The Crystal 2 by Jones M (reading cloud ebooks .txt) 📕

members of the Ordinary Brothers left.

The people on the other side of the stage were applauding. The rest of us turned to face the TV just as Bianca was seen going towards the stage. The judges were Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger, and Louie.

My goodness. The bitch was really doing it!

"HI!" Bianca yelled on her microphone with a smile. Some people in the audience awed, and I wanted to snort at that.

"Hello," the gray-haired guy, Louie, spoke. "What is your name, love?"

"Bianca. Bianca Levone."

The audience applauded again.

Simon looked at Bianca with a confused glance and a smile threatening to pull at his lips.

"Where are you from?"

"London, England."

Some of the audience cheered for her.

"Alright, love. What will you be singing for us?" Simon asked with a serious expression.

"Good Girl Gone Bad by Rihanna."
People clapped again.

Then there was silence as the background music of the said song began to play.

"We stay moving around, solo
Ask us where you at, we don't know
And don't care (don't care)
All we know is we was at home cause you left us there"

She sounded horrible. I could actually see her voice threatening to blow out the lights above us.

"You got your boys and got gone
And left us all alone
Now she in the club with a freaky dress on
Cats don't want her to keep that dress on
Trying to get enough drinks in her system
Take it to the tele and make her a victim--"

"Stop!" Simon yelled through his microphone. "Please. Stop."

The audience applauded Simon with a couple of whistling.

"But I'm not done yet," Bianca said with an uneasy smile.

"You aren't, but we are."

There was loud laughter in the building.

"Bianca," Louie started, "I love how you took your time to come to the stage tonight. I love the courage you showed to sing your heart out and see if you can become the next America Idol."

Bianca smiled.

"But it's a no for me."

She frowned just as a loud beep signaling the denial rang through the speakers.

"Bianca," Nicole spoke, "it's a no from me too."

The same beep again.

There seemed to be silence as everyone waited for Simon to make his judgment.

"It's a no from me."

Wow. Shocking.

Bianca's mouth opened wide in shock.

Well, there wasn't a lot of drama regarding her. In fact, I was surprised Simon hadn't thrown in a few couple of words to describe Bianca's singing.

Well, I guessed there wouldn't be any embarrassing--

"You slimy shitty judges!" Bianca yelled out in anger. Everyone in the audience gasped, and so did Justin, Erick, Selena and me.

"I can sing perfectly! I am better than Mariah Carey and Carrie Underwood."

"Who lied to you?" Nicole asked with a serious expression. Bianca just got more furious.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Bianca, but here is the truth," Simon said. "You sound like a dying walrus."

The audience erupted in laughter, and so did I. The rest who were with me were sympathetic.

I rolled my eyes at them.

"You sound like a cat mating with a horse."

More laughter.

"You are not a musician yourself, Simon. You know nothing about music," Bianca, as stupid as she was, continued to defend herself in front of the judges.

There was a collective gasp from everyone.

I could not believe she just said that.

"Zane Marsh is better than all of you shitty judges."

And then another gasp.

"I can't believe she brought Zane into this!" I yelled at no one as I faced the screen.

"Bianca," Simon started, "I formed the boyband that your boyfriend is in. I still don't understand what he sees in you. Either way, as a shitty judge myself, how could your boyfriend be a popular musician?"

People cheered.

"The judges and I know more about music than you. You came for our honest opinion, and we gave it to you. Save us your drama and get the hell out of the stage."

"You--"

"You do know that I pay for all the things you spend while you're on tour with the boys, right?" Simon asked with an amused smile and a raised eyebrow.

I was happy. The bitch was getting humiliated in front of many people.

Bianca went towards Simon, still not backing down.

"Now you listen to me, Simon," she started. "I am a wonderful singer, and I do have a beautiful voice!"

Wow. She was a stubborn one.

"You are just a pathetic--"

"Bianca, you are out of the boys' tour," Simon cut her off with a serious look. Bianca gasped in shock as she stared at Simon. The audience applauded and whistled.

"W-what? You can't do that!"

"I am the boys' manager. I can do whatever I want. Or have you forgotten that? Would you even want me to start charging you for every penny you've spent so far?"

"But Emery is awful!"

"Wow! That is so immature of you. You can't handle the fact that you aren't good at something and you'd rather blame it on someone else. May I remind you that you are the one on stage?"

I chuckled while the rest behind me remained quiet.

Bianca moved towards Louie, forgetting about the microphone in front of him.

"Can you give me a 'yes'? I will do anything for you. I will even sleep with you."

The audience gasped. Bianca realized the mistake she had made, and she paled.

"Security!" Louie, looking outraged, shouted. In an instant, a huge man walked past us and went towards Bianca.

"I'm going!" she yelled as she walked past the judges and came towards us. The people behind me went towards her.

"It's okay, Bianca."

"You were wonderful to us."

"You bitch!" Bianca screamed as she pointed a finger at me, ignoring the compliments she was receiving.

I smirked at her.

Then she charged towards me. The guard who had escorted her into the room was quick enough to grab her before she could hit me.

"What's going on backstage?" Louie asked, and I heard the audience mumbling as well.

"You are enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked in anger.

I laughed, and that fueled her anger.

"Of course I am."

"It's all your fault!"

I gasped, faking shock.

"Really? Was I the one who insulted a judge and got herself kicked out of the tour?"

Bianca growled as she started thrashing in the hold of the guard.

"Let me go!"

Then Zane appeared, running to his girlfriend with a concerned expression.

"Baby--" he tried to speak to Bianca.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled. "I can't believe you lied to me like that. Why did you tell me my voice was beautiful?"

"It is beautiful to me," Zane said. Bianca seemed to be silent as she gave Zane a look of disbelief.

"What the hell? Fuck you!" Bianca yelled at her boyfriend before storming out of the room, the guard releasing his hold on her. He took it as his cue to leave.

"Bianca!" Zane yelled after her, but she didn't stop. There was a moment of silence before he turned to face me.

"Why did you lie to her?"

I raised my eyebrows in shock.

"Are you serious right now?" I asked. "I hate her! Also, she would have known it was a lie if you had not been too quick to compliment her beautiful voice."

"I didn't want to hurt her!"

"Really, Zane?" I asked. "She humiliated herself in front of millions of people. She would have been hurt either way, but it could have been less if you hadn't fed her ego!"

Zane raised his fist. My form tensed as I moved a step behind.

"What are you going to do?" I asked him with a smirk. "You are going to hit me? On TV?" I emphasized. Zane seemed to realize the mistake, but that did not stop him from glaring at me.

"Go ahead. But don't blame me if your career ends in a snap," I snapped my fingers for effect.

Zane growled before storming out of the area.

"What the hell?" Logan stated, and I turned to see him approaching me. My eyes widened in surprise at the sudden attention I was receiving.

"I can't believe he almost hit you!" he seemed shocked. I looked at the others, noticing that the other bandmates had come out.

"It's fine. But shouldn't you be performing right now?"

"We can't," Liam said. "Zane is gone."

"Can't you guys just perform without him?" Selena asked.

"We could, but then we'd have to assign his parts to some of us. We would have needed time to discuss who will get which parts."

I looked back at the TV, noticing that people were still talking about Bianca's outburst. My mind went to the song I wrote, but I doubted what I planned would work.

After a few seconds of thinking, I decided: what the heck?

I took out my phone as I headed towards the team in charge of sound. They seemed confused at first, but I gave them instructions on what to do with the phone. I reappeared in front of the guys as I tried to steady my breathing.

I was nervous.

"Emery, where are you going?" I ignored Justin's voice as I made my way to the stage. It seemed like when he mentioned my name, the others turned to face me. 

Silence engulfed the building as I made my appearance. The judges looked at me in surprise.

Unexpectedly, the audience started clapping for me. I gave out a nervous smile before clearing my thought.

Once the applause ended, the tunes of the song I wrote began to sound through the building.

 

♫

Mr. Know It All
Well ya think you know it all
But ya don't know a thing at all
Ain't it, ain't it something y'all
When somebody tells you something 'bout you
Think that they know you more than you do
So you take it down another pill to swallow

Mr. Bring Me Down
Well ya, ya like to bring me down, don't you?
But I ain't laying down, baby,

I ain't goin' down
Can't nobody tell me how it's gonna be
Nobody's gonna make a fool out of me, baby
You should know that I lead not follow

Oh you think that you know me, know me
That's why I'm leaving you lonely, lonely
'Cause baby you don't know a thing about me
You don't know a thing about me

You ain't got the right to tell me
When and where to go, no right to tell me
Acting like you own me lately
Yeah baby you don't know a thing about me
You don't know a thing about me

Mr. Play Your Games
Only got yourself to blame

When you want me back again
But I ain't falling back again
'Cause I'm living my truth without your lies
Let's be clear baby, this is goodbye
I ain't coming back tomorrow

Oh you think that you know me, know me
That's why I'm leaving you lonely, lonely
'Cause baby you don't know a thing about me
You don't know a thing about me
You ain't got the right to tell me
When and where to go, no right to tell me
Acting like you own me lately
Yeah, baby, you don't know a thing about me
You don't know a thing about me

So what?

You've got the world at your feet and
You know everything about everything
But you don't
You still think I'm coming back but baby you'll see yeah...

Oh you think that you know me, know me
That's why I'm leaving you lonely, lonely
'Cause baby you don't know a thing about me
You don't know a thing about me

(Oh you think that you know me, know me)
You ain't got the right to tell me
When and where to go, no right to tell me

(That's why I'm leaving you lonely, lonely)
Acting like you own me lately
Yeah baby you don't know a thing about me
You don't know a thing about me

Mr. Know It All
Well ya think you know it all
But ya don't know a thing at all
Yeah baby you don't know a thing about me
You don't know a thing about me                              ♫

Everyone remained silent as soon as the song ended. Then a slow clap began. It progressed, and seconds later, everyone was applauding and cheering for me. I smiled and curtsied before quickly going backstage.

"You can sing?"

"You can sing?"

"You