I had no clue what to do at this point. Maddie had been freezing me out for the past few days, and she finally returned to Pittsburgh. She stopped answering my texts, she stopped answering my calls, and for whatever reason I almost felt like I had done something wrong.
Stop that. I told myself. You know she's the one at fault here, making something out of nothing. I couldn't stand it anymore. I finally got the courage up to ask Kenzie if she had any clue about what was going on.
I found Kenzie watching TV as we waited to leave for rehearsal one morning. I walked over to the remote, and flicked off the screen. Kenzie turned to look at me.
"Are we leaving? It's a little early..." She trailed off, looking confused. She must have picked up on my body language somehow. "What's wrong?"
"Why is your sister shutting me out? She hasn't answered my texts in days, when she had her read receipts turned on. I'm starting to worry."
Kenzie looked surprised, as if she hadn't expected me to notice that something was completely different about Maddie, let alone say something about it.
"To be honest, I'm not quite sure what's wrong with her. She just started acting all weird once we got roles and she didn't. And I know she isn't used to that but you would think she would be at least remotely happy for us... But don't let it bug you. She always ends up back to normal."
"Yeah," I started. "She ends up back to normal after she gets on top again. I'm not entirely sure there's any way for her to do that now."
Melissa walked into the room and Kenzie shrugged her shoulders, ending the conversation. "Ready to go girls?" Melissa asked. Kenzie and I heaved on our shoes and grabbed our bags, heading out for rehearsal.
Of course, rehearsal went terribly. My mind was racing and I couldn't pay attention. I kept slipping on lines, to the point where I didn't even remember what scene we were on. The dances all fell apart and the songs sounded a little less fantastic than normal, and I felt it was all thanks to me. Finally, lunch break rolled around. Kenzie and I headed outside, where Melissa and my mom always waited to pick us up. We usually just ran back to the hotel to grab food, but our moms decided to take us out to eat today. We went to the Georgetown Cupcake Cafe, hidden nearby underneath a museum, and got coffee and sandwiches and cupcakes to fill our stomachs. Small talk continued during lunch, but halfway through my BLT it got a little too quiet. I decided to bring it up one more time.
"Has anyone noticed anything weird about Maddie lately? Or is it just me?"
Melissa looked to Kenzie, then to my mom. She finally looked at me, and tried to give the best explanation she could.
