AllFreeNovel
Share Us
three months later
Jake
“Where are you taking me?” The abundant greenery on both sides of the Long Island Expressway astounded him. At home in the Bay Area, the hills were brown and dry during the summer, only greening up during the winter rains. No matter how brilliant they got, though, they’d never match Long Island. The color was everywhere. Jake swore he could even taste it.
“It’s a surprise,” Alex said, flipping the blinker switch and changing lanes to pass another car.
Jake had arrived at JFK the previous evening, having gratefully accepted Alex’s offer of escape from San Francisco and his father’s erratic behavior for the final month of summer break. His father’s drinking had gotten worse during Jake’s first year at school. The man was an attorney, a partner in his firm. How he still had a job after all these years, Jake had no idea. But for one blessed month, Jake’s brother was going to take care of their dad, guilted into it by Jake’s request to think of it as a belated birthday gift since Brandon hadn’t even acknowledged it when Jake turned nineteen at the end of March. Jake didn’t care about the birthday aspect of it—he didn’t celebrate that day—but it had gotten him what he wanted. He’d have taken any opportunity to get out of that house for any length of time, let alone a full month and the chance to see New York City for the first time in his life.
“Good surprise?” Jake asked. Alex’s surprises were often pranks. Funny after the fact, but Jake had fallen for enough of them that he approached Alex’s idea of a surprise with caution. “Because you know how much I love your surprises.”
“Yeah, dude, it’s a good surprise. And that’s all I’m going to tell you.”
Twenty minutes later, Alex pulled into the parking lot of what looked like a barn.
“You better not be bringing me to a square dance or any kind of rural shit like that,” Jake said.
Alex laughed. “Come on, man, you’re in the suburbs of New York City. We don’t do things like that. If this were upstate, then you’d need to worry.”
They got out of the car and walked toward the barn, which turned out to be a theater. The Red Barn Playhouse, according to the sign by the entrance.
“You’re taking me to a play? That’s the surprise?”
Alex shrugged, handed two tickets to the usher at the door, and accepted two programs in return. “It’s closing night, and I know some people in the cast.” He aimed a grin at Jake that was borderline leer. “And there’s a cast party after the show.”
Jake followed Alex inside the building, which had been converted to a theater with a raised stage surrounded by bench seating. The barn door behind the stage was open, which Jake assumed was to help keep the theater from becoming stifling in the August humidity.
Although Alex had warned him about the weather, Jake had never felt anything like it. The air was so thick with moisture, he wondered if it’d be possible to drown in it. He’d only been here a day and was already tired of his soggy clothes.
They found spots dead-center in the fifth row, which would put them at almost eye level with the actors onstage since the floor was slightly sloped, just like a regular theater. Jake had to admit, the place was kind of cool. He could see speakers and a professional-looking lighting-and-sound board in the back. The more he looked around, the more he realized his initial impression that he was going to see some amateur community play was wrong. He leaned over and asked Alex what the deal was, and his friend laughed again.
“Like I said, dude, this is New York. This is professional summer stock. A lot of the people who work here are from Broadway.”
“Seriously? So, what are we seeing?” Alex hadn’t handed him a program, and he couldn’t tell anything from the set, which looked like a junkyard and could have been for any number of shows.
“Wait and see, man, wait and see.”
Alex was smiling like the cat that ate the canary as the house lights dimmed and the audience hushed, so Jake knew whatever his friend was planning was about to happen and tried to prepare himself for the egg-on-his-face moment he suspected was coming.
A horn sounded, and a guy stepped onto the stage, blew the horn again, and started singing “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.” Jake grinned. He’d been on tech crew for drama all through high school, and they’d done Godspell his junior year. He loved the music. He glanced at Alex, who nodded toward the open barn door.
Jake turned his head. And there was Micah, walking down the road behind the theater, visible through the open doors, all easy grace and golden hair. Jake’s reaction was instant and electric. He wanted to run out of the theater and catch Micah before he got away. Only Alex’s hand on his arm made him stay in his seat as Micah turned toward the open door, a childlike look of surprise on his face, as if he’d just seen a group of friends. As he walked closer, Jake realized he was wearing a costume: brightly striped pants, a skintight red shirt with a giant S on the front, and rainbow suspenders. Holy shit! Micah was the lead.
As Micah hopped onstage and walked toward the group of people singing and dancing the opening number, Jake, utterly gobsmacked, turned to Alex. What had he said? This was professional summer stock? And a lot of the people were from Broadway?
“Just watch him, man,” Alex said quietly, so Jake turned his attention back to the stage, practically devouring Micah with his eyes.
There was a moment, just before Micah was supposed to start singing, when he looked out at the audience with that same open, guileless look of wonderment on his face. Jake knew the instant Micah saw him. Their eyes connected, and Jake felt it, the same way he had in the bar in Palo Alto. For a split second, he saw Micah fall out of character, saw the persona slip from his expression, but then it was back, and Micah stepped into the group onstage, knelt before the guy who’d been singing, and that was it. He didn’t falter again.
Jake couldn’t take his eyes from Micah for the entire first act. He was glorious. Mesmerizing. His voice was strong and passionate, full of life and expression, and the way he moved… Fuck. The way he moved was sinuous and beautiful. Effortless and joyful. Jake was blown away by his talent.
At intermission, Jake ripped one of the programs from Alex’s hands and opened it to the cast bios so he could read about Micah.
“He goes to fucking Julliard?” Jake asked, the disbelief thick in his voice. How did he not know this? But then again, why would he? He’d said maybe a dozen words to Micah back in April, and then avoided the guy for the rest of his visit.
Alex laughed. “Jeez. The two of you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
