Pirouettes and Playbills-Ben Cook X OC

Chapter 7

I learned that the whole cast would be going to see Aladdin on Broadway one night of the week. I was so excited! I had taken the liberty of getting dressed up, heels and all. I met up with the cast at the theater. The first person I saw was Jacob.

"Hello, Indi!"

"Hi, Jacob," I smiled.

"Come on, let's get with everyone else. The show will be starting soon."

We came to everyone else and greeted them. When I looked at Ben, he looked shocked.

"Ben, are you okay?" I asked.

"Oh--uh-- yeah. You look great." he stuttered.

"Oh, thank you. You do too."

By that time the show was about to start and we all took our seats. I sat between Ben and Stephanie. It was the first time I had seen Aladdin so it was definitely a treat! I was so grateful that we were able to see it! It was an amazing night.

Two days later, I finally had my script memorized. It was just in time because we had our first run-through that day.

The cast had all become well, really, a family in the time we had known each other. It was crazy! I was so happy we were all getting so close.

Today was the day we were going to try and run through the whole show. We had already been practicing anyway but this was our first full run-through. The set was up when I walked into the rehearsal room.

"Hey, Indi." Ben came running up. Literally. He nearly ran into me as I signed in. "Sorry. Jeff came to tell me that uh...to prepare for our scene since it's the first act. And he said we have to do it right." 

That meant we had to kiss. A real kiss. We had been avoiding it the whole time we had been practicing it.

"Oh. Okay."

He looked down at me. "You don't feel comfortable kissing me, do you?"

I hated to admit but I nodded my head. "It's no offense to you, Ben. It's just...I've never been kissed before. I've never even had a boyfriend. So it isn't you, it's just me."

"Really? Wow." He sounded genuinely shocked which honestly made me feel somewhat bad. He chuckled. "This sounds like you're breaking up with me or something." He was trying to divert my attention from my nerves. I smiled. It had worked; partially.

"Hey, if it would make you more comfortable with it, I'll lean in first and sort of miss your mouth." he chuckled.

"Thank you, Ben, for being so understanding, I really appreciate it. I just hope this isn't going to put a wedge in our friendship."

He took my hands in his and shook his head. "Anything for you, Scarlett," he smirked.

I laughed and held his hand. "Come on, we need to get to stretching."

"Yeah, I'm going to go talk to the guys for a second. I'll get them to come to stretch with us."

I nodded and got to it. Footsteps in front of me made me look up from my pike stretch. I expected to see the boys but saw Stephanie instead.

"Hi, Steph," I greeted her. 

She looked at me. "Are you okay? I saw you talking to Ben when you walked in and you look like there's something wrong." She sat beside me.

"Not gonna lie to you, Steph. Sort of."

"You need to talk about it?"

"If I can, yeah. So, today Ben and I have our scene."