Seconds after you and Darren have left the pizza place together, he swiftly catches you up, and softly places his hand on your arm, and turns you towards him.
"Lets just, wait here for a bit. I want to make sure that Joe's distraction is going to plan. We do this for every gig, just so that we know our food is safe" he chuckles to himself, and looks across the road, searching for the sight of Joe.
"Speaking of food, why don't I take these from you?" He offers, reaching out one hand. You place the boxes onto his forearm, and he swiftly tucks all 3 boxed under his arm, by his side. He's obviously done this before.
Just then, his phone is alarming, and with his free hand he rummages through his pocket to find it. He brings it close to his face, and sees that Joe has text him, telling him that he's just stepped out backstage into the crowd of awaiting fans.
"Alright, this is our cue! let's get in there quick!"
He places his free hand back on your arm again, and carries it across the road as you both quickly jog towards the entrance. He lets go, just as we meet security at the main door inside. The guard doesn't even look twice, and before you know it, you're following Darren's footsteps down a few dark corridors, leading you backstage. All you can do in this time is scan every inch of the back of his head, those dark curls swaying gently with his pace, his neck muscles tight, with tiny droplets of sweat starting to form around him. As you look down at his right hand, his long fingers slightly curled in to themselves, and his arm slowly swinging back and forth. You're admiring the way he walks, and how carefully he treads, until you notice that his head is beginning to swing around towards you. You suddenly look up, waiting for his eyes to appear in your vision, and as they do, a smile breaks out on his face.
"You ready to meet the gang?" He says, heading towards a heavily lit room.
"Sure! As long as they're awesome." You reply, completely aware that your words still aren't forming right.
As Darren enters the room, you hear a few cheers and applauds begin to erupt. As you first hear this, you assume that his friends are congratulating him on great show, until a loud voice shout "PIZZA!" which then causes and even louder celebratory response from the people within the room.
You've now followed Darren into the room as he's settled down the pizzas onto a small coffee table, that has been centered around a few sofas. It looks as though Darren's friends have organized this seating arrangement by themselves, as the other side of the room, furthest away from the TV, has no furniture located in it whatsoever. You're still stoop right behind Darren, and now you're visible to the room, all eyes are suddenly on you. Darren straightens up, and introduces you as a new friend. You happily take a spare seat on an empty two-seater couch as about 6 new faces wave at you, and welcome you into the group.
As these new faces introduce themselves as sound technicians, light technicians, venue owners and the all rest of it, everyone is happily eating away at the pizzas - all except Darren. He's disappeared into another room, but you soon see him emerge back into the seating place with two glasses in his hands of, what looks like wine. He looks at no one else but you, as he lowers one of these glasses towards you. You a glass with thanks, and have a sip. Darren then chooses to sit right next to you on this small sofa, and grabs two slices of pizza, and takes multiple bites out of each. You can do nothing but chuckle quietly under you breath.
The whole night is pretty wonderful. Darren's friends are very kind to you, and everyone is just generally having a great laugh. The whole time Darren doesn't ever leave your side. A few bottles of wine has now been bought to the table where the pizza boxes were, and you're all left sharing old stories, telling jokes, and just generally getting to know each other. You don't have a lot to say about yourself, but they still treat you as part of the gang. You feel so at home, and appreciated.
At various points in the night, you stopped listening to the conversations. Not because they've been uninteresting, or dull in any way; but because you just want to take your time to believe that Darren Criss really is sitting next to you. His leg is slightly touching yours, and how there's just a few layers of clothing separating you from feeling the skin of his upper thigh on yours. You tend not to think about this to much, but when you do, your heart begins to race, just for a minute. As you lean back in your seat, Darren suddenly places his warm hand on your mid thigh, leaves if there to for a rest few seconds, and quickly takes it away again. He looks at you, slightly taken back.
"Sorry," he says, slightly under his breath. He's still smiling at you.
"That's alright," You reply, smiling back.
What was that about? Was he making a move? Was he drinking a bit too much, and miss his own leg by accident? I mean, I guess you'll never know. But it happened. You can still feel the five places where his fingertips were positioned on your leg. You can't move, at all. You just sit there, smiling to yourself, sipping more wine.
The night soon comes to an end, and it's been incredible. You've met some genuinely nice people, and you're surprised at how no ones treated you like some crazy fan girl. I guess, that's because only you and Darren know how long you've actually known each other- for all the other guys know, you could've been friends for years. But no, he's treated you like a true friend, and maybe that's what you two are becoming? Though, you can't get your hopes up. The nights been completely crazy, and amazing, and that's all you ever need.
You're waiting by a side door to the venue where Darren told you to wait for him. You know he can't step outside incase any fans see him, but he's told you to wait, and by God, you'd wait for a life time if he asks you too. He soon hops around the corner, holding what looks like a CD. He's looking you dead in the eyes, and smiling at you as he comes closer.
"Now, I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I feel like we really got on tonight." He says, completely focusing on the CD this time, instead of looking at your face. "I didn't forget the fact that for some crazy reason, you actually like my music, so here- I signed it for you too." He looks at you this time, handing over a his "Human" EP, with a younger version of himself printed on the front. Over this younger boys head, Darren's signature has now been scribbled over the photo. But it looks like something else is written there too.
"But wait, that's this? Don't open me until you get home?"
"Yeah. I kind of, left you a little secret note in there. But it'll be more fun if you read it when you're home. Just a little thank you for being so cool tonight." His gaze doesn't leave your grinning face for one second, as in your mind you're beginning to create ideas of what this note might actually say.
"Thank you, so much Darren," You say to him. Almost having to hold tears back.
"That's my absolute pleasure," He says, jumping slightly onto the balls of his feet.
He opens this door for you, just like he did at the pizza place, yet this time, he steps behind it. You turn around to see him quickly wave you a goodbye, and the door soon closes. As you walk away from the building, groups of people are staring at you and your smile, making whispers about your signed CD, and you care about none of it. You just had the most incredible night of your life. Darren Criss knows you. And even better, he cares about you. You've never felt this happy ever before, and you know, this euphoria could last you a lifetime.