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"Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you."
Various students had their eyes glued to the stage in front of them, watching as Lexi's character (a variation of herself, surely) read to Jade (obviously Rue). Eliana looked towards Rue, who was sitting by herself, every time she expected the door to open. Fez was supposed to be here by now? But she found herself happy that Rue looked so much better already, and that she was finally getting clean. The scenario was from Rue's dad's funeral, they all remembered being there at the Bennett household that day.
Eliana sat with Maddy of course, they were barely fourteen and not yet donning the extravagant outfits and not yet a single drop of makeup on their faces. Plus, it was a funeral. Probably one of the only times Eliana wore black.
She was lucky to never have to go to a funeral. Grace too, really. Hardly anyone had experienced loss on the scale that Rue did, losing a parent was something that you would never be prepared for.
"And this is life," Lexi continued narrating. "Not everyone's life... But our life!" She said, lifting up lettered signs with a couple of other people on the stage. It was then as the audience started clapping that Eliana realized what she was watching.
"Wait, is this fucking play about us?" Maddy asked.
Eliana couldn't help but chuckle when the mom character came on screen, obviously inspired by Suze but played by Ethan, whom Kat had just broken up with. Of course, Eliana didn't know the extent of the breakup or what had actually happened — another story for another time. "Look at you!"
"I feel like a big baby," the older sister character, whom Eliana assumed automatically was Cassie, said.
"Hallie... I've been on this planet for 38 goddamn years, and I have never seen a baby with knockers like yours."
The audience laughed. "Mom, that was the grossest thing I've ever heard you say."
"Look, I know being informed, smart, hardworking, and curious are all very important qualities, but imagine having all of those qualities and also being hot," Lexi addressed the audience. "So, if Hallie was 433 days older than me, then all I would have to do is wait... 433 days, and I'd look just like her. I could see myself now." The audience cheered again after Lexi came back after a brief moment offstage, now dressed in a low cut red dress. Eliana whooped and clapped at the sight. "I'd be the girl... no one ever... could get. Hey, Ted, how are you? Hey, boys. How are you?" the revolving stage turns to a different background other than a school. "And I'd imagine my former classmates... sitting around at barbecues in their dirty, dirty backyards 20 years from now."
"Man... I really wish I'd boned Lexi Howard," Ethan, in a stringy beard, said.
