Like he had expected, Jeremy's positive attitude was diminished as soon as he and Ben arrived at the theater. He practically stomped up the steps and locked his dressing room door behind him. Jeremy didn't want to, but he cried. He cried harder than had at all in the past three weeks.

Ben knocked on the door lightly, urging Jeremy to open up and talk to him. Jeremy refused. He knew he was feeling the extra effects of loneliness lately, but Ben was not the person whom he wanted to fill that space.

He needed something more, the thing that Ashley had given him up until he had become an infidel.

Jeremy leaned up against his door, wiping at the tears upon his face. He knew Ben was still there, for Jeremy could hear the creaking of the floor as Ben paced.

"Ben?" Jeremy spoke hoarsely, his knuckles lightly tapping on the wooden frame.

"Yeah?" Ben frantically leaned his ear up against the door.

"Never mind about tonight." Jeremy held his breath before letting it all out in an exasperated sigh.

Ben stepped back from the door and left Jeremy with silence as his answer. Ben had reached the final point in his patience. He could never longer let himself keep worrying about Jeremy. And, though he knew he would constantly be anxious about it, he was not going to reproach the situation. He was done.

Jeremy did not want to fall back into the drinking patterns he'd been dealing with for months now. But, he knew that doing so would be the only way that he could push away the sadness settling back into his soul. He came to a happy-medium, and decided that going to the bar and having one drink couldn't do much damage.

As he got ready for the show, Ashley's face replayed his mind over and over again: first her expression the night she confronted him about Jeremy cheating him. Then, the facial features she held today. They were completely different. The former had been one of betrayal and heartbreak, with the lines of her face dropped dark and her lips frowning deeply. Tears had been streaming down her face as she screamed and threw her wedding ring at him.

The latter face was taught and glaring. She was completely over him because she knew that he never loved her if Jeremy had cheated. So, she'd repaired herself, Jeremy didn't know how he felt about that. He knew that he hadn't have cheated on her if he truly loved her, but he still felt like he had done so enough to marry her.

When the second show of the day was over, Jeremy retreated to the bar. He didn't drink, because he knew he would only feel worse the next morning and that the alcohol had started to effect his voice.

He instead sat idly, sipping from a glass of water as he scowled for some girl who was looking for a one night stand. What Jeremy truly wanted was the girl from the coffee shop. Maybe only in a romantic manner, maybe not at all. He couldn't tell what he had felt earlier upon bumping into her.

All he knew was that she seemed to be one of the best people you could ever know.

As her face continued to strike across his mind, unraveling in place of Ashley's, Jeremy found himself reaching for his phone. He went to look upon Ashley's profile on his Instagram, but she had blocked him. Reasonable, he glowered.

Jeremy remembered Laura had been sitting across the pair at the coffee shop that morning, so he checked her page. Sure enough, a full photo of the beautiful girl was the last thing Laura had posted. Jeremy sat there, admiring every crevice of the photo with a smile tugging at his face. He clicked on her username and instantly followed her.

He hoped it didn't seem creepy.

Jeremy shut his phone off and decided it would be best to go home instead of sitting there with nothing but his saddening thoughts. The only thing that kept him up on his toes was Anastasia Devit's face.

-

Ana plugged her phone in and prepared to shut it off when she received yet another Instagram notification. Just another follow, she shrugged, paying no second attention to the username.

She rolled over in bed, reminiscing over the man she had bumped into earlier. It was silly to believe in love at first sight, but he had seemed to set off a fire in her stomach. Maybe she had only felt the way because not many attractive guys looked at her the way he did, or maybe she felt truly infatuated with his handsome features.

Ana bit down on her lip, Ashley.

Jeremy was hands off. Ashley hates him, so you hate him. To attempt to make any further moves towards him would be betrayal to the only other friend you have, whom you also just met. Besides, he's a cheater.

Ana couldn't sleep, however, and let her fingers go to work at typing in his username.

He already followed her.

Ana furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion, though a blush was layered over her cheeks. Another few notifications popped up, but it was mainly random people liking her posts. Ana wondered how he had found her, considering Ashley had blocked him on social media. Then, she remembered he and Laura were 'friends' and he most likely saw the picture Laura had posted of her.

She felt self conscious all of a sudden and went to the photo to see if it was even worthy to be posted anymore. Too late. He already liked it.

Ana felt like a giddy school girl, which made her feel completely embarrassed and abnormal, on top of that.

She quickly followed him and shut off her phone again. She fell right asleep.

-

The next morning, Jeremy reached a hand across his apartment floor, scavenging for his phone. His thumb hit what he assumed was the stop button, and sure enough, the annoying alarm ended. Jeremy rubbed at his sleepy eyes before pushing off his covers, his mind almost forgetting that his life was turning into a complete pile of shit.

Ana, on the other hand, still felt giddy when she woke up three hours before he did. She made herself a big batch of coffee, cooked her and Laura some eggs and pancakes (as it was their usual breakfast plan), and Ana did her laundry.

Today, she didn't have any other plans than to lay around the house, watching tv and reading.

Jeremy had the usual schedule of his the last two shows of his five-show weekend. He could not wait to sleep in the next day, and snooze his alarm all the way past noon.

Ana's plans changed when Laura came back from an early morning meeting she'd had with a producer.

"Good morning!" Ana smiled up from the couch, watching as Laura shed her shoes and coat at the rack by the door.

"Morning, Ana," Laura grinned back as she retrieved yet another cup of coffee.

Ana moved over on the couch so Laura could sit as well. "How was your meeting?"

Laura shrugged, "Alright, I suppose. There's actually a project they want me to start working on with them, but I'm not allowed to say anything until I get under contract for the workshop."

"Aw, yay!" Ana cheered, reaching over her knees to take Laura into a slightly awkward hug. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you," Laura giggled.

They sat back from one another and got distracted by the tv for a bit. The local news channel was playing, talking about upcoming spring weather and other daily specials. It switched from the weatherman spokesperson, Paul or something of the sort, who usually held the arts and education portion of the show.

"Good morning, Manhattan! Sad news from Broadway as two-year-old show Newsies announces its closing at the Nederlander Theater in August. The show, based off the 90's hit movie with Christian Borle, was originally due to be open on Broadway for just a few weeks back when it opened in March of 2012. However, with the popularity of the show, it was going to stay open until ticket prices went down. And down they indeed go, as the show will only be around for four more months—"

Laura tilted her head to the side as her eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Hm, been wondering when they were going to close it. I was honestly kind of surprised it stayed open so long as it did."

Ana, who knew nearly nothing about Newsies- except for the content of the original movie, as her older brother had been a huge fan of it- shrugged. "Why?"

"Well, when the original movie was released, I thought it to be quite cringey, don't ya think?"

Ana shrugged again, "My brother liked it, but I never really got into it. Did you ever see the Broadway version?"

"Nope," Laura cracked a smile, "I was scared I might cringe the entire time. I always felt kinda bad about it, considering Jeremy Jordan- you know Jeremy, right? Ashley's ex?- he and I worked on Bonnie and Clyde together. But I just couldn't bring myself to see it. I considered going awhile, for him, but then stuff happened with him and Ashley, and I decided not to."

Ana's face heated up a bit at the mention of Jeremy's name. She nodded along, feeling intrigued and drawn to the show. She wanted to propose something to Laura, but she wasn't sure if it would set off some sort of angry alarm inside of Ana's roommate. Did Laura hate Jeremy as much as Ashley?

"Well, now we'll never know if it was good or not." Ana nudged the subject, sipping at the her now luke-warm coffee.

Laura sighed, "Well..."

"Well what?"

"Well, maybe," Laura seemed hesitant to say what Ana knew she was going to say, "Maybe... What're your plans for today?"

"Nothing at all," Ana said, possibly too quickly. "Why?"

"Would you wanna try and catch the later show? Maybe go and see if Newsies is all that cringey?" Laura laughed a nervous chortle.

Ana tried to play it cool, "I mean, sure."

"We don't have to-"

"No! No, uh, I mean. No, it'll totally be cool. I'm up for it."

-

When Jeremy received the abrupt news about his show closing, he nearly broke down into tears. They had called the entire cast and crew onto stage before the matinee performance, and broke the announcement to them. He watched as a few people who had been there form the beginning, like Ben and Andy Richardson, sniffle and hug each other.

With the news of the show closing, they added that a tour would be opening up in October, and auditions would be open to the ensemble members to join them. Jeremy, and other leads, would not be able to continue the show.

He would be out of a job.

Reality hit and Jermey stumbled back. He pushed through the people around him and ran up the steps to his dressing room. He slammed the door shut and fell onto his couch, crying his eyes out.

-

For the sake of the story, Jeremy is Jack for the first year and a half of Newsies' run on Broadway. Corey will appear. Also, this story is set in the end of winter, 2014.