Healing Sophie

41

Sophie squeezed herself against Theo's side anxiously. Marcus's eyes bored into hers from across the room and Theo was doing nothing to hide his protectiveness.

"Hello, everyone. Today we will be starting rehearsals for act one. Let's have all of the people in that act gather in a circle and get to know each other. Everyone else, we'll be doing a workshop for the behind the scenes roles."

Sophie's stomach churned as her and Theo made their way over to the circle that held Jess, Marcus, and two others.

"Okay, so I guess let's all go around and introduce ourselves," Jess started. She turned to Marcus and gave him a poisonous smile. "Hey, fuckface, you go first."

Marcus smirked. "Hey guys, I'm Marcus. I'll be playing Raoul, Sophie's love interest." He turned to Sophie and she nearly threw up at his attention. He sent her a wink that had Theo scowling. "Can't wait."

Jess went next. "Hello, I'm Jess. I'm a theater major. I will be playing Carlotta."

Theo looked the most nervous and awkward that Sophie had ever seen him. She squeezed his hand and he smiled. "I'm Theo. I've never done this before in my life, but happy to be here."

An older guy with long dark brown hair in a bun went next. "My name is Sebastian. I usually stick to the behind-the-scenes, but Ben here convinced me to audition."

The younger man next to him, Ben, spoke next. He was quiet and shy, much like Sophie. "I'm Ben. I am Raoul's understudy."

Sophie made eye contact with him and gave him a reassuring smile before introducing herself. "My name is Sophie. I will be playing Christine. I am a music composition major." She tried to ignore Marcus's arrogant gaze and found herself scooting closer to Theo.

The six of them read their lines for the remainder of class. As Sophie grabbed her bag and went to leave, she was stopped.

"Ms. Hart."

Sophie turned to Professor Blaire and gave Theo and Jess a nod before approaching her. "Yes?"

Dr. Blaire studied Sophie for a moment. "Are you aware of the Rising Star program I run?" Sophie shook her head. "Every semester, I take a promising student under my wing and I mentor them and they act as my assistant. I'd really like for you to be my mentee this year. How does that sound?"

Sophie's eyes widened and she had to contain the squeal threatening to escape her lips. "I would love that! Thank you so much, Dr. Blaire."

The professor smiled and nodded. "For your first project, how would you feel about helping me and the orchestra department create a score for the play?"

Sophie grinned. "I would absolutely love that."

"Wonderful. I will have the conductor reach out to you." At the polite dismissal, Sophie left and found Theo outside. She ran up to him and could hardly string together a sentence.

"Bambi, Bambi. Slow down." He placed his hands on her shoulders and she took a deep breath.

"Dr. Blaire offered to be my mentor and is letting me help create the music score for the play."

Theo grinned. "Sophie!" He spun her around and kissed her forehead. "I am so proud of you. Let's go tell the others, yeah?"

Finn and Chase sat in awkward, deafening silence at the desk in the basement. They were both used to taking control in a situation in their own regards, but neither of them were rushing to make the first move. Sugar was passed out near their feet, snoring away.

"So," Finn started, hating the quiet.

"So."

"Where should we start?" Finn had never done any of this before. He was practically raised with a camera in his hands, but the movie-making was more Chase's realm.

"I guess we should figure out the premise." The two of them once again sat in silence as they thought. Chase huffed in frustration and turned to Finn. Finn tried to focus on the movie and not on how close Chase's face was to his. Not the time for that. "What kind of movies do you watch?"

"Horror. I love horror."

Chase's eyebrows raised. "Me too. Did you know that the actress in Carrie didn't take off her bloody clothes for three days after filming the pigs' blood scene?"

Finn smirked and nodded before thinking. "We could make our own horror movie."

"Hell yeah."

After work and telling her guys about the exciting opportunity with Dr. Blaire, Sophie went home and immediately got to work finalizing the plans for Jess's bachelorette party that would take place in two days. She needed everything to be perfect and amazing just like Jess. Sophie plopped on the couch with her laptop and went through her to-do list, ensuring everything was done and ready.

"Hey, Soph," Finn greeted. He flopped onto the couch next to her and laid a head on her lap. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to finish getting everything ready for Jess's bachelorette party."

He wiggled his brows. "Ooh, will there be male strippers?"

Sophie blushed. "Maybe, maybe not."

Finn fake pouted. "I can be your male stripper."

Her jealousy roared at the thought. "I don't really want other women seeing you naked."

Finn snickered. "You're cute when you're jealous."

She rolled her eyes playfully and smacked his head lightly. "I'm not jealous. Plus, you have your own plans this Saturday."

He sat up and looked at her. "I do?"

She nodded with a grin. "Yep, you and the guys will be out with Darius for his bachelor party."

He blinked. "And when were you going to tell us?"

She smiled innocently. "I just did."

He sighed. "I don't know, Sophie. I don't know where we would take him, I doubt any of us have much interest in hitting up a strip club."

"You'll be fine. Get creative." He turned his body and groaned into her lap, making her body freeze. He was dangerously close. "Finn, stop it. I need to finish making this party perfect."

"Fine." He huffed and turned on a movie while Sophie finished her task.

She needed it all to be perfect.