The Open Door - Sean and Kaycee

6. The Latecomers

Sean

I literally want to smack myself right now. Why is it that I always seem to ruin everything? You see, this is why I have to stay closed and withdrawn. This is why my doors are always locked. Not only to protect myself, but to protect others from me.

The look on her face when I called her a weirdo refuses to leave my brain. At first, pure shock and surprise. Then anger, an untamed fire that rages in her eyes. And finally, uncontrollable and terrible sadness and despair. Can this be the girl who was not so long ago staring out into space like she was staring at the most beautiful sunset? It's like someone twisted person has unceremoniously turned off her light switch and unplugged her spirit, leaving her dejected and forcing her to find her way in the dark. And I can't believe that I was the person to do that.

Weirdo. I meant it just to be a stupid, harmless jest, but is the word somehow more significant than I think it is? Or did I just touch a sensitive nerve in her?

Suddenly, I remember something that Kaycee had said in the elevator. My family even used to call me we--nevermind.

So her family had called her a weirdo. But then why would she be so upset about it if it were just an old nickname?

"I'm fine. Let's go now," Kaycee says.

Now's obviously not the time to ask her about it.

Kaycee leads the way. The two of us barrel down the hallway into more dark and deserted hallways. Seriously, why did no one bother to turn on the lights in here?

Finally, we reach a door with a sign on it that says "COMPANY AUDITIONS IN PROGRESS".

"I think this is it," says Kaycee, "what time is it right now?"

I quickly check my phone. "11:11," I tell her.

"Huh," she responds, "make a wish, I guess?"

"Hmm... that's a hard one... well, for starters, I wish that this door is unlocked and that we can still audition," I say. Kaycee bursts out laughing, her wonderfully unrestrained laugh. In my head, another wish pops up. I want Kaycee to trust me.

"Well... should we go for it?" she whispers.

"Um..."

"You only live once, right?" Before I can say anything back, Kaycee grabs the handle of the door, and pulls back really exaggeratedly hard, like they do in movies when the main character wants to make a super dramatic entrance. She, like me, probably expects that the door is locked. I mean, that's normal, right? To lock the door when an audition is in progress?

To both of our surprise, the door actually swings open.

"Oh crap," Kaycee mutters under her breath, "Do your wishes usually come true this quickly?"

Oh crap is right. We're already over ten minutes late to this audition, and now there are at least 50 pairs of eyes staring us up and down.

Unfortunately, the two people at the front of the room just stopped teaching a combination to stare at us too.

Now this is just awkward.

The man gives us a cool glare. "Thank you for the wonderfully dramatic entrance. Would you two care to explain why you showed up late to the audition?"

Kaycee and I both launch into a disjointed, out-of-breath explanation of the broken elevator at the same time. "We -- broken elevator -- couldn't get out -- got lost -- ran across the building--"

The woman looks at us. "Hang on, I remember both of them. Will, they definitely checked in with me on time. Sean and Kaycee, right?"

We nod. Janelle gives us an encouraging smile and nudges Will, probably trying to convince him that we should still be able to audition.