TLC the Musical

World So Cold

Cinder sat with Winter in the Auditorium and read her lines in silence. All she could think about was how Thorne had acted around Cress. Sure, he was always such a flirt with everyone. But with Cress, he was especially intimate. The idea of him trying to hurt Cress made her wish she could slap him without getting an allergic reaction.

"Stop dwelling, Cindy," Winter cooed. Cinder's head snapped over to her friend, who wasn't even looking at her. She was still eyeing her script and twirling a strand of her curled hair.

"What do you mean 'dwelling'?"

"You're thinking about Thorne and Cress. You don't have to worry about it."

Cinder humfed. "How can you be so sure?"

"Cress is still a smart girl. She always has been. She won't let Thorne take advantage of her."

Unconvinced, Cinder crossed her arms over her chest. Sure, Cress was smart. But the real Cress was also very, very hopeful and imaginative. Just like Winter, she was dreaming of a love that might not happen. Unlike Winter though, Cress might have a crush on a player and a jerk. Winter was love-sick over her best friend since childhood, who was too stubborn and stupid to admit he liked her back.

Thorne was going to hurt Cress. It was almost too obvious to Cinder that he was. Sometimes, it seemed like Winter was too blinded by her shipping and romantic imagination to get a grip on the world. And to think she thought Wolf and Scarlet were going to get together.

"You're just mad because you're not practicing with Kai right now," Winter reasoned.

At that, Cinder was too stunned to even respond. She may have been iffy on her friends liking the guys in the anti-group (group of guys that it the opposite of Cinder and her friends), as Cinder called them. But she was certainly not crushing on Kaito Huang.

Winter began giggling and holding her hand over her mouth. The sound became progressively louder and more obnoxious as time went on.

"I don't like Kaito," Cinder protested. In turn, Winter's giggling only got worse. Frowning, she tucked her script under her arm and got out of her Auditorium seat. She lazily walked up to the stage and sat on the edge. Yet, she couldn't find the focus she needed to keep her eyes from wandering off the page. Instead, she thought of how just a few day before, she helped Thorne out with his car when it refused to start.

She smiled at how clueless Thorne had seemed at the time. Unable to figure out what could be wrong with his car. When it had been as simple as Thorne being stupid and getting a can of hair gel stuck in his tail pipe. Though at the time, he'd sworn it wasn't his.

Narcissistic and obsessed with having good looks. Those were two things Cress didn't need in a guy she fawned over. And it wasn't like Cress needed to have a crush now in the first place. She was just starting to find herself and was struggling to keep it all together. Why would she need Thorne to add to her problems.

"I told you to stop worrying about it," Winter repeated. "You're going to blow a circuit if you keep thinking about it."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Ha, ha. Very funny. But I'm perfectly capable of going on without doing that."

"Whatever you say," Winter said, not believing her. Stars, maybe she was right. Maybe Cinder would loss her bolts if she kept thinking about how bad Thorne would be for Cress. Then again, she would have a malfunction if Thorne hurt her friend in any way.

.................

Winter pensively dreamed of things she wished she could be doing. One of them being her practicing with Jacin. Sadly, he was trying to learn how to memorize lines from Kai. The process was long and dull. But even as hard as it was, he insisted he keep the part of her prince. And Winter smiled at her theory that it was because he cared for her.