"Are you ready for this?" Niall squealed, jumping up and down beside him.

    Luke smiled, ready to be led into the auditorium they'd be using for their show. They were on a tour of the theater, having just come from the lobby, where everyone had met.

    "Luke, this way." The director, Evan called.

    "Coming, Mr Hansen." Luke nodded to his friends and walked up to the director of the show. He put his arm around Luke and opened the door to the stadium.

    "Here's your new home, young man." He smiled at Luke. "I think that with you, we can make this one of the greatest new shows on Broadway."

    Luke couldn't stop grinning. Evan really thought he had a chance at this.

    "So here's how it's going to work," he told him, guiding him further into the auditorium so everyone else could come in as well. Evan led him down the aisle and towards the steps to the stage. Luke took his time walking, really wanting to absorb everything that he was seeing.

    He ran his eyes over the red velvet seats with the dark wood armrests, the beige patterned carpet underneath his feet. He looked up, almost falling over as he gazed up at the intricately  painted ceiling and fancy chandeliers. Realizing Evan was practically up the stairs already, he moved on, following behind him and walking to the center of the stage.

    "Look out here, Luke. This is your future. This is all for you." Evan put his hands on Luke's shoulders and squeezed a bit. Luke stood centerstage and looked out at his costars who were waiting for something to happen. In a louder voice, he called, "Okay, cast and crew. Let's all get up here. We're going to start with some warm ups and getting to know everyone before we start a script run through. We have most of the script done, we're going to be writing and tailoring the songs we have in mind specifically for Luke, so once we've got all that together we'll really be on our way."

    Excited murmurs were heard throughout the entire room. Luke looked to his side and saw Niall and Calum next to him, and they gave him a thumbs up.

    "All right, give it up for choreographer, Jeremy Heere."

    Everyone applauded and a short dark haired man made his way to the front.

    "Hey, everyone, I'm Jeremy, I'm one of the choreographers for the show. I'm very excited to be working with you, and I can't wait to get to know all of you."

    A few people cheered and he quieted them down.

    "Okay, before we get to work on a dance number warm up, I want everybody to find their own space. We're going to do a little bit of meditation before we get started. Find a spot, on the floor, come on people, move along." Jeremy urged everyone. Niall and Calum moved over to lean against the wall and waved Luke over, but after last night with Michael, he just didn't want to try to relax near it. He shrugged and lay on the ground near the front of the stage instead.

    "Okay, everyone close your eyes, and just listen." 

    Luke closed his eyes, lying on his back with his arms folded over his chest.

    "Breathe in..." All around him he heard a collective breath. "And breathe out. Pay no attention to the rest of your surroundings, just relax and clear your mind."

    Luke did his best to listen, but found he kept thinking of everything going on.

    "Any troubles that come to your mind in the next ten minutes, I want you to go ahead and breathe in, then exhale your worries out, releasing your stress, any tension you have, anything that's gone wrong, just push it out of your mind. We want only positive thoughts right now."

    Jeremy paused for a little, letting everyone get rid of the negatives.

    Luke thought about Michael, their argument from last night, all of the stuff happening with him in the past couple months, and he breathed it out. He felt lighter.

    "Okay, now that you're in clear headspace, I want you to think of something that makes you happy." Luke thought of his friends at the bar, Naba and Harry. They were always so good to him, Adam too. "Think of someplace that makes you feel safe." Luke thought of the bar, obviously, it's his second home. "Not just any place, the place where you've always felt secure. If something bad were to happen there, it would be okay, because someone or something would be there to rescue you, protect you, make everything better."

    Luke saw an image in his mind, a dark man in a trench coat, and then a small couch in a room. There was a man there with a light green shirt and a grey jacket. Luke felt like nothing bad could happen to him when he was there.

    "Really think about this place, this person you have, this thing, and hold on to the feeling they give you. You're going to want to hold on to these emotions you already have when you perform; it'll seem to people like you're truly feeling what your character is. We're going to explore other emotions as we continue on, but for today we thought it would be a good idea to have everyone relax before we begin. I'm going to give everyone five before we start rehearsal, okay? Get up whenever you're ready."

    Luke sat up after a moment and thought about that image that popped into his head. It shocked him when he realized that person was Ashton. It was back from when they first met, when that random guy tried to kidnap him. As scary as that was, he'd never felt safer than when he was in Ashton's secret room.

    He thought about that time when Ashton brought him food because he knew he was going to be working late.

    He remembered that fun night they had when Michael ditched them to fix something at the bar and wouldn't let him help, so he got to hang out with Ashton.

    And all those times where Michael forced him to do paperwork instead of getting to hang out with him and his friends.

    Luke was unsure of what these thoughts meant. Was his relationship with Michael flawed? I mean, they've had issues, some minor, some major, but everyone has problems.

    Does everyone's boyfriend hit them?

    He apologized for that, and then went out of his way to make it up to you. That was a one time thing.

    But why does he keep holding those things against you, with your family? Why does he make you feel bad every time you want to talk to them, and not let you see them?

    Luke wasn't sure what this meant, he wasn't sure what he was realizing. Was he unhappy with Michael?

    "Luke, are you okay?" Someone nudged his arm and he looked up.

    Everyone was looking at him, and from some of the concerned looks people wore, he was beginning to think they'd been calling him for a while.

    "Sorry, I was still thinking about that exercise, what are we doing now?"

***

The next few days were great for Luke. Evan had given him the almost finished script and let him make some edits.

    He was really getting the chance to put his own touch on the role. There was one part that Evan kept from him, he said it was the most intense part of the show and wanted to save the big reveal for a day when both of them as well as the writers could get together to discuss it.

    Evan had him stay late most days for vocal training, to see what he could do and where they could go to the songs. They were specifically writing these songs for his vocal range, it was so exciting! This was potentially the best thing that could ever happen to him for his career.

    "Hey, great job, Luke." Evan said as they were locking up the theater. Everyone else had left, but they stayed with some of the lyricists and musicians to work on some stuff.

    "Thanks, Evan." Luke felt his face flush at the compliment as they walked their separate ways. He wasn't used to being the main focal point. Everyone wanted to talk to him, to sit with him during breaks, or talk about how great his audition was and how great he was. It was weird, but he liked it. He liked having a lot of people to talk to, and friends he might be able to hang out with one day.

    Just as long as it's okay with Michael.

    Things had been weird between them. It just wasn't the same anymore. He was almost scared of his boyfriend now. He tried not to say anything that would make Michael angry, he had to walk on tiptoes in his own home now. He tried not to be a burden, so after mornings at the theater, he headed right to the bar and helped with the filing and anything else Michael needed.

    He actually tried to avoid Michael whenever possible. He tried to act normal in front of people, like Naba and Harry, but when he could, he avoided being around him.

    He had a lot of time alone in Michael's office to think when he worked. He'd been considering what Ashton mentioned, about how maybe this wasn't what was best for him. Of course, Ashton was implying that the two of them should be together, but  that wasn't what Luke thought.

    Obviously he didn't think about Ashton in those moments he was by himself. He didn't imagine what it would be like to be in a relationship with him, or what things he'd like to talk about, or how comfortable it was in his office and when they hung out at midnight that one time. Of course he didn't.

    He was with Michael, not Ashton. Michael had helped him when he had no one, Michael was the one who supported him, who provided for him. And he loved Michael, and Michael loved him. Maybe he didn't always say it in words, but Luke knew there were more ways to say 'I love you' than just the actual words. He just had to look for them.

    And who cares if Ashton didn't like that, Luke thought. It wasn't Ashton's relationship, so Ashton could butt himself out.

    But sometimes, things just felt so much nicer with Ashton than with Michael. Ashton was rude and conceited sometimes, but he'd never done anything to hurt Luke before. He was actually supportive of him, and when he thought about it, Michael hadn't supported him in a long time. Everything was about Michael now.

    It was weird how Michael got so possessive of him, getting jealous easily and even accusing him of cheating.  Luke had never done anything that would allude to him cheating, he wasn't sure why Michael would say something like that. Although now he felt guilty thinking thoughts about Ashton. Maybe Michael did have a valid point. Was Luke a bad boyfriend? Having thoughts about another guy wasn't something good boyfriends did.

    Maybe everything Michael did to him was all right, maybe he did deserve it.

    But why wasn't he happy then?

    He had a decision to make.

***

What do you think the decision is??? 🤔🤔 what could Lukey be planning?

I'm going on a "mini vacation" to move out of the house I was renting, I'll be gone till Wednesday so I'm not sure when the next update will be, but I'll try my best !!

~ashtonfortherwin