Folie

Act II, Scene 1

Brendon paced around the empty lecture hall, twenty thoughts racing through his head with each step he took. He looked at the clock and then the door expectantly. He was an hour early, and he knew that, but still, not one person wanted to come in early, pick up a script, and start running lines?

Take a breath, Brendon, it's just the first day of rehearsals. Give them a chance.

He took a shallow breath. He felt no better. How could he when he had to rehearse and direct an entire musical in one semester, when Patrick and Pete hadn't even finished writing
the second two acts. In fact, he hadn't even seen them since before winter break.

Almost as if on cue, the door crashed open into the wall, cutting into Brendon's thoughts.

"Here it is, Brendon! The second act!" Patrick exclaimed breathlessly, "I just finished editing it. Happy New Year, by the way," he said as he panted down the steps of the hall.

"No third act, yet?" Brendon blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Well, no, but we got about a third of the way done during break," Patrick said, nervous and rather hurt that Brendon reacted with disappointment.

"Sorry, I mean, thank you, Patrick. I really appreciate this. I'm just anxious, is all,"

"It's understandable. You have a lot on your plate right now," Patrick said in consolation, as he stood next to Brendon and began rubbing his back to soothe him, "why don't we just go over the new act, sound good? You're really going to like some of the scenes Pete wrote..."

---

Patrick twiddled his fingers nervously as Brendon explained the rehearsal schedule to everyone. Joe and Dallon flanked him on either side, almost as if they had conspired to make Patrick as nervous as possible during rehearsal. He also cursed Pete again for arriving late, leaving him no protection on at least one side of him. Then again, he wondered why both Joe and Dallon chose to sit next to Patrick, when there were so many other people in the room they could have chosen.

"Alright, first, we're going to do some exercises, then we'll be splitting up to read through scenes," Brendon told the group.

Patrick waited with baited breath as Brendon began listing out scenes. He suspected that Brendon would want to rehearse one of the special scenes that took place between his character and Dallon's. Patrick didn't know what scene Brendon would want him to start with, though. Part of him wished for one of his scenes with Pete, just for comfort's sake, but part of him-

"Patrick will rehearse with Joe, and I will go with Dallon," he finished with a smirk, and pointed to which scenes he wanted the two pairs to work on. Patrick gulped so harshly, he could swear the others heard him. Not only did Brendon choose one of his special scenes, he also assigned Joe and Patrick to work on one of their special scenes too. Patrick knew immediately that Brendon did this on purpose. 

"Mm, looks like we get to have a little fun in this scene," Joe smirked as he read through their lines.

Patrick felt his cheeks flush again at Joe's audacious comment. 

"Yeah," he giggled, "I guess we do." 

"Wanna run through our lines? We don't actually have to kiss at the end if you don't want to yet, it's up to you."

"We can play it by ear," Patrick said shyly. 

Running lines with Joe felt very natural to Patrick, making it easy for him to become his character. Of course, it helped that the romantic tension that Pete wrote into the relationship between Vaughn and Mark very much reflected the tension Patrick felt with Joe in that moment. At least, Patrick felt it. He wasn't sure about Joe, but he did notice Joe's lingering brushes on his arms, and the way he held Patrick's glance with his own for just a second too long. Like a musical crescendo, Patrick felt bows pressing into strings and mallets rolling on kettle drums as he and Joe leaned in closer, their lines getting shorter, hearts beating faster, lips- 

"Okay guys, time to switch scenes," Pete announced, dragging a visibly livid Brendon from his own scene with Dallon. 

If Patrick hated Pete for making him sit between Joe and Dallon earlier, he absolutely loathed him now.