Curly poked his head out of the window and shouted, “Who are you? How do you know I’m gay?”

Before Buzz-cut Boy could answer, Jasper climbed onto the stage and interrupted the scene with a clap of his hands. “All right, thank you! Well done, Aiden, that was great,” he said to Buzz-cut Boy. “Gina, next time I really want to hear you, but great job on climbing.”

Gina giggled. “Thanks, Jasper. I worked out.”

“I can tell,” he said. Then he looked at Curly. “Sammy, can I talk to you for a moment? Everyone else, please prepare for the next scene.”

The boy immediately turned and sauntered over to Jasper. It was hard to understand what they were saying from where I was sitting, especially as the rest of the drama club began reading their next lines out loud, but I could pick up bits of it. “. . . were so good . . . no, really, that was amazing . . . so glad that you joined the drama club . . .”

Sammy didn’t seem to care about lowering his voice as he said, a sly grin on his face, “Do I get a reward for that?”

Jasper reached out to straighten Sammy’s tie. “My roommate won’t be back till eleven, chéri.”

Only then did it finally click in my head and I rolled my eyes at myself. Of course they were together. How stupid to assume that someone like Jasper was single.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Sammy chuckled before he went back to his tower.

Meanwhile, Jasper turned on his heels and walked up the aisle between the seats. I tried my hardest to shrink back into my seat, but I shouldn’t have worried. On his way to the small platform in the back of the room where the control panel for all the electronics and the spotlights was, Jasper didn’t look my way once and walked right past the row where I was sitting.

“This scene once again, please!” he shouted. “I’ll try to do some lights.”

I watched him curiously as he stared at the control panel before him with nothing but confusion written on his face.

On stage, Aiden, the guy with the buzz cut, opened the scene.

Jasper frowned as he pressed random buttons, and nothing happened. A moment later, he jumped when the ceiling lights right above him suddenly flickered on. Releasing an angry stream of French, he began hitting every button at once, only for the lights to rapidly flicker on and off.

Maybe it was pity for him, or maybe it was the fact that the way he hacked at the buttons physically hurt to watch, but whatever it was, it made my legs move almost on their own accord as they carried me up the stairs and towards Jasper.

He looked at me over his shoulder, raising one eyebrow, but took a step back to give me better access to the panel.

Without meeting his eyes, I reached around him and found the button to turn off the ceiling lights immediately. Then I turned a lever to turn on one of the spotlights and pointed the beam at the tower, following the silhouette of the girl currently climbing up the bedsheets.