Falling Fast - L.S

17

There was a stunned silence. What on earth did she mean? My mind went back to Harry. Was it something to do with acting with him?

I shook her arm. "What about the play, Taylor? What?"

There was a long silence. Taylor stopped crying. She teetered over to the sinks and started splashing water on her face.

Then she stood up. "I'm scared," she said. She looked at our reflections in the mirror. "I'm really scared of how hard it is and how bad I am and how much everyone will laugh when they see me."

I stared at her in the mirror. She couldn't be serious. Taylor was the most confident person I knew. And, even now, with red, puffy eyes, she still looked beautiful.

Gigi shook her head. "But Tay, you'll be fine. You know the part and you look great and----"

"I'm not as good as Harry," Taylor said. She turned round and stared at me - eye to eye. "He's brilliant. I can't do it as well as him." Her lip trembled and she stumbled into my arms.

I held her as she wept. Gigi slipped out, mouthing that she was going to tell the boys we were going and call a taxi.

Taylor was still sobbing. I patted her on the back, like Mum used to do with me and Lottie when we were sick. I could barely believe what she'd said. Taylor scared? Taylor insecure? Ever since I'd met her on day one of school, Taylor had always been super-confident about everything.

"Thanks, Lou," Taylor mumbled. "You're a really good friend, especially after what I said earlier..."

She sniffed. "I know I was a cow."

I felt a surge of affection for her.

"Hey, Tay." I hugged her again. "That doesn't matter and - by the way - you can do Juliet... you're good at it. You just have to imagine it. Hard."

She gulped, nodding. Then she closed her eyes. "Could we go outside for a minute?" She said. "Get some air."

"Sure." I led her out of the toilets. There was a fire door at the far end of the corridor, propped open with a cardboard box. We slipped through it, into an alleyway at the back of the pub.

The air was bitingly cold. I hugged my arms round my chest. Taylor wandered over to the brick wall at the end and sat on it, tipping her head back to the star-filled sky.

"I wish you were playing Juliet, Lou," she said quietly.

I leaned against the wall beside the fire door, watching my breath send a white mist into the chilly night air. "Yeah, well I'm not. Mr Nichols picked you."

"Only because you screwed up that second audition thing we did." Taylor laughed. "You were miles better than me first time round. And I bet you only messed it up later because you fancied Harry. Which is ironic, isn't it? That falling for Romeo stopped you getting the part of Juliet."

I took a deep gulp of the cold air. I'd never seen it like that before. But it was true. And Taylor was right, it was ironic.

The fire door beside me lurched violently open, almost slamming back into my face. Two blokes - older teenagers, I guessed - staggered out into the alleyway. They were big, thickset guys - one with fair hair, the other dark.

It was too gloomy in the alleyway to make out their faces properly.

The guy with dark hair spotted Taylor instantly.

"Well, hello," he said in a silly, deep voice. "We come out for a slash and we find a babe. You looking for company?"

Taylor shook her head and jumped off the wall. Unfortunately, she was still pretty drunk, so she landed unevenly and stumbled sideways. The dark-haired guy was beside her in less than a second.