one shot - sometimes love is letting go

the broken hearts club

Of course she had no idea where to go, which brings us back to the school gymnasium, which until the winter musical, was of zero significance to her.

She's sitting with her back to one of the walls, it seems daunting how empty it feels now, without the crowd and sets. It's cold, there's no one in school yet other than the janitors. School is still out for summer anyways, only the teachers are back this week. Miss Jenn had specially planned for most of the drama club to start earlier, 'regroup' she had said.

Nini stares into the desolate space, playing back her memories as though she's rewinding a tape again and again. Sometimes she thinks she made the whole thing up in her head, that whole night. She sits there for over forty minutes, writing down small scraps of lyrics and poetry, pacing around, dancing and singing and trying to put herself back in that moment.

Before it turns eight, she finds herself walking out of the gym. Her footsteps echo lightly as she walks to the theatre, hand gently tracing the seats as she treads down to the stage. She can't get the lights to turn on for the life of her, instead she settles on just turning on the ghost light; there's something peaceful about the theatre in the dark. Someone has left their guitar on stage, she sits down by the side.

"Livin in my own world" she plucks cautiously at the strings "didn't understand" she clears her throat, heavy.
"That anything can happen, when you take a chance.. I never believed in what I couldn't see, I never opened my heart to all the possibilities mmm.."

Now there's footsteps, a silhouette in the dark holding up a phone with the flash on, walking to her. Momentarily she's stunned, it causes her to stop strumming but she continues a few seconds after.

She lets herself pretend for half a minute that it's who she wishes it was, up until the silhouette is no longer indistinguishable. The strumming slows until it's obsolete.

"Hey stranger" the person says, a soft smile on their face. She sniffles for a second, putting the guitar aside and standing up to hug him.

"Hi eej" she says, putting a smile on.

He turns the flashlight off, putting his phone back into his pocket. Silently they both sit down on the stage, it's quiet but not the uncomfortable kind that makes you want to disappear, the kind of quiet that's calm as though there's an unspoken agreement of understanding.

"So" he says "what're you doing here so early?"

"I could ask you the same thing" she replies, running her fingers up and down the glossy stage floor, half a smile on her face. "I just, couldn't take being in my room anymore"

"I guess it's all packed up now huh?"

"Mhm most of the house, movers come tomorrow morning"

"Are you doing okay? With the move and everything else?" He asks gently. Somehow he's been the first one to ask her that in a while, at least directly.

"I'm good" she tries to say surely. It's unclear to her whether he believes her or not, to be fair that's unclear to him too.

"I um, I assume you heard about..." he mutters, it's clear that there's a lot of feelings for him surrounding said issue; Nini doesn't need him to finish his sentence to know what he's talking about.

"I did" she purses her lips together, her expression apologetic.

He lays on his back, knees bended to that his feet lay flat, head tilted toward her. "Are you okay.. with it?" she asks, her voice laced with concern. He looks away, at the ceiling.