You're the One I Need

“It’s spring break and, of course, Michigan has snow.” Greysin O’Malley grumbled to herself as she pulled her peacoat tighter. The walk from her dorm to the theater was an obnoxiously long one, and ever after four months of this California girl’s first midwest winter, Greysin still despised the sound of her long, curly brown hair crinkling against the cold wind as it froze around her numb cheeks. The musty heat of the theater was all the more welcoming when she heaved open the ancient, massive wood doors.

The lights took a moment to flicker on. Nobody was around, most of Starkid was spending spring break in the Florida Keys. Greysin was SUPPOSED to go to California for the week... With her boyfriend since high school, Robinson Peese. But just three weeks ago, when Greysin had called him to get the details for booking her plane ticket, Robinson dumped her cold.

He had said, “You spend all your fucking time with those theater kids. I get that you’re gonna be in some play and all, but you never have time for anything else.”

“That’s not true,” Greysin had replied through welling tears. “I mean, it’s important to me, of course I’m going to work hard to make sure I do well in the play. And I’m so far from home, these guys have become like a family for me...”

“What about that Joey kid?”

“Joey Richter?” Greysin’s heart had skipped at the feeling of his name on her lips. “What- what about him?”

“It’s just funny to me how you spend a lot of your “family” time with one guy.”

“Rob, I love YOU! What are you accusing me of?”

“I’m not going to sit around and get played anymore.”

“I’m not PLAYING you, Rob!” The sobs had escaped Greysin’s chest now.

“It’s over. You obviously have feelings for this guy. You can’t tell me that’s not true, can you?”

She had hesitated. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t deny the fact that Joey made her feel differently than any other guy she was close to here. She wouldn’t lie to herself about that, and she wouldn’t lie to Robinson either. Instead of denying what her heart was telling her, Greysin had whispered “you don’t trust me?”

“Goodbye, Greysin.”

“Wait! I’m sorry! I-”

Click.

A shiver ran through Greysin’s spine as she was sucked back into the present. She was standing alone on the hollow floor of the stage, looking out into the hundreds of empty seats. In a matter of weeks, they’d be filled with people watching her sing and dance. Little did they know she’d be doing it with a confused mind and a heavy heart.

Without knowing what to do, Greysin had called Joey as soon as the break up had happened. Joey wasn’t going with the gang to Florida either, instead opting to stay back in Michigan and catch up on school work that he had been tossing aside to work on the play.

She ended up spending a lot of time with Joey over the next couple weeks- even more than usual. His presence just made her infinitely more calm. Rob had ripped away the future Greysin had pictured for so long. Most of the time now, when she thought of the future, it became this confusing, frightening black fog. Around Joey... That fog lifted. And while her future still wasn’t quite as clear, it was hopeful, and it always contained Joey’s famously crooked smile.

One thing had led to another, of course, and in all their time spent together something between them lurched forward. Once spring break actually began and they found themselves in a ghost town of a campus, nothing seemed to be there to hold them apart any longer. The night Lauren, Darren, Walker, and all their friends boarded their flight for the sunny south, Greysin and Joey shared a kiss on Greysin’s shabby dorm room bunk. The kiss deepened, the heat in the room skyrocketed compared to the blizzarding subarctic outside world, and the pair ended up having sex right then and there. It was an emotional release with the intensity of a crashing waterfall, a rumbling avalanche. By the morning, though, the world had fallen still again, and Joey was gone.

That was last night.

And now, Greysin found herself a little lost, and very vulnerable. No note, no text, no sign that Joey had even been there at all. In a weird way Greysin found herself questioning if it even had happened it all.

But it must have. The warm weakness in her knees told her so. She hadn’t felt so drained since... Well, ever.

The familiar sound of “Love on Top” by Beyonce once again made Greysin start back into reality. Her phone was playing the tune and buzzing angrily on top of the piano on stage left.

Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw the Caller I.D. Robinson.

“Hello? Rob?” She croaked.

“Greysin,” he said stiffly.

“I’m glad you... I mean... Why are you calling?”

“I wanted to talk.” He sighed, loosening up a little bit. “I feel bad about what happened.”

“Oh?” Greysin peeped.

“Yeah... Listen, where are you right now?”

“Oh. Umm, just at the theater.” Greysin said, looking around suddenly as if she would get in trouble if someone saw her. “Since I wasn’t going home, I just stayed at school.”

“Alone?”

“Well... Um...”

“Joey’s there, isn’t he?”

“Not at the moment... but yes,” she exhaled tiredly.

“Oh great. So I’m sure you’re having a fucking GREAT time without me.”

She felt a burn in her throat. “Hey! Don’t get angry with me, I’m only still here because you broke up with me! If not, I’d be back home in California with you!”

“I don’t even know why I bothered to call you.”

“Rob, come on! You’re not being fair!”

“Have you slept with him?”

“What?!” She exclaimed with a mixture of fear, hurt, and vexation.

“Have you slept with him?” He asked again. Over the frequency, Greysin could still hear his anger through gritted teeth.

“That is NONE of your business anymore!”

“Have. You. Slept. With him.” He breathed even harder.

She stared at the ground stonily, this awful feeling bubbling up inside of her. “I was hurt and confused-” she began to talk louder over his scoffing and angry laughter. “You have NO idea what I have been going through!”

“How long did it take? A week? A day? An hour? Was he already over as the break up was happening?”

“You bastard!” She screamed. “YOU broke up with ME, remember?!”

“If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have!”

“You have no right to be making me feel bad!”

“You’re a slut, Greysin. That’s all you are.”

Greysin hung up the phone and threw it against the floor. Falling onto center stage, dissolving into tears, she hugged her knees into her chest and shuttered under painful sobs.

She reached down and picked her phone up off the beaten wood panels.

“Hey, this is Joey, leave a message. Beeeeeeep.” Greysin hesitated a moment, letting the white noise play through the recording. “I-” she choked out, barely audibly, before pausing again and letting her thumb gently tap the “end” button. The screen of her phone went black.

How did she get here? In just a few short weeks Greysin had gone from a girl in a relationship she thought would last forever to caught between a man who spited her and another one who she had NO idea how he actually felt about her. She couldn’t look at the empty seats in the theater anymore. She bundled back up, and began to trek back to her dorm.

Just as she was about to heave all her sapped strength into opening that wood door, a voice froze her still.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Joey was standing on the stage. Even from across the vacant theater, Greysin could see the concern in his big, brown eyes. “What happened?”

Her whispered carried across the room, “it’s nothing. Robinson called...”

Joey visibly flinched. “Oh... Are you guys... Um... Back together?”

Greysin shook her head. “No. It’s definitely over.”

A heavy silence weighed down.

“Did you tell him? About last night?” Joey asked, still so far away.

“He kind of figured it out on his own. I mean, we shouldn’t be surprised. It always seemed like it would happen at some point, right?”

“Yeah... But that doesn’t make it a mistake, does it?” He asked with a little hurt in the crack of his voice.

Greysin took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Joey. You tell me. Where were you this morning? Did you not think that with everything going on I’d be a little concerned about what we did last night?”

Joey took several quick steps forward, jumped down off the stage, and finally jogged up to Greysin, taking her hands in his.

“I’m so sorry,” he pleaded. “I woke up and I just kind of panicked. All these crazy things were rushing through my head- like you’d be mad at me, that I took advantage of you when you were hurting...”

“How could you think that?” Greysin replied. “What happened was just as much my choice as yours. I WANTED to be with you, Joey. I still do...”

“Really?”

“Really. You’ve been telling me for weeks that this break up is a blessing in disguise. You’re the reason why.”

Joey flooded Greysin’s eyes with his wide smile. Placing a hand on either one of her flushed cheeks, he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

“Joey...” She whispered when they released and she found herself being supported by the weight of Joey’s touch. “You're the one I need.”