You're Not Allowed To Fall in Love With Me (COMPLETED)

Chapter 43

WARNING: Probably a huge filler chapter

"Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap." Aaron whispered, walking around the dressing room aimlessly and fidgeting with his hands.

"Hey, you okay?" Someone asked, making him jump. It was the girl playing Sandy.

"Hm, uh, yeah. Perfectly fine." He said, forcing a smile. She raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing any of it. "It's just, this is my first performance so..."

"Hey, you'll do fine." She said, smiling gently. "This is my first performance too. Well, as a lead. But you'll do great. Promise."

She smiled at him again and walked off, going over to talk to a teacher about something. Aaron sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm himself down. He was only playing Sonny. He barely had any lines. He shouldn't be getting this worked up.

"Oh crap, how many people are in the audience?" He thought suddenly. "How many people are going to see me screw up?"

He did a quick head count of every actor in the shared dressing room. About 36. So if everyone's parents were coming to watch them, that was about 72. Roughly 72 people were in the audience. And that's not even counting siblings and friends. "Oh shit." He whispered. "Dear God, this is not going to end well."

"You okay?" Another person asked, making him jump. "Oh, sorry."

"No, it's fine, Roman." Aaron said. "And yes, I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be? There's going to be a minimum of 72 people tonight watched my screw up!"

"Hey, hey, calm down. Breathe." Roman said, putting a hand on Aaron's shoulder. "You'll be fine. It's just stage nerves. Everyone feels them before a show."

"You don't seem to." Aaron mumbled, trying to breathe more normally. Roman laughed.

"Yeah but that's because I've got stage make-up on. Underneath this?" He said, pointing at his face. "Pale as anything. We all handle our nerves in different ways and my way of handling it is trying to look like Dracula around Halloween."

Aaron laughed and Roman smiled. "There's the laugh I was trying to get out of you. Now come on. You need to be miked if you want to be heard."

Aaron let out a quiet, wild laugh as he ran out into the biting cold, his own hoodie safely pulled down over his own jeans. He'd actually done it. First performance ever at this high school and he'd gotten through it without slipping up once. He danced around the quad, laughing manically, until someone put a hand on his shoulder.

"Nice show, Sonny." Luella said, giggling slightly and handing her brother some flowers. "Sorry I couldn't get much. They were almost all out at the shops and the only plants at home that are still alive are lavender so..." She trailed off. Aaron smiled at her.

"Thanks Lu." He said, laughing again.

"You were really good." Luella said, taking Aaron's hand and pulling him towards the car park. "Now come on. Mum and dad are waiting for their little star."

"I'm not little!" Aaron protested. "I'm 15."

Luella rolled her eyes but didn't pursue the argument. Let Aaron have one night argument free.

"But seriously, you were awesome." Luella said, laughing slightly. "Why didn't you chose drama as one of your GCSEs? You're obviously very good at it."

"One word, dear sister." Aaron said, laughing. "Anxiety." He threw his free arm out with a flourish, nearly dropping the bouquet of lavender. They both laughed.

"Hey, um, I think I saw Roman somewhere over there. Wanna congratulate him?" Luella asked, pointing vaguely.

"Nah." Aaron said a little quickly. "He's already being congratulated. Wouldn't want to make things awkward."

Luella looked up to where Aaron was looking. He was right.

"Hi." Virgil muttered awkwardly.

"Oh, hey Virge." Roman smiled.

"I, um, I came to see the show. You were really good." Virgil muttered, his eyes flitting to Roman's face and then back to the ground again. "Anyway, I, um, I got you these. Sorry that it's not much." He muttered, producing a small bouquet of violets.

"Thank you, Virgil." Roman said, smiling. Virgil smiled back for a second before turning and walking away. Roman looked down at the violets and smiled to himself. "Not far to go now." He hoped.

Hi! Sorry about the huge filler chapter... it's nearly 8 am where I live and I'm running solely on delusion and a piece of gum (don't ask). Anyway...
Bye,
Queenie