Brynn pulls me into the auditorium. "Believe it or not, Brynn I have actually been in the auditorium before." I laugh.
"Not like this, you haven't." She lets go of my hand before racing down the carpeted center isle, past all the black and red folded seats. "Come on, slowpoke," she teases, running backward and now waving me forward. She turns back around and jogs up the four steps to the stage on the left-hand side and disappears behind the red velvet curtain.
I pick up my speed and jog to the stage, climb up the steps and when I get behind the curtain, I can't see a thing. "Brynn, are you still here?"
"Yeah, hold on." Her voice comes from somewhere above me if that's even possible and I go to move further in but nearly break my neck over something that materialized in front of me. "Mmmm," I groan out loud having smashed my foot. Maybe I shouldn't go to practice today. I am way too accident-prone.
"Don't move." I hear her giggling somewhere off in the distance. "It will only take me a second. There " she says triumphantly.
Three spotlights illuminate the area backstage. "Stay there. I'll be down in a sec." I finally find her staring down at me from a caged area above me, obviously where the stage crew operates the lights. Skipping down the last couple of stairs she comes to stand before me.
"I love it back here." Her eyes are shining bright with her excitement. "It has to be the coolest place in the entire school. Come on." She takes my hand again and leads me back behind a second curtain.
I see some of the sets they are working on for the play. Something that looks like the woods and another that is shaping up to look like a palace. They are amazing. "Did you do these?" I move over to another to take a closer look.
"Those are a collaborative effort. We have several artists on crew. This is the one I am most proud of." She pulls the large canvas I'd seen her puzzling over the other day. It's just a rough sketch but you can tell it's Titania's part of the woods as there are trees and fairies hidden among branches and flying about.
"Are you going to paint this too?" I inspect every inch finding something new with each section I explore.
"Yeah, it will be an undertaking but I'll get it done." She pushes it aside and I see all these old sets stacked against the wall. "Wow!"
"I know right?" She giddily bounces over to them. "This is what I really wanted to show you. These are all sets painted by students in the past. Turns out the large canvases are really expensive for the school to purchase so we tend to repurpose them. I hate having to paint over a scene though. I feel like I am erasing someone from history."
"Well nothing lasts forever, Brynn," I say, moving a classroom backdrop used in Black Patent Leather Shoes, from last year to see what's behind it. "So you said you have to paint over these to use them again?" I'm now looking at an office scene I remember they used in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying from Freshman Year.
When I get no answer I glance down at Brynn who looks sullen or deep in thought.
"Hey? You okay?"
Physically Brynn shakes her whole body and she lets out a deep sigh. "Yeah, I'm good," she says, pushing whatever thought she had physically away with her actions.
"What's this one from?" I ask looking back and finding a long winding country road leading to some distant location I can't see. It reminds me of Frost's poem and I begin to wonder where it leads.
"Oklahoma, I think?" Bryn leans back from where she is to see what canvas I am looking at. I realize she is no longer beside me but in a different section pushing canvases around to get at something. She disappeared again, and I am immediately reminded of my letter and smile.
I dig it out of my back before I join her. "Here. I have something for you."
She looks down at the note folded into a four-pointed star. It instantly made me think of the plastic Chinese throwing stars I had as a kid, wouldn't she be surprised to know I use to love dressing as a ninja for Halloween? I must have done so for at least five Halloweens in a row much to my Mom's dismay. She finally gets a kid to dress up and I refused to comply with her choices. I was a ninja through and through.
As she stares at it, I can see the recognition flitter across her face, she giggles before saying, "Nice." Brynn places it in her own bag and goes back to the task of moving canvases around. Suddenly squeals with delight. "Here they are! These are my favorite!" She pushes the last canvas aside and I see four large elephant legs over a story tall. "They must have used them in a P.T. Barnum Musical or something."
I laugh, happy to see her good mood return. "These are your favorite? Why?"
"Because I know they will never get rid of them. They are such unique pieces there is nothing they can be turned into. So year after year we have to shuffle them around, and they just hang out back here and it always makes me happy to see them." Her happiness is obvious by the huge smile on her face.
It seemed an odd reason to like really large elephant legs but it made her happy so I was good with it. Besides, I love that smile.
"What?" she says to me.
"What? What?" I say and then shake my head because that doesn't even make sense.
"I don't know you were just looking at me in a really weird way. So, I was wondering what you were thinking?"
What was I thinking? Oh, yeah I was thinking about her, her smile, and the way just being around her makes me happy. Can I say that? Or would that be too weird?
She raises her eyebrow, just one, and is now looking at me expectantly.
"Not sure if I should say, really?" I suddenly feel a bit awkward being here alone with her.
"Why not? They are just words," she presses taking a step closer to me.
It is a huge area behind the stage, but with that one step, it begins to feel a whole lot smaller. "I don't know. I'm not very good with words." I admit, looking down at her.
"Hmm?" She takes another step closer. "Does what you want to say need words?"
"Maybe? Yes... no! I don't know."Why am I stumbling all over myself? I have talked to a lot of girls. Brynn is just a girl. A girl I want to be friends with. Actually a girl I'm starting to wonder if I want to be more than friends with and it's that thought that is making me so nervous.
"I see." She steps closer. "Well, there is an easy solution you know?"
We are only a few steps from one another, and her actions are having my thoughts traveling down a path I wasn't expecting them to go.
She holds up her key chain. "Let's leave it to the Eight Ball?" Before I get a chance to weigh she asks, "Should Finn tell me what he is thinking of right now?" She gives the little ball a vigorous shake, opens her palm, and reads, "Very Doubtful."
"That's disappointing," she frowns and is about to put the key chain back when I grab her hand to stop her.
"Should I show Brynn what I'm thinking of right now?" I ask and give the ball a shake while still holding her hand. We've unknowingly closed the distance between us. Excitement courses through my veins. "What does it say?" I ask her.
She looks down at where our hands are wrapped around the little Eight Ball. "Finn, I don't use the Eight Ball for important questions. It's dangerous?"
Curious. "What makes you think what I want to show you is important?"
"It just feels that way." She looks up at me worriedly.
My brave Brynn's bravado has left her now she looks shy, unsure, and so lovable. I no longer care what the Eight Ball says. I want to kiss her. That is what I was thinking. That's what I want to show her.
I toy with a piece of her hair that's resting on her shoulder. It is as soft and silky as it looks. Running my hand up her neck, I stop right at her jawline, and I feel her involuntarily shiver. "Brynn, I am thinking of kissing you."
"The Eight Ball said you wouldn't tell me," she says breathy and nervous.
Rubbing my thumb along her cheek I say, "It said it was doubtful. And I am. May I kiss you, Brynn?"
"No...Yes...I don't know," she stumbles uncertain, as uncertain as I was just a moment ago.
"There is always?" I say, opening my hand to release hers so she may read her Magic Eight Ball.
She stares down at her hand and slowly opens her palm. We both look down at it together. We both see one word. That word is, "YES."