Held Back Theater 4 (Patreon)

Days later, Toby sat beside Billy in the back of the bus, anxiously clinging his bag to his chest while Billy talked with Quentin across the way sitting in what everyone referred to as the throne. The singular seat in the back left of the bus. Normally Toby would have joined in on the spirited debate on which team during Sunday night’s game should have won if only they had run this play, or played this player, or if the coaches weren’t ignorant bums, but this morning all Toby could think about was the contents of his bookbag. Something he rarely, if ever, thought about.

Inside his bag were the clothes that Gigi had given him to wear, including the pair of white panties with a small pink bow. Every bump in the road he imagined his bag just spontaneously exploding its contents out for all to see and the ridiculing or worse that would no doubt happen after the first round of laughter had died down.

It was bad enough that when his mom had scooped up the dirty clothes from his floor she had scooped up the panties with the rest. The offending panties still inside the shorts she had already seen him wearing on the ride home and would no doubt remember when she did laundry. She always got onto him for not separating his clothes and making it easier to wash them, as well as ensuring a better wash, than instead of just shucking his clothes where he stood when he was done with them.

“HeeEEYA!” Toby had shouted as he snatched the dirty laundry from his mom’s arms and dropping half of them in the transfer.

“What in heaven’s name?!” She yelped in surprise.

“I’ll get these!” He said, still shouting, “Why don’t you go sit down?!” He said quickly as he kicked the fallen clothes off to the side. Hoping to get them out of view.

“What? Are you sure?”

“Pfftyeah!” he chuckled nervously as he smiled at his mom.

“Do you even know how to do laundry?”

Toby rolled his eyes, “It’s not that hard mom. God! ” He huffed, “I’m not some kid yaknow!” He ran his last words together, feeling the tell-tale bejeweled denim under his feet.

“Well, alright, holler if you need help.” She said after a moment.

“I’ll be fine, mom.” He protested.

He was not fine.

Having no experience with doing his own laundry he guessed as best as he could at what it was he was supposed to do. It made perfect sense to just dump all of his clothes in one load to save time. He stared at the numerous dials for a moment before finding the temperature and time settings and turning both to maximum. He vaguely recalled his chemistry teacher talking about sterilization or something and hot water…He couldn’t remember exactly what she had said, it was all he could do to keep a passing grade, but if hot showers got you cleaner than cold showers then it would stand to reason that the same applied for the clothes you wear.

Two and a half hours later he transferred as much of the clothes from the washer into the dryer as would fit and again cranked the heat and time to max. He was disappointed to find out that more than half of his clothes were still wet and had to be run through again. Some even three more times before they were dry. ‘No wonder mom always complains about the laundry.’ he groaned internally as he carried his basket of clothes to his room, sorting out the damp from the dry. Dumping the dry clothes onto his bed before taking the damp back to the dryer.

It wasn’t until after dinner when he was sorting through his shirts that he noticed the first problem; his gym tank top that normally was white was now a soft shade of pink. He at first thought that one of his mother’s shirts had gotten mixed into his clothes somehow. By the third such shirt and a brief inspection he realized they were indeed his shirts. His immediate thought after that was that someone was messing with him somehow! Until his mom came in to say goodnight and saw what had happened.

“Oh, Tobias!” She was able to stifle a laugh behind her hand. “What happened here?” She asked, already knowing the answer.

“I don’t know.” He replied, “I think the washer’s broken.” Leanne tried again to suppress a giggle, unsuccessfully. “It’s not funny!” Toby huffed. “I can’t wear this to school!” He frowned as he held up a pair of formerly white briefs now pink.

“I’m sorry, sweetie.” She smiled apologetically at her baby as she took the underwear from him. She didn’t mean to laugh knowing he was in distress at the moment he would see the humor in it once he calmed down. “These things happen and we learn from them.” She added.

Toby spent the better part of two hours sitting on his bed and sorting out what could be salvaged from the pink and unwearable while his mother sat in his desk chair and helped him sort and fold his clothes as she went over proper laundering techniques for the differing types of clothes she picked up and most importantly what settings to set the washer. It was worse than school! At least in school he could sneak his bluetooth into his ear and hide under his hoodie. But here his mom had him trapped and all he could do was grunt an agreement whenever she paused. Not long before he fell asleep his mother found a pair of dark red boxer-briefs she declared to be the most likely culprit but by that point he was too tired to care.

He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep exactly. He knew it was night and he was sitting on top of his covers still folding clothes…and the next he knew he was under his covers as the light poured into his room. His first fright of the day came as he was getting dressed. He did not remember putting the bejeweled shorts in his shorts drawer or the now light pink panties in his underwear drawer. But someone had to have…because there they were. He had thankfully forgotten all about them after the incident with his own clothes. A distant dream he could forget just as easily as any other.

And now, thanks to his bumbling, he found himself on the bus with the damned things in his bag  and tucking his feet under the bench, or more specifically, tucking his shoes under the bench. After losing his shoes to Gigi the only pair of shoes he had left were his church shoes, a pair of brown penny loafers his mom said made him look “smart”. That may have been true with a nice suit, not that he agreed, but they definitely looked stupid when he had no choice but to wear them with his blue jeans and a black t-shirt with the words “Make country music great again.” in yellow script emblazoned over a yellow acoustic guitar.

Finally arriving at school, Quentin broke from Toby and Billy and turned off into the crowd down another hallway towards his locker while Billy went on about the game. When Toby admitted he didn’t see the game Billy gasped and quickly pulled highlights up on his phone so his friend could join the conversation. “You coulda said something instead of going zombie mode on me.” He said, shaking his head.

“I didn’t think about that.” Toby muttered, quickly shoving his bag into his locker  while he watched a clip of Nebraska’s quarterback feinting a pass before ducking a Kansas’ lineman and running with the ball to the sidelines as the Kansas gave chase, throwing the ball just as he was tackled. The receiver just barely caught the fifteen yards downfield before getting tackled himself. The clip then flashed and changed to a close up of the quarterback’s foot just stepping out of bounds. Toby commented on all the errors the quarterback made, or what he would’ve done if he were the quarterback, or what he should have done.  And it was Billy’s turn to go zombie mode. “What?” Toby asked his friend who was currently giving him a strange look.

“You been hitting the gym or something?”

“...No more than usual? Why?”

“Your shirt’s…kinda…way small.” Billy chuckled while he rubbed the back of his neck.

Toby examined his shirt with a painful groan. The shirt he had chosen in his rush to get dressed that morning for the singular reason that it had not been tainted by pink had somehow shrunk! Toby hadn’t really noticed anything more than a mild tightness as he hurried out of the house to catch the bus, his mind was more focused on the contents of his bag and not falling in his church shoes.

“And what’s with the new footwear?”

“Shh!” Toby hushed Billy’s loud voice. “My washer broke or something.”

“You wash your shoes?”

“No. My shoes were lost.”

“How do you lose your shoes?”

Toby cringed at the memory of his dad asking the same thing on Saturday. Only his father had been yelling. “If I knew that I wouldn’t have lost them.” Toby hissed back at Billy. “These are the only pairs I had, so it was either this or come to school barefoot like some hillbilly.” He lied. Sort of. He still had the cheerleader skechers Gigi had given him but he would not be caught dead in the girly shoes again.

“What size are you? Maybe I could lend you some of mine?”

“Nine and a half?” Toby said hopefully.

Billy frowned. “Eight. Sorry.”

Toby shook his head, “It’s fine. I’ll just–” Toby interrupted himself when he saw Gigi walking through the crowded corridor, “Hey, I’ll meet you in class. I gotta do something really quick.” Billy had been saying something but Toby hadn’t heard him as he slapped his friend's shoulder and said, “Thanks man.” as he ran off through the crowd, bag in hand.

Running the length of the hallway was no challenge for Toby or anyone else on the track team, but doing it in slicked soled shoes while trying to dodge the crowd of people between him and his goal made it more than a challenge. The throngs of people forced him to run on the balls of his feet so that he could quickly maneuver around them. So that, he decided, was to blame for what happened when he reached Gigi.

“Gig–fuck!” He began to call out to her when his left shoe slid back and to the right while his right shoe decided to get as far away from its sibling and slid as far forward as it could. The acts sent the rushing Toby into an impromptu and painful split. “Agh! Damn it!”

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” Gigi asked as she bent down to help him up.

“Yeah.” Toby groaned as he stood up on his own. “Totally fine.”

“I know track guys like to run and all but this is a bit extreme.” Gigi giggled.

“Ha. Ha. Save it for your stand-up, Seinfeld.”  Gigi, being a fan of the classic show, smirked with pride. “Look, I wanted to give you…your stuff.” Toby clutched the bag to his chest.

“My stuff? What stuff?”

“Your…clothes.” He whispered.

“Oh! Right, you have my clothes!” Gigi shouted with a laugh. Causing a scattered group of students to look at her and Toby. “I said you can kee–”

Toby glared and dragged the girl by the arm away from the crowd and into the bathroom. “You don’t have to be a bitch about it.”

It was Gigi’s turn to glare at Toby now. “I wasn’t!”

“Come on, you were yelling so everyone could hear. And don’t think I didn’t hear you laughing.”

Gigi crossed her arms and shook her head, “I’m a loud person. And I was laughing at myself. I completely forgot about the clothes.”

“You’re shitting me.” Gigi continued to glare at Toby. “For real?”

“Yes, for real.” Her voice softened as she continued. “I told you I’m your friend now and that means I’m not gonna embarrass you.” Adding, “On purpose.”

Toby ran his hand through his short hair, mentally kicking himself for being an idiot. His plan had been to give the clothes to Gigi when he saw her next but he had assumed that would be after school in the theater. When he saw her in the hall he simply leapt without thinking and twice made an ass out of himself. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re forgiven.” She said with a sigh and uncrossed her arms. “I am sorry if I did embarrass  you.”

“You’re fine.”

“Hug?” Gigi asked, spreading her arms wide open with a sympathetic smile.

Toby had a rule against hugging, but that rule did not extend to girls he found to be pretty. “Okay.” Toby dropped his bag on the sink counter and let Gigi wrap her arms around his torso.

Toby wrapped his arms around the weird but pretty girl and his immediate thought was wondering just how low he could or should place his hands. The frustrated part of himself told him to just grab her ass and enjoy it while it lasted. But Toby was at least smart enough to know better. If he did she would never hug him again and it was an oddly pleasant hug. He settled for placing one hand on her shoulder blade and one hand just on the small of her back.

Toby was struck by an immediate and comforting warmth and enjoyed the pleasantly soothing scent of Gigi’s perfume and strawberry shampoo that for the duration of the hug simply washed all of Toby’s stress and worries away. The hug lasted less than fifteen seconds but his muscles already felt less tense even after they pulled apart.

“You give great hugs.” Toby whispered serenely.

Gigi giggled, “Never underestimate the power of hugs.”

Toby blushed and ran his hand through his short hair once again. “Uh, anyway. I have your…your clothes.” He whispered, just in case anyone may have been hiding in the vents of the empty bathroom and might have overheard.

“Thanks.”Gigi simply smiled and shook her head as she opened Toby’s bag. Her smile quickly vanished when she pulled out the top and panties that were both now a new shade of pink. “Uh…what happened?”

‘She’s so…weird but damn, if I didn’t have Kendall…or maybe she would–’ Toby’s train of thought was suddenly derailed.  ‘Shit, did she ask me something?’ Out loud he said; “Uh…yeah. No.” But Gigi continued to stare at Toby in confusion. “Um…what?” ‘James Bond, eat your heart out.”

“I said, what happened to the clothes?”

“Oh. Uh, my washer broke or something. Sorry.” Toby apologized as he felt his face reddened even further, now for a completely new reason.

“You should definitely get it fixed.” Gigi’s smile returned, albeit more as a smirk that was accompanied by a roll of her eyes as she took out the crumpled clothes and tried to smooth them out the best she could. “Hey.” She said, noticing the white skechers in Toby’s bag. “You still have the shoes.”

“Yeah. I told you I’d bring them back.” He said as he sat on the sink counter.

“...But then…why’d you wear those then?” She asked, indicating Toby’s brown leather church shoes.

“They’re my shoes…” He said matter-of-factly as if the answer should be obvious.

“Yeah but you already fell in them once.”

“Pfft. That was a fluke.” Toby waved his hand, dismissing the truth. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Totally.”

“Okay.” Gigi said, ‘He’s lucky he’s cute.’ she thought and took his shoes out of the bag, “I’ll keep them with me, so if you change your mind.”

“Sure. I mean you can keep them on you if you want but it’ll be a waste of time.”

“Well lucky me it’s my time to waste then.” Gigi smiled just as the bell rang. “Speaking of…” She let her voice trail off as she closed her bag and picked up the folded clothes.

“Ugh, yeah. Another day of fun and exciteme–” he began to say but still unused to the slick shoes he wasn’t prepared for the subtle changes needed to keep himself upright when his shoes met the weirdly slick floor of a high school bathroom at the wrong angle. Toby spun as he fell, grasping the closest thing he could. Unfortunately that was Gigi who instinctively reached out to grab the falling boy.

Thankfully as they both crashed into the floor they spun away from the sink counter. Unfortunately this led to Gigi being underneath Toby as he fell on top of her knocking the wind out of the poor girl. “God!” Gigi coughed as the air was forced out of her lungs.

“Son of a bitch!” Toby spat as his knee slammed into the tile floor. “Are you hurt?” He asked as he propped himself up.

“Yeah.” She groaned. “You?”

“Just my pride.” He groaned.

“I don’t wanna say I told you so...but.” Gigi groaned  underneath the heavier boy. Her giggle quickly turned into a giggle at their situation.

Toby wanted to protest that it was just a coincidence but when their eyes met Toby suddenly started to laugh as Gigi’s giggles built into full blown laughter as well. It was all just too ridiculous. Toby had just remarked how he would be fine in his stupid church shoes only to almost immediately fall, this time bringing Gigi down with him.

Toby noticed not only was Gigi a pretty girl with an infectious smile. But she was a pretty girl, with an infectious smile and a decent rack, who was now underneath him. During the awkward fall and scattering of clothes Gigi’s shirt had been pulled up. Likely, Toby guessed, when he pulled her down, leaving her smooth, flat, stomach exposed. Immediately thoughts of what may lay hidden underneath her shirt sprang forth in his mind. His teenage body reacted in the typical and awkward way.

Gigi blushed when she felt the sudden stiffness press into her thigh. “Um. You can get off me any time now.” Gigi said awkwardly. Realizing far too late the effect she may have on a cute boy. Or any straight boy that randomly fell and accidentally pulling her down with him only for her to end up beneath him.

“Shit. Sorry.” Toby muttered and rolled off of Gigi, and carefully stood up. “Here let me–”

“No way.” Gigi waved Toby off. “No offense but I’d rather not risk it again.” Gigi stood, using the sink counter to pull herself back up and huffed at Toby who stood awkwardly trying to hide his growing erection behind his hands. Gigi blushed and shook her head. “Take your shoes off.”

“What?”

“Off. We don’t have time to talk about this. You already wiped out twice that I’ve seen. Now you’re taking others out with you? It’s either that or go barefoot.”

Not wanting to be seen as some hick Toby reluctantly relented. “Fine.” Leaning forward he pulled off one shoe when the slickness of the bathroom floor struck again. But this time Toby had been prepared for it to happen and managed to catch himself as he fell forward, bracing himself on the counter. Once again Toby had pinned Gigi down, this time he had accidentally pinned her against the counter.

Unfortunately, at that moment the door swung open and Kendall entered with her two friends trailing behind her. “What the hell?!” Kendall shouted as Toby backed away from Gigi, pressing himself against the wall and the sink to keep from falling again. The pair were immediately flanked by Kendall and her two friends.

“Yeah, what the hell?!” One of them parroted.

“Doll! W-what are you doing here?” Toby stammered.

“Me? This is the girl’s bathroom. What are you doing here?! As if I have to ask.” Kendall growled, crossing her arms under her chest.

“This is not what it looks like!” Gigi said awkwardly as she fixed straightened out her shirt.

Gigi looked the living barbie doll up and down. “It really isn’t. He was just–”

Before Toby had the chance to warn Gigi off, Kendall did it for him. “If I want you to open your mouth I’ll give you a quarter like everyone else in town, theater trash.”

“Excuse me?!” Gigi shouted.

“Doll!” Toby yelled back.

“Really?!” Kendall shouted back at Toby, “You’re gonna cheat on me?!”

“Don’t lie. I walked in on you kissing her!”

“We weren’t. I fell.”

“Yeah, right into her lips.”

“We were not–” Gigi began to say and was again cut off.

“Seriously?” Kendall’s voice filled with venom as she stared down the inferior girl.

“Are you that much of a skank you gotta bring a change of clothes?”

“Yeah! Theater trash.” The girl on Kendall’s left giggled.

“She probably got too much boy splooge on her other clothes.” Said the one on Kendall’s right.

For a moment Toby thought by the look on Gigi’s face she might just slap all three of them three stooges style. Instead her jaw unclenched and she smiled. It was nothing like the smile she wore just a couple of minutes ago. This smile put Toby in mind of a lion sneaking up on a three-legged gazelle. “Wow.” She said, adding several more syllables to the single syllable word. “That is impressive Dolly. I didn’t even see your lips move when your little dummies speak.”

“Hey! We’re not dumb!” Huffed the left one, bringing a smirk to both Gigi and Toby’s faces.

“You’re just jealous we’re, like, not some fashion disaster!”

“Seriously I can’t believe you would cheat on me! And with the drama dork?” Dall asked, continuing to ignore Gigi.

“We weren’t–”

“Save it!” Kendall barked. “We’re done.” She snapped her fingers and stormed out of the bathroom with her two friends.

“Wai–” Toby started to hop after her on one foot, deciding instead to rip the shoe off and toss the shoe into the trash as he ran out into the hall after Kendall. “Doll, wait listen I wasn’t doi–”

“No!” Kendall shouted, purposefully drawing the attention of the students that remained in the hall. “I put up with a lot from you,” her harsh voice softened as she forced tears in her eyes, “but I can’t believe you’d cheat on me!”

Toby was defeated once Kendall began to cry. He always did hate seeing her cry. “Doll, I’m sorry. I swear we were-”

“No more lies, Toby!” She cried. “We’re done. Just leave me alone.” She spun on her heel and ran down the hall, her two friends in tow, each trying their best to comfort their friend.

Before second period had even begun the entire school heard all about Kendall “the doll” breaking up with Toby again and how Toby was nothing more than a cheating scumbag. By lunch Toby realized it did no good to deny the accusations when denying only ensured that everyone believed he was not only a cheater but lying about cheating on the hottest girl in school. It seemed the only people who believed him were Billy and Gigi. And that was because Gigi was there!

The days that passed only grew worse for Toby; who found the girls that once smiled at him now openly sneered. If they were with friends they would turn and whisper before the group would burst into a fit of giggles.

Toby was once again beneath the stage, in the orchestra pit, as he sullenly scrubbed the last of the profanity from the floor. Toby had just finished scrubbing off the last of the graffiti when a cup fell onto his head spilling an iced latte all over his shirt and the floor. “Oopsie!” Nico cooed sardonically from the stage above his head.

“Do that again and I’m gonna pound you into next week!” Toby growled.

“Only if you buy me dinner first, sweet cheeks.” Nico giggled.

“Wh-shut up fat ass!"

“Pfft, that was underwhelming.” Said one of the girl’s at Nico’s side .

“Not the first time he’s heard that I’m sure.” Another girl giggled.

“Probably why Dall keeps breaking up with him,” said the first girl.

“Oh didn’t you hear? Our dear delinquent tried to get it on with another girl in the girl’s bathroom by Ms. Fleming’s class.” Nico added, joining the girls in their giggling gossip.

“I heard it was Gigi.” Whispered the first girl.

“No way, Gigi has waaaay better standards than that.” Nico laughed.

"You're dead you fat little shit!" Toby wasted no time and climbed up the back wall of the pit, pulling himself on top of the lip where his muscles tensed in anticipation to launch himself at Nico as Nico continued his braying laughter.

“Nico!” Gigi’s voice rang out with an edge of annoyance to it as she walked up to the trio before anything could happen. “Did you not hear me calling places?” Nico and his two friends’ shook their heads as they gathered their lattes and walked to their designated places on the still painted stage. “Mhm, that’s what I thought.” Gigi clicked her tongue at the three. A moment later Gigi’s smiling face spun around and faced Toby. “You okay? What happened this time?”

Toby shook his head as he sat on the edge of the pit, refusing to look Gigi in the eye., “Some idiot knocked their drink over the edge I guess and…” he let the sentence die, gesturing at his stained shirt.

“Do you need to borrow some clothes again?”

“No!” Was Toby’s immediate and emphatic reply.

“Okay. When you clean that up can you come up here, please? I’m gonna need your body.”

“O-okay.” Toby blushed.

A few minutes later, Toby climbed onto the stage, immediately noting the nearly two dozen glaring and scornful faces staring back at him. His hands clenched into fists out of instinct before he remembered the reason they all undoubtedly hated him was because of the large dried splatter of paint that still dominated center stage. ‘Fuck this.’ He thought and turned away.

“There you are.” Gigi smiled, catching him by the arm and pulling him back to the angry crowd, "Here.” She said, placing him in front of Nico at center stage. “You just stand here and read the lines."

“You didn’t say anything about reading.” Toby muttered. Nico snorted.

Obviously oblivious to Nico, Gigi explained, “Leslie’s our lead, but unfortunately she has laryngitis so she can’t really talk.” She said, pointing to a pretty blonde girl sitting with an equally pretty brunette at the edge of the stage. “So you just have to read her lines while I make sure the scene looks okay. Okay?”

“You want me to act like a girl too?” Toby whined.

“You don’t have to act like anything, unless you feel in the moment, but otherwise, no. Just read where it say 'Annie and staaand…here.” She said with a warm smile, moving Toby two feet to the left and placing him uncomfortably close to Nico. "Nico, we're gonna start from the top of scene five. Okay?"

"Aye aye, captain." He said flipping open the pages of his script.

"Cool." Gigi practically skipped the entire way to the front row in her bare feet. Despite his embarrassment of the request Toby couldn't help but smile at the goofy carefree girl. "Okay, and action!" Gigi giggled.

“Annie, I’m home.” Nico said mournfully.

Toby huffed and stared at his script , “Mister La roach a is–" the students on stage broke into a fit of giggles. "What?"

"I'm sorry, Toby I should've told you, Nico's character is Larouche. It's pronounced la rosh."

"Oh." Toby blushed.

“S’matter, Jethro?” Nico guffawed, “Cain't ya read?” He asked, aping a stereotypical redneck he had heard in movies over the years, earning him fits of giggles from the crowd of actors at the hillbilly insult.

“Fuck off.”

“You’re cute when you’re angry.” Nico giggled.

“Guys, enough chatter.” Gigi said, “Start from Toby’s line.”

Toby glared angrily at the script in his hand. “Mr. Larouche, is there any news about your wife?”

“Nothing good, I’m afraid, Annie.”

“I am sorry.” Toby said flatly.

“Are you?” Nico asked, bitterly,  “You’re a robot! Do you even know how much it hurts to have to watch her wasting away every day?”

“I'm a robot? That’s cool at least.” Toby thought out loud before reading. “I have been a surrogate to many families. Sons. Daughters. While I am not programmed to feel emotions as you do, I know what it means to have someone in your life one moment and gone the next. And how much we wish they could stay. Annie rubs her belly.” Toby stopped. “Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Those are stage directions, Jethro.” Nico guffawed followed by giggles and whispers from the rest of the students on stage. Toby’s fists balled in rage as his face burned with embarrassment.

“Guys!” Gigi shouted, an angry look flashed across her face that would have looked less out of place on a panther than the gentle face Toby had come to know. “Cut Toby some slack, he’s only filling in. Toby, you’re doing great. Read the last line again please and we’ll go from there.”

Toby huffed and uncrumpled the script in his fist and stared at the crumpled pages as his face continued to burn. “I have been a surrogate to many families!” Toby spat. “Sons. Daughters. While I am not programmed to feel emotions as you do, I know what it means to have someone in your life one moment and gone the next. And how much we wish they could stay.” Toby angrily rubbed his belly, flipping Nico off in the process. “That is what it means to be a mother.”  Toby stared in confusion at the script, ‘Wait, am I not a robot?’

Before he could ask Nico continued. “Being a mother is more than just giving birth.”

“Then what?”

“A mother loves her child.” Nico answered, "You can't be a mother because you don't know love. Like when you see me kiss my wife. We love one another."

"Then a kiss is love?" Toby paused and turned to face where the audience would be before continuing the dialogue. "If I know love I can better fulfill my life’s purpose to be a mother!” He shook off the confusion before turning back to face Nico, “Wait! Mr.Larouche could teach me love!" Toby moved closer to Nico, pausing when he read the next directions instructed him to embrace Nico and give a line before kissing him. Ignoring that he simply read his next line. "I can learn!...Teach me how to love."

“You’re supposed to kiss me.” Nico teased. It was only then that Toby realized how close Nico had gotten when the heavy set boy pulled Toby into a hug and Nico forced his lips onto Toby’s. Toby immediately shoved Nico away. “Ann–” Before Nico could finish his line Toby hit him with a right handed haymaker, sending the stocky boy staggering back and knocking into Leslie like an unfortunate domino only for her to fall off of the stage and into the pit below.