“Ready to start on scene two?” Julian asks, sitting next to Theo on the cafeteria’s bench seat.

“Yup yup! Prepare for a lot of stopping and starting,” Theo jokes.

Julian takes out his binder for assistant director things and flips to his printed version of the script. He notices that Jessica is nowhere in sight, but he decides not to bring it up.

“So, this is the scene where Rowan meets Marissa’s parents, and he starts seriously doubting that he’s good enough for her,” Julian explains. “At this point, your character is feeling self -conscious and that anxious feeling is festering, which will build into the breakup scene later.”

“I’m not looking forward to the breakup scene, I gotta be honest,” Theo admits, “but maybe I’m just nervous for the stage kiss.”

“Don’t worry too much, Elena has done stage kisses before, so she’ll be professional. All you have to do is communicate with her to prep.”

“Have you ever done a stage kiss?”

“No, I usually end up cast as the quirky best friend character, and they don’t usually get big romantic confessions and kisses,” Julian says.

“You know, when I was little, I used to get so confused when I would see the same actor kissing different actresses. I was like, ‘hey, aren’t you dating that other lady? You can’t kiss her!’” Theo says.

“Yeah, I get that. My parents have always been pretty affectionate towards each other, so I didn’t get how actors could switch between actresses so easily. I thought they were always in love even though they were just acting, I guess.”

“That must be nice,” Theo says. He takes a deep breath. “I don’t think my parents love each other,” he admits.

Theo is surprised at his own sudden honesty. Did he really say that out loud? Great, now Julian is going to think he wants him to throw a pity party and commiserate. He must sound like a loser to him.

Julian is caught off guard by the sudden change to a much more personal topic, but he isn’t deterred. “What makes you say that?”

Theo forges on. “They’re always fighting. I know it’s normal for couples to fight, but it’s just nonstop for them. And I don’t really remember a time when they weren’t at least a little bit pissed at each other.”

“Not even when you were little?”

“Well, they doted on my older sister a whole bunch, but when I came around things were already rocky. I think they’re staying together just to prove something now.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. It must feel weird in your house, with just you three. You have an older sister?” Julian asks, trying to gather background intel on Theo’s situation.

“Yeah, Lacey. She’s almost 10 years older than me, so she’s got her own life. She lives in Canada now, but she travels a lot for work. Do you have siblings?” Theo says, feeling like he’s been talking about himself too much.

“No, it’s just me and my parents. But my mom has four sisters, so I have a lot of cousins that feel like siblings. My dad had a brother, but he died when he was in his twenties.”

“Wow. Did you get to meet him?” he asks.

“No, but my dad has lots of old photos of him. They were really close, so we look through scrapbooks on his birthday and his death day. Sorry, that sounds morbid.”

“I think it’s nice. My parents never want to talk about anything hard. I think that’s why they fight so much; they don’t know how to be honest with themselves. I’m scared I’ll end up like that,” Theo confesses with a heavy sigh.

“I don’t think you will. Just look at you now, telling me all your business when I’ve only known you for a few weeks!” Julian says with a short laugh.

“Thanks. It means a lot. I try to talk stuff out, but my dad never wants to, and my mom is always working.”

“I guess it’s nice to know that she’s willing to talk about tough stuff, even if she can’t all the time. What’s her job?”

“She’s a nurse, and she works like, 12 hour shifts most days. When she gets home, she’s too tired to do much of anything other than chores. My dad is a construction worker, but he’s out of work right now.”

“That must be rough for them. There must be something new they’re building that he can work on, right?” Julian says.

“There is, there always is. He just hasn’t been motivated to look, I guess?” Theo sighs. “What do your parents do?”

“Well, my mom is a lawyer, and my dad works for a call center from home. He used to be a semi-truck driver, but he was in an accident.”

“Woah. Is he ok?”

“As ok as he can be, I suppose. He walks with a cane now since he had a few joints replaced with metal. It’s all medical technical stuff, he just says he’s part robot,” he chuckles. “Your mom would probably know more than I do.”

“Maybe. That’s kinda cool though, if you don’t mind me saying. I used to say when I was little that I was gonna design robot legs for people, ‘cause there was this guy who worked at the grocery store that had a prosthetic leg with fish on it and I thought he was the coolest guy around,” Theo says, reminiscing.

“That’s so sweet. I used to say I was gonna be an animator and make cartoons, because we went to Disney one time and I took one of those drawing classes where they teach you to draw a character. What do you think you’ll do now?” Julian asks.

“I don’t know, maybe something with writing? Like for the news, maybe? I’m pretty good at writing stories, even though my grade in Mrs. Reba’s class doesn’t show it,” Theo jokes.

“Maybe you could be an author? Write novels, or something? Then you can make your own rules. You don’t have to worry about MLA citation or even proper grammar, depending on what stories you write.”

“That sounds nice. Maybe I could write some short stories for practice in the meantime. What do you want to do?”

“Well, hopefully something artsy. I like directing, acting, and showbusiness stuff, but I know it’s a super competitive industry. A guy can dream though, right?”

“Of course. And for what it’s worth, I think you would make a great director. I can picture you know in one of those fancy folding chairs with a megaphone and a clip board and a beret.”

Julian blushes. “You turned me into the perfect director stereotype right there,” he says with a huffing laugh.

“You’re right. Let me rephrase… I see you doing director things as a professional career, making big money and changing the game. How does that sound?”

“That sounds… nice. But! As the current Eustace Springs High School Drama Club’s assistant director, I declare we must rehearse!”

“Alright, alright,” Theo concedes. “But just so you know, we have like, five minutes left of lunch, and you haven’t finished eating, so maybe we skip the lines for today?”

Julian looks between his tray and his script, trying to decide what to do, before he grumbles and closes his binder for assistant director things. He stuffs some cold French fries in his mouth and stabs his juice box with its straw, glaring at Theo for reminding him of the time.

They spend the remainder of lunch chatting about more casual things than life plans and family problems. When the bell rings, they walk together for as long as they can, parting ways when Julian arrives at his math class. Theo waves goodbye to head upstairs, checking his phone for any text messages.

-        Jessica <3 – I’m on the lunch patio with the dance team, whenever you’re done with practice come find me.

-        Theo – Sorry babe, just saw this. We were practicing for all of lunch. I can drive you home after school?

-        Jessica <3 – Can’t, we have extra practice for the competition next weekend.

-        Theo – ok cool, we could get dinner then after?

-        Jessica <3 – K.

Theo sighs at Jessica’s messages. He can tell she’s upset with him, but he can’t bring himself to be bothered by her tone. He heads into his class with a smile on his face that he doesn’t question.

Theo’s teacher is absent, so the substitute has given the class a study hall period. Theo decides to look over his lines, since he and Julian didn’t get around to it during lunch. He tucks the small book inside a textbook so that his classmates don’t see what he’s reading, though he doesn’t end up reading much after all.

Instead, his mind wanders back to his conversation with Julian. It felt so natural, like he had known the tan boy his whole life. Theo was left wondering why Julian felt like a magnet, drawing him in. His eyes seemed to follow him when he walked into a room, though Theo had attributed that to his colorful wardrobe at first. Now he was suspecting there was another reason for his apparent infatuation.

Though Theo was born and raised in Eustace Springs, he had never gotten along famously with the boys in his classes. He didn’t have any lifelong friends, or even that many people he would feel comfortable inviting to a birthday party. He didn’t get along with most kids, not because he was grumpy or rude, but because sometimes he just didn’t feel like talking. He hadn’t considered that to be too off-putting, but apparently it was, since he only had people around that he could call acquaintances. It was different with Julian, though.

If Theo’s life was a puzzle, then Julian was the one missing puzzle piece. Tucked in between the couch cushions for so long that no one notices he is there until they go to put the puzzle together. Underappreciated, overlooked, unnoticed. The puzzle wouldn’t be complete without him, but on most days, nobody realizes how much he’s needed.

He had felt something similar when he first started talking to Jessica in freshman year, but now she felt like any of the other puzzle pieces that were sitting in the box. Julian was exciting to be around, even if they’re just sitting at their lunch table talking about sweet nothings.

Theo realized then that he hadn’t told anyone else other than Jessica about his home life. She wasn’t empathetic the way Julian was. He lived in a completely different environment, but he listened. Like, actually listened. He didn’t cut him off, or get uncomfortable and try to change the subject. It was nice to have someone to talk to and depend on.

Theo felt like he was being unfair comparing these two people he cared about.

He thinks back to his short conversation with Julian on their way to karaoke night. He thought about how he had said “I guess” when Julian asked if he loved Jessica. How he felt content calling what they had “love,” even if he wasn’t sure what it was supposed to feel like. How he only had his parents as examples for what love was supposed to look like, even though they didn’t trust each other like most couples do.

It would be nice, though, he had thought to himself. It would be nice to have someone I could depend on like that.

Theo stops his mind from wandering any further. Where was that train of thought going?