A Bet- Waiting For A Cue

"Light crew! Can you guys dim the light during the second scene when Justin, umm I mean Marco, walks toward..........." After the rehearsal, the director was giving notes for the production, but Ava who was the freshman newbie of the theater didn't pay a lot of attention to it. Instead, she locked her eyes on Marco, her best friend and her crush. She believed that this was one of the perks to have your crush as your best friend, and her mind just drifted away Did his eyes always look like this? I mean....I don't want to sound creepy, but I think......

"Can you imagine that we are actually in this production?" Marco, who was acting as Ava's brother in this production, asked.

"What?" Ava quickly dragged her mind back to reality," Oh, sorry. I wasn't really paying attention. Can you repeat that?"

"And that is what I call daydreaming," Marco poked Ava's head and laughed. "I mean it's really hard for me to believe that two freshmen can get this kind of big parts!"

"I guess it is because we are both naturals at acting," Ava joked with an exaggerated tone and both of them started giggling. "And I won't consider the fact that a random girl has a crush on the male lead, and her overly protective brother as major characters of the play!"

"At least we get to act with each other," Marco gave Ava a big smile, which made Ava smile back."Let's go, we are going to be late for your bus!"

Ava and Marco walked side by side down from the rehearsal room to the bus stop. They had this "tradition" that after rehearsals, Marco would walk with Ava to her bus stop; this started after the day Ava tripped over the stairs when she was trying to catch the bus. According to Marco, he was trying to "protect his little sister from the dangerous stairs".

"So, are you going to the cast bonding tomorrow?" Marco asked while trying to act as casual as he could be.

" Probably.... I mean I don't know a lot of people in the production yet." she replied.

" Isn't that the reason we have cast bondings ?" Marco turned his face to Ava and said " Don't be shy, try to become Jenna! Well.....you are Jenna in a certain way, since she is your character." Both of them laughed.

" I know she is really brave in terms of her relationship with her friends and her crush, but in reality there are many more things that need to be considered," Ava looked into his eyes and said. " Things like school work, other's feelings, and..... the possibility of ruining a friendship." she looked down at her feet and hoped that Marco won't realize the meaning behind this.

"W..well sometimes you just have to give it a try," he said " Isn't it always better to feel sad than to regret it?"

Ava turned her eyes toward Marco and said " I guess so."

"Anyway, as your overly protective brother, I allow you to go, " both of them started to laugh," it's going to be fun!!"

" I'll try, okay?" Ava said with a big smile on her face. " Oh and remember to bring a swimming suit tomorrow!"

" Oh yea, I have swimming class tomorrow. How do you remember?"

"'Cause you always forget!"

" True...thanks! Umm..." he suddenly reached one hand up to her cheek and moved a strand of her hair that was blowing in the wind behind her ear," that's better now."

"Oh...thank you,"Ava can feel her cheeks heating up when he touched her face, but she tried to act normal and quickly replied "I think I should go on the bus now." However, what Ava failed to see is that Marco's face was blushing as well.

"Okay, see you!"

They waved to each other while the bus drove away.

Is that a bit too far? Marco thought to himself, what If she finds out that I like her? I don't want to scare her away. I really need to find out if she likes me like the way I do..... He slowly walked away and couldn't stop thinking about Ava.