Love, Eliot

Tango: Maureen

The doors slid open and a familiar smirk greeted me.

"Were you just moaning in there?" Josiah asked with a grin that made my moment of bliss come to an abrupt halt.

I froze in place and struggled to gain control of my shaking legs. Deny, deny, deny. "No."

He wouldn't take his eyes off my disheveled figure, "If you say so,"

"I don't have to prove anything," I snapped. He always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on who was asked. Josiah raised an eyebrow at my outburst and watched as I rushed past him.

I glanced at my phone in the hallway, no new messages. I took my getaway in long strides; I hurried down the stairs in hopes of avoiding the same smug look that Josiah always had plastered across his face.

Shame and the fear of being late to rehearsal fueled my jog across campus. Josiah shouldn't have been waiting for the elevator, he should have been early to rehearsal like all the rest of the leads. Ms. Wright already drilled into our heads that tardiness, and drunkenness, had fatal consequences.

I lept up the front stairs to the building and flew through the halls to make it with a minute to spare. The room stopped and turned to watch me descend the slanted theater floor.

I opened my mouth to say something apologetic or lie about my goldfish dying but one look at Ms. Wright's warning glare and I decided to keep it to myself.

When I joined the rest of the cast on stage I noticed a familiar pair of dark eyes in the first row of seating. If I could have risked using my phone without being reprimanded I would have asked Drew why he was at rehearsal.

The presence of another teacher and many other students were clues that today wouldn't be another average day with my toes getting stepped on.

Ms. Wright tapped her shoe as Josiah strolled through the door. While his relaxed demeanor was convincing, I knew he ran the whole way across campus. The wind tossed around his hair and he hadn't even bothered to smooth it out.

"Ah," Ms. Wright chimed with flames in her voice, "Our Roger is here."

Josiah opened his arms as he walked, "Yes, here I am," The spectacle earned a few hushed chuckles from the cast. I rolled my eyes and faced the crowd. Actors.

Ms. Wright clicked her tongue and turned back to the teacher who held a striking resemblance to Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, "We're ready to start now that everyone has decided to show up,"

Ms. Frizzle waved her hands, "Wonderful, we can't wait to see it."

I glanced at the other confused faces surrounding me and earned an uncomfortable smile from Drew.

"I see some worried expressions," No shit, "If you all had arrived on time you would have heard my announcement." Ms. Wright paused to give us time to reflect on our poor choices, "Today we will be performing for Mrs. Delaney's journalism class. They are going to watch our performance and write a brief review for their website projects."

The cast mumbled and whined about the potential humiliation but Ms. Wright cut us off, "I think a live crowd would be a good way to get all of you to focus."

Within the next few minutes, the lights were dimmed and we prepared for the opening act. For many of us, including me, that meant waiting backstage.

I shifted on the balls of my feet while I searched for Rosemary in the crowd.

At best Josiah heard everything that happened in the elevator but at worst he was the one who orchestrated it.

I moved everywhere he wasn't and avoided eye contact as if my eyes would melt if I failed. His friends made fun of his attention-seeking entrance and asked why he was late. He turned in my direction and cued my escape to a different part of the room.