"Take five guys!" Mr. Director said exhausted. It had been a long day and we had barely made it through the first act. I swung down from my perch on the catwalk and ran up behind Dez.
I put my hands on her shoulders and felt her jolt. We had become close friends over the weeks and now it was my daily job to tease her. She turned around with a cute annoyed face. "Really Ryan?" She rolled her eyes and I chuckled. I puffed out my chest and imitated the choreographer,
"Young lady this is no time for your sarcasm!" A phrase Mr.Bellows used often on her.
She laughed and pushed me playfully. The back of the theater opened up into a park, I dropped myself down on the grass and looked up at the sky. Dez tripped over me, cursing under her breath she crawled by my side obviously bored. She sighed and closed her eyes. The sun was setting and the air was getting chilly. Dez was soon fast asleep, in between running through scenes and grabbing coffee for the director she was tired to say the least. I watched her arms shiver and pulled off my jacket laying it on her. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment and she smiled at me gratefully before falling back into sleep.
Gosh was she beautiful.
What was I doing?
I was falling for a girl who had no interest in me. The only guy she had ever talked about was Trace, she had a long standing crush on him and he liked her too. I just hoped she would never find out otherwise I wouldn't stand a chance. Not that I did anyway.
"Scene 4! Ryan your on lights!"
I sighed and started to get up. I looked over at Dez one more time, and I couldn't resist, I brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. My hand lingering on her cheek.
I snapped out of my trance and ran to the ladder leaving Dez alone on the grass.
~
I almost fell asleep in the next scene. The lighting set up was boring and easy, I could barely keep my eyes open while the cast stmbled over their lines.I heard a door open into the theater and a very dazed, very sleepy, Dez walked in and sat on one of the spots looking toward the theater. She smiled and waved up at me, I waved back. I to the painful acting below me doing a gun motion to my head. She laughed and nodded. She was in one of her costumes, a casual dress with some simple jewlery. She had my jacket around her shoulders as she started to doze off again.
~
After rehearsal I walked home with Dez like I did every night. We always walked back together now that we knew we lived near eachother. Dez began talking about Trace and what he did at school that day and yadayada. I imitated Traces deep voice best I could
"Hey. I'm Trace. I'm a pretty boy." I flipped my hair dramatically and ran my fingers through it.
Dez started laughing and couldnt stop.I started running my hands through my hair in a Trace motion again but she grabbed my hand and fell agaisnt me laughing.
"Stop stop! I can't breathe!" She said gasping for air between laughs.I felt like a rush of warmth washed through me when she touched my hand. I wondered if she had felt it too but I brushed the thought away.
I grinned as we kept walking. She would randomly start laughing again thinking back to my awesome impersonation I'm sure.
We stopped in front of her house and she gave me a quick brotherly hug before running inside. I watched the door slam behind her. And realized how much trouble I was in.
