Masqueraded Identities

Chapter Twenty Six

The final show was over. The cast ran on stage to go greet the adoring audience and their applause. We took our bows, gave the flower boquets to our seniors, and thanked the directors and tech crew. Everyone rushed backstage, excited to take their makeup off and go party. Our cast party was being held at an indoor pool nearby. Not just any pool though. It was like a mini water park, with slides and everything.

I packed my stuff up, and went outside to say hi to my parents. The parents could come to the cast party, too, since some parents lived very far away from Princeton. I found them and they both gave me a huge hug.

“You did great!” Mom gushed, smiling.

“You did. You owned the stage!” Dad said, giving me another hug.

We talked excitedly for a few minutes, when I noticed someone coming my way out of the corner of my eye.

Mark.

Shit.

“Hey,” he said, with a pleasant smile.

“Oh, hey,” I said, trying to fake a smile myself.

“Were you Faust?” Mom asked.

“Yes, I was!” Mark replied.

“You did great!”

“Thank you! So, Pheebs, need a ride over? Or are your parents coming?”

“My parents are driving me over. Thanks, though!” I replied, trying to seem genuine and carefree.

He nodded, and sauntered off. Ugh. Bastard.

My parents drove me over, we said our good-byes (they only lived like, two hours away), and I went into the cast party. It was great, talking about our favorite memories.

Eventually Mark pulled me aside.

“Look... I'm sorry,” he said weakly, knowing there wasn't much he could say to make things better.

“Okay,” I said. I didn't have much to say myself.

“One more chance. Date night. Thursday. Then I can explain. Now's not really the time to do it,” he said. Not even said, more like pleaded. His eyes looked dark and desperate.

I should have yelled at him. I should have said whatever it was could have been said right there, right then. I should have. But something in me wanted to take that date. I needed closure. I needed an answer about my masked stranger. And Thursday would be the night where I could finally move on.

“Fine. Prove me wrong,” I said haughtily, and walked away.

I went home an hour later, and came in to Tay jumping on the bed and dancing to Ke$ha. I groaned. What was wrong with my roommate?

She saw me, waved, and continued dancing. Good to know she has no shame being caught dancing like a monkey.

“Having fun?” I asked, throwing my stuff down on the floor. I should have been more upset the show was over. But, I was just relieved. I finally had some time to myself. Granted, that free time would quickly be taken over by homework, again, but for the moment, it was lovely.

“I'm having a blast!” she exclaimed. She had three finals she should be studying for, but you could tell she was ready to fail. I jumped up on my bed. Why not?

We danced and laughed and sang at the top of our lungs. We started jumping to the beds, throwing pillows at each other, and not caring at all about the finals this week. If we passed, we passed. If not, oh well! We both had grades good enough that the final wouldn't hurt us too badly. That's the nice thing about finals. They don't really affect your final grade at all. To be quite honest, I'm not sure what they affected, but it definitely didn't affect report card grades.