Out of the closet and Into the Woods

This is my first short story ever and I hope to improve upon my writing skills in the future.

An audible gasp was heard throughout Adeline's class. She looked down at her phone and realized why people in her class were freaking out. The cast list for her school musical was posted. She had auditioned for it only a week before, and they had already posted the cast list. She got a callback and hoped it meant that she would get a major role. Adeline had recently started collage and didn’t have many friends so she thought that the musical would help. She was glad her school was doing Into the Woods because the lead roles were in her vocal range. Adeline didn’t fit most traditional musical’s lead female role.

Adeline was nervous, she slowly opened her phone and clicked on the link. The cast list wasn't long because there weren't that many characters. She looked for her name on the list and learned she was playing Lucinda, one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. She was disappointed she didn’t get the role she wanted, but the role she got was still a good role. Adeline was happy that she even got a part. Since she got a callback she was hoping for a larger role, but she was only a freshman in collage. The directors know where she was going to be the strongest and where she needed to be. If that wasn’t the role she wanted then so be it, Adeline was going to be the best Lucinda she could be.

Rehearsal had started and Adeline was excited about it. She was new to the school and was hoping that she could make some friends through the musical. They were mainly just running through their lines and analyzing the script. She sat next to a girl she didn't recognize. The girl looked nice and Adeline hoped that they could become friends.

"Hi I'm Cassie." The girl introduced herself and held out her hand. Adeline took it.

"I'm Adeline. What part are you playing?" Cassie revealed that she was playing Rapunzel. Adeline couldn't help but notice how beautiful Cassie was, she looked the part of Rapunzel. They made small talk until the directors came in and they started running lines. Every time Adeline looked into Cassie's eyes she felt a nervous feeling in her stomach. Adeline was confused as to what she felt, so she ignored it and focused on the musical assuming it was just nerves.

Adeline and Cassie became close friends over the next few months and always talked during rehearsal, soon they started hanging out outside of theatre. They ate their meals together and went to parties together. Adeline had made other friends, but she wasn’t as close with them as she was with Cassie. They couldn’t imagine getting through collage without the other.

After a while of questioning her feelings, Adeline realized what she felt for Cassie was more than friendship, the nervous feeling she got when she looked into Cassie's eyes were butterflies in her stomach. Before Cassie, Adeline didn't have any crushes, she just assumed she wasn't boy crazy and would get a crush when the time was right. Adeline figured out she was attracted to girls, she was gay. Everything was starting to make sense. Why she never had a crush on a boy, why she only wanted to see the girl characters in movies, why she looked at lingerie ads for a bit too long. She didn't know how to deal with her newfound feelings so she tried to go along as if everything was normal, but she couldn’t help but act strange around Cassie.

They were hanging out in Adeline's dorm and Cassie noticed that Adeline wasn't talking much and was staring off into space, "Are you okay?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah, I've just been tired these past few weeks, with tech coming up for the musical." Adeline lied. It was such an overused excuse, blaming her strange behavior on just being tired when she was really just trying to hide her crush.

"Are you sure?" Cassie asked, she hoped that she didn't do anything wrong.

Those three words triggered something inside Adeline and she started sobbing. She had been holding in her feelings and didn't know what to make of them. She knew the people around her weren’t homophobic, but she still hadn’t come out to anyone. Thinking about coming out to her parents made her cry even more. Cassie came over and hugged Adeline. That freaked Adeline out because she didn’t know how to act around Cassie.

Once she calmed down Adeline decided to come out to Cassie and she was scared, "I have a secret. That's why I’ve been acting weird. I haven’t told anyone yet. I’ve been wanting to tell you, but I’ve been afraid that it is going to change everything in a bad way." Cassie looked worried, "I like girls. I didn’t know that until I met you. I don't want to make anything weird between us, but I feel like I need to tell you that I like you. I’m sorry" Tears were streaming down Adeline's face when she said that. A weight came off her shoulders.

"You know I'm not attracted to girls right?" Cassie said gently.

"Yes, I'm sorry if I made things awkward for you." Adeline apologized.

"You have nothing to apologize for, you can't help who you like. You didn't make anything awkward. I’m not going to stop being your friend, you can’t help who you like" Cassie said.

"Thank you." Adeline still felt weird

“I actually have something to tell you. I started dating someone.” Adeline was happy for Cassie, but disappointed. They started talking about Cassie’s new guy. Some part of Adeline wished that Cassie liked her back, but she was grateful that Cassie was still her friend. She was scared that Cassie would hate her for being gay, they never talked about political issues and Adeline didn’t know how Cassie would react.

Tech week for Into the Woods had started and that meant a lot of long hours in the theater. Adeline was a lot happier now that she wasn't holding in a secret. It was easier to talk to Cassie now that she wasn’t holding in a secret. Adeline’s crush on Cassie was fizzling out.

Adeline was talking to the sound techie. She was trying to make new friends in theatre and wanted to get to know the tech people, also the sound techie was cute. As Adeline was in the middle of talking she realized the girl had a rainbow pin on her shirt. It made Adeline hopeful that maybe the girl that she started crushing on could like girls too.

“I like your pin.” Adeline complimented.

“Oh, thank you. Are you…” The girl said, Adeline nodded. Maybe things would work out for Adeline.