FIVE MONTHS LATER

Spring Awakening opened in a week and nothing was ready. Currently, Bea was in the middle of painting sets. It was her first college show and it had to go well. Local reviewers apparently loved coming to their productions and if they liked the show, the department would take it to competition. And if the show won any awards, that would be something she could put on her resume when she was looking for professional theater jobs. Not to mention that if the show went well, she'd be more likely to get a bigger job on the next one. Right now Bea was just a crew member, the low man on the totem pole, but she was planning to be at least an assistant stage manager (if not a stage manager) by the next year. To get there, she'd have to put in the work.

It was almost eight o'clock and the theater was quiet. The work day had started at four, after all the school's afternoon classes had ended, and most of the other helpers had left for a late dinner. Only Bea and a few of her friends were left. They were working on a larger set piece onstage while Bea stayed in the workshop that was connected to the main backstage area. As much as she loved working with her friends (all the best gossip came out when they were painting), she wanted to get this piece done before she left tonight and she would be way more productive without them distracting her.

When college had first started, she had been a mess. A lot of her classmates had gone to schools relatively close to home but Bea had chosen a school out-of-state. So while everyone else was able to go to their old high school's homecoming game and drive home whenever they wanted, she had to wait until Christmas to even see her parents (airplane tickets for Thanksgiving were ridiculously expensive). She tried to compensate by setting up regular FaceTime dates with Len and her other friends, but it wasn't the same. At the end of the day, they were near each other and she was far away.

There was one person that was sort of nearby, maybe an hour or two, but he didn't count. They hadn't talked since they were preparing to leave for their respective schools and Bea didn't know how to reach out. She didn't see a way that she could without seeming like a basket case. Len said that she was being ridiculous but Len wasn't here so she couldn't actually force her to do anything. That was both a blessing and a curse.

She was moving on to the last section of the set piece when the familiar chatter onstage (it was always nice to have as background noise; Bea thought it was better than bringing her iPod) died down. It was like all of the girls had been silenced. At first she just brushed it off, but when that silence turned into hysterics (think giggles and squeals), she knew that something had to be up. Had someone's boyfriend or girlfriend shown up? She loved her friends but they were obsessive shippers. If someone's significant other had shown up, it wouldn't be surprising if they forgot their work and instead bothered the happy couple. Either way, she wasn't going to go investigate. There was no reason she had to be dragged into that.

But dragged into it she was. One of her friends, Annie, came backstage to where she was working with an excited look on her face.

"Bea..."

"Yes?" she replied nervously.

"Why didn't you tell me that you had such a cute male friend?"

"A cute male friend?"

"Yes! He's here for looking for you!" Annie was practically bouncing up and down.

"Wait, what?"

She rolled her eyes. "Your cute male friend is here and he's looking for you."

"I don't have a cute male friend."

"Uh, yes, you do because there's one out there!"

"I still have no idea what's going on," Bea said.

"Oh my god, you're ridiculous. A very cute guy who says that he's friends with you is standing out there, what is there to understand?"

"But-"

"He says he knows you from high school?"

Wait, did she mean? No, Annie couldn't mean him. As in him. That was impossible. Bea put down her brush and absentmindedly on her jeans. She supposed it could be him, he did have a car, it was possible. But just because it was possible didn't mean that he was here. Like in this theater. It couldn't be.

"Um-"

"Wait, is he an ex? Because if you don't want to see him I can send him away," Annie said.

"No, don't do that. He's not an ex."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Just... give me a minute. I need to, um, just collect my thoughts."

"All right. I'll go tell him that you're coming out." She turned on her heel and walked back onstage.

Pull yourself together, Bea thought. Even if it is him, it's not like it's that big of a deal. It's not like you had a falling out, you're still friends. You just haven't talked in a while. Besides, it might not even be him! Someone could have flown out, or been in the area... No matter what, things will be okay.

Empowered by her little pep talk, Bea got up from where she had been sitting on the floor. After checking her hair (it was a mess, as usual, but there was nothing she could do) in the reflection of her phone, she walked out onto the stage.

Her friends were all watching her as she walked out from behind the curtain. Like they were in a musical and they were the chorus and she was the leading lady about to break into song. Like she was about to do some gymnastic trick. Like she was in some kind of romantic comedy. But she ignored them, their stares were making her too nervous (the pep talk was wearing off, was it too late for her to go backstage and pretend none of this had happened), and looked out into the audience to see her "cute male friend."

All at once, her wildest dreams (not that she had told anyone about them) and fears were realized. Standing in front of the stage, leaning onto the orchestra pit, was Noah Ramirez. Bea was frozen.

It was obvious that Bea was not going to break the silence that had again fallen over the stage so Noah decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Hi," he said with a pathetic smile. He might has well pretend that this whole thing was normal since he still wasn't entirely sure what he was doing there or what he was thinking. Bea had to know how nervous he was, he was sure of it. But she was too busy noticing how his smile was somehow both sheepish and cocky. And that he looked just like himself. She wasn't sure what she expected him to look like but this wasn't it. He just looked like... like... him.

"Hey," she said after a minute (and after Annie poked her to bring her back to reality).

"How's it going?"

"It's going good, I guess."

"That's good."

"What, uh, are you doing here?"

He smiled again, but this time he looked much more sheepish than cocky. "Um, Len told me that you were in the middle of production hell and suggested that you might want to see a friendly face. In case you were stressed or anything."

"Oh." That was so sweet of him. Sure, Len had suggested the whole thing but Noah never did anything he didn't want to do. And he had driven out to see her. It was so sweet she didn't know what to do. How was she supposed to react to that? Did he mean this in a romantic way or in a friends way? Was this a sign that he would be an amazing boyfriend or was it just confirmation that he was a good guy and friend.

"That's really sweet of you," Annie said, most likely to just break the tension.

"Um, thanks," he said, relieved that at least someone was saying how they felt about this. "I'm Noah, by the way."

"Annie." They shook hands.

"So you know Bea from high school?" one of her other friends, Sydney, asked.

"Yeah," he said. "We met senior year when I worked on Little Shop of Horrors. I was her assistant stage manager"

"That's fun. So you guys got pretty close?"

"Well, uh, yeah. I guess we did." His eyes flickered to Bea and then away again, as if he was suddenly very fascinated with the orchestra pit.

"That's so cute!" Sydney said. "I ship it."

"Please don't say that," Bea said, finally starting to feel like herself again. It was just Noah, this was just a conversation. There was no reason she should be so nervous, she just had to stay calm.

"Why not?"

"Because it's not like that."

"Why not?" Annie asked.

"Because it isn't and do we have to have this conversation right now?"

"Fine, but we're going to want the whole story later," Sydney said. Annie nodded.

"Whatever." Of course, just as she was feeling comfortable her friends had to make things awkward again. Noah, the poor guy, was frozen in place and looked like he was considering running right back out the door and never coming back.

"Oh no," Annie said. "We scared him."

"Well I'm sorry that I stated the obvious shipping potential," Sydney said. Bea felt like her head was about to split open.

"But now he's going to leave without really talking to Bea! He didn't come all this way just so she could see his face."

"It's not that far," Noah said lamely.

"You still made an effort! And I'm sure you had more to say."

"Yeah, I did."

"Go ahead and say it, we won't stop you."

"All right." Noah looked completely terrified now. "I will."

"Wonderful." All Bea wanted in the world right at that moment was for the floor to open up and swallow Annie whole.

"So, Bea," Noah said.

"Yeah?"

"Annie's right, I didn't just come here so you could see my face or whatever. I figured that you had to take a dinner break at some point, cause, you know, you have to eat, and I figured that you might as well eat, uh, dinner with me. We could go to a restaurant or something."

"Like on a date?" Sydney blurted out. Everyone shushed her but Bea had to admit that she was thinking the same thing but she never would have actually asked.

"Um," Noah said, his face bright red. "It could be a date-like thing, if Bea wanted. I'm, uh, open to it."

"Bea?" Annie asked giving her a "act like a normal human being for a second please" look. "Are you going to say anything?"

"Um..."

"We don't have to make it a date if you don't want to. We don't have to go to dinner at all. I can just drive home, I guess."

"No!" she said, loudly enough to surprise even herself. "Don't leave."

"You don't want me to leave?"

She took a deep breath. "No, I don't."

His eyes widened and a small smile was playing on his lips (this time his smile was all arrogance). "Then I won't."

"Good."

"We should give these two a minute," Annie said as she started to move towards backstage.

"Do we really?" Sydney asked.

"Yes, come on."

Annie led all the girls offstage and into one of the dressing rooms, giving Bea and Noah a "get on with it then" look over her shoulder as she did so. A silence yet again fell over the entire theater. Neither of them moved.

But this time Bea was able to break it. "So you want to go to dinner?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Because I have to eat sometime."

"Uh huh."

"And I might as well eat with you."

"Exactly."

She grinned. "That's a horrible excuse."

"What?"

"That's the worst excuse to ask someone out ever."

"Well I'm sorry my asking out methods don't meet your standards!" he said, laughing. "I had to have some excuse to show up here and I was too nervous to think of anything else."

"Whatever."

"So is that a yes?"

"What?"

"Is that a yes to our quasi-date?"

Bea thought for a moment. "As long as it's a date, not some lame quasi-date."

"Whatever you want. You're saying yes?"

"Yes, I am."

He smiled. "Awesome. Let's get going then."

"I can't."

"Why not?" he asked, face falling.

"Don't worry, moron, I just have to wash my hands first. I've been paining." She held up her stained hands to prove it.

"Oh... Okay then, I can just wait out here while you do that."

"I'll be right back," she said, smiling in spite of herself as she watched him try to sit in the front row of seats like he was too cool. The kid couldn't be cool no matter hard he tried, it was adorable more than anything else (not that she would ever tell him that).

Instead of going back to the workshop to wash her hands, she made her way to the dressing room. There was a sink in there too and she might as well fill her friends in at the same time. Bea knew they had to be dying for information, the vultures. They were asking her questions before she even had time to open the door.

"I don't have time to answer your questions just yet," she said, pushing past them to the sink.

"Why not?" Sydney whined.

"Because I'm about to leave to go to dinner?"

"With Noah?" Annie asked.

"With Noah."

Annie squealed. "Yay! I'm so glad you guys are going. He's adorable."

"But you have to tell us everything after, okay?" Sydney said.

"I will," Bea grabbed a paper towel. "I promise."

"And the story of how you guys met and stuff!"

"That too."

"This is so exciting!" Annie said.

"Bye guys."

She ignored the rest of their questions and was out the door before they could stop her. Noah was just where she had left him in the front row, now looking at his phone. He was so engrossed in whatever he was looking at that he didn't notice her approach his seat.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

"Ah!"

"Did you seriously not hear me coming?"

"No, your walk is like silent. You're secretly a ninja, I'm telling you."

"Whatever. Are you ready?"

"Baby, I was born ready," he said, standing up and striking a pose.

"You're such an idiot."

"It's part of my charm."

"If you say so."

"You'll admit it soon enough."

He threw an arm over her shoulders, it was a surprisingly natural action, and they walked together out of the theater and to his car.

[][][]

There it is, the epilogue for TSM. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Let me know what you thought in the comments and recommend this story to your friends :)