Christmas On Hart Street

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

~Jerome~

       I wasn't going to lie, I was surprised when Nolan agreed to joining the a cappella competition. His stage fright really got to him at times and I didn't want to push him into performing with us if it was something he didn't want.

       However, during the rehearsals we had since he decided to join, he seemed like he was having a lot of fun. Not only that, but it was really distracting him from the fact that we were going to have to sleep in the school tonight.

       I was really happy Nolan decided to join us. It finally sounded the way we wanted it too. He was the last piece of the puzzle we needed so there was actually a chance we were going to win this thing.

       Hopefully.

       While we were rehearsing, I thought that a few students would come into the auditorium because it meant being able to sleep on comfortable chairs but so far, nobody else came into the auditorium. Either they found more comfortable places to sleep or they were too lazy to move from the rooms they were in.

       Around eight o'clock was when we decided to cut off rehearsals for the rest of the day because that was basically all we've been doing, with breaks of course.

       But when rehearsals stopped, that was when Nolan's meltdown started to come.

       I went to the washroom backstage and when I came back, Nolan was hiding in his sleeping bag and I could have sworn I heard him quietly sobbing.

       I walked over to him and crouched down beside him. "You okay?"

       "I'm fine," Nolan muttered, his voice sounding muffled because his sleeping bag was covering his face.

       "Can you come out of sleeping bag town?" I asked.

       "No, I'm here on vacation," Nolan said. "Come back next week."

       I tried lowering the sleeping bag so I could see Nolan, but he was determined to not let me see him. I sighed, letting go of the sleeping bag. "Nolan, you don't have to talk about your feelings if you don't want to. I just want to snuggle with you."

       "Get your own sleeping bag."

       "The school doesn't have sleeping bags."

       "Then boo hoo."

       I sighed again, deciding to give Nolan his space right now. If he didn't even want to snuggle with me right now, then it was best to give him his space. So I walked over to the stage and pulled myself onto it, sitting at the edge of it. I looked to see what everyone else was doing. Orchid and Atticus were watching videos on his phone, Ryder and Mae were dancing because that was all they did, and Brandon was trying to get Alan to stop complaining.

       "Do you ever shut up?" Brandon asked. "Seriously, all you've been doing is complaining about everything."

       "Well, it's things I should complain about," Alan said. "I'm hungry, Brandon. I haven't eaten all day."

       "You ate a sandwich at lunch," I said.

       "That's not enough," Alan said.

       "You also ate Brandon's face," Ryder said.

       "Oh, ha ha, very funny," Alan said. "Does anyone wanna raid the cafeteria with me?"

       "I'm pretty sure they're serving food in the cafeteria for us since we're stuck here," Atticus said, still looking at his phone. "At least, that's what I heard Mrs. Goth say."