If You're Hurt They Bleed

Costumes

I walked into the bathroom, still thinking about why Grayson did that. I couldn't believe that whatever was going on in his life was that bad. But then again, I was so obsessed with my own I hadn't truly been paying attention. 

Glancing in the mirror, I noticed that I had a black eye, identical to Grayson's. It didn't surprise me, but I definitely should have thought that through. I washed my hands, hoping it would make the scabs disappear. 

"Hey." Molly walked in, checking her reflection. 

"Hi," I replied, not looking up from the impossible task at hand. "So, I talked to Grayson."

"How'd it go?" I saw a small smile appear on her face. 

"Well, I was talking to him about these." I showed her my wrists, and her eyes widened. 

"What happened?" Her voice was hushed.

"I don't think I know the whole story, but it's partially my fault." Just then, Lizzie, Allison, and Rebecca walked into the bathroom, giggling. 

"I'll see you later." I grabbed my bag and walked past them, determined not to make eye contact. 

Those three had made my life a living hell since middle school. Lizzie was the first to find her soulmate in our grade and held it over my head for 3 years. We were best friends in elementary school. Obviously, that ended. But the reason isn't important right now. 

Molly followed me out, concerned. "I thought..." I nodded before she could finish her sentence. 

"I did too." 

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"Maya, Molly, and Paige!" Jane, our costumer, yelled our names. "Your waitress costumes are here!" 

We all scrambled offstage, excited to see them and try them on. We already had our aprons and other props, since we'd been rehearsing for a while, but costumes were an entirely different process. 

"Alright. Jenna, Becky, and Dawn." She handed us each our costumes. Simple blue dresses with white buttons and white hemming. They all had our nametags on them, written in pink. 

"Go try 'em on, girls!" Jane ushered us off, calling a few more names. 

"Are you guys excited?" Molly was bouncing up and down as we made our way down the hall. 

"Yeah, of course!" This was the first show Paige had done at the high school. She did theatre with us at Mercury, the theater downtown, but it took a while to convince her to join. 

"Yeah. I just hope they fit. It takes two weeks for them to ship." I shrugged. After this morning, I couldn't quite join in with enthusiasm. 

"True." Molly was inspecting her costume. "They're really good quality, too. How did we get this much money?" She asked. 

That I knew the answer to. "We won the Shakespeare grant," I informed her. "My dad convinced Robinski to let him write them." 

"Really? That's awesome!" Paige exclaimed, opening the dressing room door. She was super close to my dad and had been his daughter in several productions. I felt bad keeping the information about him a secret, but pity wasn't something I wanted. 

"Yeah." I nodded in agreement, taking my dress off the hanger. "Well, Jenna?" I turned to Molly. "Time to pee on a stick." She smiled, shooting her line back. 

We sang through several of the songs. twirling in our dresses. We looked kind of horrible, but we were all so excited it didn't matter. All the dresses fit, and that was all that mattered. I still couldn't help the twinge of sadness when I looked at my nametag, though. What if it said Jenna?

"Girls, they need you!" We heard Jane right outside the room. 

"Coming!" We all shouted, shoving our clothes into our lockers. We walked out, and Jane made us each twirl for her. 

"You all look beautiful." She admired, straightening my collar. 

We chorused our thanks and raced down the hall. 

"Good, you're here." Robinski sighed. "Have you seen Grayson?"