Just a Newsboy

Chapter 17

•••••Cricket's Perspective

'Could this show be going any slower?' I tapped my nails restlessly against the lighting console, glancing up at the clock on the wall for the hundredth time in the last two minutes.

With every passing second, the butterflies in my stomach grew more and more anxious.

I wasn't even sure what I was going to say, or what Josh was going to say back, but I knew I had to get it out.

Of course, I planned to fix what I'd broken so that we could go back to the way that we were, but I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to stay there.
But the very notion of being anything more than we were before made the butterflies race around even more furiously.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. 'Emotions suck.'

Eventually, the finale rolled around, and after what felt like two hours of curtain call, the show ended.

The stage manager and sound technician left as soon as all the tech was shut down, but I stayed in my chair, waiting.

It had barely been five minutes since the show ended that I heard a knock on the doorframe. "Alex?"

Immediately, I stood up and turned toward him.

He was panting slightly, suggesting that he'd changed out of costume in a hurry before booking it through the auditorium.

"Josh, I—" I began, but he cut me off.

"Wait, please." He held his hands up. "Just let me say one thing first."

I fell silent, nodding.

Josh took a deep breath. "I want to say that I'm sorry. I realize that what I did wasn't okay, and I shouldn't have done it at all."

"Well," I shrugged, "I did kind of tell you to do it,"

"But you didn't like it."

"I wouldn't say that." I mumbled, my cheeks coloring deeply.

His eyes lit up a bit at my comment, but his expression was still full of regret. "I like being your best friend, Cricket, and if what I did messed that up, then I can just...kind of...go away. If you want," he added hastily.

I shook my head. "I don't want you to go away, Josh."

"Oh, okay," he slid his hands into his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Then, what do you want?"

"I want us to be best friends, like you said, but I..."I broke off, blushing furiously and unsure of how to phrase my thoughts. "Sorry,"

"Oh, no, please don't apologize." He said, shaking his head rapidly. "I just wanted to hear what you think."

"I don't know what I think." I snapped. "Well, I know what I think, but I'm not poetic or anything stupid like that, so it won't sound right if I say it."

Josh's eyes stared at me pleadingly. "No, don't worry about that. Please...please, say it."

"You'll laugh at me."

"I won't. I swear."

I huffed angrily, crossing my arms and tapping my foot restlessly against the carpeted floor. "All I know...all I know is that since I stopped talking to you, I've been waking up in the morning, and—and I forget to eat breakfast. And because you're not there to remind me, I never remember."

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, but I scowled hard at him and he quickly covered it up.

"And then you left me, a couple days ago, because I was being difficult...like I always am." I went on, racking my brain for more words. But when I came up empty, I groaned in frustration and all I could manage to say was, "I haven't eaten breakfast in, like, a week."