Perhaps (Book 1) | ✔

ACT II - Scene 2

Gloria's home — her bedroom

Thankfully, neither of my parents were awake when I snuck into the house, so I managed to dodge any questions about why I was walking around on crutches. I could likely also avoid them in the morning, as both left for work around 6:00am and I didn't need to leave until 8:00am. It wouldn't last, though: the hospital bill would arrive in the mail within a few days, and then I would have some explaining to do—and this was all assuming I could avoid being seen by either of them until then.

I wobbled up to my bedroom, and readied myself for sleep. I felt exhausted from the unexpected trip to the emergency room; but when I laid down, I found that I couldn't sleep. My mind was too focused on Sean's question.

The more I thought about it, the more unsure I felt about it. It wasn't that I thought Sean wouldn't make for a good date: it was more that I hadn't been expecting him to ever ask me out. I couldn't discern my own feelings about the idea of dating Sean—but I did feel disappointment when a part of me quipped that the question hadn't come from the person I secretly wished it had.

Professor Lee.

I really wanted to smack some sense into myself, just as I always did whenever I thought about the possibility of him and I being together. There was no way that would ever happen. He was my teacher. I was his student.

His incredibly stupid student that has a crush on him...

I began to think back to the day he and I had practiced the scene leading up to "Perhaps". It was one of my favorite memories to revisit when I would lay in bed at night unable to fall asleep. I remembered how beautifully he had taken up the role of 'Daniel', completely on the spot; how he had done so well at pretending to be out of breath, and pretending to be injured. And then, I remembered my favorite part of that day: the moment where he had taken my hand and pressed it against his chest.

"It started the first time I saw you..."

"God! He wasn't talking about you, Gloria!" I hissed, grabbing the second pillow on my bed and slamming it down over my face. I resisted the urge to scream in frustration into it. "He was pretending! He was playing 'Daniel' and I was playing 'Gloria'! His words were not actually his words! You really need to get that through your head!"

But, try as I might, it never did seem to get through my head...

Sean was a nice boy. He was talented. He was handsome. He had proven to be an excellent co-star—I thought we had a lot of chemistry on the stage when we would act together—and he was an excellent friend. If we clicked so well on-stage, then it should be easy enough for us to click well off-stage, right? Could we have the same chemistry as...boyfriend and girlfriend?

But—

I shook my head. I needed to let go of the silly crush I had on Professor Lee. It would never go anywhere. And, even if by some crazy twist of fate that it did, we wouldn't be able to do "normal couple things" like go out on dates together, hold hands in public, kiss in public, share selfies on social media...

Professor Lee didn't like me like that; and I was just going to embarrass myself if I didn't let my feelings towards him go. I needed to let him go.

The best way to do that would be to see other people.

I reached over to my nightstand for my phone. Sean had said to think about my answer, and then text it to him, so that was what I was going to do.

'I thought about what you had asked me earlier, and I have decided that yes—I would like to go out to dinner with you sometime.'

I hit SEND, and then quickly added an addendum.