Wildest Dreams | EJ Caswell

𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢-𝚜𝚒𝚡

As much as I wasn't looking forward to it earlier, I was now grateful for the girl's sleepover tonight; I don't think I could handle seeing EJ right now, I didn't know how I was supposed to act, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to speak to him period.

I was fully prepared for an EJ-free night until Kourt somehow got the Broadway blueprints from Howie, and Ashlyn arranged to meet with the boys at the school... forcing me to face EJ sooner than I wanted to.

"Wait, so in the Broadway show, all they did was suspend the beast in the air?" Gina asks as we all lean over the blueprints, "and then he takes the mask off?" I had expected it to be much more complicated than that.

"Wow," Nini scoffs, "looks like today's theme is secrets." She chuckles, causing all of us girls and Seb to share an awkward glance.

"But combine this with the wire from Getcha Head in the Game, and we're golden." Ashlyn chimed in, attempting to break the awkward tension, "do we still have Ricky's harness?"

Kourt nodded, pointing at Ash, "ooh, it's in the costume shop... somewhere."

"Let's split up to look," I suggest, mainly because splitting up gave me a definite chance of avoiding EJ, "meet back in fifteen."

Everyone nodded, "thank you, fifteen." They said in unison before dispersing around the stage; Gina and I headed to one side together, searching through nearby costume racks for the harness.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, how's it going with the whole Ricky thing?" I ask her; I'd meant to ask for a while now, but we never had a moment alone, "you seem a lot happier."

Gina nods, smiling at me, "I am, and I'm over it; boys are a lot of work, I'm happy to wait for someone who treats me right."

I clapped my hands slightly, "Amen to that."

"Speaking of boys...." She sang teasingly, nudging my arm before slipping away and over to the rest of our friends; I looked over my shoulder to see what she was talking about; EJ was walking over, his hands shoved into his pockets.

I turn my eyes back to the wardrobe rack as he stands next to me, "Hey Ro, how's the slumber party going?" He sounded nervous, if I hadn't overheard him earlier, I would have assumed it'd be for the same reason I got jittery talking to him, but I knew that wasn't true.

"Fine," I answered frankly, my expression blank.

"Oh cool," He nods; I can tell he doesn't know how to respond to my dryness, "well, I was thinking maybe we could go on a drive tomorrow night?" He asked, his voice hopeful, "to our usual spot?"

If he had asked me earlier, I would have said yes; but honestly, EJ can't just drag me along like this; it's too hard, "I can't," I respond, moving over to the other costume rack to look.

"Oh," EJ follows me, "maybe another night then?"

I sigh, finally turning to look at him; his green eyes were opened wide, a nervous expression on his face; I hated that I thought he looked adorable right now, "I'm busy." I respond, hoping he will get what I'm trying to say; I return to searching for the harness, finding it on the rack a few seconds later, "I found the harness," I call out, holding it up for our friends to see.

I begin to walk over to them when EJ grabs my wrist; he doesn't pull me to look at him or turn me around, but I do anyway, "Aurora, is everything okay?"

I nod, shooting him an obviously fake smile, "Mhmm, never been better," I nod, "buddy." I yank my wrist out of his hand, walking over to the rest of the group; I can feel EJ's eyes watching me, trying to figure out what just happened.