Two Days Later
"Now do you forgive me?" Aiden asked as DeMarius happily sipped his 'Chick-fil-a' lemonade.
"Yes." He smiled.
"Bonus points for buying the rest of us food too." Josh said.
"Ha!" She pointed at me. "Count 'em up, sucker!"
I rolled my eyes and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper, penciling another tally mark by her name.
"What time do we have to leave?" She asked me as the others resumed their conversations.
"Seven, or so."
She checked the time on her phone. "So, in like, twenty minutes?"
I nodded. "We'll probably catch a bus or a taxi, drop these three off at the hotel, and then go to the theatre straight from there."
"I don't have time to change into anything nice, then."
I shrugged. "Neither do I."
"How formal is it supposed to be? I wore a dress to Wicked,"
"We didn't have any time. It'll be fine."
"The uncertainty is stressing me out."
I laughed at how serious the situation was to her. "Are you comfortable in what you're wearing now?"
She glanced down at her jeans and t-shirt. "Yeah, but—"
I shook my head. "That's all that matters. I'm taking you to see this because I want you to have fun, and I want you to be comfortable in having fun."
She gave me a small smile. "Okay."
Ben tapped me on the shoulder. "Should we get going?" He lowered his voice. "I wouldn't want to make you guys late for your date."
"Shut up."
"Well?" He pressed.
I looked down at the time that my phone was displaying. "Yes, we should get going."
After discarding our trash and finding a taxi to drive us back, we dropped the boys off at the hotel.
"Try to have fun without me!" Josh called.
"They won't have to work too hard." Ben teased him.
"Jerk." Josh shoved him aside.
"No fighting!" DeMarius screeched.
"I literally feel like a mom who just left her two-year-old kids with a babysitter." Aiden laughed as we drove away.
"And the babysitter is also two years old." I added.
"Yep."
•••••
"What's this one about?" She asked as we took our seats.
"I haven't seen it in so long," I racked my brain for any specific details of the plot.
"Just the general idea." She said, again reading my expression.
"Um, the entire production is basically 'King of New York'."
"Lots of tap dancing?"
"It's about a tap dancer. Sorry, that's a really bad comparison."
She shook her head, before absentmindedly letting her eyes wander about the theatre.
"I kind of want to see Newsies."
"Don't you see it every night?"
