Hey, thank you all for reading! I would love some reviews so let me know what you think. The story is almost done on my computer so it shouldn't take me long to finish up-loading. Thanks again *C.E.L

Chapter Three

Rehearsal was going really well, and I could tell that Rom was putting his best effort into the music. There was only one time I could really tell that Rom and Eric didn't get along, I was onstage with Eric during his solo. 'Music of the night' is really just one long musical double entandre, so there were definitely some things that had to be worked out. Pretty much I just stood there getting felt up until I had to faint. Eric on the other hand had to be singing a relatively difficult song, feeling up a girl, and then carrying said girl to the bed when she faints. I had it easy, Eric, not so much. Rom was not handling it very well. He seemed furious about where Eric's hands tended to stray. Rom hit his limit when Eric started stroking my hair while singing right in my ear. His voice was as gentle as a whisper but loud enough for the whole theatre to hear. He was definitely well cast for the part.

Playing Christine to Eric's Phantom was easy. It wasn't hard to act the part of a girl who had become captivated by a voice in the dark when that voice was Eric's. It also helped that I knew what Eric looked like. Unlike Christine I knew that Eric was extremely attractive, which made it even easier to act attracted to "the voice".

Rom was well cast to. He did seem like the stereotypical prince charming who rescues the princess. But there was way more to Rom than that and I wanted him to show that onstage. Raoul was the sort of character who could be played with and altered by the actor. I knew that Rom could make him into a kind of badass. Not that Rom's current portrayal was bad, but it was typical, and I hoped that we could move past typical because I would never pass for a standard Andrew Lloyd Weber Christine. In the book Christine was blond. In the movie she was a brunette and most musicals have her played by a brunette. I was commonly compared to deer based on my hair color. My hair was a reddish light brown that had flecks of gold in it, it was long enough to be curled the way it was worn by Rossum or Brightman, but I wasn't sure that was the direction the costuming department wanted to go. I just hoped they didn't ask me to dye it. Shrugging off my tangent I watched Rom onstage. He looked pretty good and he sounded better but if you put him in a scene with Eric, me and him singing he wouldn't hold up. I would have to practice with him some more.

The lair scene was too much for us to do that day, it was hard to meld two tenor parts, one soprano, and the chorus in the background so Reginald left that for our next rehearsal, which was Thursday morning. I felt blessed to have a day off to just work on my solos. 'Wishing you were somehow here again' needed more work than I cared to think about. Where was the angel of music when you needed him?

Eric approached me after I had packed my music away, "Hey can I walk you home?" He asked.

"No, thanks I can find my own way. See you Thursday." I hurried off but he caught up to me with no difficulty.

"So I see Rom got to you. I'm telling you I'm not in the wrong here, that guy is bad news, he doesn't care about the show and I don't think he really wants a relationship with you or any of the other girls." I fumed at his nerve. Did he honestly think he had any right to give me advice on my personal life!

"Mind your own damn business, jerk! For your information, I have no intentions of getting back together with Rom, he is an old friend and I enjoy spending time with him. I recognize Rom's full potential, and I intend to help him reach it, but you do not have anything to do with that. Good bye." I turned on my heel and left Eric staring after me, fuming.

Rom came sprinting after me, "No, Elise! Wait!" He yelled after me. Eric glared and stuck his foot out. I saw the trick and what would happen, it was horrible and childish and I couldn't stop it. I underestimated Rom though. He jumped nimbly over Eric's foot and continued to run towards me.

He came to a stop right before hit ran me over. "Elise, I'm really sorry. Please don't hold everything against me, it was wrong and I'm a jerk but I really do want to make it up to you." He paused for breath, panting slightly from his run.

For whatever reason I thought back to the day three years ago when Rom got into a fight on one of the trips to town we got every once in a while. The guy was standing in an alleyway and we were walking by, when he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me backwards toward him. I fought hard, squirming and finally stomping down on his foot. He let me go and I skittered out of the way just as Rom's fist connected with the guy's jaw. Rom hit him again, this time in the nose. To this day I have no idea what Rom was thinking. The guy was at least thirty and huge, not to mention drunk and angry. He threw a few punches toward Rom who managed to duck. Rom did not get luck a second time. The next blow hit him squarely on the stomach. Rom fell but got back up immediately, landing a few more punches to the man's beer gut. To me it looked like the scene in The Princess Bride when Westley fights Fezzik. He was obviously trying but Rom was not a big guy. He was well built, but this guy was 6' 5" and fat. Rom was 6' 2" and lithe. The man made another grab at Rom who ducked. The fat, drunk guy was unbalanced and he fell over trying to reach Rom, hitting the ground hard. He stirred a little, but did not get up. Rom and I left to clean up the blood from his nose and see what we could do about Rom's black eye.

The look in Rom's eyes now was the same one that I had seen when Rom punched that guy for grabbing me. He looked at me, desperation clear on his face. I wanted to tell him that it was fine that what Eric had said didn't matter. I wanted him to say that he still loved me. I wanted to say that I still loved him. I didn't say anything like that. I said, "I think we should go out for coffee tomorrow. I want to go over some of the music with you. If you don't mind." And Rom said that he would like that very much.