Before It Rains

We sat on a bench outside the mall for fifteen minutes without speaking to each other. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t care what he thought about it, really. I just wanted to know where we stood. Friends or no friends, I needed to know what he was thinking. Jeremy was right. Maybe he didn’t quite have MY best interests at heart, but the reasoning was accurate. I scooted down the bench until I was sitting next to him. He looked over at me surprised, and then looked back.

“Austin. I’m really sorry.” I couldn’t really think of how else to start the conversation and that seemed as good a place as any. He at least deserved to hear that much.

He looked torn for a minute, like he couldn’t decide whether he really wanted to have this conversation or not, but he couldn’t avoid me.

“You don’t really have anything to be sorry for, I guess. I haven’t exactly been the easiest person to talk to since... you know...” he trailed off.

“Yeah. But I didn’t try. And I ran off without giving you an explanation, and I least owed you that. I’m sorry. I freaked out.”

“Well that was enough of an answer, Sam,” he told me. Ouch. True.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Do you want to tell me something?” he countered.

“Not really.”

“Then please do,” he said. I smacked his arm. “Hey, you offered.”

“When I ran away from you, you asked me if I liked Will. But I was too busy processing the fact you had just asked me out to think about that. I guess it seemed to you like the answer to that was yes, but I really don’t know. I’ve only known you all of you for a few months. I don’t know enough and I can’t make a decision.”

“You did make a decision. You ran away.” Also true.

“I don’t think I can date you, Austin. You’re sweet, and one of my best friends, but I think it would be like dating my brother.” I looked up at him. He winced. I’d played the brother card, which probably hadn’t been the best idea. “That was the wrong thing to say.”

“Probably.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But really I just want to know if you want to be friends.”

“Well will you promise me something?”

“No way. You tell me what it is and THEN maybe I’ll promise,” I told him.

He half smiled. “Fine. Promise me that if you ever do decide to date someone, you’ll tell me first.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Okay.”

We chatted about stuff until the bus came. It doesn’t matter what stuff. I had my friend back.

*******

“What happened to you guys?” Max asked as we opened the door to Will and Austin’s room. “We barely made the bus, and thought you guys were already on it!”

“Well obviously THAT wasn’t the case now, was it?” I said, pretending to be bitter. Missing that bus had actually been the best thing that had happened in awhile.

“You didn’t think to maybe call?” Austin asked. All of them sat in the room and blinked at us. Austin looked at me and rolled his eyes. Everyone in the room picked up on the fact that we’d reconciled and turned back to the TV.

There was a knock on the door, and looking around, I realized they were all too engaged to answer it. I started to answer the door when it flew open. It was Jeremy.

“Well just let yourself in, why don’t you?” I grumbled. He rolled his eyes.

“Were you planning on showing for rehearsal today?” I blinked. Goddamn. Rehearsal.

“No, but I am now,” I told him. Everyone was leaving after classes on Tuesday for the Thanksgiving holiday, so Mr. Samuels was throwing in as much rehearsal time as he could before everyone left for nearly a week. I’d forgotten all about it. I followed Jeremy out the door and over to the auditorium.

“Sorry, Mr. Samuels!” I yelled as we hurried into the auditorium. My voice echoed off the walls and ceiling, the acoustics being so good. He just raised his eyebrows at me as I mounted the stairs to the stage. “What are we doing?”

“We’re going to run through the stuff between you and Jeremy and Connor,” he said. “I’d really like to get it nailed down today since you guys are all going to be gone next week.” Connor was a senior and was playing Ali Hakim, the other point of my love triangle. He was nice enough, and I actually didn’t mind having rehearsals with him and Jeremy.

“Actually. Correction. I’ll be here next week. You can work with me all you like!” I chirped. I was in an unusually good mood after my talk with Austin, and forgot my bitterness about being stuck at the school for the next week with no one except my brother.

“Yes, Sam, but no one else will be here. So let’s get started. Mark the flips and dance steps please,” he said. I looked down at my arm. It was coming out of the sling next week. It’d make my life so much easier once it was gone. I hated marking.

We went through the scene. I’d pretty much memorized all my lines, although I’d forget them from time to time. When we got to the end of the scene before Connor’s exit, Mr. Samuels yelled out from his seat in the front row of the audience. “Okay. Go back, and this time, kiss her.”

I dropped my head and sighed. “Really? Now?” Mr. Samuels nodded. “Like, actually?”

“Like, actually,” he repeated. “Either now, or you do it in front of the cast at the next rehearsal. What’s it going to be?”

I looked over at Connor. “Now,” we said together.

We backed up to the part right before it, he said his line, and we kissed. I refuse to go into details on the entirety of this particular subject, but it was a little more awkward with my arm in a sling. I imagine it sort of messed up the effect, but I ignored it.

“Sam,” Mr. Samuels said from the front row. “Don’t pull away so fast.” I frowned. It’d seemed plenty long to me.

“Yeah, Sammy, feel the love!” Jeremy yelled at me front his perch on the lip of the stage.

“You’re next, Jeremy,” Mr. Samuels pointed out.

I spun around. “Him too?” He nodded. “Try that one more time with Connor, and then we’ll continue,” he said.

We did it again. “Good. Good. Keep going.” We continued with the scene, Jeremy made his entrance, and Connor made his exit. Great.

“So the flip will actually go right into the kiss, but seeing as Sam’s not quite in a position to do that, just skip the flip and kiss.”

“Ready?” Jeremy raised his eyebrows at me.

“I mean, at least I’ll be dizzy before this so I won’t remember it, right?” Connor laughed and Jeremy tried to give me a little shove, but I backed up quickly, holding up my sling. “Nuh uh. You’ve done enough damage.”

“I said I was sorry! Like seventy times!” he grumbled.

“I know. I just like to bring it up.” I grinned.

“Are you guys going to get going today or what?” Mr. Samuels asked with a sigh.

“Sure. Let’s go, Jeremy,” I said. He said his line and grabbed me around the waist, pulling me in for a kiss. He was actually pretty convincing, so I followed his lead. As I pulled away, I made a face at him. “You can’t do better than that?”

“You really want to go there?” he asked, crossing his arms. “We can do it again.”

“Nope, nope. I think that’s quite enough for one day,” I said. “Are we done?”

I looked down at Mr. Samuels and he nodded. “We’ll... we’ll work on it.”

As I was leaving the theater with Jeremy and Connor, Mr. Samuels stopped me. “Are you really going to be on campus next week?”

“Yeah,” I told him, wrinkling my nose. “We don’t have the money to bus back to Florida for less than a week, so Ruben and I are staying here.”

“Look, I live just off campus, a couple of blocks down. You and your brother are welcome to join my family for Thanksgiving if you want.”

That would indeed be better than nothing. There weren’t a whole lot of restaurants open on Thanksgiving, so Ruben and I were planning on eating sandwiches. I agreed, but forgot all about the plans as we walked out of the auditorium. While we’d been inside, it had started to snow. There wasn’t much, and almost all of it was melting as it hit the ground, but I screamed and ran up and down the sidewalk. Jeremy and Connor just watched me in amazement.

“I haven’t seen snow since I was six! Look at this stuff! Isn’t it exciting?” I yelled. They both just laughed and walked towards the boys dorm. I followed, not wanting to be left behind. “How is this NOT exciting?” I asked, breathing heavily watching the warm air clouding up around my mouth. “Look! I can see my breath!”

“It snows here all the time, Sam,” Connor told me. “By next month we’ll have at least a few inches on the ground pretty much all the time.”

I opened my eyes wide. “A few inches! We’re going sledding once there’s enough! Promise?” They rolled their eyes and promised to take me sledding for the first time once there was enough of the glorious white stuff. My day had gone from the worst ever to the best ever in a matter of hours.