one time thing | ricky bowen ¹

twenty-five

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leighton's job was to play the piano only. also be kelsi of course, but for some reason miss jenn thought it would be fun if leighton helped big red with tech things. the girl stared at the levers weirdly. not knowing what goes to what. "i just want to play the piano. not learn the language of technical levers." the girl stomped her foot and made a face. big red reached up to pull something but decided not to.

ashlyn came over to the two of them and asked how it was going. "oh it's wonderful ashlyn. it's amazing. it's brilliant." leighton said wiggling one of the levers. "i don't know how to make things light up." big red added. "you walk into a room." ashlyn answered back to big red.

leighton widened her mouth and eyes before placing a hand on her mouth. she saw the way ashlyn was looking at big red and immediately knew there was a sparkle there. big red only blushed a little and laughed softly. the girl didn't want to intrude with whatever was going on and decided she should go help with other things. feeling a little bad big red would have to figure some out alone.

"i think i will go and do something over there." she tried to say before big red grabbed her hoodie and yanked her back. the girl slightly choking. "you are not leaving me alone with this stuff."

ashlyn laughed at the two, "if you both need help i have been through a few tech rehearsals in my day. holler if you guys need me." leighton nodded and smiled as big red thanked her.

leighton wanted to be very nosy at that second. she thought about it and didn't want to invade big red's life of anything super personal. she just left their encounter alone. "ready red head?" she asked. he nodded and quickly pulled down a lever. the two holding each other and their heads waiting for something to fall on them or break. it never came.

"should i grab some tape and a sharpie to label these things?" leighton asked. only to have her best friend agree. the girl quickly headed over to a box of supplies to gather her materials before going back to the levers. big red and leighton slowly started messing with button, switches and the levers for that first part of rehearsal.

miss jenn decided to start figuring out the lights and other things eventually. she wanted to test things but so far, big red and leighton were still struggling a little. "do we have a light switch?" leighton heard her teacher ask. big red looked at the girl nervously and pulled down a lever.

a blue light appeared on the stage followed by a scream that caused leighton to jump at. carlos explained how there were some leftover props from the last show at the theater. "leighton, big red, do we have something a little more flattering?" leighton pushed the lever up again as big red wrote down what the light was used for.

"this is seriously going to take forever. how did people do this?" the girl asked. big red just continued tearing the tape and placing it under each lever.

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the next hour and more of that rehearsal consisted of leighton and big red struggling to work the lights and levers. carlos and ej ran lines as places were set and the cast followed their teacher's wishes.

leighton just wanted to go check on ricky and nini every few seconds. she still felt weird about them being alone, but she couldn't be jealous anymore. ricky was officially her boyfriend and she trusted him. well, she thought she did.

at one point of rehearsal, it got really weird when ej was showing way too much emotion. leighton felt uncomfortable with how well he was able to make himself cry. it was like a switch went off inside the boy.

big red was dozing off next to her as they decided to give up with the testing levers and switches for that evening. suddenly a voice that was so beautiful flowed through the speakers. leighton looked up and saw kourtney singing 'bop to the top' in a cappella.

sure, she didn't have anything against kourtney, she just chose to stay away from her since she was nini's friend. leighton was blown away at how amazing the girl was. definitely reminding herself to tell her how great she is at singing later.

after that performance, carlos had called a very long five. the students separated and went exploring in the old theatre. leighton stopped herself many times from going to barge in on ricky and nini.

she walked out to be greeted with sunlight from the windows and grabbed a box of fresh popcorn some students made. she made her way to the stairs that lead to the balcony of the theatre. leighton saw kourtney sitting on them and decided she could tell her now.

"hey kourtney" leighton started while eating a few pieces of popcorn. the girl looked up and smiled at leighton, "hi, leighton. am i in your way?" she asked starting to pack her binder. leighton quickly stopping her.

"no! no you aren't. i actually just wanted to come tell you that you have a really beautiful voice. why didn't you audition for a role?" leighton asked, kourtney just smiled wider and responded, "oh. thank you, means so much.. but i consider singing more of a me time and church thing only. like i do it in my shower and what not."

leighton laughed and spoke again, "well i know this may seem a little weird. me talking to you since we never do, but i had to tell you." kourtney thanked the girl again as they were interrupted with big red coming to leighton.

"hey leigh, they're ordering pizza. i was going to go get ricky and nini. wanna come with and maybe we can scare them?" big red asked. leighton looked at kourtney who just continued working in her binder. the girl shrugged and went to throw her trash away.

"let me grab a flashlight and we can sneak to the door and burst in. you know ricky will jump to anything." leighton said as big red agreed. them walking towards the area the other two teens were sent to. leighton suddenly felt sick. her stomach was turning a lot and she could only think it was the popcorn.

they inched closer to the door and she had to take a breath before they started their count down. the only thing heard on the other side was a short laugh before it went silent.

big red counted down to 'one' before they bursted inside the room yelling a "hey guys!" and a "boo!" leighton froze at the sight in front of her. she was met with ricky and nini face to face, nini holding ricky's face and ricky holding her hand on his knee.

she gasped as they both jumped up. ricky's face turned paler than usual. big red widened his eyes before slowly turning to look at leighton who had a hurt look on her face. she bit her lip as she continued to say what they were going to.

"uh, they uh.." she started. "leigh.." ricky spoke up. walking towards his girlfriend and best friend. leighton stepped back and grabbed big red's arm. who grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "leigh please, it's not what it looked like, i—" ricky continued.

"they're ordering pizza.. if you guys are done with the lines.." she said before letting out a shaky breath. ricky now was in front of the door, "leigh please just let me explain"

leighton shook her head. she turned around towards another door that led to the stage nearly tripling over her own foot. ricky was right behind her, but not fast enough. big red called out to him to leave her alone. ricky clearly didn't listen and still ran towards his girlfriend.

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delia notes: well. i said it was going to happen right?