The next few weeks I buried myself in audition after audition. I tried at first auditioning with comedic monologues hoping it would take my mind off Niall, but my current state of mind made it impossible to give a good performance. So I switched to dramatic monologues for my auditions, surprised at just how much it actually helped. I managed to channel all my anger and depression into the auditions... and it helped. Both for my state of mind and how well my performances went.

One day however, all the progress was wiped clean.

It was after an audition and I decided to stop at a CVS to pick up a small snack and a drink. I hadn't been eating much in way of actual food, aside from the meals Jenny forced down, instead opting to pick at snack foods when I actually felt hungry. I made my way to the cashier and put my stuff down, and while I waited my eyes wandered to the magazines. Since Niall and I had broken up, I did my best to avoid any gossip mags - not that it was hard because I had never had any interest in them to begin with. But this particular magazine seemed to scream at me.

"NIALL HORAN & CHARLENE - MUSICS HOTTEST COUPLE?
- Confirmed by both their camps!"

I felt a wave of nausea pass over me as I snatched the magazine, slamming it on the counter.

"This too, please." I managed to choke out. I was glad I had my sunglasses on because I felt like tears were beginning to fall. As soon as I paid I rushed out, determined to go home and get some answers.

----
The momen I entered my apartment I fired off a text to Louis.

[i]SKYPE NOW. [/i]

Harry and Louis had kept in contact with me after they left, with both of them texting me throughout the day to check up on me. It was sweet really, and slightly odd, that we had grown closer since Niall broke up with me. Nonetheless I was grateful for their concern.

I logged onto skype, and hoped he wasnt too busy to login. Luckily enough about ten minutes later I saw his name pop up and I sent a request for a video chat.

Before he could even say hello, I had the magazine cover shoved into view.

"WHY didn't you TELL me about this?" I hissed, feeling my fingers dig into the paper. Louis opened his mouth to speak then closed it again with a sigh.

"Harry! Can you cmere?" he shouted and within moments Harry's grinning face appeared.

"Hey love! What's going o....oh." his voice trailed off as he noticed my agitated face and magazine cover.

"Explain."

The two sighed before Louis started speaking, "Look, we didn't tell you because we didn't want to stress you out... the thing is the whole thing is sort of fishy, and we wanted to figure it out before telling you"

"What's there to figure out?" I said shaking my head, "It even says it was confirmed your management. And look, they even have pictures of them out on dates!" My voice trembled slightly, and tears threatened to spill. This entire situation made my head hurt. Niall had truly made me feel loved, like we were truly meant to be together like everyone else insisted. Based on the magazine though, and how quickly he had seemingly moved on... I wondered if that had just been some sort of weird charade.

I felt a bit played to be quite honest.

"He looks happy." I muttered, shutting the magazine on Charlene and Niall's smiling faces.

"The magazines do a really good job of painting that picture, eh?" Harry said rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, see that's the thing A.J," Louis said leaning into the camera, "The magazines say it's a happy relationship but we're Niall's best mates and we're the ones living with him.And let me just say, Niall has not been happy since you two split."

"He's like the exact opposite of the normal Niall. He doesn't joke around anymore, he's irritable, and doesn't get much sleep. He messes up lyrics. And most of all, he barely eats," Harry smirked at my reaction to the last bit, "Yeah, thats right love. He eats a little bit every now and then but mostly he plays with his food then shoves it away saying he's not hungry. It's like we've fallen into some sort of parallel dimension."

"He was the one who broke up with me," I argued, "So this whole mood change must be something else. He's clearly happy with Charlene and-"

"He's not happy with her!" Louis said, annoyance rising in his voice, "Whenever she calls or skypes he barely says two words to her! Alice, he's not happy without you."

"Look," I said softly, "What's done is done, can we please move on?" I didn't want to try to understand what was going on, none of it added up, none of it made sense. Niall had made his choice... however odd it seemed.

"Alright, fine." Harry said, covering Louis' mouth to obstruct any protests, "How's the auditioning going?"

"Well... it's going okay I suppose," I said shrugging, "I've gone to plenty of auditions but... no callbacks yet."

Louis finally managed to rip Harry's hand away and he smirked at me, "Well you never know love, I'm sure the [i]perfect[/i] role is just around the corner waiting for you to.... stand up and take it."

I smiled, "Thanks Lou."

We talked for a little bit longer before the two were called to go do some interview. They promised to keep me updated on things and that they hoped to see me soon. After they logged off, I simply stared at the computer screen, lost in thought over what my life had become and what it held in the future.