Who Would've Thought

Nerves

        "I can't do this. I can't", I repeated. I had been saying the past few sentences over and over again until now when Claire hit me. It pulled me out of my trance because let's face it that hurt like a bitch. "Um ouch", I told her sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and straightened out my already perfect suit.
        "Dude pull yourself together. It's fine. You and Charlie did amazing last night so don't worry about it. And so what if your boy toy is here today as well as the rest of your family? Big whoop. It's not like you'll see them at all, I mean after all what are the bright lights for", she joked with a sly grin. I grit my teeth and rolled my eyes because she was wrong. This was huge and stressful and yeah okay so Charlie and I performed well last night but this is different. It's the Friday before Christmas break and everyone is pumped up and beyond excited while I am essentially petrified.
        The past few weeks have been insane with hardcore studying and lots of rehearsals for the play. I feel like my finals went okay for the most part but I'm not too shocked there seeing has how school was literally my life before Dean and these stupid extracurricular classes. Last night some outsiders in the community came but it was mainly just families. However, that was on a Thursday evening and not a Friday. The school literally ran out of seats we were so sold out and people were lined along the walls. All of my friends, excluding Charlie and Claire of course, are out there as well as Ellen, Bobby, Dean, my brothers, and even my mother for Christ's sake. Hell even Sam and Jess had made it in for this one.
        I blew out a shaky breath and wrong my hands, trying to calm down but failing. That's when Charlie joined us, cheerful as ever. Her grin faltered slightly at the sight of my face and she threw her arm around my shoulder to give me a side hug. "Hey it's fine Castiel. Breathe. Forget about them. Just focus on acting like you did last night and we'll do great! Try not to look so sick", she tried to reassure me. I nodded and wiped my hands on my pants to wipe off the sweat that was there. Our theater teacher yelled something out but I couldn't make out what she said. "Hey", Charlie snapped, reeling me back in. "We have to get off the stage so they can open the curtains and the first scene can start. Come on." She held out her hand and I took it, following her to the side of the stage enough to where even when the curtains opened we wouldn't be seen by the people.
        Everyone had turned out to be right about Rufus. He took finals all day Monday and then Tuesday morning before bolting off to some island with his parents where he was no doubt getting drunker than shit right now. God I wish I could be him right now. What a dick to leave like he did, and how unlucky for me. The curtain opened and some of the minor characters stepped out to begin the first act. Charlie patted my shoulder reassuringly before going around behind the backdrop to get to the other side of the stage as she would enter the scene within a few moments. I smiled at her to make sure she wasn't nervous before returning to my worried state. A few more lines were given and I shook myself out, trying to loosen up. After this scene, I would be on and wouldn't stop until the end. Claire checked my makeup and ruffled by hair before winking and leaving me to enter the scene.

        Two hours later, Charlie and I along with the rest of the class were holding hands and bowing in front of a screaming audience. The applause was ground shaking, our friend group being the loudest along with my brothers. Charlie looked to me and laughed before yanking me from the others and stepping forward for us to bow again, away from the rest of them. After that, we stepped off stage and the curtains closed once more. "Amazing! Absolutely amazing! That was by far one of the best performances out on by our theater group. I'm so proud of you all", our teacher exclaimed. "Castiel and Charlie great job yet again. You were born to act and if not then I'm just an incredible teacher." We all laughed and thanked her before running to change out of our costumes and into regular clothes.
        I finished before Charlie, seeing as how there was less of a line for the men changing rooms. When she was done, she grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the stage. She squealed the whole way and when we reached the curtain we stepped around to get back to where our families and friends waited for us. Charlie went to her family first seeing as how mad they can be when she doesn't but I allowed Jo to pull me into a hug before my brothers could. "Oh my god Cas! That was amazing", she shouted.
        "Yeah who knew you could act", Gabriel asked jokingly as he pulled me into a hug. They all hugged me and my heart skipped a bit when Dean did and kissed me check quickly as he did so no one would notice. Charlie eventually rejoined us and everyone started telling us how well we did, making us blush furiously. We ended up laughing and joking but my laughter came to a sudden halt when I saw the figure standing behind my mother. Luck caught my shock and grimaced as if to say sorry. Suddenly my dad was there, pulling me into a hug.
        "Son! Great job, you did extraordinarily well", he shouted. I stood frozen and his grip tightened. "What's the matter with you boy give your old man a hug." I moved to hug him back even though I was still pretty frozen. My mother fought up to me and congratulated me on a good performance and I moved to hug her. Dean and I shared a look above her head and his smile immediately halted. His eyes seemed to ask if I was okay and I shook my head. My father shouldn't be home for another week at least if at all so why was he here now? I shook my head and put my smile back on before talking with Sam about some literary aspects of the play in which everyone laughed and called us dorks.
        "Anyone up to celebrate the kids big success with a sundae back at the bar", Ellen asked. There was a resounding hell yes, excluding my mother and father, and we all went to like into vehicles. My family and I got into mom's car. Dean took Sam, Jess, Crowley, Garth, and Charlie. Ellen took Jo, Balthazar, Anna, and Bobby. There were some tightly packed vehicles but we made it work and not much later we were all at the Roadhouse with either sundaes or milkshakes. My mother and father went to talk to Ellen and Bobby for which I was extremely grateful for. Dean took the opportunity to pull me aside towards a corner and it took all my will power to not yank him by his hair to kiss him.
        "So I'm guessing the guy over there is your dad", he questioned quietly. I nodded and looked over to where he was standing, talking to Bobby about god knows what. "Are you okay?"
        "I don't know" I said with a sigh, looking back at Dean. "He's not supposed to Dean. He should be off working and not around me and frankly I don't want to deal with him tonight so if course he's gonna show up and-".
        "Hey, hey. It's okay. Calm down. He seems to be okay as of right now right?" I nodded and bite my lip, wondering how long the act would last. "Cas no one is going to hurt you, especially not him and definitely not tonight. There is no way I would ever let him near you like that ever again. Everyone here has got your back babe. Just block him out and you'll be fine." I went to say something else when Balthazar came up and pulled me into a hug before kissing me, not on my lips but very damn close. I looked at him in mass confusion and was trying to hold in shouting at him when Jo gave me a look that told me to act along. Jo gave Dean the same look and he smiled at what apparently was a relationship between me and Balthazar.
        "Bal what the hell are you doing", I whispered. Dean went to join Sam and Jess with the other adults, leaving Bal and I alone. He grabbed my hand and leaned more towards me to where there was no space left between us.
        "Don't freak out okay. We all saw your dad look over at you and Dean and so before he started questioning anything we decided to have one of us act as if we were dating you to save your hide and Dean's. Your dad knows you don't like girls and you can't be with your brothers obviously and since I'm gay anyway it just worked out for me to come over. You aren't the only one that can act", he joked. I could tell he was trying to break the mood so I nodded and smiled to put on a show too. I thanked him under my breath and he squeezed my hand to say you're welcome and we went to join the rest of the group.
The rest of the evening passes with no hiccups and it was actually really fun. Our friend group was growing bigger and we were getting closer, creating just a lot of good. Which means it was due for bad but with the blissful state I was in I didn't even think of what could possibly ruin this night. I even forgot about my father being around as I watched Gabe and Bal grow closer, and Anna and Charlie were getting to Garth and it was nice to see him grow into the group. Even though I couldn't be as close to Dean as I wanted I loved seeing him with Sam and Jess, smiling and having several moments of full body laughter.
A few hours later, everyone started getting tired and I was practically depending on Luc to hold me up. He wrapped his arm around my back under my armpit to help hold me up seeing as how I was basically deadweight. I could see Dean cracking a smile at the sight of me and I could feel Luc chuckling. "Somebody's tired", he taunted. I mumbled a shut up before leaning my head against him and yawning. All the adults were getting tired and hell after the week of finals and then a play I think it's safe to say us kids are pretty exhausted.
        Due to the tiredness, we all decided to wrap up. We ran our dishes through the Roadhouse dish washer for them to be ready for tomorrow and we headed out again. We all piled back into the cars we came in, with Dean and Ellen taking several of my friends home. The ride back to the house was silent seeing as how our father never lets us listen to the radio. He was always into things being silent but it made everything so damn awkward. Tonight though the quiet was actually kind of nice but I was really out of it. I don't think I had been this tired in a long time, and I don't know why I am so tired tonight.
We pulled up to the house after a few minutes and my parents got out of the car right away and went inside. My brothers and I moved slower though and I actually just sat in my seat groaning for awhile. Micheal chuckled at me and Lucifer looked over with a grin. "Want a ride inside", he asked. I opened my eyes and smiled, nodding because I would much rather be carried than have to walk. He climbed out and crouched down and I jumped onto his back and, with a huff, he stood up and carried me up to my bedroom.