Just Revenge

Chapter Twenty-Three: Not-So-Gentle Reminders

The next week, I showed up to rehearsal in an oddly good mood. School had started that morning – on a surprisingly good note too – and, for reasons beyond me, I was actually excited for rehearsal today. Tech week, while stressful for sure, had been shockingly fun. Summer show was rapidly becoming my favorite show and I was so ready to enjoy my last few days of the production. Rehearsal started off in what was becoming the typical manner. I dropped my stuff off backstage and helped Lexi set up the prop table while the dressing rooms cleared out a little. While we set up the table, Max stopped by. He picked up a prop that wasn't his, joked around with it, Lexi yelled at him for touching a prop that wasn't his, he set it down, joked a little more, then went to go change into his costume. A couple minutes later, I'd disappear too and go change into my own costume. At this point we had developed that little routine and I'd come to appreciate it.

I walked into the girls' dressing room to find only Lista, Alex, and Izzy left still getting changed.

"You don't think Miranda will yell at me for it, right?" Izzy seemed to be frantic about something.

"About what?"

She turned towards me and I saw the huge tear up the side of her costume blouse.

"Holy crap! Izzy!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" She defended, "It caught on the door when I went to leave and I didn't notice and it just kinda happened and now I have no idea what to do! Miranda's going to murder me, we open in less than a week!"

I could see tears forming in her eyes and I felt bad for her. Lis was rubbing her back, clearly trying to calm her down, but is wasn't helping her panic any less.

"Hey, it'll be fine. This is what we have a costume crew for, right?"

Her eyes lit up and I realized that this girl had genuinely not thought of this, like, hello? this is literally their job description. Whatever, I walked up to Izzy and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"This really isn't that bad. Ashley'll have it fixed before rehearsal on Monday even starts and nobody'll ever even notice it tore."

We started to walk out onto the stage to find Ashley when I heard the yelling. I couldn't make out any words, but I could already tell whose voice it was, the only person who would ever actually use that pouty, pompous, spoiled screech in real life: Cort.

"Oh my God!" Alex rolled her eyes on the other side of Izzy, "That kid seriously needs to calm down."

Izzy was still kinda crying, her fragile state not ready to share the spotlight with someone else's tragedy, "Do you think Ashley's back there now?"

Oh my gosh, this was why I hated actors. They're so dramatic, like seriously, it's like a six inch tear, not the end of the world!

"It's probably nothing." Alex mused, "Cort probably, like, saw a frog or something and has decided it's the end of the world."

I half-smiled at her theory, "Yeah, probably. Miranda and Marie haven't even moved off the hill for it. I'm gonna go tell him to shut up though; can you help her find Ashley for that rip?"

Alex nodded at me and I started to head back to shut Cort's dramatics down. When I exited off the stage right side, I started to be able to hear what Cort was screaming about.

"I MEAN REALLY, ARE YOU BLIND OR SOMETHING?"

I could hear someone mumble a response but couldn't make out what was said or who had said it.

"ACCIDENT'S DON'T EXIST! EITHER YOU WERE TOO IGNORANT TO KNOW YOU SHOULD'VE MOVED IT OR TOO CARELESS TO ACTUALLY DO IT!"

Once again, I heard the sound of a response.

"I don't CARE!" His voice screeched so high on the last word, it broke a little. "DO YOU EVEN KNOW..."

As I got closer, I saw Ror place her hand on his shoulder and cut him off, "Cort, calm down. She didn't mean to do anything bad. She didn't even really do anything."

As Ror talked, I finally got close enough to take in the situation. Cort stood directly backstage, his face red and livid, his bougie green lawn chair sitting at any odd, clearly unnatural angle at his feet, a spilled box of picked over props laying half on top of it. Lexi stood a few steps away, her arms empty and her face blanched. When Cort opened his mouth again to yell some more, I stepped forward to defend my friend.

"OF COURSE, SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, she never does." His yell faded away and in its place came words sharper than any blade. "I guess it's not really surprising that she wouldn't even know how to walk around, she'd have to leave her house a little to get any practice." He turned to fully face Lexi, directing his next sentence right at her, "My apologies for the overreaction, it's just you're here so little I sometimes forget you, too, are a part of the show. Maybe if you wore a little bell? Or even a name tag? That way people could have some sort of clue who you are or that you're even here."

With that he turned around and stalked away. After a pause, Lexi turned too and sprinted away, the tears already starting to run down her face before she even made it out of the backstage. I quickly followed her, joining the group of techies tracing her steps to the bathroom.

We found her in the bathroom, crying on the floor in front of a stall. A circle of techies was already growing around her and I sat down in my place in the group.

"Forget about him. He's just an asshole." Ashley spat, rubbing Lexi's back.

"He's not even worth it. Like, he literally blew up over a chair." Another girl contributed.

"What an actor move. Like, how dramatic do you really need to be?"

"I'm sorry sweetie. You don't deserve this." I added to the harmony.

Looking around, I noticed that out of the entire cast, not one actor had followed us in here. Not one had bothered to see if Lexi was alright. Not one had come to help her. Not one. I'd grown soft, I realized. I'd been so focused on Harper that I'd forgotten it wasn't just about her. This wasn't just about the two of us, certainly not anymore. This was about all of them, as a culture, and destroying the hierarchy that thought it was alright to do something like this and not even try to remedy it. This was about all of them – Harper, Cortland, Izzy, Alex, even Max and Luke and maybe Diana too. This was about every single one of them and every single one of us and it was time to make them pay.