Ruby//J.D

Backstage

Today my mom drove me to school. Nothing big, She just wanted to leave the house pretty early. I was still having trouble finding some classes and Josh said he'd help me a few days ago. So, I decided to get to the school earlier than I usually do.

I waited a little while for Josh. We've been hanging out a little every now and then. I haven't had a full conversation with Josh or Tyler yet. I'm just waiting.

"Hey, Bee." I hear. I look up and see a bright pink haired Josh approaching me. I smiled widely and stood up. I waved at him and he laughed.

Since I was still getting used to the school, he decided to show me a few extra places.

"Well, this is the library. Not really fun, but sometimes I talk to the librarian about Pokemon. She's crazy about it." I laughed at his comment.

Every time I laughed, he ultimately smiled at me. I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining. He has a nice smile.

"Our next destination is the band room." I smiled and followed him. "I'm come here for first hour. I'm in band. I play the trumpet. Do you play an instrument?" I nodded.

I opened my mouth as if I were to speak, but I immediately stopped myself. Josh's smiled dropped. I pointed towards the guitar. "You play the guitar?" I nodded.

Josh took the guitar off the stand and handed it to me. "Here. Play me something." I shook my head. I have stage fright. Even though I'm not on a stage and I'm playing in front of Josh, I still get fidgety and nervous.

"C'mon. It's okay." I shook my head. I began to pick at the skin around my fingernail. Nervous habit. I pricked my skin hard to where it almost bled.

"Hey, don't do that, Bee. You're gonna bleed." He took my hands in his. I looked into his eyes and he was being sincere.

"It's okay. No need to be nervous, Bee." He said. I lightly smiled and jerked my hands away. "Oh, sorry." He said. I lightly smiled again.

I looked around and saw band trophies. They looked so pretty and shiny. My eyes widened as I stood up and looked at them. The big ones were first place at big contests. They had a lot of big trophies.

"You like them? We won them a few years ago." Josh said rubbing the back of his neck. I turned around and smiled at him.

It got quiet while I was admiring all the trophies. I never really had a childhood like most kids, I was never allowed to play in many sports as a kid. We never had the time. So I never won a trophy of any kind.

"Why don't you talk?" Josh asked. I turned around and faced Josh. I sighed. I didn't hate being asked this question, it's just hard to explain.

"You can trust me." He said. "Unless you don't feel comfortable. That's okay too." I smiled and nodded. I know someday I'll be comfortable with talking to people, but it's just hard right now.

It got quiet again. I'm used to it, considering that's all I do, stay quiet.

"Hey, I wanna show you my favorite place in this school." Josh piped up. I smiled as he grabbed my arm and dragged me to this auditorium.

We stood there in darkness. Then I heard Josh walk away. I made a protest kind of noise. I'm not a big fan of the dark. It scares the crap out of me.

I felt someone touch my shoulder. I jumped. "It's just me. Josh. Follow me." He grabbed my arm lightly and led me into a room.

I waited for something to happen, then the lights turned on. I looked around. "This is backstage. C'mere." I followed him into a secluded area.

"This is my favorite spot. No one comes in this room. I found it while chasing a mouse back here once." I smiled. "Yeah, it's pretty neat. All these props are from plays from so long ago. I come here when I need time for myself."

I nodded and looked around the room. There were a lot of old props and the room only had one window. It lit up the whole room. There were also candles around too.

"Uh, yesterday, before lunch, you looked a little tense and stressed. That's what I look like when I have an... never mind." I looked down and avoided eye contact.

I began picking at the skin around my fingernail. It got quiet. What was josh going to say?

"Did something happen yesterday?" He asked. Josh has asked quite a lot of questions today.

I shook my head. "Oh, okay. Y'know, you could come here if you need to be alone." I shook my head.

"No, no. It's okay, Bee. You can use it." I sighed and didn't respond after that.

This place was nothing much, but it was Josh's. Not mine to take over. It was something to him.

"Y'know, one time, I thought I saw a dead spider in the corner. I got closer to it, and it wasn't dead. It jumped on me and that's why there's a hole in the wall over there." I laughed.

Josh smiled widely. "I like your laugh." He said. I scrunched my eyebrows together. "Gives me an idea of what your voice might sound like." He said while tapping a beat on his legs.

I pointed to his hands. "What? My hands?" He asked raising them. I shook my head. He was confused. I imitated the beat he was doing on his legs and he caught along.

"Oh, I also play the drums." I smiled. My brother plays the drums. He used to teach me when I was younger, but I haven't seen him in years.

"Yeah. I taught myself how when I was twelve. My parents didn't let me listen to a lot of music growing up. So the drums was my way of 'breaking the rules'." I nodded.

After a few minutes of quietness, I stood up. I looked at the paintings leaning against the walls. They all looked so vintage and pretty in their own way.

"They're beautiful, right?" I nodded in amazement. "I did some research on the history of the school and this used to be an art room in the 50's. But it burned in a fire during the mid 1960's." He said.

I grazed my fingers over the dusty surface. "I found these paintings in here. I guess they began rebuilding this place and forgot about it." You could still feel the old crescent in every brush stroke.

I turned around and bumped right into Josh. I guess I hit him pretty hard because he ended up hitting his back against the light switch.

And Josh being the gentleman he is, he caught me before I could stumble down to the ground.

The lights were out and I was fairly too close to Josh. "I'm sorry. We keep ending up like this." He said. His hands were wrapped around my waist. I felt very uncomfortable.

I shuffled out of Josh's hold and stepped back. Josh quickly turned on the lights.

We were quiet. It felt awkward. Unsettling. We didn't make eye contact. I felt bad, it was my fault in the first place.

"S-Sorry." Josh stuttered. I smiled and playfully shook my head. "What's so funny?" He laughed.

His laugh made me laugh. Next thing you know, we're both laughing so much.

"What's funny?" He kept asking in between laughs. Then I hear the school bell.

I grabbed Josh's arm and drag his uncontrollably laughing self out of the back room.

"What? Tell me, Bee!" I shook my head and kept walking.