just one of those nights

Roman wasn't too happy, lately. Really, this play was killing him. He wasn't exactly killing the play.

He didn't want to say it was all Vada's fault. It wasn't like she went out of her way to talk to him. No, she spent all her time with Joel, and it wasn't until the end of the first night of the play that he realized Vada and Joel were more than just dancing.

No. There was laughter in their voices. The way she'd smile at Joel. And Joel was laughing. How could that be? It was like the ice king and queen were melting. Possibly, into each other.

He wanted to kick something. Of course, he didn't. It wasn't like Nora was waiting for him, either. He found her reading one of her Regency Romance books, at home. She looked up at him, and for the first time, he imagined her being Vada.

They did look a lot  like.

"What? Did it go, OK?" She'd stayed home because she knew she'd make her brother nervous on opening night.

"Yeah, Joel did great." Roman sighed as he went to plop down next to her on the couch.

"Well, where is he?" She wanted to know why he wasn't with him.

"He was off..you know..with THAT GIRL... he's seeing." Roman sounded in different.

"Vada?" Nora remembered, but she pulled out her phone to text her brother.

"Now, why did you do that?" He winced, thinking what kind of big sister would do that?

"I feel bad I wasn't there." She shrugged. "I wished I could have seen him."

Naturally, she didn't ask about how Roman did.

"OK." He didn't even know why this bothered him.

She smiled once she got a text back from Joel.

Roman watched Nora out of the corner of his eye. Maybe the only reason Joel was going out with Vada was because Vada looked like his sister.

The evolution of Joel by elliewriter on Polyvore