Untouchable

The Wizard of Oz

Mike could feel Rob's eyes on him from across the office. He'd been studiously ignoring his assistant's glances for almost an entire hour, managing to not flinch even when Rob got extra annoying with the shaker bottle just to try to get a reaction. It was opening night of The Wizard of Oz, and Mike hadn't told Rob he was planning to stay after school for it yet. He told himself it was because it just hadn't come up organically in conversation, but it was really because he knew that Rob would see right through his excuse, or worse, start connecting the dots.

He hadn't asked Mike much about "Paul" in the past two weeks, but just the change in Mike's predictable attitude at work was enough for Rob to know things were serious. In the six years they had worked together, Mike had never been late to his morning rehearsal, but twice in the last week he'd been two minutes late to school. Mike was spending their brief lunch time texting, and grinning at his phone, instead of answering emails or doing other work. And most notably, his patience with the Bennington twins seemed to have multiplied to something almost god-like. Then there was his curious new tolerance for Dave Farrell.

It was Mike's lack of snarky responses to the theater teacher that had Rob scratching his head and trying to figure out what was up with his boss. Mike wasn't exactly friendly, but he wasn't scowling every time Dave's name came up in conversation, either. He hadn't made any disparaging remarks about the upcoming theater production, and had even helped hook up the sound equipment for the dress rehearsal when the student in charge came down with the flu suddenly.

Eight minutes after the time they could officially leave, Mike swiveled around in his chair to face Rob, who had been staring at the side of his head for at least five straight minutes.

"What?" Mike asked, his fingers reaching for his phone without thought. "Aren't you going home?"

"You've been weird this afternoon. Something on your mind? Meeting up with Paul later?" Rob asked, looking pointedly at Mike's phone.

Mike paused. He was going see Chester later, but that didn't fit with him staying for the opening night of the play. Trying to keep his story straight was disconcerting. "Um, no, actually. I, uh, I promised Lily Bennington I'd come to the play tonight. It's opening night, and all that. I figured I could be supportive." Mike's eyes skipped away from Rob's as the other man's eyebrows raised so high in disbelief that Mike could see them over the top of his glasses frames.

"You're going to the play?" Rob asked incredulously. "A Dave Farrell production? Willingly?" Rob shook his head. "What's gotten into you, Shinoda? You hate theater. And Dave. And Lily!"

"I don't hate Lily," Mike objected immediately, his face showing signs of a mild panic as he fidgeted with the collar of his pale blue and orange pinstriped dress shirt. "Don't say that. I may not have connected with her at the start of the year, but we seem to be okay now."

"The start of the year?" Rob repeated. "You mean until March? When you figured out her name? That's like... three-quarters of the year. I didn't think she was doing that great." Rob kept staring at Mike as if he'd suddenly grown three heads.

"She's been trying harder. And Lila's really blossomed in the last month. They're turning out to be okay." Mike turned to his computer and clicked the button to shut it down for the weekend. "I don't know. Lily asked me to go, and I figured that might be the extra push she needed to see that I'm not this horrible person for wanting her to sit correctly in her chair and hold her flute right." Not to mention that if I'm ever going to take things further with Chester, I have to know that she wouldn't stand in the way. I have to be on good terms with her. All she really wants is someone to pay attention to her. I can do that... the right kind of attention in the right setting. Not the attention seeking she tries in class.