Behind the Curtain

Thoughts whizzed through Lucas’s mind. This girl-Erin?-had appeared out of nowhere. Where had she come from? Why was she here? Erin broke the silence, “Hey Lucas! How’s it goin’? I’ll just call you Luke,” Erin said, as if she was talking to a dog or a cat.
“Okay,” Lucas said timidly, “Who are you again”
“Erin. My mom owns the bakery on the corner. She has to work late all the time, so I come here after school to paint. Come on, I’ll show ya’,” Erin hopped off the stage and jogged down the middle aisle to the back row. Lucas had to run to keep up with her. When he got there though, Erin was producing a bunch of artist’s supplies from a small, ripped, gap in the back of the theatre seat. A set of paints, charcoal pencils, kneaded erasers, and pastels was only half of the list of things Erin was pulling out of the shredded seat.
“Amazing,” Lucas half whispered.
“Yeah,” Erin started, “mom says I’m a great artist. I love to paint. I come here because there’s so much inspiration. The curtains are my favorite. You can never get the same angle at them. They’re always changing,” Erin stared dreamily at the soft velvet. Then, without warning, she jumped up and ran to the stage.
“C’mon Luke! I’ve got to show you ‘round!” Erin jumped up onto the stage. It groaned at the new amount of weight. Lucas stood and walked casually towards it, making sure he didn’t trip and fall. As soon as he got there, Erin practically pulled him around back of the curtain into the dark backstage area.
Erin pulled a flashlight magically out of her pocket and shined it on a ladder that was off to the side of the main stage. Erin ran at it and started climbing up. ‘This girl is crazy,’ Lucas thought.
“C’mon Luke! I gotta show ya’ this!” Erin shouted from the fifth rung.
Lucas didn’t want to seem like a baby, but he also didn’t want to climb an old, possibly unstable, ladder into the dark unknown. ‘Lucas, you’ve never had a friend before,’ a voice inside him said, ‘Go ahead. Do it.’
“Coming,” Lucas said, and he stepped towards the ladder.