"These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness and in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."

Silence settled around the auditorium. Petey glanced around awkwardly, looking mostly at Jimmy as he finished his lines. "Uh..."

"Gary!" Miss Peters snapped. "Get out here!"

He came quickly through the curtains, an irritable look on his face. "What?"

"You were supposed to come in! After Petey says all that, you have to come in and hug Jimmy, and then Petey keeps talking. In the middle of his lines." She puts a hand on her head. "Do it again."

Petey re-rehearsed his verses, allowing Gary to come in at the right time and hug Jimmy. Everyone was in costume- it was the day of the show, and Miss Peters was calling this a "dress rehearsal." AKA, a full run-through of every scene. They had practice until 6 PM that night, where they would get thirty minutes to eat, and after that another hour to get ready and make sure everything was in place. All of this had taken its toll on Gary. He was missing his lines, his entrances- everything.

"Here comes the lady. Oh, so light a foot with ne'er wear out the everlasting flint. A lover may bestride the gossamers that idles in the wanton summer air, and yet not fall. So light is vanity."

All of Petey's lines were merging together in Gary's head. The stupid wig he had on was too scratchy, and his sweat made strands of the fake hair stick to the back of his neck. Arms still around Jimmy, he said, "Good even to my ghostly confessor." When he spoke, he didn't even attempt a feminine voice- he never had to begin with, so why now? It was obvious he was a guy, and there wasn't any hiding it. Plus, his girl voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Jimmy confirmed it late that night while they were practicing in his dorm when they were trying things out.

"Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both," Petey spoke, giving Jimmy and Gary an odd look. It wasn't the first time the three of them rehearsed this scene, so what was that look supposed to mean?

"As much to him, else is his thanks too much," Gary said. His lines were boring now- things seemed to lose meaning when you rehearsed them a million times every afternoon. He wasn't even sure what the lines truly meant anymore- if his mind weren't scrambled like a goose egg, he might be able to figure it out.

Jimmy nudged Gary away, a sign that he should probably let go of him now. Gary stepped away, feeling stupid that he kept hugging him in the first place. "Ah, Juliet, the measure of thy joy. Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more..."

Gary stopped paying attention. He stared at the ground as Jimmy spoke, and when he finished, Miss Peters yelled at him again. "You missed your line. Go take a breather outside or something. Somebody go with him."

"I will," Jimmy volunteered.

Miss Peters suddenly had second thoughts about this. "No. Don't go outside. Just... behind the curtains somewhere, I don't want you two leaving the auditorium." She glanced down at her book. "We're going to do the final scene, I'll stand in for Gary while he's gone.. Thad? Earnest?"

Jimmy grabbed Gary's arm and led him behind the curtains, pulling off Gary's wig for him and letting it drop to the floor. "Hey. Let's talk."

"Sorry," Gary murmured. "I-"

He shushed him, pulling him further back into the room. Jimmy opened the costume closet and turned the light on, sitting down in the corner holding all of last year's costumes. "Sit down," he said, patting the spot next to him on the floor.

Gary shut the door behind him and sat down next to Jimmy, wondering what was going to happen next.

"What's the worst thing that can happen, Gary? I know you're nervous about tonight, but it's no different than being in front of the other people in the play. Parents will love it. They'll be less critical, they love corny shit like that."

He smiled, but his fears weren't eased. "What if I... I don't know, I just ruin it? And everybody hates me?"

"Everybody already hates you, I don't think fucking up a play will do much in that regard."

It was the truth. Gary nodded at this, feeling the fresh air around his neck. It was a relief to have that stupid wig off, yet he knew he would have to wear it for the rest of the night. "Except you."

"Except me. I don't hate you." He put an arm around Gary's shoulders. "You're not gonna fuck up the whole play by fumbling a line. Come on. Even if you do mess up a line, it's not your fault. Everyone's going to screw up tonight. Just don't make a big deal out of it, okay?"

He swallowed his spit. "Yeah. Okay." Gary wasn't sure if he felt any better, but being alone and away from everyone else helped drastically. "What if I don't come in at the right time?"

"Well, then people would laugh. At least they would get some entertainment through all of this boring Shakespeare shit." Jimmy smiled at him, lightly digging his nails into Gary's shoulder and massaging him through the shitty costume fabric. "You probably won't remember how you fucked up in act two, scene four in twenty years. Come on, Gare."

Gare.

"What if I trip and fall and die?"

"Like Beatrice?" he asked, laughing. "Wait, I don't think you'll die from falling. Unless you break your skull, but you won't, you won't fall down from a high enough distance to crack your skull."

Gary shook his head. "The balcony. What if I fall off of that and then die and then everybody sees it?" He knew he was being ridiculous, but Jimmy asked what the worst thing that could happen was... so he answered.

"Not far enough. Beatrice did it and she's alive, you know the ladder is roughly the same height." Jimmy pulled Gary closer to him, letting Gary's head rest on his shoulder. "Whatever happens, you will be okay. And I won't be mad at you, even if you come in at all of the wrong times and hug me all the way through the wedding scene and trip and fall."

Gary couldn't help but smile at this. As he sat there in the costume closet, with his head on Jimmy's shoulder, he really did hope that Jimmy was right. And that everything would turn out like he said, even if someone did fuck up.

Little did he know, he had nothing to worry about. On his end, at least.