Right Place, Wrong Time

39. Pity Party

There'd been no word on when the cast list was going to go up. So, naturally, Joey had been checking every day. He'd get to class early so he could drop by and check the board, refresh his emails in the middle of class, then swing back that way on his journey home to check again.

It had become so routine that he was shocked when there was a list pinned up one morning. He stared for a moment, before hurrying closer to read it. There, right near the top, was his name. But he didn't really start to get excited until he read Lauren's name, two below his.

He whipped his phone out of his pocket, fingers typing furiously. 'Guess who both made the cut!!!'

'What????' came her reply a few minutes later.

He grinned. 'Don't sound so surprised. See you at rehearsal'

It became something to look forward to every day. When they were in that rehearsal room together, his whole world lit up, even when they weren't working on a scene together. Any time they caught each other's eye across the room, they would both smile. And he loved watching her act, still bowled over by her talent.

And, of course, they spent as many moments as possible together. In tech week, they sat side by side in the theatre as other actors ran through part of the show on stage. Joey knew he was supposed to be paying attention to them, or at least thinking about his upcoming scene, but his mind was on Lauren, who had her chin in her hand looking bored.

"This is the worst part of being an actor," she mumbled.

With a spark of inspiration, Joey began miming. She turned her head to look at him, frowning.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"It's a pity party," he whispered back.

"What?" she asked, half laughing.

"I'm throwing you a pity party."

He kept on miming his party that no one had come to. When he mimed a disappointing piñata, Lauren laughed out loud.

"Quiet in the house!" shouted their stage manager.

Lauren clapped a hand over her mouth, still giggling, Joey beaming wickedly. Making her laugh still sent a shot of pride through him. And the sound of it was quite possibly his favourite in the world. The way she looked, too, when she threw her head back. All he ever wanted to do was make her laugh as much as he could, and rehearsals turned out to be a great opportunity for that.

It became a game of sorts as rehearsals progressed, Joey trying to do a pity party unnoticed by everyone but Lauren, seeing if he could make her break, or doing it to entertain her while they were backstage. He'd been sure it would get old quickly, but she kept laughing, and so he kept doing it.

Normally, he couldn't wait to get to the end of the rehearsal period so he could actually start performing the show, where everything really came alive and they got to hear the reactions of an audience full of their friends. But this time, he wanted to hold onto every single minute of rehearsal. Because each was another minute with Lauren, and he could use all of those he could get.

The show came together, albeit in a slapdash fashion, their first real runthrough not until opening night. But it was joy, it was excitement, it was thrill, it was having a blast with your friends and savouring the moment until you all had to say goodbye.

His parents were in town that weekend to see the show, so he'd spent a lot of time taking them around, eating dinners with them, catching them up on what he'd been up to and promising he was still working hard on his last few exams. Most of the time spent with Lauren was onstage during the show and hanging out with her backstage, still trying to make her laugh every night with pity party.