Midwinter Night's Dream (4 page)

"Oh my God! How did Hank and I miss this party? So what was it like? Pretend I'm your therapist and give me the full rundown." Sloane eagerly settled in on the bed, swinging around and sitting cross-legged. All he needed was a notepad and glasses to complete the picture.

I propped myself against the headboard. "Okay, but this is bro code. No telling anyone. Not even Hank."

"I can do that."

I blew out a breath, rubbed my stomach where it burned. "The thing is… I liked it."

"Uh-huh." Sloane appeared to be waiting for more. He arched an eyebrow. "How
much
did you like it?"

"I. Really. Liked it." I gave him a strong look for emphasis.

Sloane grinned. "That good, huh? Was there tongue?"

"There was copious amounts of tongue." I shivered at the memory. "Very well used tongue."

"And did Leo get into it too?"

The pain in my stomach flared hotter. "Uh… yeah." My voice croaked. "Man, I don't feel good. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Are you nauseous?" Sloane leaned over to check my forehead for fever.

"Yeah."

"You're a little warm. Do you have heart palpitations?"

I rubbed my chest. "Not… really? But my heart is racing."

"Dizziness? Weakness? Are you worshipping the porcelain gods more than usual?"

"
Yes
," I said with a shudder. "I must have made some bad mojo mixing booze."

"Oh,
honey.
" Sloane shook his head pityingly.

"What?"

He just gave me an exasperated look. "So you sucked face with Leo, and you both liked it. What's next? Are you guys going out?"

"No. He disappeared after we kissed. Maybe it freaked him out." It had certainly freaked
me
out.

Sloane smirked. He leaned forward and patted my knee. "Ask him out."

I could not even imagine it. "Dude, I can't remember the last time I asked a
girl
out. They usually ask me."

Sloane tilted his head, considering it. "Nope. Trust me, the ball is definitely in your court, Micah. Ask him out."

"It was just a kiss. At a party. I'm not going to ask him out."

Sloane gave me a
yeah, right
look and got off the bed as if it was all settled.

At the thought of him leaving, I panicked. "Wait! Let's just say, for grins, that I did ask Leo out. What should I invite him to do? I mean, what does one guy ask another guy to 'do' on a date. And do you think he'd say yes?"

Sloane laughed at me—laughed! "Micah, Micah, Micah." He shook his head like I was just the gosh darn funniest thing he'd ever seen, and walked out the door.

I could hear him sniggering like a goddamn hyena all the way down the hall. What kind of an almost brother-in-law was that? Fucking insensitive, man, leaving me hanging.

My stomach twisted. Damn, I needed to eat something. Maybe I'd feel better. But first….

I went back to my computer. I wished Sloane hadn't left. I had the strongest urge to show him this one scene. Leo was playing Jonathan Harker in a production of "Dracula" and, I swear to God, the scene where he's confronted by the sexy female vampires was absolutely terrifying.

Maybe I'd watch it one more time myself before I went and found something to eat.

*                               *                                    *

"Micah! Why aren't you returning my calls?" Yasmine caught up with me in the quad after my Forest Eco class on Wednesday. Her arms were folded across her chest as she stood in my path. Her words were gentle and her eyes were sad, like she just didn't understand.

I deserved much worse treatment for dodging her the way I'd been doing since last Saturday night. But Yas wasn't the screaming and yelling type.

"Hey, Yas." I put a hand on her arm and kissed her cheek in greeting. Then I backed off and drew my dreads up in my hand. I had a habit of playing with them when I was not entirely at ease. "Sorry. I wasn't feeling great over the weekend."

Her face softened. "Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that. Are you all right?"

"Yeah. But I think I'll be laying off the booze for a while. Which way are you headed?"

"I just got out of class, and I don't have anything else ’til three."

"Cool. I've got a lab over in EESI, if you want to head that way."

She smiled radiantly. "Sure."

Yas was noticeably happier as she walked beside me. She really was a beautiful girl. It was a crisp winter day, and the sun was shining. She wore a navy wool pea coat, a long gray skirt, purple boots, and a crazy bright rainbow scarf. Her cheeks were red and her eyes bright. The campus was decked out for Christmas with bulbs on practically every fir tree and the buildings dressed in wreaths. There were painted Christmas greetings on the windows and some enterprising soul had built a snowman out of Styrofoam since we'd yet to have snow. Seeing Yas against that backdrop was like looking at an ad in a classy college brochure.

Why didn't I feel more for Yasmine? Why couldn't I be interested in
her
the way I was…
wound up
over Leo Dayson? She was just so mellow. Something about her energy put me to sleep. That wasn't a good thing.

"What time are you free? Wanna grab some dinner?" she asked.

"I have lab until five, then I have to TA ’til seven."

"Oh." Her face fell. "Drat. I have rehearsals at seven. And we'll probably run late. Leo's a super intense director."

I perked up. "What are you rehearsing?"

She broke into a happy smile. "We're doing Midsummer Night's Dream for Leo's Directing class, only it's a gay version. I'm playing Demetrius, who's in love with Hermia—that's Dillon—but Hermia is in love with Lysander—that's Leo. And Helena is in love with me. Helen's playing Helena. She's the short girl with the bright red hair? Really pretty face, and she's so funny. She totally cracks me up every time she opens her mouth. I wish I could be funny like that."

She looked wistful, but honestly, I didn't follow much beyond
blah blah Leo's play
.

"Midsummer Night's Dream. That’s Shakespeare, right?"

She laughed. "Yes. Trust Leo to be ambitious. He's so talented. I'll be taking the Directing class next year, but no way I'll be tackling Shakespeare. I was thinking Vagina Monologues? But I'm not sure it's really 'me'. Plus, it's sort of post-feminism whereas now we're more post-post-feminism, or even post-post-post. Maybe…."

Yas went on talking, but I was busy colluding with myself. Since last weekend, I'd been trying to figure out how I might casually run into Leo, but we didn't share any classes. My heart thudded at the possibilities and my stomach ache returned, hot and fluttery like there was a burning pigeon in there.

"Um… Maybe I could hang out at your rehearsal for a bit. If that’d be cool with everyone."

Yas looked delighted. She dove for my neck and gave me a hug. "Would you? That’d be amazing! Are you sure you wouldn't mind? It'll probably be boring to watch. I mean, we have to start and stop a lot, and we’re still pretty rusty."

Yas seemed to have misinterpreted this move as serious interest in her. But it was too late to back out, and I really did want to see Leo again. In fact, the idea of seeing him work was… yeah. On the scary side of appealing. I'd just have to make it clear to Yas later on that I wasn't that into her.

"Uh—well, I have stuff to read, so I can keep myself entertained."

"Aw! That's so great of you!"

Oh, God, she was way too excited about this. Thankfully, we'd arrived at my turn-off for the Earth Sciences building. "I'd better go. Where are the rehearsals?"

"Oh, right." She laughed. "We're in Studio 6. It’s downstairs in the Arts building."

"Right. Well… hopefully I can make it." I didn't want her to think it was a big deal to me. But it was.

Yasmine gave me a sunny smile, as warm as overheated champagne. "Namaste, Micah." With a little wave, she was gone.

~3~

Leo

I corralled my merry band on stage and gave them the rundown for the night, reading off the rehearsal plan I'd drawn up on my iPad. "Okay. We're going to hit act three, scene two, from Demetrius's 'Oh why rebuke you him that loves you so?''' Then we'll do the fight with Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius. Then we'll run through the entire act three from the top. Is everyone—”

My players were not paying attention to me. Instead, they were looking at the back of the room. I turned and saw Micah Springfield take a seat in the back of the small studio theater. He slipped off his backpack and coat.

I turned back around. "Um…."

My brain got a muscle cramp. What was Micah doing here? Settling in—I risked another brief glance—yes, settling in as if he intended to stay and watch rehearsals? Oh my God, why?
Why?

The bundle of nerves that were normally triggered only on opening night came out in force. I had a weird sense of unreality and doom, like I was in one of those dreams where I walked on stage and delivered my lines perfectly, only to realize I'd forgotten to put on my costume and was standing there flashing my junk.

"Leo?"

I blinked and focused on Helen. One of her thick penciled brows was arched at me and her lips were pursed as her eyes darted toward Micah pleadingly
.

Come on, boy. Don't let 'em see you sweat. Pull it together.
I squared my shoulders. "Okay. Does everyone have act three down enough to try a run-through?"

Dillon, my Hermia, seesawed his hand in a 'sort of', but everyone else nodded.

"Great. We'll start in five."

I left my actors on stage and strode back behind the curtain. The small basement theater was mostly used for rehearsals and didn't have much of a true backstage, but there was enough space for me to escape from view and pace back and forth, all tight and wound up.

I hadn't seen Micah since the kiss at Tyrell's party last weekend. I'd put it behind me—or at least, mostly, though the memory had fueled one erotic dream and several spectacular sessions with my right hand. I'd avoided the popular locations on campus that week. There were a few evenings I’d been tempted to go 'get a snack' at the Hub—code for wanting to go out with horny hopes of running into Micah. But I'd fought the urge with steely resolve.

Now Micah was there, at rehearsals. As in, he was going to watch us
rehearse.

Yasmine ran backstage, a big smile on her face. "I hope it's okay that I invited Micah. He was so sweet to want to come and watch me!" She was glowing. Her lovely almond-shaped green eyes were filled with the blight of love and her smile was unhealthily large.

Oh. Oh, right. There I was panicking that Micah had pursued me, when the reality was much, much colder—Micah was here for Yasmine. The soft, romantic part of my heart burst into tears while my brain said
I told you so
in its bitchiest voice.

"I'm so excited to do the fight scene with Helena!" Yasmine gushed. Then she scampered off like a nimble fairy.

I slapped myself lightly in the face. "Get over it," I told myself, out loud and in no uncertain terms.

We had less than three weeks to get this play ready, and my actors only had so many hours to give me with their busy schedules. I needed all my focus on this. Starting now.

No straight boy was going to throw me off my game.

*                               *                                    *

Micah

I had my books out, but they weren't getting any love at all. My focus kept being drawn back to the stage—to Leo.

He was directing the play as well as performing one of the major parts—Lysander. He slipped back and forth between the roles like a Maserati changing lanes. One moment he was directing, intense and in charge and keeping everything moving at a fast pace, keeping everyone energized with the force of his own passion.

And the next minute, Leo became Lysander—the smooth lover, all earnest words, longing looks, and manly bragging.

Fuck. Yeah. He was good. He was so convincingly in love with Hermia that I really wondered if he had something going on with that actor, Dillon. But watching them interact when Leo was not Lysander convinced me that wasn't the case.

Thank God.

I'd seen Midsummer Night's Dream—the film version with Kevin Klein—years ago in a high school lit class. The plot came back to me as I watched. "Hermia" was being played by Dillon, a gay guy with a pretty face and purple hair. He was in love with Lysander—Leo—but his father had arranged for him to marry a woman—Demetrius, played by Yasmine. And Helena, played by a short girl with neon red hair, was in love with Demetrius, but Demetrius only had eyes for Hermia.

They all did okay with the dialogue, though Dillon/Hermia stumbled the most. Leo, though. Damn. The way the words flowed from his tongue was the definition of 'smart is the new sexy'. He made the Shakespearean frills and formality sound like the most natural thing in the world.

A few times, Yas waved at me. But Leo? Leo never looked my way. Not once. As the rehearsal wore on, that began to bother me. A lot.

What was Leo's deal? At the party, he'd tried to get out of kissing me, as if he didn't want to. Then, when we'd kissed, he'd been all passion and fire. As soon as we stopped, he'd disappeared. And now he wasn't even acknowledging my presence.

Chill. Don't get hung up on worrying about what he thinks. Go up and talk to him. See what's real.

Yeah. I needed to relax, man. I couldn't remember the last time I'd gotten bent out of shape above what somebody else thought of me. There was something about Leo, though. I wanted him to like me. I
cared
if he did or didn't.

Maybe it was because it was the first time I'd had a serious crush on a guy. I felt out of my depths, like I was fifteen all over again, and insecure. Would Leo even go for me? He was really attractive; he probably had gay guys falling all over him. That night he wore a cream sweater that fit tight across his wide shoulders. He tucked his blond hair behind one ear when he got ready to step into a scene. But it was his energy that kept me mesmerized. It was like, when he was in the room, I didn't see anything else.