If You Only Knew

Darren's POV

I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body as we bolted out of the cab, Kaley's hand tightly gripping mine. I don't even know how much money I had given the driver, but seeing as he didn't call out after us, he wasn't complaining about it. I had most likely given him a fairly nice tip.

"Time check!" I called back to Kaley as we hurried into the building through the back door.

"6:50," she replied, panic lacing through her voice. I had ten minutes to get changed, get my mic on, and be ready to go onstage.

"Darren Criss!" Ryan's very angry voice made us stop in our tracks. We turned to face him and I could tell that he was furious. His face was red with anger and his eyes were blazing. I could almost see flames dancing in them.

"Do you realize what time it is?!" his voice was quiet but full of anger.

"Ryan, you can scold me later, but right now I have to go get changed," I said, turning away from him to head down the hall.

"Nine minutes, Darren!" he called out after me. "A word, Miss Grant." I felt Kaley's hand slip from mine. I looked back at her, worried, but she shooed me away.

"Go," she said, pushing me away.

"But-" I started, not wanting to leave her to deal with Ryan alone.

"Go!" she pushed me harder this time. "You don't have time to argue! Now go!" With a sigh, I turned and left her, my stomach churning with dread as I imagined what Ryan was going to say to her...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaley's POV

The word terrified did not even begin to describe how scared I was to turn around and face Ryan. He was super mad at Darren, and they worked together. How mad was he going to be at me? He barely even knew who I was.

I took a deep breath before turning around to face the man who had invented the show that had changed my life.

"Mr. Murphy," I began, my mind frantically trying to think up some reason why he shouldn't have me fired.

"I don't want to hear it," he cut me off. My heart caught in my chest. This was it. He had always been a very blunt, straight-to-the-point kind of guy. He was going to fire me.

"Miss Grant, I am ver-" he started to say.

"Kaley!" Vicky's voice suddenly cut him off. "There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you! I need you Stage Right immediately to help with last minute mic adjustments." She grabbed my arm and started to pull me away. Ryan started to say something, but Vicky just cut him off again.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Murphy, but I need my employee now," she said, very dismissive like. "Whatever you need to talk to her about can be done after the show. Right now, I need her." Vicky quickly led me away without another comment to Ryan.

I could not believe that that had just happened. I had been moments away from being fired, but had been saved at the last second... But I wasn't completely out of the fire yet.

"Vicky, I just wanted to tell you that it's been an honour working with you," I told her as she led me towards the stage. "I cannot thank you enough for this experience." My voice cracked as I spoke, causing Vicky to stop suddenly and turn to look at me.

"Kaley, why are you telling me this?" she asked. "That's something that you would say on the last day of the show... Kaley, what's wrong?"

"I'm afraid that this may be my last day," I confessed, trying to hold back the tears that were pricking my eyes. "I think that Ryan's going to fire me."

"Why?" she seemed genuinely concerned, so I continued.

"It's my fault that Darren's late," I told her, a tear breaking through and trickling down my cheek. "I almost put the show in jeopardy and now Ryan hates me and is going to fire me!"

"Oh, Kaley!" Vicky pulled me into a hug. "It's okay, hun! I won't let that happen. I was the one who hired you and I am the only one who can fire you, okay? And I'm not going to fire you. You are a good worker, Kaley. We all slip up sometimes. I'm not going to penalize you for that." I was surprised by how understanding and caring she was. I barely knew her, yet she was comforting me like a mother would her child. Stage Manager's were usually very strict and weren't the kind of people to stand for any kind of nonsense in their theatre, yet I was seeing a very different side of Vicky.

"Why are you being so kind to me?" I asked through sniffles. "So understanding?"

"You remind me of a younger version of myself," she admitted, starting to lead us towards the stage again, her arm resting gently around my shoulders. "Heaven knows I've made many mistakes in my life, but if we let those mistakes knock and hold us down, then we'll never be able to reach our true potential."

"I'm not going to penalize you for this, Kaley," she said as she pushed open the Stage Right door, her voice softening as we passed through it. "Just learn from your mistakes and try to not make the same ones twice, okay? That, and learn to keep better track of your time." A teasing smile spread across her lips and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Yes, Ma'am!" I promised, nodding.

"Alright, Kaley, why don't you help Darren with his mic pack?" Vicky's comment caught me off guard. I looked up and found myself looking at a very Michael Jackson looking Darren. I honestly think that he had just pulled off the world's fastest costume change.

"Hey," I whispered as I walked over to him. Since we were Stage Right in what were called the "wings" of the stage, we had to be very quiet so that our voices wouldn't travel out into the audience.

"Hey," he smiled at me. He seemed surprised, yet very relieved to see me. Maybe he thought that Ryan was going to fire me too.

"Need some help with that?" I pointed to the mic pack that he held in his hand.

"Sure," he said, giving it to me. I carefully threaded the mic down the back of his shirt, trying to not completely freak out as my hand brushed against his bare skin. He lifted his shirt slightly so that I could secure the mic pack into his mic belt. I struggled to focus, my hands shaking slightly, as I worked to fit the mic pack into the belt. My hand brushed against the bare skin of his back again, sending chills down my spine.

"Th-There," I stuttered, taking a slight step back. "A-All good." He slowly lowered his shirt, fixing it slightly before re-adjusting his mic headset.

"Perfect," he smiled, his eyes lighting up as he looked at me.

"Two minutes to curtain!" someone whispered.

"Gotta go," Darren whispered, starting to turn away to take his position on the stage behind the curtain.

"Darren?" I grabbed his arm, making him turn back to me. His eyebrows raised in question, waiting for me to continue. He looked so cute in that moment that I almost forgot what I was going to say. "Umm, uh... Oh! Break a leg!"

"Thanks," he smiled, pulling me towards him. His arms were suddenly around me, lightly squeezing me, and then they were gone, as quickly as they had appeared.

"See you after the show!" he whispered, turning and carefully stepping out onto the stage, quickly taking his place center stage behind the curtain. I stood there frozen for a couple of seconds, unable to move.

A pair of hands were suddenly on my shoulders, steering me away from the stage and back out into the back hallway. I let them led me away, still slightly stunned from what had just happened.

"Hello, earth to Kaley!" a pair of fingers suddenly snapped in front of my face. I blinked, and suddenly Leah's face appeared before me. "Are you in there, Kaley?"

"Oh, shush," I laughed slightly, batting her hand away as I started to break from my trance.

"You okay?" she asked, slightly laughing as well. "You looked as if you had just been tasered with a stun gun."

"I think I might have been," I admitted. Leah gave me an inquiring look, urging me to continue.
"I just got my first ever hug from Darren Criss!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't get to see Darren after the show. Ryan had pulled him aside as soon as the show was done. Luckily, Ryan did not ask to speak with me again. I assumed that Vicky had already talked to him, told him that he couldn't fire me or something like that. But that didn't stop him from taking his anger out on Darren.

Even after Leah and I had finished all of the costumes for the night, I had still not seen or heard from him. Leah finally convinced me to leave with her, though I would have rather stayed and waited for Darren.

I barely saw or spoke to him the following day either. I only saw him in passing in the halls, but he would never stop to chat. I was beginning to feel worried that I had gotten him into so much trouble that he never wanted to speak to me again, until in one of our passings, he slipped a folded piece of paper into my hand.

I waited until I was back in the laundry room to open it, stopping just inside the door. I slowly opened the folded paper and read the words printed across it.

I am so sorry, Kaley. Ryan was really mad after what almost happened last night and now he basically won't let me do anything that's not show related. He's so serious about this that he even told me that I'm not even allowed to talk to you. I guess he couldn't fire you for some reason, so he's doing whatever he can to make sure that there will not be a repeat of last night's incident, even if that means ruining my friendships. This hopefully shouldn't last for too long though. We'll just have to keep our distances for a little while until Ryan cools off.

I'm sorry,

Darren

I folded the paper back up with a sigh, pushing away from the doorway and heading over towards one of the clothing racks.

Well, that was just great. Not only was Ryan Murphy mad at me, but he had forbid Darren from seeing me. Was he even allowed to do that?

I guess he is Darren's boss, I thought to myself. So Darren has to listen to him if he doesn't want to get fired.

"That would be perfect!" a familiar voice silently squealed. "She's going to love it!" That was Leah's voice.

"I'm sure that he'll do it," another familiar voice whispered back. "They've become so close. I don't see why he wouldn't want to." That was Chris' voice. But what were they talking about? And why were they being so quiet, so...

Secretive, I realized, stepping closer to where I had heard their voices coming from. The floorboards squeaked under my feet, annoyingly alerting my presence to my two friends.

"What was- Oh, hello, Kaley!" Chris' head poked out from behind one of the clothing racks.

"Kaley, when did you get back?" Leah's voice was slightly worried as she walked out from behind the rack.

"Only like a minute ago," I told her. "What were you two talking about?"

"Nothing!" they both blurted simultaneously. They looked at each other and then broke out laughing. I smiled, happy for Leah that she had become such close friends with her idol.

"It was nothing," Leah said, turning back to me. "Just some me and Chris stuff." She winked at me and I just rolled my eyes and shook my head at her. She was loving this way too much. But could I really blame her? Becoming friends with Chris was a dream come true for her just as much as Darren becoming friends with me was a dream come true for me.

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes at her, trying to push away the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that Leah was hiding something from me.

That nagging feeling grew throughout the day as I kept catching them huddled together talking, instantly breaking away from each other whenever I showed up. I couldn't even talk to Darren about it because he wasn't allowed to be around me.

For the first time in years, I felt very alone with no one to turn to, no one to talk to.

I only hope that things will get better tomorrow... I sighed as I sat in the laundry room alone. Tomorrow is the one day that I really don't want to spend alone...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darren's POV

Not being able to talk to Kaley was killing me, but what Chris was asking me to do would hopefully make up for everything.

"So will you do it?" he asked me eagerly.

"Of course I will!" I laughed. "You don't have to ask me twice! Screw Ryan! He can't stop me from doing this!"

"Good," Chris smiled, squirming slightly with excitement. "Make sure that you're here early tomorrow then, okay? No sleeping in, got it?"

"Yes," I sighed with a laugh. "No sleeping in. I got it."

"Good," Chris smiled again. "If you oversleep, I will personally drag you, kicking and screaming, from your bed. No joke. We want this to be perfect."

"Alright! Alright!" I laughed. "I promise that I will get up, okay?"

"Alright," he nodded successfully. He had done what he had come to do, so he took his leave, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I can't believe that she didn't tell me that it was tomorrow, I thought to myself. Why didn't she tell me?