Everett

I am surprised to find so many people here waiting for their tickets to get checked to enter the theater. We have been waiting here for a long while since there is only one guy to check the tickets. The ticket guy keeps looking over his shoulder, probably to find someone to help him.

"Why the hell are we here?" Pierce grumbles as he looks around.

"I couldn't get laid because of you, so you are doing what I want to make up for it." Sloane says with an evil grin.

"And that is to watch a real fucking play? Seriously?" Pierce turns to me so that I support him in his distaste of being here.

"Plays are fun," I say. They really are. I am a literary major for a reason. I love reading plays and classic literature as much as I love the modern ones.

"You have seen one?" Pierce asks, surprise evident in his voice.

I just shrug.

"He is studying literature you fucking moron," Sloane says to Pierce.

"Oh... right," Pierce looks a bit embarrassed as he realizes that.

Sloane and Pierce start bickering at each other and I zone out. My eyes roam around the theater front. The place is beautiful. It's got a dramatic flare to it with all the wood works and retro color schemes. My eyes fall back on the ticket guy and see him looking to the side, smiling in relief at something. I follow his gaze to see a man. He is dressed in the same red polo shirt, so probably the other ticket guy. I let out a sigh of relief myself, but then it gets stuck in my throat as I pay more attention to the other man. Jesus fucking Christ. That is not who I think is right!?

But Zachary stares back at me like a deer caught in headlights. He snaps out of it and starts checking the tickets as people keep crowding. He doesn't look over where we are, he actually completely avoids being seen by the three of us, but I keep my eyes on him. I can't stop looking at him.

Why the hell is he working here? This is where he comes every day at this time then? It doesn't make sense since he doesn't need any financial help. His dad is a well known movie director and his mom is a rich businesswoman. Why does he work part-time then? Why does he hide it?

"What are you looking at?" Pierce asks and then tries to trace my line of sight, but I don't let him.

"Nothing," I say, quickly turning his attention to me. It just didn't seem right to let him find out when Zachary obviously didn't want anyone knowing.

We finally got near the other ticket guy. The guy checks our ticket, gives us a smile and tells us that we can take our seats inside.

We enter and I instantly fall in love. Firstly because it was completely air-conditioned and smelled like chocolate. But more importantly it was radiant inside. It was dark except on the stage illuminated by dim yellow lights. The seats were fully cushioned and very comfortable. The set looked stunning too. The play's name was written above the stage 'Beyond the Oceans'. I have no idea what it is about except that there are pirates and that it's hysterical.

"This is really beautiful," Sloane says looking around.

I nod. We all take our seats somewhere in the middle. Soon enough the play starts. I got hooked. From the first scene it made my heart beat faster. It's about a young woman, Merlith, becoming a pirate even when she is told she can't because she is a woman. But when she finally has her own ship and travels around, she meets a man from an island on a cold night. A man named Ricardo who owns a tavern where Merlith and her crew stay for the night till they have to leave for their next destination a month from now. They fall in love hard and fast with featherlight touches and passionate promises. She tells him that he is the first man who has looked and seen her for the beauty of her dreams. The way they fall in love with each other like they were an end and a beginning is agonizing and fervent at the same time.

Somewhere around the middle of this, Sloane had started a death grip which I didn't feel till she dug her nails in on my hand and Pierce had an expression so torn I thought just a word more and he would start crying.

Then I look to the side of the stage because of some movement and I see him, Zachary, staring up at the stage and something in me wants to ask him questions that don't form words in my mind.

Standing next to Zach was a woman, being so far away I could not make out her face. I return my focus on the play.

Finally, Merlith tells the man that she is leaving forever and may never see the stars from the hills in his arms again. She tells him that if he were to ask for her to stay she couldn't leave and would be his wife and give up the dreams that she held in her blood. Ricardo falls on his knees in the sand pulling her down in front of him so that she is on her knees too. He touches her face with his fingertips as he tells her 'Darling, I have been your husband since the day you ripped my heart out of my chest and held it like the life you live and I fell in love with you and your dreams. I want you to have everything, go and find the treasures beyond the oceans since no Oceans Between will fade the truth that I am yours, always. I will be here and you will be all around and when I look at the sea I will have you beside me.ʼ

Merlith and Ricardo spent their last day together side by side laying on the sand. When Merlith wakes up the next morning she kisses Ricardo and takes a bit of sand in her hand and puts it in a bottle. She tells him 'This sand will be my wedding ring and the reminder of where we surrendered our souls.ʼ

And then she leaves while Ricardo lies on the sand while the sun rises over the sea.

Then the music ends and the whole cast comes up to the stage and bows. Everybody whoops to their feet in delight even though most of them are crying or holding back tears. I can feel a lump in my throat. I noticed that Pierce is teary eyed and Sloane is shaking slightly. Then the curtains fall.

We walk out of the theater and the brightness catches me by surprise. My eyes adjust and then Sloane bursts out into a huge smile.

"That was amazing," she says. "The acting was brilliant"

"Yeah, I almost fucking cried!" Pierce says.

I search for my car keys in my pocket. I find them. But I notice my phone is missing. Shit. I might have dropped it on the seat.

"I think I dropped my phone on the seat, I need to get it. Wait here." I say to them and run back into the now deserted except for a few people cleaning the place, who turn to me when I enter.

The man closest to me stops staring and approaches me. As soon as he is in a visible distance I recognize him. Zachary tenses but still keeps moving towards me. I notice that his red polo outlines his body perfectly, from his shoulder to his trim waist. My eyes stay on his waist before I remember that this is Zachary and snap out of it.

"Why are you back?" he asks me coldly.

"I think I dropped my phone on the seat, I need to get it."

"Where were you seated?"

"Somewhere in the middle."

Zachary moves towards the middle of the seats and starts searching the rows. I follow his lead and start searching for it myself. All of a sudden Zach stops and turns to me.

"This it?" He holds up a phone in his hand towards me. I look down and see that it's mine. So I take it from him with a nod. I should probably say a thank you to him but that somehow feels wrong to say to him.

"You work here?" I ask instead and feel like punching myself after I realize how stupid that question was.

He raises an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"Don't be an asshole. I just wanted to say that it was an amazing play." I say through gritted teeth. Some tension from his shoulders releases. Just as he was about to say something a Woman comes towards us and he stops.

"Everything alright?" she asks, her head moving from Zach to me.

"I dropped my phone on the seat and Zachary was just helping me," I tell her.

She looks between us again. "Do you know each other?"

"Yes," I say at the same time Zachary says "No."

Zachary and I glare at each other with narrowed eyes. The woman clears her throat and looks at me amused. She then smiles and I have to admit, she is beautiful. Definitely older than she looks but still stunning.

"Well I am Jessica, you could say I kind of run this place with a friend of mine. I am glad you came to watch the play I wrote." She says and I stare at her surprised. She wrote the play.

"You wrote the play?" I ask incredulously.

She smiles wider.

"It was amazing. I was absolutely drawn into it and by the end of it completely destroyed. As a literature student I totally want to read the script you wrote." I tell her honestly. Just as I say that I see a small smile on Zachary's face. But it's gone as soon as he looks back at my face.

"Thank you. I Would love for you to read the script. How about you join the crew for a drink and I can show it to you?," She says, her eyes lighting up.

"I wish I could, but I have to drive my friends back but please tell the actors that they were amazing." I shake my head a little.

"Then come over here tomorrow, they don't have a play but we have practice and we have to start the stage set up for the next play. We would have more time tomorrow anyway." Jessica smiles at me expectantly.

"Why are you inviting him? We don't let people come in here when we don't have a show," Zachary says pointedly.

"When I used to study script writing I wanted to read plays that I saw too. If I can help a student then why not?" Jessica says to him firmly. Then turns to look at me.

"I don't want to interpret any of the practices or disturb you." I totally want to meet the cast and read that script. But I really didn't want them to feel awkward around me.

"It would be nice to let them meet some people who saw the play and you seemed to have loved the play. Also, you can just come with Zachary when his shift starts, so please come?" She asks. Her smile was so expectant I couldn't say no.

"Then I would love to." Zachary tenses a bit when I say that but he doesn't let it show.

"Perfect. But I still haven't caught your name." She raises an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah... It's Everett."

I bid her goodbye and leave, already excited for tomorrow. Even though thoughts of Zachary filled my mind I was focused on getting to read that script. I will have to come here with him. That's going to be a pain. I still wonder why he didn't want anyone finding out about his job? It doesn't matter anyway, it's not like I am going to talk to him. We both hate each other's guts and that's going to stay that way.

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