Somebody to Love ~ Joe Mazzello High School AU

The Grand Tour

          "Here, I gotta-" Joe said as he took the key and unlocked the auditorium doors. We walked in and he flipped the switches to our right, illuminating the room with lights. "Okay, so, what should I show you first on this grand tour?" He put the keys into his front pocket.

          "Well, I don't know anything about this place so, I guess you're more fit to choose." I slipped my hands between the front of my overalls and my stomach and letting my arms hang. 

           "Okay, follow me." Joe began walking down the stairs and I followed. He quickened his pace and lurched up so he jumped onto the stage. I stopped in my tracks and glared at him jokingly. "What?" 

           "Nothing. I'm just gonna go the safe way because I have death traps on my feet." I walked along the stage until I reached the stairs on the side, walking up them. I met with Joe once again and he began walking backstage. 

           "I'm gonna show you the costume closet first, since you said you wanted to work with costumes." I nodded as we walked behind the curtain, the backstage being pretty small, as this was a small school. There was a pile of wood to the left against the wall with a couch in front of it, three doors on the back wall, and just random stuff you'd see backstage at a drama place. To the right there was a pair of metal doors, Joe opening one of them, and it opened to a weird looking classroom. There were multiple desks, a teacher's desk, a whiteboard, etc. But there was also two doors in the back corner, one of them belonging to a little room that the roof of wasn't connected to the regular ceiling. The gap between the room's roof and the actual ceiling had set stuff for plays. Joe walked through the path between the desks and ended up at the door to the little room, fishing the keys out of his pocket to unlock it. "So this is where we keep all of the costume stuff, no one is allowed to mess in here except the people in charge of costumes, but we're just going to look." He tried to get the key out of the doorknob, but it was taking up a considerable amount of time.

           "You okay there Joseph?" I walked closer and offered out a hand, he stepped to the side, silently accepting my help.

           "This happens all the time but I'm like the only person that can't get the key out." I grabbed the key and started turning, pulling, and shaking it. Man it's really stuck.

            "Well, make that the two of u-" I pulled very hard and the key came out mid sentence, causing me to jab myself in the stomach. "Just kidding." I coughed out as Joe chuckled. He opened the door all the way, placing a little wedge under the door, and let me walk in first. The room was very very small and had a clothes rack on the left wall and the back wall. The rest of the area was filled with boxes except for the little one person path in the middle. 

             "Pretty basic for a costume storage I guess." Joe shrugged his shoulders. 

             "It's cute, but a little disorganised." 

             "Yeah, tell me about it." I turned to face Joe. The isle in this room was literally only wide enough for one person to walk through, pretty cramped. "So the clothes are all hung up where you can see them, and back here-" Joe pointed to the back, "excuse me, I'm just gonna-" Joe awkwardly shuffled up to slide past me.

              "Oh, yeah-" I leaned against the wall of boxes to my right, pushing myself against it to give Joe the most room. I felt his hand on my side as he went to go past and literally every. part. of our bodies, except our heads, rubbed against each other. Joe froze and this seemed to go on for like seven minutes when it couldn't have even been two seconds. My whole body tingled, causing me to shiver and a breath to involuntarily leave my body. I could feel his warm breath, and his close presence, on the back of my neck. I twisted my head and glanced up to Joe, his face was very flushed and his brown eyes slightly wide. I opened my mouth to say something, anything; what you may ask, I have no idea.

              "Hey, what are you guys doing." A voice sounded from the door. I felt Joe lerch away, and out of the corner of my eyes, falling into the clothes rack. I put my hand to my mouth and laughed a little as he pushed off the clothes and steadied himself. He cleared his throat and ran his hand through his hair. I looked to the door and saw Rami standing there, a grin on his face.

              "Jus-just showing her the, uh, costume area." Joe stuttered, Rami just making some kind of eyes at Joe before turning around and leaving. "But yeah, back here is just the shoe and wig section." Joe rubbed the back of his neck as he looked around the room. His blush on his face was spreading down his neck, as he avoided eye contact. "I think that's all in here, let's-" he gestured to the door, so I walked out of the room, Joe behind me. 

               "The school I went to was huge, so we had no short of a theatre section that looked like something for a college." I changed the subject seeing Joe was so flustered.

               "Must be such a downgrade." He chuckled, his blush finally draining away.

              "Well, I don't really care about the set up, yeah it's cool to have more high tech stuff, but it's all about the people you're in drama with." I said, "The people at my old school thought they were better than everyone else."

               "That sucks, of course we have some people like that here but mostly everyone is okay." Joe and I just stood in silence, my gaze flicking between his eyes, lips, and the wall behind him. 

               "Where's the makeup room?" 

              "Oh, it's over here." Joe walked past me and went back into the backstage area to the middle door on the back wall. This one was unlocked so he just opened it and turned on the light. It wasn't the most organised, same as the costume room, and it was pretty small in here too, there was a counter the length of the full back wall with a mirror and a sink. The counter held a bunch of containers which I assumed contained makeup.

               "Oh man I could totally do the Rogerina makeup." I turned my face to look at Joe.

              "I totally forgot about that!" he smiled and walked up next to me, watching me look through the makeup. All of it was used and old, but there was q-tips for application which is good for makeup that's for a lot of people. "We can do that tonight while they're playing truth or dare." he suggested. 

              "It's a date." I smiled widely at him before shutting the container drawer and walked out of the room. "I wonder where Rami went."

              "He's probably just wandering the halls like the hooligan he is." 

              "Hooligan? What are you, seventy?" I repeated, laughing.

              "Yes, he's a hooligan that I put up with." Joe walked past me and back onto the main stage. "It's almost five so we should head back to the classroom, more people should be arriving."

              "Right behind ya."