The understudy

Part 1

Newt fiddled with the light again, trying to get its placement exactly how he wanted it. He was perched precariously on a step ladder, almost losing his balance every few seconds. "How's it lookin', Aris?"

His voice carried across the auditorium, reaching his friend who was halfway back in the seats, seeing how the stage looked from all angles. Newt caught a glimpse of a thumbs up before Aris shouted back "Looks great! Now get down from there, I'm scared you'll break something!"

Newt laughed before complying, making his way back down the stepladder and placing it to the side, out of the way. Aris had made it back to the stage and now stood beside Newt, waiting for everyone else to show up for rehearsal. They always got here early to set everything up and make sure the lights were working and the sound was good. There was still a month left before the play would debut, but everyone was already nervous.

A few minutes later, people started to arrive, the first being Teresa. Her long black hair was up in a bun, and her blue eyes twinkled when she saw Aris and Newt. She ran up to them and enveloped them both in a hug. Besides Aris, Teresa was Newt's best friend. The three of them met doing theater their freshman year, and had been best friends since. Teresa was one of the leads in the play, loving the spotlight and the rush of performing, while Newt and Aris preferred to be behind the scenes, making sure everything ran smoothly.

About 30 minutes later, rehearsal had begun. People scrambled around, getting props in place as they went from scene to scene, only doing the big ones, running through lines and choreography. Newt didn't have much to do, so he sat with Aris in the front row of seats, watching the chaos.

Then it was time for the big scene, the one where the two forbidden lovers got together and finally proclaimed their love, sealing it with a kiss! It was so cliché that Newt would've rolled his eyes, if it wasn't for the fact that they had specifically chosen to do this play with 2 guys as the love interests, making a classic love story a bit more bearable for Newt, even if some people weren't too ecstatic about it. Plus, the lead actor was seriously attractive, and Newt felt himself blush just a little bit whenever he saw him.

Which was now, as he was frantically running around, looking panicked. His short brown hair was mussed up from the constant hand running through it, something Newt noticed he did when he was nervous. His brown eyes were creased with worry as he dashed about madly, looking for something.

Newt didn't realize he was staring until Aris nudged him, snapping Newt out of it. Aris wiggled his eyebrows at Newt, making him blush as Aris laughed. Both he and Teresa were well aware of Newt's crush on the lead actor, and took every opportunity to tease him about it, Teresa even going so far as to offering up Newt to be the understudy for his love interest at the beginning of the play. Newt didn't talk to her for 3 days.

Newt had had a crush on Thomas since freshman year, and it hadn't gone away at all. They had hardly ever spoken, and honestly he wasn't even sure Thomas knew his name. Teresa was pretty good friends with Thomas and had tried to introduce Newt to him many times, but he had always chickened out, terrified that he would say something weird or awkward and ruin any chance of anything. Newt scoffed. Yeah, as if there was a chance of anything.

"Hey! Has anyone seen Ben? I can't find him anywhere!" A voice rang out across the auditorium, causing Newt's head to snap towards it. Thomas was standing on the stage, looking out at everyone, still panicking. Ben was the one playing the love interest, and they were about to go over the big kissing scene.

He heard Teresa's voice from somewhere to his right.

"Oh, yeah. He texted me a few minutes ago, said he can't make it at all this week. Some family thing out of state."