If You Only Knew

My eyes finally left his entrancing blue eyes and trickled down to his lips, which were turned upwards into a grin.

"You're new here, aren't you?" the lips asked. I blinked, startled by the comment, and was finally able to see who I was talking to. Leaning casually in the doorway stood a young man, probably close to my own age, with wavy, black hair that hung above his ears, one of which was pierced with a small black stud. His arms were crossed over a plain black t-shirt and he wore a pair of ripped blue jeans. His blue eyes watched, amused, as I just stood there gaping at him. My eyes dropped to the floor in embarrassment, where I noticed the black Converse that he was wearing.

"Hello, earth to newbie," he was waving his hand, trying to get my attention.

"Whaa?" tumbled out of my mouth and I inwardly kicked myself for how stupid I sounded. He just laughed, which was deep and musical.

"How did you know I was new?" I asked when I finally found my voice again, catching him off guard.

"Very easily," he replied with a smile. "Newbies tend to stand in the very middle of rooms with their mouths hanging wide open." I felt my jaw snap shut. He just laughed again.

"The name's James Carter," he pushed away from the doorway and walked towards me, hand extended.

"Kaley Grant," I replied, taking his hand. I was expecting him to shake it, but instead he brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. I felt my cheeks flush with heat (curse my dang emotions!) as my free hand flew to my mouth to stifle a gasp.

"James!" someone called from outside the room. He quickly looked over his shoulder, then back to me, releasing my hand as he took a step away.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Grant," he grinned. "I look forward to working with you." And then he was gone, disappearing as quickly as he had appeared.

It took me a couple of minutes to compose myself before I finally remembered what I was supposed to be doing. I hung the outfits on one of the racks, making sure to hang them in the order that was written in the card. By the time that I finally returned to the room where Leah waited, twenty minutes had passed.

"Did you get lost?" Leah teased when I walked into the room.

"No, but I had a very strange encounter," I replied, dropping down into a nearby chair. I quickly told her what had happened and I noticed her stiffen when I mentioned James' name.

"What's wrong?" I asked her when I finished my tale.

"James Carter, that's what's wrong!" she snapped, startling me. "Kaley, stay away from him! He's nothing but trouble!"

"Why?" I asked, taken aback by her comments. He had seemed really sweet to me.

"Kaley, just trust me," Leah sighed, rubbing her temple. "He's just not the sort of guy that you want to get mixed up with. He's a player and to be honest? I don't trust him one bit! Seriously, you would be far better off to stay as far away from him as you can!"

Leah's comments left me feeling uneasy for the rest of the day. I was worried that I was going to run into him again as I made my journey from the laundry room to the dressing rooms and back, but the rest of the day passed by uneventfully... Well at least it did until the end of my shift.

At one point during my back and forth travels, I had put my headphones on to listen to (of course) Glee songs and as I made my way towards the dressing rooms with the last few outfits, jamming out to Don't Stop Believin', I felt a hand roughly grab my shoulder and spin me around. I was so startled that I nearly dropped the clothes that I held in my hands. Then I looked up into a pair of dazzling hazel eyes and I very nearly dropped them again. They were his eyes.

"- hear me?" I only caught the end of his question as I pulled my earbuds from my ears.

"I'm sorry?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I had no clue what he had just said.

"You're sorry?" he scoffed. "Was that a question or an apology?"

"I-I-" I stuttered, confused and taken aback by his anger.

"Forget it!" he scowled, as he began to roughly push past me. But then he stopped suddenly, turning sharply to look at what I held in my hands.

"What are you doing with those?!" he snapped, grabbing at the clothes in my hands.

"I'm-" I started to explain.

"Not only are you rude and ignorant," he cut me off. "But you're a thief too!" He snatched the clothes from my hands and roughly grabbed my arm, quickly dragging me down the hall towards the stage. He dragged me right over to where Vicky stood talking to a man I recognized as Ryan Murphy, the co-creator of Glee.

"I caught this little thief stealing my clothes!" he announced, pushing me towards Vicky.

"Kaley?" I heard the confusion and alarm in her voice.

"I didn't... I wasn't..." I stuttered, my heart racing. I could feel tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. Vicky just pulled me towards her and gave me a hug.

"You do realize that you are accusing one of our employees who works in the costume department, whose job it is to handle your clothing, of stealing that which she was hired to take care of?" I heard Vicky exclaim. "You accused her of stealing your clothes because you found her with them in her possession, but did you ever stop to think that maybe she was supposed to have them? Did you ever think that maybe she's taking them to your dressing room, which is her job?" I peeked out at him from the cocoon that I was still engulfed in.

"N-n-no," he stuttered, hanging his head.

"I'm ashamed of you!" Vicky scolded.

"As am I," Ryan spoke suddenly. I peeked at him and saw that he had his arms crossed and was looking at my accuser half with confusion and half with anger and disappointment. "Just because you're famous doesn't give you the right to treat our employees this way!" Vicky continued. "Honestly, you were the last person that I would have ever expected to act like this!"

"I'm sorry," my accuser muttered, shifting uncomfortably.

"Don't say it to us," Ryan sighed. "Apologize to her." I felt Vicky turn me around to face him. I was afraid to even meet his eyes, so I kept them downcast.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. My eyes slowly raised to look at him. I was expecting to see sorrow and regret, but instead all I saw was anger and frustration. I was so startled that I couldn't even speak, so all I did was nod my head, turning my eyes away again.

"May I go now?" he asked, his question directed at Ryan and Vicky.

"Go, rest up," Ryan dismissed with a wave of his hand. "You need to be rested for the show tomorrow. I sincerely hope that there are no more problems. You may go now." I watched him as he turned on his heel and hurried away.

"You okay, Kaley?" Vicky asked, turning me back towards her. I nodded.

"May I go?" I asked softly.

"Yes, of course," she replied. "I'm sure that Leah is waiting for you."

I slowly made my way back to the laundry room, not needing to go to the dressing rooms anymore since he had taken his clothes with him. I felt numb all over, not believing what had just happened. As soon as I walked into the room, Leah was by my side.

"I heard what happened," Leah said, hugging me tightly. "Are you okay?"

"He's a jerk," I finally sputtered.

"What?" Leah asked, breaking from the hug so that she could hear me clearly.

"He's a jerk," I repeated. "Darren Criss is a jerk!"

Then I broke down crying.