Monsters and Men ~ Rosenwalker & Richpez

Chapter 37

TW this is going to be a violent chapter.

"Loved the show!"

"Hilarious!"

"You were amazing Joe!"

"Take off your shirt Voldemort!"

Joe waved nervously as he made his way through the crowd of people who'd been waiting in the hallway to talk to the cast. He was still in his Voldemort hair and makeup, but he'd ditched his cape for his pink Spider-Man shirt. He scanned over and over again for Zoey, not finding her anywhere. He stood up on his toes in an attempt to get a better view as two nervous freshmen boys ran up and asked him for his autograph. Joe flushed, signing the boys playbook awkwardly.

"Thank you!" The boy said happily. "My boyfriend Chad will love this! Come on Stu."

The two boys ran off, one of them carrying a football. Before Joe could even begin to remember if he knew them from the football team, he felt someone clap him on the back. "Loved the show buddy! And I don't even like this crap."

"Hey, thanks Tom!" He turned to find himself face-to-face with Tom Houston, and his incredibly pretty girlfriend, Becky Barnes. "I can't believe you guys came!"

"Of course! We wouldn't have missed it." Becky said sweetly. "Tom told me how important this was to you."

"I even dragged my step-cousin and her boyfriend along to this thing." Tom gestured to the petite girl standing behind him.

"Oh yeah, loved the show!" The girl said politely. "Didn't we Paul?"

The awkward blond boy next to her shrugged. "Eh, between this and Brigadoon, I'm starting to think that maybe I just don't like musicals."

Joe raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Do you work at Beanies coffee? You look familiar."

"God no, never been there. I've heard that the coffee is shit." She said with a laugh. "I get that a lot though. I guess maybe there's a clone of me that works there or something." She shrugged, walking off with Tom.

The Beanies girl doppelgänger left Joe even more hung up on finding his girlfriend. He couldn't even begin to process his emotions on how the show had gone until he found out what she'd thought of it. He was worried enough considering the fact that she probably hadn't understood any of the jokes. Hopefully she'd enjoyed the songs.

Joe sighed in relief as he spotted her friend Allison. She smiled at him as he waved to her. He ran over, to his disappointment finding that she was only accompanied by Craig and Beth. "Hi Joe! We loved the show!" Allison said sweetly.

"I was dying laughing," Beth added.

"Thank you!" Joe said with a forced smile. "It means a lot to me that you guys came!" He glanced awkwardly at Craig, who was wearing the hood on his hoodie even though it wasn't cold outside, looking everywhere but at Joe. "Um, do you guys know where Zoey's at?"

Craig laughed at Joe's question. Allison and Beth exchanged nervous looks. "Um, Zoey left at the end of Act One." Allison told him sympathetically.

"It was weird," Beth added. "She just sort of stormed out."

"Oh," Joe responded, not sure what to say. He could feel his chest flooding with dread. She'd left? After all of that, she hadn't watched him? "Have you heard from her at all?"

"No, Sam went to look for her during Intermission, but he never came back." Allison admitted.

Joe ran a hand through his hair, taking a step back from them. "Um, okay. Thanks for telling me." He turned away, the anxiety crawling over his skin. Had he done something to upset her? How could he? He'd been acting in a show.