You remembered it as if it was yesterday. It all had happened so fast. You were sitting in lunch in the cafeteria when the principal said he wanted everyone’s attention. He was announcing this year’s school musical. You never really cared for them, because to you it was embarrassing. All you thought of them were people in stupid costumes up on stage singing stupid songs. But what you didn’t realize, that this year would be different. The principal announced that the school musical would be Grease, and all your friends were begging you to audition for it. You knew every line from every song and could hit each note perfectly; for every character.

“You know, if Grease is going to be the musical, then you-know-who is going to be auditioning…” one of your friends said, and you hid your blushing face into your arms before hiding them on the table.  Cronus had been your best friend; some call him your moirail, since you were at least 6 or 7. By the time you turned 13, (maybe it was 14?) you had developed a crush on him. And you knew as well as everyone else sitting at your lunch table that Grease was both his and your favorite movie. When you had a movie marathon with a bunch of friends, he had brought it over and you both took turns quoting characters or singing along to their songs. Before you could open your mouth and say anything, he had plopped down in the seat next to you. As usual, the first thing you noticed was his hair. It was shining, due to the amounts of grease he had put in it, and his leather jacket was placed onto the back of his chair. “my eyes are down here,” he said which breaks into your thoughts and you look at him.  You talked until the end of lunch, when he had to run off to his guitar class, and a few of your friends surrounded you. “Oh you two would be great together in the musical! Imagine, if you two were cast as the lead roles? How cute would that be????” you thought for a moment, which eventually lead to your friends dragging you into auditions that Friday, and that eventually lead to the cast being posted. You had been sick the day they were announced, and your cell rang right after school would have been getting out. “______!!!! GUESS WHAT!!! GUESS WHO WAS CASTED IN THE MUSICAL???” you sigh, almost nervous to answer, because she had auditioned too. “Okay, who?” you ask, and you hear her breathing heavily into the phone speaker. “CRONUS WAS CAST AS DANNY AND-” before you could let her finish, you respond with “And you were cast as Sandy?” you ask, and she sounded really confused “...What? no! dude, YOU were cast as Sandy! Your name was clearly in HUGE letters next to her name!!!” you had paused to take it in, and you ran upstairs to grab the slip of paper with Cronus’s number and dialed it into your phone.

That was two weeks ago. Now, you’re in rehearsal going over a few scenes. Every time Cronus looks at you, whether if it’s in character or not, you blush. A few times you were asked if you felt sick, but you claimed you weren’t and kept going with the scene you were working on. After rehearsal ended, you waited by the door for Cronus to get his stuff and walk home with you. You two walk home every day, considering you live next door to each other. “So you had a hard time concentrating, are you okay?” you looked at him, and he had a concerned look on his face, which only made you blush again. “I don’t want your understudy taking over, you’re the only one I feel comfortable doing this with…” he trails off, and you stop walking for a second.  You knew for sure he liked performing things with you, you two even wrote a song last year, but you never realized he was only comfortable performing with YOU. You shake your head no, to imply that you’re fine and don’t think the understudy will need take over. “then tell me why you were acting so weird during rehearsal” he says. You try to come up with an answer that doesn’t give away the fact that you’re crushing on him. People say he feels the same way, but you always felt like they were saying that to make fun of you. And finally, you come up with an excuse.

“Nothing, really; I just was thinking about something else that was throwing me off” you say. You’re not lying; of course you were thinking about something else. and before you know it, you end up in front of your house. “Talk to you later Cro Cro” you say, and you run home before he can say anything else to you. What was happening? you could focus perfectly fine the week before, but this week everything is becoming mushy. When you told your older sister about it, she claimed that you weren’t crushing on Cronus. When you asked her to clarify, she claimed you were falling in love with him. “Wh-What are you talking about? You know we’ve been friends since elementary school. If I were, don’t you think I would have known by now?” she laughs, and ruffles your hair. She’s seen this happen a lot; She watches romantic comedies almost daily. But you didn’t think that kind of romantic crap could actually happen. You sigh, and walk upstairs to your room and lock the door before sitting down on your bed, trying to think it over, and after a while you realize it made a lot of sense. When he sat with you at lunch, you zoned out completely. When your friend called about the cast, you nearly fainted. Although you hated to admit it, your sister was right. You promised yourself you would tell him on opening night. That gave you at least a month and a half to work out how and when you were going to say it; Right before you went on, or right after you finished? You told yourself not to worry, and you began your homework to get it over with.

The next day at school, you tell your other friends about it. They tell you not to worry about it, that you should take your time to figure things out. You’d be perfect for each other; you’ve known him for at least 8 or so years, and a few people would occasionally ask if you two were together. You waited for him to sit down like he normally did, but he never came. Is he sick? he seemed perfectly fine yesterday… you think to yourself. When you get home, you take the care package from under your bed and bring it next door. When you knock on the door, you hear someone groan before standing up to answer the door, followed by something falling to the ground and smashing to pieces. You laugh quietly before the door is opened. “____? is that you??” you hear a muffled voice. you nod, and Cronus steps out from behind the door. His hair is a mess, and he’s shaking. He gestures for you to come in, before falling to the floor again. “I need help” he says, and you help him to the couch. You hide the care package, seeing as he clearly ISN’T sick, and you sit him down on the couch. “look, ______. My girlfriend just broke up with me and I need moral support” you sit there silently for a second, first thinking Oh, he already had a girlfriend, he doesn’t feel the same to WHO BROKE HIS HEART I WILL KILL THEM. He looks at you with sad eyes “look I know you’re not into this kind of thing but could you-” and before he could let you finish, you take out your cell phone and dial her number. After a while of screaming at her for breaking his heart, you hang up and sit back on the couch next to him and you notice he’s smiling “I don’t deserve to have you as a friend, ______. you’re so sweet” he says, and you blush.

----- TIME SKIP ---------

“and make sure your costumes done by next week, because we’ll be having a dress rehearsal.” the musical director says. You can’t believe how fast rehearsal is going by. It seemed that only yesterday the principal announced the name and your friends bugged you about it.  While walking home, you look over at him “So are you just going to use your regular leather jacket, or are you using a special one for it?” you ask, and you two laugh. You may be falling in love, but you still joke around and tease him as if nothing ever happened. You drop him off at his house, and then you use your key to open the front door to start working on your costume. The first thing you notice is something sitting on the table with a note taped to it. You drop your bags and coat on the floor and pick up the note. It reads

“Thought this might help with the costume. I forgot I had this tucked away in my room – Cro Cro” Confused, you place the letter on the table, and you hold up what he had left you. You held it up, revealing a black T-shirt. If you played around with it a little, you could make it work. It took a few hours to do so, but you finally got it done. When you finish, you crash on the couch. When you look through the TV guide and see that the movie is on, you text Cronus and he comes over to watch it with you. The movie runs a little longer than you expected, with the constant commercial breaks, and by the time you finish the clock reads 11:30.  You two exchange glances. you’re both thinking the same thing: Movie Marathon. you two call your other friends over, and you watch movies until you crash. You wake up at around 8 the next morning, due to an explosion in the movie someone left off. It takes you a while to realize that everyone is leaning on or on someone else’s lap. You look down and see that Cronus had passed out on your lap, and a light blush appears on your face. You also realize you’re the first to wake up, so you pet Cronus’s hair like a dog, and turn on an educational show with the volume up at 100 to wake everyone else up. Cronus jumps up first, and you swear you saw a blush appear on his face. You try to ignore it, to say it could be other things. To tease him, you lean closer and shout “ALWAYS SAY THANK YOU WHEN SOMEOEN COMPLIMENTS YOU!!!!” and he starts laughing before standing up.

“okay I have to get my costume done I’ll see you in a few” he says, and leaves. you look around, and notice half of them are staring at you. “He really likes you, you know” one of them says. “He told me so the day you were out sick” You look around the group, and they all nod in agreement “Remember how you told us about how was only comfortable performing with you?” the same person says, and you nod. “What he meant was that he didn’t want to do it without you. He only signed up for auditions because you did. He knew you were going to get the part of Sandy and half the school knew if he auditioned he would get the part of Danny. He was just about into it as you were” You lean back on the couch, and look up at the ceiling. Sure, you liked him, but you could never believe that he actually liked you back. Now that you knew that, you decided to wait until the next rehearsal instead of opening night. And as it turned out, he was too. During rehearsal, when the director was working with the ensemble, he gestured you to the back of the room. “So” he says, and pins you to the wall, lust showing in his eyes. “News got out that you’re in love with me” and you blush, which is a big giveaway “Well, the cast director doesn’t really need us, and rehearsal is ending in two minutes” he tugs at your hair. “Why don’t we go and rehears the uncut scene?” he asks, reaching his hands up your shirt and unhooking your bra. You nod your head at your loss of words, and he guides you to a separate room and locks the door.