our best guy friend since our freshman year of highschool. He’s the guitarist for a band that is slowly getting off the ground. Now, all three of us have bachelor degrees in the arts from UCLA. God I’m starting to feel old and I’m only 22.

Lily’s mom is in the makeup and costuming department for Glee, cool right? She’s been talking to other people on set about getting Lily and I in for an audition to be dancers or extras on the show. So far all we know was that the producers have received our headshots, resumes, and videos but no word on their thoughts.

“Well I have some news”

“Lil! You need to tell me whatever you find out when you find out! Being on Glee would be huge and you know how much I love it.”

“And you know how much I love it too!” Lily laughed.

Lily and I had been die hard glee fans since day one when the pilot aired for the first time. We’d been hooked ever since and seen every episode from season one and two at least twice. The fact that we both chipped in to buy a copy of the entire series on dvd did help a little bit.

“So what’s going on?” I ask plopping down on my bed.

I was supposed to be at Josh’s in about 10 minutes. Oh well if I was late it wasn’t a big deal. Our favorite band Jack’s Mannequin wouldn’t be playing ‘til later in the afternoon, and this was about a spot on Glee after all.

“My mom was told that Ryan and Zach and the rest of the heads saw our audition tapes and resumes and said that if they find a need for us they’ll give us a call.”

“Well that’s awesome! Better than nothing right? We could get a call to be extras in a big dance number like this week. Don’t they start shooting the third season really soon?” I asked.

“Yeah they start on Wednesday. Oh there was one more thing my mom told me.”

“Okay..” I said impatiently

“They said you should expect a call sooner rather than later for something a little more center stage”

“LILLIAN MARIE WHY ON EARTH DID YOU NOT TELL ME THIS?!?! WE HAD BREAKFAST TOGETHER THIS MORNING!” I yelled. This was MAJOR news for me!

“I seriously just found out! My mom called me like five minutes before you did so calm yourself!” Lily said back.

“Alright alright. Well if you hear absolutely anything else call me immediately” I said

“I will I will. But get moving you’re going to be late.” Lily scolded

“Okay mom,” I teased, “talk you later or see you at home bye”

“Bye bye”

I heard the click of Lily hanging up so I threw my phone into my bag and headed out to Josh’s.
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“How much farther my legs are cramping up” I whined. We’d been in the car for over 2 hours and I was so ready to get out.

“Autumn, you asked me that five minutes ago” Josh laughed

“I just wanna get there. There are so many kick ass bands this year!”

“Well lucky for you we’re here”

Josh and I had bought our wristbands months ago once we heard the lineup for Coachella this year. In our opinion all the best bands were playing today. We parked the car and made our way into the festival. There were people, booths, stages, and food vendors everywhere.

“So, where to first?” I asked

“Well Freelance Whales is playing a set in about an hour so we have a little time to kill”

“Body paint tent! Let’s go crazy like last year” I laughed and dragged Josh towards the colorful tent up ahead. They basically let you paint as little or as much as you wanted.

“Alright I’m thinking a sun on my stomach embracing my inner hippy today.”

I had worn a bathing suit under my beater because I knew how hot it would be today and almost everyone was walking around in them. I took off my shirt and threw it in my bag. Josh
started painting a big circle on my stomach.

“Oh my god it’s so cold!” I squealed.

By the time were through Josh and I had Technicolor paint all over us and it looked so cool. We’d met a few really cool people while were over there painting and everyone was laughing and taking pictures. A group of guys walked up to the tent and starting throwing paint all over each other.

“See they have the right idea, we should’ve had a paint fight.” Josh laughed.

“Josh they look so familiar” I said looking over at the group of guys.

“They kind of do. Do we know them?”

“I don’t know but I swear I’ve seen them before but it’s hard to tell with the sunglasses” I said squinting at the guys.

A guy with curly brown hair wearing pink Raybans kept glancing over at Josh and me. When he saw me looking back he smiled and waved.

“They’re waving” Josh said

“I can see that thank you” I said rolling my eyes at him “But I don’t think we know them. But god they look really familiar.”

“Well they seem pretty chill let’s go over and talk to them” Josh said taking my arm and leading us over.

“Hey” Josh said greeting the group. All three of them looked so freaking familiar.

“Hey!” The blonde one said enthusiastically, “Nice paint”

“Thanks, “ Josh chuckled, “We wanted to outdo last years”

“You guys have been here before?” The one with the pink sunglasses said.

“Yeah we’ve been coming for the past two years,” I said, “Our favorite band is playing later on.”

“Who’s that?” A guy with a dark buzz cut asked.

“Jack’s Mannequin” Josh and I said together smiling

“Oh yeah they’re awesome!” The blonde said again.

“Yeah and we’re going to head over and watch Freelance Whales right now” I said to the group.

“Hey my brother’s in that band!” Pink sunglasses said smiling.

“Really?” Josh asked

Yeah, really? I was still trying to figure out what was so familiar about this very attractive group of guys. Pink sunglasses kept looking over at me and now he says his brother is in Freelance Whales. Wait a minute. Curly dark hair, pink Raybans, brother in Freelance whales…

Light fucking bulb.

“What’s your name?” I asked suddenly looking at pink Raybans again.

He chuckled and said “I’m Darren, and you are?”

“Josh” Josh said while shaking Darren’s hand. I stood there just staring at him. No, there’s just no way.

“Hello earth to Autumn.” Josh said nudging me.

“What?” I snapped still looking at the guy named Darren.

“Are you a mute?” Josh said playfully, “The weirdo here is named Autumn”

“That’s my favorite season” the blonde guy chimed in.

I looked over at him and it all clicked. The blonde hair the HUGE mouth how could I have not realized this when I first walked over. And even though his hair wasn’t cut in a Mohawk I knew exactly who buzz cut guy was.

“I know you guys” I said

“Well yeah he just said his name was Darren” Josh said sarcastically.

“No I mean like I know all of them. Now I know why you all look so familiar. You’re Chord, and Mark, and…Darren” I said trailing off when I looked over at him.

“Autumn how do you know that?” Josh said

“Because they’re on my favorite show!”

Darren chuckled and removed his sunglasses to reveal that I was in fact correct in my identification of the guys.

“Holy shit you guys are on Glee” Josh said laughing

“Yeah we came out to support Darren’s brother” Chord said with a smile.

“Nice sunrise” Darren said poking my stomach.

Darren Criss just touched me. Holy.freaking. shit. Alright I need to stay calm here. Truth is Darren is my absolute favorite on Glee. I’d watched both Very Potter musicals multiple times, seen every live chat, interview and tv appearance. Unfortunately I’d never gotten to see a concert but this was so much better than that.

“Uh, thanks” I said chuckling nervously.

I start fiddling with my necklace and running my fingers through my hair, two major signs I was freaking out.

“Chill with the hair, Autumn. It looks fine.” Josh chuckled.

He and I have been friends long enough for him to know that I was nervous.

“I know I know. It’s just um it’s a habit”

“I like your necklace” Mark said.

“Oh thanks.” I said smiling

“What is it?” Chord asked leaning closer, “Oh it’s a key!”

“To the lady’s heart, perhaps?” Darren joked

I laughed, “Yeah maybe.”

“We should probably head over if we want to get a good spot.” Josh said nudging me.

I really didn’t want to leave I wanted to stay and talk to the guys some more. When would I ever get this chance again? But Josh was right. I’m just over five foot and if we get stuck in the back I won’t be able to see anything.

“Yeah you’re right, “ I said, “But before we go would you guys mind taking some pictures? I’m sorry to go all fan girl on you but this is probably the coolest thing ever”

“Sure!” All three said smiling.

I got my Iphone out of my bag and Josh and I took turns taking pictures with all the guys. They were super great about it and took fun and silly pictures with us sticking out their tongues and laughing the whole time. We got a great shot of Darren, Chord and I making muscle man poses to show off our body paint artwork.

“Okay now we seriously have to go” Josh said.

“Okay okay just one more” I pleaded

“You have like ten now!” Josh laughed

“Well I want a normal smiling picture with Darren that’s the only one I don’t have.” I looked at him, “Do you mind?”

“Of course not” He said flashing me a perfect smile

Darren wrapped an arm around my waist and I did the same for him. I leaned my head in towards him and smiled.

“Okay one..two..three!” Josh said counting down and taking the picture. He held the phone out for me and Darren to see the screen.

“Aw that’s such a good one!” Darren said, “Tweet it and tag me!”

I laughed, “Okay sure! This will be my facebook profile picture for the next ten years I swear”

Josh and I sadly said our goodbyes to Chord, Mark, and Darren and thanked them for taking pictures with us.

“It was nice meeting you!” Chord yelled as we walked away

“Bye guys!” Josh and I said back.

Josh and I made our way over to the stage were Freelance Whales would be playing. With a little luck and well a lot of pushing we were able to elbow our way up to the front. The band walked out on stage and the crowd started cheering. I took my phone out to take some pictures and remembered what Darren had asked me to do.

“I gotta tweet that pic!” I said

“DO IT” Josh yelled back over the crowd.
I uploaded the pictures we took on to facebook and set the one of me and Darren as my profile picture and then typed a tweet:

“Look who I found at Coachella! Nice paint @DarrenCriss =) we’re #supermegafoxyawesomehot.”

I put my phone back in my pocket and went back to watching the concert. The guys played a great set and the crowd was cheering and singing along the whole time. They were halfway through the last song of their set when my phone buzzed twice. I took it out and saw I had about a dozen notifications for facebook all commenting on my new pictures and I also had two twitter notifications. I decided I’d look at all the comments later and hit the twitter app widget. My twitter notifications popped up and the first one said that I had been retweeted.

“Oh look how popular” Josh said looking over my shoulder, “Who retweeted you?”

I stuck my tongue out at him “ I don’t know let’s see”

I clicked the notification to get more information.

“Well?”

“It says that my tweet was retweeted by…Oh my God”

“What?” Josh said trying to see the screen.

I turned my phone around to show him, “Darren Criss! He retweeted me!!!!!!” I exclaimed

“Ah Autumn that’s so freaking cool! Wait you have another twitter update”

I clicked the next one and saw that someone had also replied to my tweet. I clicked the notification and and read the reply tweet.

‘DarrenCriss' Darren Criss

@Autumn_Mariexo It’s all about the sunrise girl. We are #supermegfoxyawesomehot indeed! Ps #Iseeyou =P’

“Oh my god! He replied to me too!” I said jumping up and down

“That’s so awesome! Hey he says he sees you? What’s that about?” Josh laughed

I started looking around, “Um I don’t know. I think he’s even-“ then I saw the three of them on the left side of the stage watching the show. Darren was looking right back at me with a smile.

“There they are!” I smiled and pointed in their direction for Josh.

Darren saw me pointing and waved so I smiled and waved back.

“Like, seriously….I freaking love today”