the moral of the story

chapter thirty-two: a drunk stranger

this is a seriously awful plan, if i do say so myself. i can't believe i let diana talk me into going along with this.

because oliver's phone is now shut off, diana concluded that the only way to reach him is to actually reach him. like on set. at my school. when students aren't allowed to be there. oh, god. i seriously hate this. it can't be too late to back out, right?

okay, i know it probably doesn't seem like it, but i really like to follow the rules. i've always been pretty well-behaved. the act of breaking rules has always made me feel sick to my stomach. even thinking about it makes me wanna hurl. the last time i physically broke a rule when in seventh grade, when cassie jones and i were talking in science class when we were supposed to be doing a lab. mrs. henderson threatened us with detention, which—embarrassingly, i have to admit—made tears well up in my eyes. i'm sorry, i don't like it when people yell at me, okay. i can be fragile sometimes. but anyways, the feeling has lived with me, so i don't break rules.

and now, wearing one of diana's liliac sundresses, a bright green cardigan, light pink tights, and brown clogs while sweating under diana's curly brown wig, i'm really wishing that i listened to my gut instinct and chose to follow the rules. she's attempting to sneak me in as an extra. but considering that the set is so tight, diana's got trouble even bringing her own mother on set a lot of times. she says that this is the only way, and me, being totally desperate for any chance to talk to oliver, jumped at the offer. (also, now i'm really curious about the damn plot of this season. why are these people dressing like they just stepped off the plant zenon?)

so now i'm glued to diana's side, while she's humming with simply not a care in the world. she's not supposed to be on set today, but says that the crew likes her so much, they'll let her on if she asks nicely.

i've been going over what i'll say to oliver when i finally do see him in my head for at least the past hour and a half. and i really have nothing. you know me, i'm a procrastinator. this one time freshman year, i completely spaced on my presentation for speech class, so on that day, i pulled some bullshit outta my ass about how we all just live in a patriarchy, and that people just don't listen to what women have to say. i got most of it from those activist instagram posts that girls are always posting on their stories. i got an a, despite my teacher letting us know weeks beforehand that the assignment was "simply not something that could be completed the night before". okay, mrs. jackson, okay.

but that doesn't change the fact that i feel the exact same as i did when i was eight, and my parents took verona and i on that fishing trip, and we had to leave early because i ended up vomiting out my ham and cheese sandwich i had for lunch over the side of the boat. just ill. my palms are all sweaty, and i keep having to wipe away perspiration from my forehead. granted, that's probably mostly from the wig, but it's definitely not helping.

diana comes to a halt, prompting me to stumble into her and nearly knock her down. "hey!" she mutters sharply, jabbing her elbow into my ribs. i mumble an apology and keep my head down as diana plasters on a grin, turning towards the security guard in front of us.

in my humble opinion, he's the poster boy for "i enforce the law all while lacking a neck". he's a healthy combination of paul blart and steve carell's character in sleepover. i'm not sure if diana's gonna be able to pull this off, this guy looks like a pretty big stickler for the rules. but i guess i should trust diana at this point, she's proved herself to be a pretty decent actress.

"hi there, mark." diana beams, her eyes bright and smile wide.

"how you doin' diana?" mark replies politely.

"oh, i'm just wonderful." diana responds brightly, and i wanna laugh at the fact that she's dialing up her southern accent to ten. it's normally there, on the undertones of her voice. she draws out words for longer than she needs to, but damn, she really pulled out her southern charm for this one, i guess.