Play Rough With Love

Walking into the auditorium, I felt nauseous, like I was about to throw up the entirety of my stomach. My hands were shaking and to put it simply, I was nervous as heck.

I was at callbacks for the school play. It was an annual thing, and the play is chosen by votes from the student body. This year we were putting on Romeo and Juliet.

I've been involved in the school shows since my first year here and was pretty much always a main character; but honestly, I wasn't really into acting, it was just something I was good at and my parents wanted for me. And I just wanted to please them, I guess.

The director, who was actually just the head of the drama department at school had just began gathering us around to call out the cast.

I had auditioned for Romeo, but I was kinda hoping I'd end up as an understudy, so I didn't have to be involved that much. But, by the looks the director was giving me, I knew that it was a lost cause to hope for that.

My eyes scanned the sea of people as Mrs. Stevens began rambling on about something I couldn't bring myself to care about. There were the regulars, like Katie, Hayley, Gabe and Jack. And - well, there was someone I wasn't expecting to see. Two someones, actually. Vic Fuentes and Jenna McDougall; now I had nothing against Jenna, she was cool. But Vic and I don't exactly see eye to eye. We have this huge history of our families just not getting along and it's stupid really, but my hate for him runs deep and it's not really something I can just get over.

They were inseparable, everyone was under the impression that they were together.

The thing that surprises me the most about seeing them here is that they weren't exactly into school activities, they liked to keep to themselves and not really socialize with anyone but each other.

It wasn't until Jenna's eyes met mine and she furrowed her eyebrows that I decided to actually pay attention to what was happening.

"And the leading roles to start," Mrs. Stephens started, clearing her throat, "Juliet will be played by Katie Cole."

The auditorium erupted in cheers as Katie received numerous high fives.

"Kellin Bostwick will be Romeo, which I'm sure you all guessed."

She smiled brightly at me and I almost wanted to groan in disappointment. I got the same response, people tapping me on the back and screaming for me.

She read out the rest of the cast way too slowly, I just wanted to get out of here.

"And Vic and Jenna will be on lighting."

After that we were dismissed and everyone started clearing out, not before I got swamped with "congratulations" from everyone but Vic, even Jenna was nice enough to congratulate me. I just smiled and thanked everyone as I left the building and made my way to the parking lot. There weren't many cars here considering it was 3:30 and school cleared out half an hour ago.

My mother's car was waiting for me and I picked up my pace, hopping in the back. My little brother, Adam, turned around from the passenger's seat to poke his tongue out at me; I returned the gesture with a laugh as my mom pulled out of the school.

"So, how'd it go, kiddo?" She asked, turning down the radio that I didn't even notice was playing.

"Good, I got the part." I said with fake-enthusiasm.

She let out a squeal that could've been mistaken for a teenage girl and the car swerved a bit. She swung her arm protectively in front of Adam as he flung forward from the impact.

"Sorry boys" she apologized as her driving became responsible again. "That's great, Kellin. Did Jack get in?"

"Yeah, he's uh...Paris, I think."

"Who got Juliet?" She asked, clearly far more interested than I was.

"Um, Katie Cole? Susan's daughter." She nodded as we pulled into the driveway of our 4 story house that was far too big for a family of five.

"She's pretty, she had a thing for you when you were younger, if I recall correctly." My mom winked over her shoulder, unbuttoning her seatbelt then sliding out of the car.

I groaned, following her out and to the door after she locked the car, "Mom, she had a thing for every boy who so much as looked at her. Stop trying to set me up with every girl I know, I'm not interested."

"Kellin likes boys!" Adam teased as he ran into the house and up the stairs.

"Shut up, dork!" I called after him, he laughed as he ran further up the stairs. Stupid little shit.

I turned to see my mom looking at me weirdly before shaking her head and walking off.

So much for pleasing her.

I ran up the stairs to the third floor where my bedroom was, it took up pretty much the whole floor and then my bathroom was next to it so I had a lot of space to do whatever I wanted.

I decided to start on my homework just to give myself something to do, I pulled out a few sheets from my bag and began filling out the questions. Math was one of my strong points, so it didn't take me long to finish it.

My hand drifted to the bottom of the paper as I wrote down a random lyric that came to me suddenly and I didn't even bother crossing it out because I just needed to do something about how I was feeling, even if it was just writing it down.

"how am I supposed to be everything they expect me to be, when I feel so alone?"

I smiled, a little proud of the line before signing my name at the top and sliding the sheet back into my backpack.

I have a feeling that rehearsal tomorrow is going to be very...interesting.