CHAPTER ONE
A laugh escaped Brian's lips as he watched Lauren wander on stage with a little Dora the Explorer doll. It was the last installment of the Harry Potter musicals, and the emotional toll hadn't really hit Brian yet. But he knew it was coming, it was coming for all of them, like a big boulder that's gonna crush them when it gets there. If that's not a cheery enough metaphor. His eyes were trained on Lauren as he watched from backstage. She was one hell of an actress.
In everyday life Brian constantly poked fun at Lauren, and Lauren gave it right back to him with twice as much fire. They had been friends since they met in college and they had to do an improv sketch which ended in them pretending to have sex. Yet that was the end of their sexual encounters thoughout college. In plays it was always Darren or Joe Walker that got to kiss her, while Brian watched offstage, and every time he was jealous. He wanted to march onstage and rip their hands off of her waist, but of course he had to pretend like it was nothing. As starkid came along his feelings for her grew, but she was always playing a guy. And imagine if Hagrid and Draco just started making out, weird.
But Brian wanted that, so bad. He wanted to press his lips up against hers and pull her body so close that they were touching. He wanted her, but there were always complications. Darren was his best bud, and ever since the last year of college they had had an on and off relationship. Honestly sometimes Brian wanted to slug Darren, the amount of times Lauren has come to his house crying because Daren left without any notice was way too much. Darren was a nice guy, but he would never realize how precious Lauren was. He didn't even realize that he could do anything, and Lauren was so in love with him that she would never leave him.
Brian saw Lauren look up to Darren with her beautiful big eyes as Darren brushed her off on stage. His fists clenched around the script he was holding. He never thought that he included real life situations when he wrote plays, but this seemed pretty damn close to what happens in their relationship.
"Brian you ok?" Meredith said slowly, gently taking the somewhat crumpled script out of his hands. He jumped and smiled a little in assurance while never taking his eyes off of Lauren. Meredith had known Brian forever, they were easily best friends, and she didn't even have to look on stage to know what he was thinking. "Brian." She stared at him, sternness in her voice that forced Brian to look at her. "She loves him. You can't mess that up for her."
Meredith placed her hand over his but he jerked away, moving to finish putting on his costume. "I know. I would never hurt her. It's just that he doesn't give a damn. He doesn't care!" Brian whispered his hand over his mic so no one heard their conversation.
"Brian, I think you're overreacting. He does like her." She said, handing his script back to him.
"There is a saying that love is spelt T-I-M-E. How much time does Darren spend with Lauren?" Brian retaliated, turning to see the scene change. There was one more until he was on, and Meredith was about to respond when he cut her off. "You're supposed to be on." He said coldly and watched her run on stage.
He knew that she was speaking the truth, she always did. He knew that Lauren was happy with Darren, but he also knew that she deserved so much more.
The lights came up on the stage and laughter soon filled his ears at one of Darren's lines. An uncalled bitterness filled Brian as he remembered what was always in the back of his head.
He would've been Harry if Darren hadn't shown up.
But after Darren graced their lives they realized that Brian was never going to be as good as Darren, and gave him the part. Story of his life. Brian shook his head and looked down at his script, now wasn't the time to be thinking about such things. He needed to get in character, it was showtime after all.
And so Brian did, the show went about as badly as possible, but it was perfect. It was perfect because everyone was having the time of their life. None of them could've asked for a better close for a show. Brian leaned slightly on Meredith as the last line was spoken and the lights went down. He could tell she was holding back tears, and she hadn't even done all of the shows, he was sure he was going to be a mess.
The whole cast walked on for the curtain call and it went about as rough as the show, but this time it was because everyone was in tears. Everyone bowed in relatively the right order and soon hugs were being doled out everywhere. Brian raked his eyes over the crowd for Lauren, god, why was she so short? Soon he was pulled into a hug with Arielle and Britney, as they cried into each other's shoulders. He patted them on the shoulder lightly and moved away from them, searching for Lauren. While he looked for her he was hugged by Joey, Dylan, Meredith twice, and Julia. His eyebrows knit together, where could she be? He had reached the edge of the group closest to the back of the stage and noticed movement back stage.
He had found Lauren, sobbing into Darren's arms. Brian put his hand on the wall close to him to steady himself. He felt nauseous and slowly turned away. Half of his mind wanted to go over there and tell Lauren how stupid she was for loving that idiot, but now wasn't the time. Fists slowly formed and he was walking away. He never knew why he bothered with Lauren, he knew he couldn't compete with Darren. He was almost out of the room when Meredith caught up to him and grabbed his arm. "Brian!"
Meredith had seen Darren and Lauren and worried that he had noticed, but as Brian turned around to show the anger in his face she knew that he had. "You can't do this, they're dating. They're allowed to act like they are."
Brian fumed with anger, she had no idea how long he had loved Lauren Lopez. No idea. "Damn it Meredith! You don't understand this! Darren never tells Lauren when he's about to leave and then it's always me comforting her. You know how hard it is for me to see her heart broken a thousand times because Darren isn't man enough to tell her in person? That jerk doesn't deserve her!" Brian yelled over the noise, tears falling over his cheeks and suddenly not caring that they were in public. He was tired of hiding. He turned on his heel and marched up to his room a slamming the door. Meredith didn't try to follow him, she knew that would make things worse, because the only thing Brian really needed was Lauren. And he couldn't have her.
Brian paced around his hotel room, a bottle of wine in his hand, but that wasn't enough to get him drunk. He wanted to go down to the ball, but he was afraid that he was going to punch Darren's lights out if he saw him. He knew that the same thing was going to happen again, Darren was gonna leave Lauren for Hollywood. Like he always did.
He heard a knock on the door and quickly went to get it, seeing Joey looking worried at him as soon as he opened the door. "I thought you'd be here." He said, walking past him and into his hotel room. Brian smiled, Joey was a no-bullshit guy. "Listen...Meredith told me what happened. She's upset." He said, taking the bottle of wine away from Brian as he went to get another drink. Joey didn't need him to get drunk. "You know that Darren doesn't have a lot of heads up when he's told he needs to film; it's not his fault." Joey said crossly and Brian looked at him incredulously.
"Not enough heads up? He always has enough heads up to pack and get a flight! Shouldn't Lauren be one of his priorities? Don't feed me that bullshit." Brian spat, running his hands through his hair in a frustrated fashion.
"You should come down to the ball. They're not there...they..uh..were busy." Joey said awkwardly, because he and Brian both knew that they were off having sex. Brian snorted.
"No thanks, I'll stay here. But I'm glad as fuck that my room isn't next to either of theirs." Brian said angrily and shoved Joey out the door.