If You Only Knew

Chapter 21 ~ All By Myself

Darren's POV

I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body as we bolted out of the cab, Kaley's hand tightly gripping mine. I don't even know how much money I had given the driver, but seeing as he didn't call out after us, he wasn't complaining about it. I had most likely given him a fairly nice tip.

"Time check!" I called back to Kaley as we hurried into the building through the back door.

"6:50," she replied, panic lacing through her voice. I had ten minutes to get changed, get my mic on, and be ready to go onstage.

"Darren Criss!" Ryan's very angry voice made us stop in our tracks. We turned to face him and I could tell that he was furious. His face was red with anger and his eyes were blazing. I could almost see flames dancing in them.

"Do you realize what time it is?!" his voice was quiet but full of anger.

"Ryan, you can scold me later, but right now I have to go get changed," I said, turning away from him to head down the hall.

"Nine minutes, Darren!" he called out after me. "A word, Miss Grant." I felt Kaley's hand slip from mine. I looked back at her, worried, but she shooed me away.

"Go," she said, pushing me away.

"But-" I started, not wanting to leave her to deal with Ryan alone.

"Go!" she pushed me harder this time. "You don't have time to argue! Now go!" With a sigh, I turned and left her, my stomach churning with dread as I imagined what Ryan was going to say to her...

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Kaley's POV

The word terrified did not even begin to describe how scared I was to turn around and face Ryan. He was super mad at Darren, and they worked together. How mad was he going to be at me? He barely even knew who I was.

I took a deep breath before turning around to face the man who had invented the show that had changed my life.

"Mr. Murphy," I began, my mind frantically trying to think up some reason why he shouldn't have me fired.

"I don't want to hear it," he cut me off. My heart caught in my chest. This was it. He had always been a very blunt, straight-to-the-point kind of guy. He was going to fire me.

"Miss Grant, I am ver-" he started to say.

"Kaley!" Vicky's voice suddenly cut him off. "There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you! I need you Stage Right immediately to help with last minute mic adjustments." She grabbed my arm and started to pull me away. Ryan started to say something, but Vicky just cut him off again.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Murphy, but I need my employee now," she said, very dismissive like. "Whatever you need to talk to her about can be done after the show. Right now, I need her." Vicky quickly led me away without another comment to Ryan.

I could not believe that that had just happened. I had been moments away from being fired, but had been saved at the last second... But I wasn't completely out of the fire yet.

"Vicky, I just wanted to tell you that it's been an honour working with you," I told her as she led me towards the stage. "I cannot thank you enough for this experience." My voice cracked as I spoke, causing Vicky to stop suddenly and turn to look at me.

"Kaley, why are you telling me this?" she asked. "That's something that you would say on the last day of the show... Kaley, what's wrong?"

"I'm afraid that this may be my last day," I confessed, trying to hold back the tears that were pricking my eyes. "I think that Ryan's going to fire me."