Jasmine's POV

The excitement I felt when I woke up over Noah coming home today was quickly overcome with a feeling of anxiety. Today we were going over Say No To This. This song had me singing some of the hardest notes I've ever tried. I still couldn't seem to hit a few of them.

I managed to pull myself out of bed and got ready. I stopped at Manhattan Mocha for coffee before getting a cab to take me to the theater. The nervousness over that day's practice only grew as I stepped into the Public and walked to my dressing room.

Renée and Pippa immediately noticed that something was off about me.

"Hey Jazzy, are you okay?" Renée asked. "You look tired."

"Yeah I'm fine," I lied. "Just a little worried about going over Say No To This." A little was an understatement.

"Oh yeah," Pippa said, "We're both nervous for Take A Break." I could tell she was lying to make me feel better but decided not to mention it. Instead, I changed the topic and we talked while making our way to the stage.

We started practice with vocal warm-ups and then moved into running What'd I Miss. They worked on that for a while and then started on Take A Break. Daveed and Oak led me through some breathing exercises to help me calm down.

"You'll do great," Oak assured me. I nodded, though I didn't believe him.

They finished Take A Break and Pippa, Renée, and Ant joined Daveed and Oak in wishing me good luck as I climbed onto the stage and stood next to Lin, Sydney, and Leslie.

"You ready?" Leslie asked me. He had become something like an older brother to me in the past week. I nodded quickly as the music started. Leslie sang the opening.

"There's nothing like summer in the city,"

Soon Lin was starting his part.

"I hadn't slept in a week. I was weak. I was awake."

I mentally prepared myself as my part came.

"She said," Lin sang, turning and flashing an encouraging smile at me.

"I know you are a man of honor."

"I'm so sorry to bother you at home."

"But I don't know where to go."

"And I came here all alone."

I sang the lines the best I could. I glanced up at the cast members who were sitting in the audience. Daveed, Anthony, and Chris had their mouths open in surprise. Am I doing something wrong? I looked over at Pippa and Renée. Pippa gave me two thumbs up while Renée smiled and nodded.

"I hid the letter and I raced to her place screamed 'How could you' in her face she said," Lin sang, sounding genuinely angry. I had to remind myself he was acting.

"No sir," I sang, trying to sound desperate. We continued the song and soon got to the hardest part.

"If you pay, you can STAAAAAAY," I belted the last note. A few people in the cast whooped, causing me to smile for the rest of the song.

As soon as the music ended the whole cast started cheering.

"That was so good Jazzy!" Pippa shouted from her seat. Leslie, Sydney, and Lin all gave me a hug.

"You did great!" Lin said quietly to me as we hugged. I smiled up at him and turned around, only to be ambushed by someone else's embrace.

"Shit Jas I didn't know you could sing that well!" The person said.

"Thanks Ant," I said, recognizing him by the nickname only he uses. We remained hugging for a bit too long and split apart when Lin cleared his throat.

"Sorry," Ant said, his face flushing. He jumped off the stage and sat down next to Daveed. I smiled uncontrollably throughout the rest of rehearsal.

When practice ended, Pippa and I went to go hang out with Anthony, Oak, and Daveed. We talked for a while about random stuff before we had to leave to get Noah from the airport. Pippa had agreed to drive me there.

"Well got to go pick up Jazzy's boyfriend. Anyone want to come," Pippa said sarcastically, clearly dreading the hour-long drive. Daveed, Oak, and I laughed.

"Sure!" Anthony said. We all looked at him a little weirdly but allowed him to follow us out to the car.

"He just wants to meet his competition," Pippa whispered as we stopped in our dressing room to grab our bags. I rolled my eyes at her.

During the drive we all talked non-stop, one person coming up with random questions for the other two to answer.

I was kinda glad Anthony decided to come. Not because I like him. I don't like him. Because he's funny and sweet. And hot.

We went inside the airport and continued talking. I checked the time on my phone. Noah's plane was supposed to land forty-five minutes ago. I must've lost track of time.

Maybe Noah didn't see us and went to baggage claim.

But he said he would call when he landed.

Maybe his plane got delayed.

Don't you think he would've texted to tell you that? I think the plane crashed.

The two sides of my brain argued, coming up with every possible bad situation until they were interrupted by my phone buzzing in my pocket. I saw it was Noah and picked up.

"Hey babe," Noah said. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard his voice.

"Hi Noah!" I said, happy that my boyfriend didn't die in a plane crash. I glanced over at Pippa and Ant. I swear I saw a flash of disappointment cross Ant's face, but he quickly replaced it with a smile.

"Babe," Noah said, sounding slightly sad. "I missed my flight. I can't get another one 'til next week." The smile disappeared from my face.

"Oh. Okay," I responded, trying to hide the sadness in my voice. "I'll see you next week then." I heard a voice in the background. "Who's that?" I asked.

"Oh... That's-that's just my... um... Cousin!" He didn't sound certain but I decided against getting into an argument.

"Okay," I ended gloomily. "See you next week."

"Bye babe. I miss you," he said before hanging up. I turned my phone off and put it back in my pocket.

"Noah missed his flight. He won't be here 'til next week." Pippa looked at me sympathetically. Ant put a protective arm around my shoulder.

"Cheer up Jas! Let's go home and watch a movie." Pippa quickly nodded and we walked outside, got in the car, and drove to Pippa's.

We got in her apartment and sat on the couch. Ant put his arm around me and without thinking, I rested my head on his shoulder.

Feeling protected in his embrace, I fell asleep.

Noah's POV

I hung up the phone. Emma and I both burst into laughter.

"She totally believed you!" Emma giggled as she laid down next to me on the bed and curled into my chest. "Thank you so much for staying," I smiled down at her.

"It's fine. I'd rather be here anyway."

Emma needed me here. We had both been cheating on our partners for about a year. Her boyfriend found out and dumped her. What was his name? Allen? Andrew? Doesn't matter. We decided to take a vacation together. If Jasmine found out about Emma, she'd want to break up with me.

I don't think I could let her go.

Thanks for reading this trash that I'm trying to disguise as writing. If you see any mistakes please tell me so I can fix it.

Have a great day!

~Kate

Word count-1244 (not including a/n)

August 28, 2017

(EDITED June 5, 2018)