You Saved Me

“Alright everyone! Settle down, settle down!” Mrs. Creole said while flapping her hands around to try and bring everyone down from their hype of school being done with.

“Now, we have officially two weeks until we perform for our audience. So….this is crunch time. This is when you eat and breath and sleep…” Mrs. Creole’s words started to become faint to Brittany as Joe grabbed her hand, gave it a kiss and then squeezed it lightly before placing them both on her thigh.

My gosh he’s too perfect. I wonder what would happen if we had to practice our kissing scene in front of everyone? Hey! We have to kiss in front of everyone. And we’re a couple now. Wow. Couple. I never thought I’d ever have a relationship. This is crazy. And the fact that it’s with him makes it even more crazier. I can’t believe that this is my life. Maybe it’s not. Maybe this is a dream. Who cares! Don’t wake me up.

He looked over at her and shot her a breath taking smile before turning his head back to Mrs. Creole and her speech.

She let out a quiet sigh from how her heart felt like it was flying before turning her head back towards to Mrs. Creole.

“So enough of this dilly daddling. Let’s get to acting! Cinderella and…hmmm…Step mother. You’re first with the scolding scene. Let’s see if we can finally get it right!” she ordered out.

Steph instantly jumped up from her seat and made her way to the stage, but Brittany was a little distracted at the moment.

Right when Mrs. Creole was dishing out what scene they were gonna be acting, she looked over at Joe for a second and he just happened to be biting his bottom lip slightly, sending her into a daydream. The lead roles : her and Joe.

“Uh…Britt? You have to go up there now.” he said quietly to her, shaking her leg a little bit since his hand, that was wrapped around hers, was still placed there.

“Huh?” she asked snapping out of her daydream and then looking up at the stage where Steph was waiting for her and Mrs. Creole was telling the stage crew where to put the props and such.

“Right…” she breathed out, her cheeks becoming a tinge of pink from being caught daydreaming about her boyfriend.

He chuckled lightly at her, leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek before letting go of her hand and getting up while saying, “I have to go make sure my costume is right. But I’ll come and watch you afterwards.”

And with that said, he gave her one more smile and walked away towards the back of the stage and disappeared behind the black drop curtain.

“Daydreaming again little missy?” Steph’s voice broke her trance again and she realized she somehow made her way onto the stage.

“Huh?”

“Oh don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. And to let you know, you have some drool right…there.” she said while pointing to her own lips before letting out a laugh at her friends reaction to daydreaming.

She quickly wiped at her face while muttering an embarrassed “Shut up” to Steph and blushing once again.

“It’s ok Britt. I do it too whenever I’m with Kevin. I always find myself asking if this is a dream or not. He’s too amazing.” she said in a somewhat dreamy tone, bringing Brittany back to reality and her normal self.

“And now you have some drool.” she shot back at her friend with a laugh but they stopped when Mrs. Creole popped out of nowhere and clapped her hands together and told the girls to get into character.

These two weeks are gonna suck!

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So the last two days weren’t particularly brutal. If you didn’t count the constant clapping of Mrs. Creoles hands that even just anyone clapping their hands now, could cause you to get a headache. Or the fact that schoolwork was building up from the late nights being at the school.

But the one thing that seemed to make up for all the brutal torture, was Joe was always there, making Brittany laugh and held her when she was getting frustrated with people.

But it wouldn’t last for long since he was leaving after play practice today and wouldn’t be back until the following Monday….giving him a three day vacation from the hellish ordeal of play practice.

“And you really can’t leave Friday and come back Saturday?” Mrs. Creole must’ve asked Joe for the thousandth time since he told her about his Benefit thing in New York.

“Yes…I’m sorry. There is nothing I can do about it. My hands are tied.” he said with an exasperated sigh and innocent shrug to show he was innocent in the matter.

It wasn’t that he didn’t try to leave later and come back earlier than his brothers, he just couldn’t. And even if he could’ve his reason wouldn’t have been the play. It would’ve been because of Brittany. He didn’t want to leave her for 2 and a half days. He would get back Sunday…but by the time he would get back it would be too late for him to come over and visit her.

“Fine.” Mrs. Creole sighed out and then snapped her fingers. “Get your costume on and we’ll practice all your scenes today since you only have next week to work on them. Chop chop!”

He quickly turned around and headed towards the costume closet but when he saw the back of Brittany’s body disappear into the closet and he couldn’t help but hurry his footsteps along while letting a smirk come across his face and scan the area around them.

For once, he was glad that the costume closet was off in it’s own hallway away from the rest of the rooms.

He jogged quickly and quietly towards the closet, peaked into it see her standing with her back to the doorway, searching for probably her Ball gown and his smirk grew while he slowly made his way into the room and shut the door behind him.

He snuck up quietly to her and was struggling with what way to do his move but when she found the dress and she reached for it, he quickly grabbed her around the waist, spun her around and silenced her squeal of terror with a kiss.

“I definitely won’t miss you scaring the crap out of me when you’re gone!” she yelled at him with mock anger when he pulled away from her.

“But you’ll miss everything else?” he asked her quietly, trying to look all cute and innocent, for his previous actions that sent her into a state of shock, which he should have received a medal for.

“Maybe.” she said with a slight shrug and tried to hide her smile that was fighting its way onto her face.

“Hey!” he yelled back at her, unlocking his arms from around her waist and taking a step back all the while she laughed.

“Oh come on Joe. You know I’ll miss you. I’ll miss you like….Nick misses his socks when you take them.” she laughed out and his smile came back onto his face as he took a step towards her and gave her another quick kiss.

“There you-Woah. Sorry. I’ll come back another time.” Steph said, while turning on her heel and heading off but Brittany and Joe both stopped her.

“We were just getting our costumes. You didn’t see anything.” Joe said in a mystical voice while waving his arms around her face to try and get her to think that she was dreaming of something.

“Cut it out Joe.” she snapped while slapping away both of his hands but he kept coming back and waving them in front of her face.

“Whatever. I was just sent to find you cuz you two have been gone for the last 10 minutes and not that it matters where you are Joe…” she said, a little hostile when saying his name and he finally stopped his hand waving. “But Brittany is the lead role, so we kinda need her. Let’s go.” Steph stated and pulled on Brittany’s arm to get her into her costume and onto the stage before Mrs. Creole had a hernia.

She quickly changed and waited behind the curtain until her cue while Mrs. Creole directed where Prince Charming should be standing along with the King and the Kings Assistant.

After a good 10 minutes ordeal on how the stage crew is going to have to make the balcony bigger for both the king and the assistant to fit, they carried on with the scene.

“He looks up, he sees a girl from far away….” Jake’s lines started to grow faint as Brittany made her way out onto the stage to be seen by Joe.

She knew instantly that even though he was supposed to act love struck and completely uncaring of what was going on around him, he wasn’t acting at all.

His eyes were glued to her with admiration and adoration in his eyes.

As he stumbled his way, literally over his own two feet, to her he dipped low into a bow and she curtseyed, smiling widely at him from how adorably adorable he looked in his Prince Charming outfit.

He took her hand in his and whispered quietly into her ear as she spun into him, the well rehearsed spin, “You look stunagorgeful.”

She held back her laughter as best as she could and continued to waltz around the stage, catching a glance at Mrs. Creole who had a smile on her face while she swayed to the music.

They continued to dance a few more minutes, his eyes smiling and sparkling into hers that made her feel like her chest was about to burst from how happy she was in his arms, and she started to hum ‘So This is Love’ under her breath as it lead into the song while the lights went from a bright yellow to a soft baby blue and Joe and her strolled around on stage, never breaking eye contact.

As the song continued to play, they strolled around on stage before taking a seat on the bench that was painted grey to look like a concrete bench and he leaned in to give her a kiss, just like in the script.

As he brought his hand up to cup around her neck and he pulled her into him, she heard the clock chime and she tried to pull away from him since that was what she was supposed to do but he wouldn’t’ let go and his lips came crashing onto hers in tune with the second chime of the clock.

She immediately sunk into the kiss and almost didn’t hear Mrs. Creole yelling at them to stop.

“Sorry Mrs. Creole.” Joe said after finally pulling away from Brittany and the kiss, letting his hand slowly run down her shoulder and arm to cup her hand that she was leaning on and squeezed it quickly. “I forgot which scene we were doing for a second.” he said, smile on his face and never breaking eye contact with Brittany, sending her whole body into a state of frenzy.

She was so dizzy from everything that happened. She honestly could say she loved him and it felt like he loved her back from how everything panned out and for once, she wasn’t scared of her feelings for him. For once she wasn’t going to scold herself for the way she felt.

And she almost blurted out that she loved him right then and there, but one of the stage crew members dropped a backdrop, causing everyone to jump out of freight.

“Oh no! That’s gonna take us the rest of the day to redo that! NO!” Mrs. Creole’s loud cry echoed throughout the auditorium while the guilty kids looked down at the ground out of shame.

She shot her head back at Joe to see him just staring at her and her cheeks flushed into a dark red hue from how his gaze wasn’t faltering at all.

“You can stop acting now.” she said quietly to him while looking down into her lap, but her head snapped back up towards him when he said, “Who said I was acting?”

He leaned in and gave her another kiss, uncaring of the fact that the rest of the stage crew was scurrying around them, trying to lift up the back drop that the kids dropped while the whole cast was sitting there in the seat of the auditorium ,watching them kiss.

That was until Mrs. Creole’s upset voice rang throughout the whole place.

“I guess we’ll have to call it quits today since they have to redo that. Cast, go home and rehearse your lines. I’ll see you tomorrow. Crew, you’re staying here with me to fix this!” and with that everyone started scrambling again, doing what they were told.

“Wanna give me a ride home?” he asked her quietly while squeezing her hand slightly before getting up from the bench they were seated on.

She nodded her head quickly and sent him a smile before running backstage to change out of her costume.

“So…” Steph said while walking into the changing room that was for the girls, a little bit of amusement in her voice. “Hopefully Joe doesn’t ‘forget’ what scene he’s doing during the actual play.”

Brittany couldn’t help the red hue grow darker on her cheeks from her friends comment and hearing the amusement in Steph’s voice.

“But I do have to say, that was probably the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard and you two up there together was probably the cutest thing ever.” she gushed while, if possible, Brittany’s cheeks got even redder as her smile started to hurt her face.

You’d think she’d be used to smiling so wide by now, now that her and Joe were together and he always made her smile so wide if felt like her face was going to break, but then again, she didn’t ever think she would get used to the idea of her and Joe dating.

It always seemed too good to be true.

“Anyways, I’ll meet you at the boys house?” Steph’s question brought her back from thinking about Joe and his ways to make her smile.

“You will?” she asked, somewhat confused as to what she was talking about.

“Yeah hun. I’m going to say goodbye to Kevin.” Steph said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and then laughed a little bit, saying, “Wow.” under her breath as she left the room so Brittany could change out of her costume and into her clothes.

Oh my gosh. He’s leaving today. He’s leaving…like now. No! I don’t want him to leave! I just got him!

As she slowly and shakily got undressed and redressed, she finally made her way out into the auditorium where Joe was standing by the door, his backpack slung over his right shoulder while her’s was slung over his left.

He smiled widely as she made her way towards him down the aisle of seats and she smiled sadly back at him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her instantly while she continued to walk right past him out the doors of the auditorium and then another set that led them outside to the parking lot.

“Nothing. Why?” she asked quickly and she knew right then and there, that was where she messed up.

“Brittany, you may be an great actress, but I can tell when something is wrong. Now tell me.” he said to her in a stern voice while reaching out for her arm and preventing her from moving from where she stood.

She looked down at the ground and let out a loud sigh before bringing her head back up to look at him in the eyes.

“I just realized that you’re leaving me now.” her throat started to close up a little from her tears that were coming and she was scolding herself for showing any sort of weakness in front of him. “I’m just really gonna miss you.”

He instantly wrapped her in a hug and kissed the top of her head before squeezing her a little tighter.

“It’ll be ok Trish. I promise. You won’t even notice I’m gone you’ll be so busy with the play and why are you looking at me like that?” he asked, his tone changing from a false confident one to a worried one.

“You called me Trish.” she stated back to him flatly while looking up at his face.

“Well…it was a serious moment. Did you want me to call you Brittany all the time? I mean, it’s cool and stuff that Steph and I call you it, but it’s a little weird sometimes. You respond to that better then Trisha most of the time which is the weird part. Normally whe-” he started, but she cut him off by pressing her lips to his.

Part of her wanted to do it because he looked so cute, rambling there on the spot and another reason was that she was worried he would figure out some part of the truth of why she responded better to Brittany than Trisha.

Not that he could he figure it out, but it was still a chance she didn’t want to take.

A chance, that she wished she could take. Especially with him. But Steph knew already and that was one person too many.

And as much as she trusted Joe to not say anything, she knew she couldn’t tell him.

If the W.P.P. ever found out she told Steph to begin with, they would be pissed, but a famous musician who has thousands of fans and a tendency to be completely random at times…oh yeah. She could picture their pissed off faces in her mind.

“What was that for?” he asked her breathlessly and she smiled inwardly at herself.

For once I made him breathless.

“You just looked so cute. I had to do it.” she said with an innocent shrug and then gave him a quick peck on the lips and grabbed one of his hands and led him towards her truck.

He still seemed to be in a daze, or he was thinking of something, that kept him quiet throughout the whole car ride to his house, but she didn’t care.

It probably was best that he didn’t talk to her about anything at the moment because she was on the brink of tears from having to give him up so quickly after they finally just got together.

And the fact that she realized she loved him.

And as badly as she wanted to tell him, she knew she couldn’t.

Not now. With him getting ready to leave.

Knowing Joe as well as she did, he’d probably want to talk about it.

And plus, if he didn’t say it back to her, it would probably kill her inside with not being able to hear him say it back and it was bad enough that he was leaving for 3 days, it would fell longer if she was sad and depressed about him from the start.

He looked over at her and caught one of her glances and sent her a smile that made her heart pump twice as hard in her chest.

It wasn’t his normal heart stopping smiles he always gave her.

It was a smile that was mixed with the look in his eyes from earlier when they were dancing and acting on the stage.

Adoration and admiration.

That was what made her heart beat so fast.

That look he was giving her.

Oh my gosh…I think I’m going to have a heart attack because of this boy.