"This is all your fault, director's pet. This is a play. I'm not falling in love with you, and I would never ever go out with you, Jack Garrison."
Jack and Shayna can't get through a rehearsal without fighting.
Cheerleader Shayna loathes perfect Ja...
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After rehearsal was over, I walked off stage with a strange mixture of pride and something else. What we'd done tonight had been remarkable, and somehow, there'd been no in-fighting, but something big had changed both in Jack and me. I just wasn't sure what.
When I'd seen him at the beginning of rehearsal, I thought it would be uncomfortable. We had only texted since the hospital. Now, his eyes were a little bloodshot from lack of sleep, and the thick layer of stage makeup we were all required to wear covered the dark shadows under his eyes. I couldn't even see the bandage on his arm under his Shakespearean costume.
On stage, he became Orlando, and when I looked at him across from me, there was no trace of the taunts and teasing. It was as if what had happened to him over the last few days had completely transformed him.
When we finished, he disappeared with Lilly. After I took off my costume, part of me hoped I'd find him in the lobby waiting for me, but he was already gone. Instead, I found Rita leaning by the door, twirling her phone in one hand.
"You said you wanted to talk," she looked uncertain.
"Yeah," I said.
Rita was easy to have a conversation with. Maybe it was because she wasn't wrapped up in attending more than ten years of school with everyone else in the cast, but also, I knew she wouldn't tell anyone anything behind my back. That was why I texted her before rehearsal, saying that I wanted to talk when we were done.
Before I could say anything else, Carson, Kai, and Hugh walked through the lobby to the door, having a heated conversation about the best way to achieve an egg drop. We waited for them to pass in silence.
"Thanks for staying," I said.
"That's what friends are for," Rita said. "So, what's up?"
"Hey, Rita, you ready?" Jules's voice behind me made me jump.
I turned to see them standing in the theater doorway, pulling their short, bushy, auburn hair back with a headband. They'd changed from their Shakespearean costume into their usual torn black jeans and a dark shirt covered in red paint splatters.
"Jules, do you mind waiting in the car?" Rita asked. "I need to talk to Shayna. I promise this won't take long."
Jules looked from me to Rita. They just sighed and shouldered their backpack uncomfortably.
"Sure," they said.
"Jules," I said. "I can take Rita home. You don't have to wait."
"You live in the opposite direction," Jules said. "I can wait."
"Don't worry about it," I said. "Maybe I can do brunch with you guys after the festival. I heard Samantha talking about it."
Jules snorted. "Well, we didn't exactly invite her, but yeah. That sounds fun."
