Right Place, Wrong Time

47. Missing Piece

Joey was meant to be focused on the dress rehearsal, but he kept checking his phone for texts from Lauren. She had flown into Michigan the day before and was visiting her parents for a few days. But tomorrow she was driving into Ann Arbor for the show, and his every nerve fired with anticipation. More than six months since he'd seen her, and he was craving the sound of her laugh, the warmth her smile filled him with, the feeling of her hugs. He'd been counting down to it and finally she'd be with him again.

"Dude, you're on," Brian hissed, nudging him.

"Fuck." He slipped his phone back into the pocket it wasn't supposed to be in and ran onstage.

That night he barely slept, Christmas Eve come two weeks early. Seeing Lauren was better than any gift he could possibly get.

They were meeting for an early dinner before the show, and when Joey saw her car pull up in the car park, her getting out and walking towards him with a smile almost a match for the grin that stretched his face from ear to ear, everything felt right again, those months apart vanishing. The piece of him that was missing slotted right back into place.

"Hi," he said, hugging her as she reached him.

"God, I missed this," she murmured, and he hugged her even tighter.

"I missed you." He released her, and toyed with a strand of her hair. "Your hair's brown again."

"Yeah," she said. "What do you think?"

He smiled. "You're beautiful."

A few seconds of shy smiles, before he snapped out of it and held the door open for her to go in.

"It feels good to be back," she said, looking around after they ordered.

"It's good to have you back," he replied. And he knew she had other friends she'd want to see, but he was glad she'd let him have her to himself for a while, at least.

Though they'd kept each other updated on their lives while they'd been apart, it seemed there still wasn't enough time to catch up. They'd finished their food and asked for two drink refills and were still talking, and Joey happily would have kept it up if he didn't have a call time, so they made their way to the theatre.

"Will you find me afterwards?" he asked in the lobby, where a few people were already milling about, other friends and family here to see the show.

"Of course," she smiled. "Break a leg."

Three words from her putting a spring in his step, he headed backstage to get into costume. He'd thought having Lauren in the audience would make him feel nervous, but catching her smiling face in the crowd and hearing her laugh boosted him even more.

When he'd asked her to find him afterwards, he hadn't expected to find her waiting right outside the dressing room when he walked out.

"How long have you been here?" he asked.

She just shrugged.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting long, you could have been waiting with other people."

"But I wanted to see you," she said simply, in that way she had of making him feel like the most important person in her world, even if it wasn't true.

He reached out and squeezed her hand. "Thank you."

"You were so good in the show," she said. "If you're not cast in something big as soon as you graduate I'll be so mad."

"That's how I feel about you," he said, letting go of her hand but wrapping an arm around her waist as they walked out to the lobby.