Penny Takes the Stage

Chapter 21: Going Out

"So what's your full name, then?" Marilyn, who played one of the local village girls, asked. "With all your titles and everything?"

Cameron turned to her, licking his lips, his expression serious. "If you know I have a full name, with titles and that, then you know how to google me and find out, don't you?" he responded. "My whole life is pretty much out there, so read as much as you like, yeah? In fact," Cameron turned to face the rest of the cast, who were milling around onstage before gathering for rehearsal, and raised his voice to address everyone, "if any of you want to talk to me about the play, run lines talk about our characters, any of that, feel free to hit me up, okay? But if you have questions about what I did before, about my upbringing and all, just go online and read about it, please? It's all true, it's all out there, and it'll be a lot faster." He looked back at Marilyn, eyebrows raised. "Okay?" He gave her smile to take the sting out of his words.

Marilyn nodded, chastened, and turned to her friends.

"Wow, that was kind of harsh," Penny observed as she and Cam took their places.

"You think so?" Cam was surprised. " I thought I was quite polite."

"Please, Cameron, that girl was practically drooling over you! She's dying to get to know you, and you cut her off at the knees." Cam was surprised to hear genuine sympathy in Penny's voice.

"But why should I encourage that? I have no interest in her, and even if I did, I'm involved with you--?"

"But no one here knows that." Penny pointed out.

"I was wondering about that," Cam leaned closer to where Penny was sitting on the bench and put his arm around her. "Why does no one know we're a couple? I mean, we might not be the most demonstrative people in the world, but we never said we were going to hide our relationship or anything, right?"

Penny rolled her eyes a little bit. "Aren't you supposed to be the worldly one here? You really don't know?" She smiled and shook her head.

"What do you mean?" Cam looked around. "Are you saying I should be more affectionate in public? You want more PDAs from me?" He leaned in and kissed Penny's temple, smiling at her after.

"No, silly, you know I don't care about that stuff," Penny scoffed. "But that's not the point."

"So what is the point, then?" Cam sounded thoroughly confused.

"Like just now, when you kissed me?" Penny gestured. "Look around. Even the people who saw it don't think it was a PDA, they just think it was us being in character."

"What?"

"Yeah. Look."

Cam looked around. People were milling around, looking at their scripts, setting props, making sure the sets were on their marks, checking the lights; in other words, it was business as usual. No one smiled or gave each other knowing looks or any of the other gestures that usually accompanied acknowledgment of a new relationship.

"But that doesn't make any sense." Cam turned to Penny. "Why would we be in character now? We're not even rehearsing. And we're not at that point in the script or anything. We're still at the 'getting to know you' part of it, aren't we?"

Penny turned to Cam, putting a hand on his arm. "Don't you see? People would rather believe that we're in character than believe that we're actually a couple. In fact, I don't think anyone here actually can believe that we're a real couple. I mean, look at us."

Cam made a face. "Come on, Penguin, not this bollocks again."

Penny's mouth trembled, but she turned it into a smile. "What's the big deal? In a way, it's kind of cool, don't you think? We're living a real life version of the play, you see?"