Page 54 of Playing Dirty (Leighton U #4)
Madden
April
“Is Theo meeting us at the theatre?”
My attention shifts from out the window to where Miles is sitting in the driver’s seat, looking ever the frat boy in a pair of light-blue dress pants and a pink button down, and I shake my head.
“I don’t think he’s coming.”
My roommate shoots me a hellish grin. “Sure didn’t sound that way the other night.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“You set yourself up for that one,” Torin mutters from the back seat, and I glare at him over my shoulder.
“Thanks, Tore. I had no idea.”
Miles just laughs and nudges me with his elbow. “You’d think you’d be less grouchy by getting laid regularly, not more.”
Not to give Miles any credit, but he does make a valid point. My mood has been in the dumps over the past couple weeks, and clearly, my friends have taken notice.
I know part of it is simply the stress of the season being in full swing now, our game schedule piling on top of classes and practice even more than it was before. Add in MLB scouts showing up to a few games, and I’m nothing but a ball of stress.
But I’d be remiss to say it has nothing to do with Theo and the absolutely horrific timing of his broken promise coming to light. Because, in the few weeks since our series against Leighton—and since I found out—we’ve barely had the chance to see one another.
And I really don’t need the reminder of that right now.
“I’d be better if you guys would stop ragging on me,” I mutter as he pulls into a parking spot.
The three of us hop out of the car and start toward the theatre. We’re about halfway across the parking lot when Miles looks over at me, about to say something, only to do a double take.
A slow grin pulls at his lips, and he nods toward me with his chin. “Well, looks like you’re wrong again, Maddy Boy.”
I frown and turn to where Miles is looking, only to find Theo making his way across the parking lot. My heart does that stupid thing where it stutters in my chest as he approaches, and when I glance back to Miles, I find he’s already disappeared after Torin.
When I turn back, Theo’s spotted me, and my stomach somersaults when his seafoam gaze collides with mine, only getting worse when one of those devastating smiles appears on his lips.
The sight of it never gets old, especially with how few hours we managed to set aside for one another lately.
And even in those moments, I can sense the guilt still weighing on Theo for the lie he told his teammates.
It weighs on me too, despite knowing it’s just that: a lie. But it’s laced with truth, pieces of reality embedded in the fiction, and it’s enough to allow the tiniest sliver of doubt to linger in my mind from time to time.
Maybe that’s why things have been a little different. Or at least it feels that way to me; like there’s this guillotine of doom hanging over us.
And yet…he’s here. Because of me. Supporting my friend instead of doing the countless other things he has on his plate. I have to believe that counts for something.
“You came,” I say when he finally reaches me.
“I told you I would.” He glances over at Blackmore’s auditorium with equal parts curiosity and skepticism. “Though, I still can’t believe I was talked into this.”
I can’t stop the stupid, dopey grin from pulling at my lips as we head for the door. “It’s gonna mean a lot to Vaughn that you did.”
“Just to Vaughn, huh?” he asks, a teasing lilt to his tone.
Definitely not.
“I’m glad you’re coming too. This is actually one of my favorites.”
There’s a suspicious look in his eyes when he murmurs, “I never took you for a theatre junkie.”
I shake my head and laugh. “I wouldn’t say that, but I’ve been to all Vaughn’s shows before, so I’ve seen my fair share of plays and musicals.”
“And which one is this?”
“ Hadestown. ” I grab two playbills from the girl handing them out before leading him toward our seats on the lower level. “It’s based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.”
His brows draw together. “I’m gonna be honest, if I was taught that one, it went in one ear and out the other. ”
“Well, lucky for you, one of my best friends could be considered an expert on the subject, and he’s passed that knowledge along to me.”
“You’re gonna give me a mythology lesson right now?” he teases, eyes taking on a playful gleam as we drop into our seats about halfway toward the stage, just in front of the mezzanine overhang.
“I told you I like to impress the guy I’m on a date with,” I murmur with a wry smirk before diving into the tale.
“In the myth, Orpheus is this really talented poet and musician who descends into the Underworld to retrieve his love, Eurydice, who had died. Once he finds her, he plans to bring her back to the land of the living, but before they can escape, Hades catches them.”
Theo’s brows shoot to his hairline. “Oh, shit. That’s never good.”
He reaches over when I’m about to continue, but as he starts slowly mapping the pads of his index and middle fingers over my tattoos, my train of thought derails.
The little touches—the ones more subconscious than anything else—always get me for some reason.
Especially now, out in the open, where anyone could see.
Clearing my throat, I refocus my attention on the tale of ill-fated lovers.
“No, the two of them being caught could have ended badly, and it almost did. But Orpheus uses his talents as a musician to kinda…charm his way into a deal with Hades. The god allows Orpheus to take Eurydice with him, but only under the condition that Orpheus must lead his beloved from the Underworld without turning around to look at her.”
His fingers continue stroking the ink on my skin, his eyes fixated on where our skin touches while he asks, “And let me guess. This is one of those easier said than done moments?”
“That’s one way of putting it, yeah,” I say with a chuckle.
“So does he turn around? ”
My lips twitch, and I give him a half answer. “There’s a few different versions of the myth, but they all have the same ending.”
He lifts his gaze and aims a knowing smile at me. “He turns around, doesn’t he?”
“Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”
There’s a brief moment where we have a little stare off, waiting to see if the other will fold. But then his hand leaves my arm to reach down and pull his phone from his pocket, all the while smugly muttering, “Or I could just google it for spoilers.”
Laughter erupts from my chest. “One, you’re a menace if you do that. And two, Vaughn would never forgive you.”
“I think you mean you ,” he corrects, doubt dripping from his tone.
“No, I mean Vaughn.” I snatch the phone from his hand and quickly shove it between my thigh and the seat cushion. “If he even knew I told you the backstory instead of letting you go in blind, he’d castrate me for robbing you of the full experience.”
Theo’s gaze drops to where I hid his phone before lifting back to mine. “All right, I’ll play along. For Vaughn’s sake.”
“Thank you.”
And then for good measure, I lean in and kiss him; just the briefest brush of my lips on his, but it still has the ability to create a well of emotion inside me.
Of course, the moment I decide to kiss him is the same one Miles and Torin drop into their seats on my other side, the former letting out a groan of mock-disgust.
“I think I preferred it when you were at each other’s throats. God knows I’d be getting better sleep if you were.”
I smirk and flip him off .
Since the fateful morning we overslept at Theo’s place, he’s been coming over to our side of town for a change, and while I’d love to think it’s because he’s comfortable with my friends now, I think a little bit of it has to be guilt.
Both for all the sneaking around, but also now for the Penny Play bit.
It does make this thing between us a little easier to navigate, though, having a place to fuck, spend time together, whatever it may be, without worrying about being caught.
I just wish it could be like that all the time…minus Miles’s ribbing.
An announcement comes over the loudspeaker a couple minutes later, calling for everyone to be seated as the show is about to begin. Then the four of us take a ride down to Hadestown together.
Pride swells in my chest every time the spotlight lands on Vaughn, who absolutely kills his first leading role as Orpheus.
The kid can sing and act like no other, and every part of me hopes he winds up getting into the Royal Vale Academy of Performing Arts next fall.
It would suck having him move to London for a year, but it would push him closer to his goal of winding up on Broadway, which is what really matters.
I can’t help myself from glancing over at Theo every once in a while during the performance, watching his reaction to what’s happening on stage. He catches me a couple times, though I’m not exactly discreet about it, and shoots me a little smirk before he’s sucked back into the performance.
Despite the show being nearly three hours with the intermission, it comes to a close feeling like no time has passed at all—the same feeling I’ve had all three times I’ve seen it. And just like the two times prior, I’m left with this heaviness in my chest from the bittersweet tale of a doomed love.
But this time, the story hits a little harder.
A little too close to home, maybe.
Torin and Miles lead the way to the lobby once the show ends, and together, the four of us wait for Vaughn. He emerges from one of the side doors only ten minutes after their final bows, and as he approaches excitedly, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly he can get out of costume.
“Did you guys like it?” Vaughn asks instantly, glancing between us. “Most people get pissed about the ending if they didn’t already know the myth.”
He asks it like three out of the four of us haven’t seen the show at least once before, but Miles replies before I have the chance to point it out.