Let It Happen

The University of the West of England's drama hall is less of a hall and more of a stadium. Not only is there a massive seating area on the ground, there's also a balcony lining the back of the room. The stage is massive, and lighting the room is a magnificent glass chandelier. Posters of past student productions line the walls, and I know Dennis is itching to get on that wall with his performance.

James hadn't stayed long to chat at the supermarket earlier. He and Tamsin had left pretty hastily, but I'd stopped wondering about them when Gus left in a hurry a few hours later. I had plenty of time to worry about my own relationship when Dennis' was running smoothly again.

Dennis drags me down the middle of the endless rows of seats, leading me to the stage, where most of the other cast members are already waiting. He leads me to the front row to sit beside a girl I've never seen before, but she seems to know Dennis.

"Hey," she greets in a Welsh accent, nodding slightly. Her gaze wanders to me. "Is this your girlfriend?"

My eyebrows shoot up under my fringe and I look from Dennis to the girl. Dennis glances sheepishly back at me, swallowing nervously.

"No," he says, smiling. "Um, this is my friend Mae."

"Oh," she says with a nod. "I'm Kenzie."

I shoot her a brief smile before turning on Dennis before he can run away. "You told them you have a girlfriend?"

"Not exactly," he mutters, shrugging grimly. "I guess Gus sort of hinted that I did."

"He what?"

"It's not what you think-"

"Dennis!" calls who I presume is the professor from the stage, saving his skinny ass from having to explain himself to me. "Can we have you over here, please?"

"I'll tell you later," Dennis grumbles, hurrying over before I can protest.

I grudgingly take a seat beside Kenzie, who seems to feel kind of awkward after assuming I was Dennis' girlfriend. She looks at me apologetically, but I ignore her, furious at Gus for even suggesting Dennis had a girlfriend. Sure, Dennis said it wasn't what I thought, but I think it's exactly what I thought. Gus was trying to be funny as usual.

I watch Dennis reading his script for a while, kind of conflicted about Gus not being here this evening. He'd spent the entire day with us after the supermarket, letting Dennis hang off him like a jumper, but when Dennis asked whether he wanted to come, he said he was going out with friends. I know Dennis and I share the concern that he'll be in some stupid club playing his stupid game while we're here.

Had Gus come here tonight, I could've asked him what he's hiding from Dennis and maybe gotten some truth out of him. But at the same time, I know I have a short temper and getting Dennis in trouble by screaming at his boyfriend is the last thing I want to do.

Kenzie glances at me, offering a small smile, and I figure I'd probably better be nice to people if I'm going to be here for the next two months with Dennis. I turn to her, tucking my feet underneath me, and decide to pluck up a conversation.

"So who are you supporting?" I ask, gesturing towards the stage.

"Brooklyn," she replies, poiting to the girl beside Dennis. "She plays Katherina."

"What's the play they're doing?" I enquire, feeling guilty that I hadn't bothered asking Dennis before.

"The Taming of the Shrew," answers Kenzie.

"That's like the play adaptation of 10 Things I Hate About You, right?"

Kenzie laughs. "The other way around. 10 Things is based on the Shrew. But yeah."

"Right."

Kenzie is kind of alternative, like Dennis. In the sense that they both wear a lot of black clothes and have facial piercings. But Kenzie's hair is cropped short and purple, and she wears a shit-tonne of eyeliner. She has brown eyes and big lips, and her massive boobs are almost spilling out of her black vest. If Dennis wasn't with Gus, I totally would've tried to hook him up with Kenzie because they look like they're made for each other. Then again, Dennis doesn't usually go for people who are anything like him, and he's way better looking than Kenzie anyway.

"How do you know Dennis?" she asks, and I realise I'm staring at her.

"Um, we went to school together," I mumble, dragging my gaze off her. "He moved here in the middle of Year Nine."

"Yeah, I didn't figure he was from around here," she laughs. "His British accent's okay, though, right?"

I look up to the stage, where Dennis is delivering his lines in his best English accent, and if I didn't know him I probably wouldn't guess he's American. He's brilliant. But then again I always knew that.

I continue to watch him in awe. It's like he's a completely different person up there, all snobby and graceful and pretty much up himself. It's quite funny to watch, like someone else is wearing my best friend's face. He's Patrick, or Petruchio, or whatever his character's name is.

And when he pulls Brooklyn in for a kiss at the end of the scene, I almost believe it. I wonder what Gus thought when he came here with Dennis and watched the kiss. That is, if he even showed enough interest to stay that long. Maybe he'd just walked Dennis here and ditched him as soon as he was onstage. Kenzie definitely wasn't Gustav's type of person.

But what if he had stayed? I wonder if he felt jealous. Did he realise how easy it would be for Dennis to fall in love with someone else? Did he realise what he had? Or did he just get mad that Dennis hadn't warned him? If he hadn't seen the kiss yet, how would he feel about it during the actual production?

I shrug it off. What do I care what Gus thinks? I don't even like him.

I turn my attention back to Dennis, who takes a bow once the scene is over, making the rest of the cast laugh. I wonder if he's acting now. Is he really happy, or is he acting it for his classmates? Would any of them believe it if I told them Dennis almost leapt off a building just four months ago?

I flinch at the memory, remembering it like it was yesterday. Just thinking about it sends a jolt of pain through my chest, and tears spring to my eyes. I blink them away, but before I can compose myself Kenzie looks at me again.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Hmm?" I mutter, pretending like nothing had happened. It's at times like these I wish I had Dennis' acting flair. "Oh yeah, um, they're really great."

"Yeah," she agrees proudly, smiling up at the stage. "I've been here every single night of rehearsal. They've come on in leaps and bounds, seriously. You should've seen them on the first day, it was a mess."

"I can imagine," I say with a smile, thinking of Dennis and his inability to concentrate easily.

"What do you study?" she asks, turning her gaze back to me. "Presuming, of course, you go here?"

"I'm at Bristol Uni," I tell her. "I'm doing English and Classical Studies."

"Oh," she says, her eyes widening. "I'm at Bristol Uni too! I study Law, though, so no wonder we haven't seen each other around."

"I bet that's hard," I muse.

"Solid," she agrees, "but I'm gonna have to suck it up if I want to be a judge."

"A judge?"

"Yeah," she says with a grin, "I want to hit a desk with a hammer for a living."

"Wow," I laugh, "you're going through Law classes just to hit a hammer on a desk? That's dedication."

She winks. "Well, I might as well get clever while I'm at it. You from around here?"

"Yeah," I confirm. "We decided to stay local because Dennis is a real Mummy's boy and he wanted to stay near his family."

Kenzie laughs. "I'm from Cardiff."

"I'd never have guessed."

And before I know it, rehearsals are finished and Dennis is hurrying over to drop into my lap. He has a thing for laps; he seems to prefer them to the actual chair. I shift under his weight. He's heavy for such a skinny guy.

"Are we going out tonight?" he asks Kenzie, and she nods.

"Brook seems to think so."

"Sweet!"

"You're going out?" I ask, and Dennis frowns.

"We're going out," he corrects, "if that's okay with Maisy Mae."

I smile at the nickname and nod. I have coursework due in, but who cares? Isn't missing deadlines all part of the university experience? If not, I've been doing it all wrong these past few days; I have stacks of unfinished essays piling up in my flat. I blame Dennis.

So after rounding up most of the cast members and their friends, we head to the nearest pub. It's nearly dark out, and it's a little chilly, but it's nice. I'm not used to being part of such a huge crowd; usually it's just me and one or two people. Dennis stays close to me, his arm around my shoulders protectively, smoking with his free hand. Although it's probably just so he can hog all my body heat because he's always freezing. Even after living here for five years, he hasn't adjusted to the colder weather.

The UWE's tucked away behind a secondary school in the middle of nowhere, so we have to trek a little bit before we find a pub. It takes us about half an hour to walk there, even though it's not too far. If it was just me and Dennis we'd have gotten there in twenty minutes, but since there are so many of us it takes a little longer.

Eventually we find a pub called the Robin and we all pile inside, taking up three whole tables by the window. I squeeze into a booth beside Dennis, cuddling into him, preventing him from going to help his castmates with carrying drinks. Whatever, though, I refuse to let him leave me with all these strangers.

Everyone shouts out their orders, slapping money in the middle of the table, and Dennis puts down enough for the both of us, obviously remembering I'm out of cash.

"So why did Gus tell everyone you have a girlfriend?" I ask, and Dennis tenses a little.

"It really doesn't matter, Mae," he mumbles, glowering at the no smoking sign across the room. "It's not a problem, don't make it one."

"It's a problem until you tell me what happened," I insist, resting my head on his shoulder, "and don't even try to make excuses for him, Dennis."

"It was weeks ago," he whines, but I give him a stern look. "He offered to walk me to rehearsals. It was one of the first rehearsals for the play, and Kenzie asked me what my girlfriend would think about the kiss at the end of the play, y'know, assuming I had a girlfriend."

"And?" I ask impatiently. "What did Gustav say?"

"He said..." he sighs. "He said 'she' probably wouldn't show anyway."

I frown. "What, he's saying he's not coming to the show?"

He shrugs. "Look, it really doesn't matter. It'd probably distract me if he comes, anyway."

"He has to come!" I almost yell, pulling away to glare at Dennis.

"No he doesn't," he practically whispers. "How can I act like I'm in love with Brook if Gus is in the room? Maybe it'll make me uncomfortable."

"You know it won't," I start, but Kenzie returns with our drinks, shutting me up.

Dennis has a grin plastered on his face, as if our conversation didn't even happen, as Kenzie starts talking to him about someone called Jamie, who I presume is in the play. But I know he'll want Gus at the production. I know as well as Dennis does that Gus being there won't affect his performance in the slightest. Any rational boyfriend would be okay with an onstage kiss that influences Dennis' grade for the entire term. He's just pretending to be okay so I'm happy. He's just being Dennis.

I really need to talk to Gus, and soon. He's going to tell me what he's hiding from Dennis, and he's going to that production even if it kills me. Their relationship may be patched up for now, but Dennis isn't happy and whether or not Gus can see that, I can. And I'm going to help him.

Dennis and I pretty much keep to ourselves for the night, huddled in the booth in the corner, sipping our drinks. A few people pluck up conversations with Dennis, but they don't last long. He knows I'm feeling awkward. I bet all his friends in the cast think he's much more fun when I'm not around, but I don't care. Dennis was my friend first.

But as we leave the pub at almost half past eleven and Dennis lights up a cigarette, the anger at Gus is still sizzling inside me.

I bet I could think of ten things I hate about Gustav, I think bitterly as Dennis takes my hand and we begin the short walk to the bus stop.