Just Revenge

Chapter Twenty-Six: For Real

Two nights and two shows later, we had the cast party. Now, I don't know how much you know about theatre kids, but when I say the word party I mean it very loosely. It's really just all the cast and crew from a show getting together and playing truth or dare while consuming way too much caffeine and pizza at midnight after a production. Sometimes there is music or dancing, but most of that comes in the form of throwback songs or Disney music, not the kind of stuff you'd really hear that much at other parties I guess. 

Anyways, despite the dramatics of tech week and show week, the actual show had been going really well. We hadn't faced any huge disasters, no one had killed anyone yet, the total mental breakdowns for the week was hovering at about six in total, and we actual had a pretty decent turnout for the shows so far. All in all, things had definitely gone worse, so we were all pretty excited for the cast party. I was too, or at least I thought. I usually loved cast parties, but with all the drama that had happened recently, I was not so sure this one was going to be all that fun. I wasn't going to miss my last summer show cast party though, so I went, hoping that everything was going to go well.

The cast party started off surprisingly normal, it was kind of refreshing. We played Disney music and early 2000's songs and a group of us broke off from the dancing to play Truth or Dare in the basement. You could still hear the music, but it wasn't so loud or crowded down there so we had enough space for about twenty of us to form a circle and ask dumb things. The dare's didn't get too crazy and, to be honest, neither did the truths either. We're not exactly the wildest of kids. Alex had to let a girl go through her cell phone, Abbi tried to chug a two liter of Coke in under two minutes, about three girls confessed to having a crush on Luke, and Luke had to tell the story of how he got suspended last year for fingering a girl in the locker-pods. 

One of my favorite moments was when Harper got dared to kiss the bottom of her shoe. Abbi gave her the dare and it was hilarious to watch her try to squirm out of it. She thought it was a disgusting dare (and it totally was, that was kind of the whole point) and tried so hard to get a new one. In the end though, when faced with either doing it or leaving the circle, she did it. It was super quick and her face was this oddly squished up thing during the whole split second thing, but if anything that made it more funny.

"Come on, that's all you got? You're gonna hurt the poor thing's feelings" Cort mocked after she finally did it.

"Oh, shut up. Who asked you anyways? It's my turn to ask" She moved on quickly, "Max, truth or dare?"

He smiled at her and I watched her almost involuntarily smile back, "I think we'll go with truth this time around, the dare's seem to be getting a little brutal today"

She blushed at his joke and then paused for a second, trying to come up with the right words, "Okay, what's something you regret?"

Max looked a little confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, something you did that you wish you hadn't or didn't do that you wish you had, just something that you regret. What's one of them?"

I'm not gonna lie, I was actually impressed by the question. It was an odd one, but also one that I genuinely wanted to hear the answer to and one that I knew could be really powerful.

"That's not exactly a fair question" he joked, but then he fell silent to, presumably, think about it. When I glanced at Max though, to see how he was doing coming up with an answer, he was looking at me. Not zoning out, or lightly glancing, but looking. It was kind of intense actually, like he was debating something in his head that the rest of us weren't allowed to know. 

A very long pause passed before he gave his response, "Okay, so, here's the thing." He ran his hand through his hair, smoothing it out and fluffing the curls in it just a little. Then he stood up and walked to the center of the circle, not making eye contact with anyone as he did it.

"The other day, I was talking to this girl and I, uh, I almost told her something, but I didn't. I chickened out and, um, I regret that. A lot." He buried his face in his hands for a second and before looking back up and turning to face my side of the circle. 

"I, um, I almost told her that I liked her, that I couldn't get her out of my head." he looked down, finding my eyes and focusing on them, "I almost told her that I couldn't believe I went so long without noticing her, really noticing her, because when she showed up in my life it was like a splash of cold water and I woke up for what felt like the first time. I almost told her that everyday I show up to rehearsal I hope she's there and every time she isn't I miss her smile and her attitude and her obnoxious laughter." He swallowed and his eyes flashed to the ground for a second, leaving mine. 

"And then I almost kissed her," His eyes drifted back up and locked on mine again "for real. And I regret like hell that I didn't."

I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea what I was thinking right then. I'm actually not totally sure I was. But I reached up, sticking my arm out towards him and he grabbed my hand and pulled me up to him. His hands readjusted to on my waist and I circled my arms around his neck. 

"You regret that?" I asked, almost under my breath it was so quiet.

He didn't say anything, just nodded. 

I bit my lip and smiled, watching his eyes flash down to my lips before coming back to meet the smile in my eyes. "Then fix it" 

His eyes flashed back down to my lips and this time, he didn't hesitate. His lips crashed down onto mine and I had my first kiss, for real this time. It wasn't quick and it wasn't gentle, but it was kind of perfect, in it's own way. When we finally broke apart, I heard the claps and whistles going on around us, but my eyes stayed locked with his until he grabbed my hand. "Wanna go dance?"

I nodded slightly, still kind of dazed from what had just happened and followed him up the stairs. Before I disappeared up the stairs though I looked at the circle of people and locked eyes with someone else, Harper. She was the only one not clapping and if I didn't already know she didn't actually have one, I'd say that she looked like her heart had been broken.