Yet again, time seemed to fly by.

It seemed like just yesterday that you were sitting with Mark in that bench in Columbus and telling him how much you wanted him in your future only to have tell you that he also wanted you in his future.

Even though it's been just over four months since he said that, you couldn't help but smile and feel butterflies in your stomach whenever you thought about it.

In the four months that have gone by so quickly, quite a lot of things have happened. The main thing that happened was that, much to your surprise, Troy managed to graduate college and not somehow destroy his relationship with Mary. In fact, their relationship was stronger than ever nowadays, but that was probably because they broke up for a couple of months and ultimately decided to get back together right before school started back up for you and Mary.

Although Troy would never tell you the reason why the two of them decided to break up, you spectacled that it was because of how their relationship had started, which was when Mark and Mary were still together, and because of that, they questioned whether or not their feelings towards each other were genuine. However, it seemed like the feelings were actually genuine since they could hardly stand to be apart to each other, even when they were supposed to be broken up. Now, these days, Mary basically lives with you and Troy and the two are the most lovey-dovey they've ever been.

Another significant thing that happened was that, although you couldn't even remember the last time you actually talked to him, August started gaining a decent sized fanbase. The few songs he's released have quickly become favorites not only in your school, but in other places as well. It seemed like August and his music were the only things that everyone wanted to talk about, and you didn't blame them. August had legitimate talent that deserved to be recognized, especially since he was a good person that put a lot of hard work into his music. Needless to say, seeing August become a rising star, even though that came with the sacrifice of never being able to talk to him, made you happy, especially since, still unlike you, he knew what he wanted out of life and what his passion was.

Finally, the last significant thing that happened was that your relationship with Mark strengthened. While the two of you were still friends, you were content with how things were going, especially since there hadn't been yet another failed attempt at sharing a kiss or any forced romantic interactions. Both of you seemed to be going off the idea that if things would go off from a very close friendship to a romantic relationship, then it was going to happen naturally and it shouldn't be forced. But of course, there were people, mainly Troy, that were pushing for you to get together because they weren't satisfied with the fact that you and Mark were just friends. However, you ignored the things everyone said most of the time since it wasn't even their business to begin with. Your relationship with Mark was just that; yours.

"You ready?" Troy nudged your shoulder just as you were about to leave the house and go to your first day of school, but not just any first day of school. No, this one was different from the rest, and that was because it was your senior year AKA your very last year of high school, something that, despite the fact that everyone else seemed extremely excited about it, you were dreading. Graduating high school meant losing the structure that you had known for pretty much all of your life, which was going to school for seven to eight hours every day on weekdays, spending anywhere from virtually no time at all to what felt like an eternity doing homework once school was out for the day, and spending your weekends doing whatever you pleased until Monday came around again and the cycle repeated once again. Graduating high school also meant suddenly being thrusted into the real world since a simple piece of paper that took over a decade of serious ups and downs to obtain was apparently something that signified that you were ready for the real world.
But you weren't ready for the real world.
In fact, you were far from ready.

"No." You sighed, deciding that this time around, it would be better off for you to just be honest about your feelings instead of just lying about them and bottling them up like you usually opted to do. "I'm not ready at all."
"It's because you have no idea what the hell to do with yourself after high school, isn't it?"
"Of course it is." You sighed again. "Why the hell wouldn't it be?"
"Well, I've told you a thousand times now." Troy sighed as well. "You'll-"
""You'll find out what you want to do eventually, so don't rush yourself. It might just come to you at the most unexpected time."" You didn't bother letting him finish the statement that you truly felt like you've heard a thousand times at this point. "Yeah, yeah. This is the same shit I've been hearing for a long time now, and it doesn't mean anything to me anymore."
Troy stood awkwardly and only finally spoke up after a few moments had passed. "Have a good day at school (Y/N)." He then walked off without waiting for a response.
"I'll try." You mumbled as you stepped outside and began walking over to your car. "I guess."

*****

Once you arrived at school and parked your car right next to Mark's like you always did, you stepped out of your car after grabbing your backpack and keys out of the ignition. You let a sigh as you closed the door behind you and stuffed your keys into your pocket. A moment later, Mark emerged from his car and walked over to you with a small smile on his face.
"Excited?" You asked him as you reached over and adjusted his flower crown since it was slanted ever so slightly.
Mark's smile grew as he nodded.
"Well, at least you are." You shrugged as you began walking towards the front doors. "As for me, I'm completely dreading it."
Mark raised his hands up, but you grabbed onto them, stopping him before he could even ask why you were dreading today.
"Don't ask." You looked into his eyes as you slowly let go of his hands. "You know why. I know you do."
He looked confused at first, but his expression became neutral after a couple of moments as he shrugged slightly and nodded again.
"Exactly." You sighed as you opened one of the doors once you were close enough to them.

*****

After the morning bell had rung and you and Mark began walking to your first class together (which, thankfully, you two had the same one,) you noticed a flier out of the corner of your eye. Curiosity immediately peaked, you stopped in your tracks for a moment and made your way over to the flier so that you could get a closer look on it. Upon doing so, you realized that it was advertising auditions for the musical version of Cinderella that the drama club, a club that has failed every single year since your first year of high school, wished to put on at the end of the year.
"A musical?" You murmured as you read through the flier. You then felt Mark nudge you slightly and when you looked over at him, he smiled and pointed to the flier.
"You think I should do it?"
He nodded as his smile brightened.
"I don't know..." You replied reluctantly. "I don't think I'd be very good at acting."
You never know until you try it. He pointed out as he shrugged.
"I suppose that's true." You shrugged as well and stared at the flier for a couple more moments before you spoke again. "You know what? I'll do it."
Yes! Mark cheered as he waved his hands around excitedly. You'll do great! I just know it!
"Thanks, Mark." You smiled and blushed slightly as you took a picture of the flier with your phone so that you would have all of the information on hand rather than having to waste time going back and reading the flier again. "It's nice to know that no matter what I do, you'll support me."
Well, yeah, of course I will. Mark blushed slightly and looked down at the ground for a brief moment. You're my best friend, and I believe that you're capable of anything that you set your mind to.
"Man, I really lucked out meeting you." Your blush grew as you looked into the brown eyes that you loved so much. "You're the greatest best friend I could've ever asked for. You have no idea how lucky I am."
I'm lucky too. Mark's face was as red as a tomato at this point, and you just couldn't help but laugh. I really, really am.

After the two of you spent way longer than either of you were willing to admit staring at each other while blushing madly, you put the slight awkwardness to an end by wrapping your arm around Mark's waist and saying, "We better get going before we late to class on the very first day of school."
Yeah, that wouldn't be good, would it? Mark agreed as he wrapped his arm around your shoulders.
"No, it wouldn't." You laughed a little as your grip on him tightened slightly. "That's why we have to get going."

*****

When the auditions for the school musical came around a few days later, you couldn't help but feel nervous as you made your way down to the auditorium when the big day finally came around, but this was probably because you had felt ambitious and decided to go for the role of Cinderella herself, which, obviously, was one of the main roles in the musical. However, you were prepared for disappointment since you had little to no acting experience and it didn't help that you also had a God awful singing voice. In your mind, this meant that it was almost guaranteed to not get the role you wanted and instead get the role of a side character, which you didn't mind at all since this would be your first time acting in not just a musical, but anything really.

Are you ready? Mark asked you as you both stood outside the auditorium doors.
"As ready as I'll ever be." You sighed as you forced your shaky hands to push open the doors and step inside.

Almost as soon as you stepped foot into the auditorium, everyone turned their attention towards you and stared directly at you. You sighed quietly as you approached a woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties who was also waving you over. She had a clipboard in her hand and a pen in the other, which led you to believe that she was more than likely the head of the drama club and was also more than likely going to be the one directing the musical.

After you and the woman introduced yourselves and she checked your name off of her clipboard, she instructed you to sit where everyone else that had been staring at you when you walked in. You obeyed and sat down next to a boy who looked just as nervous as you were since it was the closest open seat.
"Now, what about you?" The woman asked as she looked over at Mark. "What's your name and what part are you auditioning for?"
"He's not auditioning for anything." You informed the woman. "He's just here to support me."
"Well, in that case, he can go and sit over there." She pointed to the other section of seats.
You watched as Mark made his way over to the other section and sat down in the front row, picking the seat that was on the far left corner and as close to you as he could possibly get.

*****

When your time to audition finally came around, it took you a couple of moments to actually stand up and walk on stage. Your head hung down as you walked up there and desperately tried to smooth out the piece of paper that had been given to you the day that you signed up for the school musical and contained the lines and small portion of a song that needed to be recited as best as you possibly could since it had become wrinkled from you clenching it tightly out of nervousness as you watched everyone else audition.

After you fixed up your piece of piece of paper as best as you possibly could, you glanced over it one last time and place it down on the ground. You then stared up at the ceiling and closed your eyes as you drew in a deep breath in an attempt to calm yourself down.
You can do this. You've rehearsed this a thousand times now. Just pretend you're in your room rehearsing and no one's watching. You absolutely cannot fuck this up, so just calm down and recite the damn lines and song.

You had no idea how amazing and thrilling it would feel to embrace a role and become a completely different person for a while. You had gotten so into reciting the lines that you had completely forgotten that everyone's eyes were on you and that you were the center of attention. You also found yourself inadvertently putting so much emotion into your audition and it was as if your mind had you convinced that you were Cinderella for the time being, even though you (obviously) weren't.

*****

When you had finished your audition, the room was dead silent and everyone was still staring directly at you with little to no emotion on their faces. You let out a shaky sigh as you forced yourself to start walking off stage, but stopped dead in your tracks when everyone suddenly erupted into applause. You turned your head to face everyone once more and saw that they were all standing up with bright smiles on their faces. Even Mark had joined in on the standing ovation and you couldn't help but blush and smile when you saw this.
"Well, (Y/N), I must say that your performance was very impressive." The woman, who had revealed that she was, in fact, that the head of the drama club and directing the musical before auditions had officially started, said to you once you had stepped off stage and began heading back to your seat. "While there are some minor things that you can improve on, you performed great overall."
"Thank you." Your smile brightened when you heard this and you found yourself still smiling like an idiot when you had sat back down and began receiving compliments from the other people who were auditioning. You honestly couldn't believe the overwhelming support and praise that you were receiving, especially since you had been convinced that you were horrible at both acting and singing, which were the two main things that you needed to be skilled at in order to give a great performance in a musical.

*****

After the last audition had ended, the director applauded as she traded places with the person who had been the last to audition and put on a bright smile.
"Alright everyone, first off, I want to thank each and every one of you for coming out and auditioning today!" The director's excitement could been seen and heard from over a mile away and she was beaming with it. "For three years now, the drama club and I have been trying to get enough people to express interest in doing a school musical and it's failed every single time. Well, until this year, at least. I'm not sure what suddenly made people interested in participating in a school musical, but I'm extremely happy to see all of you here regardless. We have a pretty equal balance of people from all grades here today, so that makes me incredibly happy. You guys probably don't realize it, but I really do appreciate all of you coming out here today and expressing interest in this musical. It means so much to me."
Man, we really lucked out on getting this director. She seems really nice and she seems like she actually cares about seeing us succeed.
"Well, anyway, let's move on and talk about what I'm sure everyone single one of you wants to know, and that's when you'll find out if you got the part you auditioned for or not." You were glad that the director addressed what you were thinking, especially since you were contemplating whether you should take one for the team and bring it up or just wait and hope that someone else will bring it up. "I'll need time to properly assess all of your performances and determine whether or not I feel that you are suited for the role or not. Because of this, I will have a flier with my final decisions put up in two days."
Two days.
I have to wait two days to find out whether or not she thinks I should play Cinderella or not.
I have to have all these relentless, nagging thoughts in my head for two days straight?
God, these two days better go by quickly.

*****

Holy shit, you did a really good job! Mark praised you as the two of you walked out of the auditorium and began heading out to the parking lot. Everyone loved you, even the director! He teasingly nudged your arm after he said this.
"Oh, come on." You scoffed while involuntarily smiling. "I am a girl who has had no prior theater experience that tried out for the main role of a musical. There is no way in hell that she's going to give the part to me, especially since she told me that there were minor things about my performance that needed to be fixed."
You can't be perfect, (Y/N). Mark rolled his eyes ever so slightly. Everyone has flaws, even when it comes to something they're passionate about.
"Whoever said that I was passionate about theater?"
You're kidding me right now, right? Mark asked as he raised his eyebrow. It was so obvious from the emotion and passion that you poured into that audition that a passion for theater was always there, and you didn't even know it.
"Well, I mean, I did always brush off the school musical as being something uninteresting until this year." You admitted as you rubbed the back of your neck. "I really don't know what it was that suddenly compelled me to try out for it this year, but whatever it was, I'm glad that it was there because I'm so excited for this musical that I can't even properly put into words how excited I am."
Looks like you've found your passion. Mark grinned as both his and your car were both now in sight. I told you that you would.
"Yeah, yeah." You shrugged and grinned a bit as you reached into your pocket and pulled out your keys. "You and Troy were right. I should've listened to you guys and believed you."
Yeah, you should've. Mark teasingly nudged you once more as he pulled out his keys as well. I give good advice sometimes, you know.
"More like all the time." Your grin grew as you ruffled his hair and not only messed up his hair as a result, but his flower crown as well. "You are literally the best at giving advice."
Whatever you say. Mark replied once he fixed his hair and his flower crown.
You laughed a little as you approached your car. "See you tomorrow, Fischbach."
See you tomorrow, (L/N). Mark waved as he approached his car as well and quickly got into it.
You smiled to yourself as you got into your car as well and drove off a few moments after doing so, driving behind Mark for a couple of moments before the two of you took your usual turns home, which, oddly enough, were in the completely opposite directions.